Imagining if Mastodon called instances "neighborhoods" instead. The metaphor works really well IMO and doesn't sound like robot-speke.
@alexhillman agree the "instance" label is a bit confusing for #newbie... In order for #Mastadon to thrive with the current uptick of users we need to remove any friction when it comes to the on-boarding process. Picking a instance,neighbohood,pub.. or whatever it ends up being called should be a super simple and intuitive