[deminature]

Selecting a server is one of the reasons the fediverse appears to have not seriously challenged incumbents. As soon as a non-technical user sees this, they bounce.

[8organicbits]

Checking the Mastodon app, new users are asked to "Join mastodon.social" or "pick another server". If you just mindlessly click the primary button, you'll get an account on mastodon.social so I think the server selection challenge has largely been addressed.

[anigbrowl]

But users are not mindless drones. Even the least computer-savvy is aware that they're being asked to make a choice and is probably unpleasantly reminded of the dark patterns in user agreements etc., so they'll feel like they're being guided down a sales funnel immediately after installing the app/signing up on web.

What percentage bounce at that stage? It's probably large. I did so, and although I later relented and created a Mastodon account I've felt emotionally biased against it ever since and barely use it. When I have used it I don't experience any tangible benefit to overcome my reflexive dislike. The network effects aren't anything great, the timeline/feed mechanism and presentation are not fundamentally different from other social media offerings, the QoL improvements are marginal. If I cared about architecture and ideology above all else it would be great, but what I actually care about is being able to get news faster than any other source and being able to find more people there than anywhere else. I can only think of 1 or 2 people who I check in on periodically via Mastodon because there's no other place to find them.

[notpushkin]

This does solve the problem, although I do hope it doesn’t turn into another Bluesky this way.

[Gigachad]

There's also the problem where selecting the server is quite a consequential choice which users who are brand new have no way to make a proper choice on. The owner of the server you choose has access to all of your data and the ability to delete your account or shut down the server at any time.

[HugoTea]

This is the same for every internet service, and the primary experience when signing up to big centralised services like Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. If they think your account is suspicious in any way, instantly gone with no way to appeal, I've seen a number of friends experience this recently and they're not even outliers using a VPN or 'unusual' email or anything. At least with federated services, you have the opportunity to keep backups of your profile and sign-up with another instance whenever you want.

[verdverm]

Technical users like myself bounce too. It's why I build and play in the ATProto ecosystem ("the atmosphere")

[nine_k]

A sensible default should be preselected. E.g. the geographically closest, not overloaded server.

[dewey]

I think this got much better than on the early days. Nowadays it's not much different than picking your Discord server, which is already something everyone is aware of.