I was a bit worried that the Kotaku article made Mastodon sound like an insular closed club, but judging by all the new sign ups there's probably no better way to make people want to sign up than to suggest that something is exclusive...
@Gargron got a link to the article?
Twitter's Emerging Competitor Doesn't Want To Be Twitter

Twitter is a hellhole. Mastodon isn’t trying to replace the trashcan fire that is Twitter, but it is offering its users something different.