I'll be honest, not being able to get a handle on mastodon.social put me off adopting Mastodon for quite a while (until I found the invite system). While I'm glad there are other instances, that doesn't really help you if the one instance you do want to be on is full. This is my third Mastodon account, but the one I'll stick with
@stroughtonsmith if you find (or know of) a good mastodon for new people guide pls share 😅
@BlackJohnRoss @stroughtonsmith I went with mas.to because it makes for a nice and short handle :v