@atomicpoet @midway Sorry, evacuation of an experimental social media account wasn't top priority between actual work, holiday preparations, and having one of my dogs pass away last week.

But I'm sure you feel very superior with your little "gotcha" moment.

@midway @atomicpoet And the alternative (self-hosting) simply isn't viable for either scalability or accessibility.

It's objectively more difficult than "pick from a sea of instances run by who the fuck knows" for a vast majority of users, so it doesn't alleviate that cognitive load.

If somehow it *did* become easier, then you would have *too many* single-digit user instances, and the broader federated network would hit other scaling issues. (as others have called out in replies)

@midway @atomicpoet Therein lies the core problem, which isn't a technical problem really.

Encouraging people to go to small instances means expecting them to vet an increasingly large number of small instances for suitability. No amount of "welcome wagon" addresses that cognitive load, which will inevitably lead to consolidation into "big" instances. (When overwhelmed by options they don't understand, people will either follow consensus, or not choose at all. As you noted)

@atomicpoet are you minimizing the damage bad actors can do with personal information? The comparison I made is slightly hyperbolic, but only slightly. (Esp for members of marginalized groups who may be subject to government persecution)

You remind me of the “caveat emptor” mindset of Web3 evangelists, and we all know how well that’s turned out. So I’ve said my piece and I’m done.