mstdn.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
A general-purpose Mastodon server with a 500 character limit. All languages are welcome.

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The official Mastodon app is doing something new which is potentially very dangerous to the existence of Mastodon and the Fediverse.

The official Mastodon app now prompts users to join mastodon.social by default, when previously it prompted them to pick a server. If you're new this may sound harmless, but let me explain.

The entire point of this place is to be a social network spread out on as many servers as possible (the reasons are here: fedi.tips/why-is-the-fediverse).

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stux⚡

@feditips I also saw this indeed

And only thing I wondered was..

Why…

@stux @feditips Mastodon definitely wants to pick up more users I guess. Instead of explaining what an instance is, the simplest way for the majority of users is to pick up an instance and get on with it. I wonder if it’s possible for the official app to randomly suggest instances every time a new user signs up, instead of recommending one instance.

@stux @feditips As someone who tried promoting Fedi among non-geeky people I can tell two things:

- When you tell about new service a very large group of people immediately tries to find it in their smartphone app store. It has to be obvious and they expect this app to be their main or only interface. Not having "the app" is showstopper.

- having to choose servers is confusing AF and too many just don't want to bother. Some drop out at this point, some (far lesser group) will choose randomly and end up on some kiwifarms or even decent but wrong choice of server. E.g. once someone I knew eventually got expelled from German server because he posted in another language which annoyed server audience and made moderators nervous.

So just a random picker like @leftsidestory suggested won't work. It has to be either complicated or dealing with a curated pool of stable and well-maintained general purpose servers.

If we want "normal people" then this is the reality and Mastodon team adapts. Making things different would mean limiting access.

@shuro @feditips @leftsidestory @stux

  • When you tell about new service a very large group of people immediately tries to find it in their smartphone app store. It has to be obvious and they expect this app to be their main or only interface. Not having “the app” is showstopper.

I have no desire to interact with people like that.