The kindness, quality, and eagerness to help is a big part of what propelled Mastodon. You'd log in, make your first toot, and have a pile of people welcoming y

The kindness, quality, and eagerness to help is a big part of what propelled Mastodon. You'd log in, make your first toot, and have a pile of people welcoming you from the federated or local timeline. Same with beginner questions. I tried GNU Social a long time ago, but it was mostly technical people talking about technical stuff. Great if that's what you're into, but it's no basis for a general use social network. Niche networks are fine, but I don't get the impression that's what early federated social media proponents wanted.