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I'm just overwhelmed when I go on the mastodon start page. How am I supposed to decide for a server? And then I just close it again

Brendinooo 4y ago
I mean, people do this for email. I want email, I heard Gmail is good, so I go to Gmail’s site. The mere existence of a protocol isn’t the issue here. I think the problem is more that the protocol doesn’t have champions like your ISP/Microsoft/Google. Mastodon saying “come here then go somewhere else” isn’t good; it’d be better if there was a default option somehow. It’s a common problem with open source; I worked on Passit and we had to think about the problem when it came time to log in to the extension. We ended up saying something along the lines of “check the box if you’re not using app.passit.io”. The default choice matters a lot.
- geerlingguy 4y ago
  With email, you don't go to email.com, click a sign up link, then get a list of hundreds of email providers to choose from. Also, the precedent for people looking into Mastodon is not email users looking for a more real time email client. It's Twitter users looking for Twitter on not-Twitter.com
- Veedrac 4y ago
  Another key difference with email is that it's easy (the default) to find email providers that are overtly content-neutral, whereas Mastodon, for whatever reason, makes that shockingly difficult.
boudin 4y ago
Just pick one and try, there's no commitment anyway. You can access content from other servers anyway
- ummonk 4y ago
  Is there some way to carry over followers between addresses that I'm unaware of?
  - notpushkin 4y ago
    Yes: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/ https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/
    - ummonk 4y ago
      How exactly do you do this after the instance admin has banned you?
      - notpushkin 4y ago
        You don't. If your admin is a total dick and prevents you from migrating, you're screwed. If you have hundreds of followers, better reevaluate your initial choice of instance. If you have thousands of followers, host your own, or pay somebody to host it for you. This however doesn't matter if you're just getting started. There are talks about detaching user identity from the instance. If this gets traction, this problem might be solved once and for all.
smolder 4y ago
Remember when you were a kid and you did things out of curiosity, to see what would happen? That's the mindset you need in this case. No real harm is done by picking the "wrong" instance.

Brendinooo 4y ago

I mean, people do this for email. I want email, I heard Gmail is good, so I go to Gmail’s site. The mere existence of a protocol isn’t the issue here. I think the problem is more that the protocol doesn’t have champions like your ISP/Microsoft/Google. Mastodon saying “come here then go somewhere else” isn’t good; it’d be better if there was a default option somehow. It’s a common problem with open source; I worked on Passit and we had to think about the problem when it came time to log in to the extension. We ended up saying something along the lines of “check the box if you’re not using app.passit.io”. The default choice matters a lot.

geerlingguy 4y ago
With email, you don't go to email.com, click a sign up link, then get a list of hundreds of email providers to choose from. Also, the precedent for people looking into Mastodon is not email users looking for a more real time email client. It's Twitter users looking for Twitter on not-Twitter.com
Veedrac 4y ago
Another key difference with email is that it's easy (the default) to find email providers that are overtly content-neutral, whereas Mastodon, for whatever reason, makes that shockingly difficult.

boudin 4y ago

Just pick one and try, there's no commitment anyway. You can access content from other servers anyway

ummonk 4y ago
Is there some way to carry over followers between addresses that I'm unaware of?
- notpushkin 4y ago
  Yes: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/ https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/
  - ummonk 4y ago
    How exactly do you do this after the instance admin has banned you?
    - notpushkin 4y ago
      You don't. If your admin is a total dick and prevents you from migrating, you're screwed. If you have hundreds of followers, better reevaluate your initial choice of instance. If you have thousands of followers, host your own, or pay somebody to host it for you. This however doesn't matter if you're just getting started. There are talks about detaching user identity from the instance. If this gets traction, this problem might be solved once and for all.

smolder 4y ago

Remember when you were a kid and you did things out of curiosity, to see what would happen? That's the mindset you need in this case. No real harm is done by picking the "wrong" instance.