[ananiochita]

I was not saying you were being hostile, on the contrary, your previous answer is friendly, informative, and perfect for someone who is trying to get started and knows nothing about Mastodon. It's what I try to explain to other people myself, and I have to say all I get is blank stares. No one needs to go to a specific Twitter for Javascript discussions, or a specific Twitter for weather bots for their city, or worry if this person or that person are on the same server and how that affects them, they just get a Twitter account, period, then use it for whatever it is they want to use it.

( I don't use Twitter myself. Personally I'd make an account as I have in the past at mstdn.jp -- I don't have one now, and this is also another reason behind my question, what are people doing and where in Mastodon these days, in case I should look at trying other servers. )

By hostile I meant the first friction point anybody coming to Mastodon faces : What are you looking for ? What are your interests, let's see what server fits you better, etc. That's why I compare that way to look at it to IRC; if I want to discuss film photography in English there's a specific channel for that. Or gardening in suburban Paris in French. Or whatever. Reddit comes to mind as well. That's what group chats or public forums are. Should I be thinking Mastodon is that kind of service / tool ?

Because I see Mastodon, and maybe I am wrong, as a content publishing and communication platform, not as a topic-driven group chat / forum. Or pushing it, I would even liken it to e-mail. One shouldn't have to decide if mails will be sent to an Irish programmer for work, or they will be for discussing in Japanese with grandma, when creating an e-mail account, or what servers the mails come from.

Yes, you can use a Mastodon account as you wish, provided it does not break the rules of the server, or what you want to see is not blocked, or roll your own if you can be bothered to set up and maintain your own server, or, or, etc.

And right from the start people are faced with these questions, and server rules, and whatnot, about Mastodon, when getting started should be frictionless, they shouldn't even have to worry about whether this server or that server does this or that -- "but you can transfer your data, it's yours", eh, that's not helping.

This is what I was talking about when saying I find it hostile.