mastodon would do so much better if they'd just call instances "neighborhoods" and said that you should pick your neighborhood based on your interests, so that if you look out your window you'll see your neighbors doing things you find interesting. and that it's okay if you find out you don't like your neighborhood, because you can just move to another one! and all your followers will move with you

and then, yanno, make it easier to search for people you wanna follow cause that shit just sucks

@eniko tbh the fundamental issue is that HOAs exist (i.e. random defederations)

this is an issue as an instance admin because some instances will block for absolutely opaque and seemingly frivolous reasons

@kouhai this is for people who are too overwhelmed to join, and worrying about defederation isn't what's keeping them from joining

@eniko mhm, fair

it's hard to strike a tradeoff in terms of communication, I guess