Personally I can recommend @Tusky as client for #Mastodon on #Android since it's also available on @fdroidorg.

It really comes close to the ancient #TweetDeck #mobile app and @mariotaku's #Twidere...

I appreciate your being careful to make this about the fediverse, not Mastodon or Eugen.

Here's why I welcome the change.

We are losing *so many* users to server choice. I only have anecdata and wish I had more. But just last night, a tech product manager emailed me his whole list of hobbies and interests, saying he was "at a loss" for how to join Mastodon.

If we don't grow the fediverse now, centralized competitors will win and nothing will change. (1/2)

worst case scenario it ends up like email is at the moment we are technically anybody can set up a server but don't expect your messages to be delivered reliably if you're not with one of the top five biggest servers run by major corporations (because spam filtering) anybody who is tried to set up their own email server will understand why this is an issue

I desperately hope this kind of thing doesn't happen to activitypub/Mastodon

I see the issue, but at the same time, this is an attempt to make joining Mastodon less confusing and you're just saying "don't do it" rather than "here is a better way to achieve this goal." I mean, you could just give people a randomized instance, but then you run the risk that some people wind up on crap instances.

So what is your solution?

Honestly I don't see this as an issue, in fact I welcome it.

It's like Linux, want to get more involved or dig deeper? You have ton of options!

Want to just use your PC and not be bothered by the OS? Install Ubuntu like the vast majority of users.

Asking too many questions or choices is an immediate negative for most people, having an easy default is great! It wasn't the end for Linux to have it, and it won't be the end for the Fediverse!

>Tell people to sign up on the website.

IMHO, the website is better than any app. You get the full functionality of Mastodon, and the site is coded to display really well as a mobile webpage. I tried using like 3 different apps, not liking any of them. Why? Because I've been trained to assume the mobile webpage is dogshit.

Then I finally had the notion "what if I look at a mobile webpage?" IT'S REALLY GOOD.

"Pick my own Server"

This wording is lethal, what were they thinking?

I'm on .social but when I signed up it wasnt via the app it was on my PC, and I didnt understand how it works so just went with what seemed like the default.

My first thought on reading this is that I should move servers. Perhaps a push to get people already on .social to move would help?

So what can be done? Join PeopleCount.org. Support building a way to break out of the current paradigm of politics, including taking power away from the wealthy and the parties, and naturally empowering unity.

Mastodon is good. But it's designed to communicate without profit, not to actually fix anything. It's a piece of a good future. But PeopleCount is designed to deliver that future.

Throwing my two cents in the hat: I think this is a necessary temporary measure to improve the onboarding process. There's no way around it: putting this complexity upfront to new users is daunting.

Educating them on how to move their account afterwards and having that process be seamless is the way to go, imho.

Is it possible to sell a non-profit organization to a corporation in Germany? I ask because in my country (Brazil) that wouldn't be legally possible.

Maybe @Gargron could clarify if possible.

👆 Well-meaning thread without a doubt - but unfortunately one that entirely misses the point that most users of anything, including social media, A. are not tech savvy, B. shouldn't have to be, and C. are focused on the outcome, not the process.

It's definitely correct that concentration increases vulnerability, but the remedy isn't to change the users - it's to give them the best possible entry & path to the preferable solution. This is what we/the 'verse must do.

@Gargron …perhaps it can be as simple as…just a landing page with the ?most capable? 3-5 instances and then a selection of “I know what I’m doing let me pick.”

The points of concern being (in no particular order);
That the instances in the list are/can take large amounts of new users gracefully and/or have capacity to support them. These can be updated/changed over time.
And that the mobile app has only a small amount of real estate to work with.

It's super unclear to a new user what the significance of the server is and they need a reasonable default option to use prior to really knowing what it means.

Is there a trustworthy way to do load balancing and spreading across open servers? Make the default "the lightest loaded non-dead instance in my preferred language" rather than any particular server but still provide a default.

I signed up where I did just because it was neither full nor empty.

Reading the issue, there seems to be 2 different goals :
- People who want as much users on Mastodon as possible -> let's make the onboarding really easy.
- People who want to keep it spread and federated.

This is a time we have to choose between the two.

I would be much happier if people could join multiple instances and accounts were not tied to one home instance. In this case the default instance could more easily funnel people to other smaller and more specialized instances. Users would have people to talk to while waiting for their applications to private instances to be approved or denied. The current migration process is off-putting.

If the size of the default instance becomes unmanageable, idle members could be auto-culled.

Yet, on the joinmastodon it is said by default:

mastodon.social The original server operated by the Mastodon gGmbH non-profit

And the next one is mstdn.social

I see no real difference here — you afraid of concentrating people on a single server without choice. But new people will surely tend to choose the 1st or the 2nd one, even while they have a choice.

I'll be perfectly honest with you, I get what you're saying but as a new user I wish this was there for me. It was very confusing when I first signed up to the point I almost gave up on it. I picked Social because all the big names seemed to be here & I didn't understand how the system works with other servers.

There needs to be more focus to explain the system & simplify the process or people are going to move past Mastodon. Just my two cents as a newbie, I could be wrong.