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 They really need to fix the search for non-federated instances.

@esdin @eniko search is built as it is intentionally. It limits the ability for trolls and other unsavoury folk from seeking out people they want to attack or conversations they want to “dog-pile” into. It’s a massive benefit of the platform.

Hashtags are a good way to find posts & folk with common interests though.

@wiredfire @esdin i'm not talking about text search i'm referring to finding a profile of someone where you know where their profile lives but you can't add them unless you go to your home instance and search them and then, after waiting sometimes 2 whole minutes, clicking the follow button

that's a dogshit interface

@eniko @wiredfire @esdin My experience is quite different: Almost always I find people I look for from other neighborhoods within seconds. Sometimes I do need to type the full name, like an email address. I’ve had one single case where I couldn’t find a person from a neighborhood that I usually find people from. Not sure, maybe that account was too new?
@jashan @wiredfire @esdin i've had like a dozen people i wanted to follow where i had to search their url like 10+ times each because the search kept timing out
@eniko @wiredfire @esdin I wonder if that’s maybe an issue in your neighborhood? When I returned to here, mastodon.social timed out all the time even with basic things like just starting the app or logging in. Now it’s all smooth. Or it’s the neighborhoods of the people you try to connect with? Maybe they are too remote ;-)
@jashan @wiredfire @esdin pretty sure it was mastodon.social being under heavy load, still not great tho

@eniko @jashan @wiredfire @esdin

you might go to wall street to ask for money so we can invest in infrastructure?