That's why I run an account at @FediGarden and website at fedi.garden highlighting the best smaller instances.

And it's not quite as bad as you're implying with that statistic:

fedidb.org/network

On top of that, people can move their Fediverse accounts elsewhere without losing their followers or leaving the network. If the worst happens they have an escape route. This isn't possible outside the Fediverse.

The *only* place?

/me's feelings of having been a user of NNTP, IRC, SILC, XMPP and more over the previous decades are hurt.

Another decentralized network is XMPP. I've been running an OpenFire server for ever and will never use signal.

Decentralize your life!!! 😁

@allenstenhaus @FediGarden

Is there any way to move without leaving duplicate accounts on the previous server?

I'm not sure what you mean by duplicate?

The old account redirects people to the new account, as do the old posts.

You can move to any account, it doesn't have to look the same or have the same name as the old account.

I'm trying to explain and compare the tradeoffs in this situation, so that people can find it easier to make a choice based on their own priorities.

"most of the existing instances are currently owned by cryptobros nazis."

Not in my experience?

If they are, they'll be tiny one person instances that most instances block.

@stemy

It's perhaps not as complicated as people think, it's just a bit different to what they're used to doing online?

Everyone uses federated networks all the time: phones, email, the postal system. But they are used to using these, so they don't find them complicated.

If you could get people to think about the Fediverse the same way they think about email or phones, maybe that might make it easier for them to try it?

There's a good short video about this at:

tilvids.com/w/f747058d-3991-40…

@rinmari

You don't need to do that on the Fediverse. Servers can use allowlists, where all other servers are blocked by default.

On an allowlist, if a server wants to federate with your server, admins have to manually allow them to federate. All the toxic stuff is blocked by default, and you'll only see servers your admin has approved.

It's slower to build connections, but the connections are higher quality and safer.

Mastodon's allowlist option (called isolated mode) isn't advertised much.

If you don't want to leave any traces, you just delete the old account.

"Creating a new account, manually moving followers"

You can't manually move followers (people who follow you). You have to move your account to move your followers. It works like this because otherwise spammers etc could use it to falsely claim followers and spam people's timelines.

@allenstenhaus @EcksDy

Can you move your account, then request that the tombstone record be deleted from the old server?

@DXMacGuffin @allenstenhaus @EcksDy

If you want to keep old account but remove redirect:

1. Log into old account on your old server's website, this will take you to Account settings.

2. Scroll down to "move to a different account", click on link

3. Click on "cancel redirect" at top. This will reactivate your old account.

If you want to delete your old account:

1. Log into old account on old server's website.

2. Scroll down to Delete Account, click the link and follow instructions.

@allenstenhaus @EcksDy

Ah, sorry, apologies!

@nellie_m @allenstenhaus @EcksDy

Yes, you can delete your old account if you want to leave no traces. It would be much harder for people to find your new account, but if this is what you want that's totally doable.