Eugen RochkoGood morning friends, this server is once again suffering under a heavy load of traffic and I am once again working on making it work better. Please be patient 
It took 10 hours but the timelines finally caught up. @Claire and I identified a few performance issues that only become evident once there's a ton of activity.
Steve@Gargron @Claire Thanks for accommodating us newcomers!
Maybe I'm missing the bigger picture, but the need to select a specific community when signing up introduced friction to my onboarding... I get that the whole concept is federated accounts, but even understanding the principle I almost gave up after browsing through a few dozen options.
cregox@steves @Gargron @Claire agreed, but i think it have more to do with our mindset than the technology.
in the end, it could get fixed by ux alone (i mean, without changing the underpinning software of any fediverse activity pub such as mastodon);
+ remind the user that changing instances is possible and mostly frictionless, with the caveats
+ offer an option to board in the current suggested newbie welcoming instance
+ offer an option to see which instances your friends picked
+ offer 3 random instance options
+ click to refresh
+ click for step to step procedure to create your own
i felt the same overwhelming when i first joined, but i think this would make it very easy.
in the end, it could get fixed by ux alone (i mean, without changing the underpinning software of any fediverse activity pub such as mastodon);
+ remind the user that changing instances is possible and mostly frictionless, with the caveats
+ offer an option to board in the current suggested newbie welcoming instance
+ offer an option to see which instances your friends picked
+ offer 3 random instance options
+ click to refresh
+ click for step to step procedure to create your own
i felt the same overwhelming when i first joined, but i think this would make it very easy.