Hey new people and those thinking of joining, you do NOT need to sign up on huge servers!
You can follow and interact with people on any server from any server, the servers are connected.
It would really, really help the network right now if you could sign up on medium or small size servers. You will still be able to follow and interact with whoever you want, and the network as a whole will work much better.
A good safe place for beginners to find servers to join is https://joinmastodon.org/servers
@feditips I'm glad I joined a large server bc the only "community" feed I can get is posts from the server I joined - so I want to be on something active. Also, many posts say you can find your friends here by searching for them, but I don't want to follow just friends. I want to run across various accounts of the many lawyers and journalists that I've discovered, not search for them one by one. I get that you're not Twi**er, but many of us noobs are looking for an alt-Twi**er. Just feedback
You can find people to follow by many other methods apart from the Community feed:
https://fedi.tips/how-to-use-mastodon-and-the-fediverse-basic-tips/#HowDoIFindPeopleToFollow
Also, you can browse community feeds (aka Local feeds) of other servers by visiting their websites. You don't have to be a member.
@feditips @missellsworth I'm a beer-drinking, bird-watching, cat-loving, outdoorsy, rock-hound, weather nerd, and former science teacher, with an interest in emergency/disaster communications, public education, and unionism/worker rights. Not sure I'm going to find a good fit on a small instance if I have to specifically check other, different local feeds rather than get everything in one stream.
@feditips Thx very much!