Having too many servers (many thousands) could be a big drawback for onboarding. Choice paralysis, and difficulty / time consumption of picking a suitable server to join.
As a VERY technical user. I STILL have these same problems.
I've tried to join Mastodon at least a dozen times in the past few years, and every time I get stuck at step one (which server should I choose). Every server has a vibe of its own and joining one feels like an endorsement of it, and because the server name is part of your handle that endorsement follows you all over the fediverse.
If I feel this confused. I can't imagine what a non-technical user would feel. It's a fatal flaw and I don't know how they overcome it.
Exactly. Think of how many products succeed just because they're "easier" than the alternatives.
You could probably be up and tweeting in just a few minutes. You could be posting or commenting on reddit (provided the sub) in just a few minutes.
I remember being interested in Mastodon as a technology a few years back. It has _always_ been confusing for a significant # of people. A decent % posts about it shouldn't be "how do I sign up, how do I follow people, how do I subscribe, which do I join, etc." That's all the Mastodon reddit was a few years back.
Seems like minus all the posts about current events, it's still largely lots of confused users. Which sucks, because the idea seems pretty good in theory. My only qualm (besides what's already been mentioned) is what's to stop instances from colluding like reddit with it's "powermods" ? Which can honestly be worse in a lot of cases.
The worst part of those questions is the responses they get. "Pick a server to sign up to, request an invite and wait, but if you want to follow someone in another server you need to go to this tool to work out what server they are on, and then copy and paste that into the search box".
It's a very, very shit setup, and it absolutely will not take off.
I have no clue which previous server I signed up to. And looking through themed servers I found one with an interest, but it's hardly my only interest and was met with welcome text saying post something interesting.
One idea is for public libraries to host instances. Public employees responsible for the administration are already bound by privacy laws that would make them more trustworthy than some rando that starts an instance.
If done on a branch by branch basis, this could be a good way to have an online local network. Maybe this would be an open Nextdoor as well.
Local account access could be limited by library card eligibility, which combined with terms of service could avoid abuse by far away troublemakers and limit the noise from local ones.
While eligibility may depend on having a library card, public anonymity could still exist. Just as libraries keep my borrowing history private, they could also shield my real identity.
This idea is inspired by the Twitter space I talk about at
People are confused about:
* there are so many servers - which do I join?
* how will I be able to tell people are who they say they are without the 'blue tick'?
* if anyone can verify how do I know who is important/celebrity/official?
* what do I do when the instance I want to join isn't open to registrations (and why on earth isn't it open to registrations?)
* how do I discover/follow people on other instances?