[czottmann]

Each of those "dozen different services" is analogous with "a server".

You choose a service (server) and then sign up there. The sign up belongs to a server, not the server to the sign up. You can't ring a door bell before picking a door first. ;)

[standardUser]

To the user, Mastodon is the service. But the very first step of sign-up, Mastodon says the user must "choose a server". They just did! It's called Mastodon.

Now, you may see it differently and want to offer an explanation. I'm sure your explanation would be coherent and rational. But your explanation means nothing to the average user. They click 'sign up' and expect to sign up and get to using this new website called Mastodon they heard about. And when they realize it's not that simple, many will abandon the process. It's a simple as that.

[SpaghettiCthulu]

That's like saying "to the user, email is the service"

[standardUser]

No, it is not, because "email" has been in the dictionary for 30 years and is universally understood.

The term "Mastodon" means, to most people, either "a website just like Twitter " or, more likely, absolutely nothing.

Is that difference, and the barrier it presents to new users, somehow unclear?