Raw numbers are perhaps not enough to get across just how bad the centralisation of the Fediverse by mastodon.social is. I've done a chart to show this visually, hopefully this will make the situation clearer?
Given the circumstances, getting people to join *any* other server except mastodon.social would greatly help decentralise the Fediverse. It's no longer big vs medium vs small, it's more like supergiant deathstar mastodon.social vs everyone else 😞
#Mastodon #Fediverse #MastodonSocial
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Fedi.Garden ☃️
in reply to Fedi.Garden ☃️ • • •Mastodon.social is not a good way to join Mastodon. If you’re already on it, you might want to move your account to a different Mastodon server. | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse
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Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦, Emilio ʕ̡̢̡ʘ̅͟͜͡ʘ̲̅ʔ̢̡̢, Oblomov, GhostOnTheHalfShell, tsadilas, Δρομογράφος, Yellow Turtle 🍉, Jones e Jure Repinc reshared this.
Fedi.Garden ☃️
in reply to Fedi.Garden ☃️ • • •p.p.s. If anyone currently on mastodon.social wants help moving to a different server, there's an easy-to-understand step-by-step guide at fedi.tips/transferring-your-ma…
Let me know if you have any difficulties with any particular step 🙂
Transferring your Mastodon account to another server | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse
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Fedi.Garden ☃️
in reply to Fedi.Garden ☃️ • • •p.p.p.s. Looks like Mastodon gGmbH are now discussing this issue, really good to hear them being proactive! 👍
Let's give the new leadership a chance and see what they come up with 🙂
hachyderm.io/@haubles/11558779…
hannah aubry
2025-11-21 12:56:00
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Rob Ricci
in reply to Fedi.Garden ☃️ • • •Who Moderates My Posts and Timeline?
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El Duvelle
in reply to Fedi.Garden ☃️ • • •I think one of the main problems is you can't transfer your posts to a new account. But I heard that @jonny was maybe working on finding a fix for this! So, one can hope that if this gets fixed it will be much easier for people to move out of mastodon.social.
PS: thank you for all your great guides 😀
Fedi.Garden ☃️
in reply to El Duvelle • • •@elduvelle
If you follow the guide, your old posts will remain in existence and help redirect people to your new account 🙂
Jürgen Hubert
in reply to Fedi.Garden ☃️ • • •@elduvelle
I recently did a poll, and nearly half of all people who voted said that it bothered them that their posts didn't migrate with their accounts.
I have to admit, I was quite surprised.
El Duvelle
in reply to Jürgen Hubert • • •@juergen_hubert you were surprised that it wasn't more? Or less?
@FediGarden
Jürgen Hubert
in reply to El Duvelle • • •@elduvelle
That it wasn't less.
I mean, for me #Mastodon is #microblogging first and foremost. And in microblogging, posts are ephemeral and soon forgotten. Personally, I don't really _care_ what I posted a year ago - unless I bookmarked it. And even then, the old posts arent even _gone_ unless the old instance closes down.
But evidently, a very large number of Mastodon users feel very differently about this.
mementomori.social/@juergen_hu…
Jürgen Hubert
2025-11-05 13:14:21
El Duvelle
in reply to Jürgen Hubert • • •@juergen_hubert
I see! Indeed I am more on the side of "permanent repository of my thoughts", I often search my old posts for some link, poll or info that I know exists in the past. I wouldn't want to migrate instances if it meant loosing my post history. I'd rather loose my follows / followers - you can always find then back - than my posts.
I guess I probably also have some trauma from when I had to leave twitter to join mastodon and had to say bye-bye to all my precious tweets.. Not ready for that to ever happen again!
Moss Wizard
in reply to El Duvelle • • •El Duvelle
in reply to Moss Wizard • • •A website is really not the same purpose as an interactive communication platform like Mastodon / Fedi though. It doesn't have the same reach - people have to go and read your website. The interest of the posts on here is not just the posts content but the discussions that come with them.
It's also not that easy to set up, you have to figure out a host, make the website, regularly update the website, probably pay for the domain name etc. (I never made a website, there are probably a lot more steps). It's a good thing to have but certainly not a replacement for social media.
Jürgen Hubert
in reply to El Duvelle • • •@elduvelle @Moss
It's possible to split the middle, though. For instance, I am running a #WordPress site - and turned it into a #Fediverse server with the #ActivityPub plugin.
Now people can search for individual blog posts on their Fediverse instance, and read it and comment on it as if it was a Mastodon post (for instance).
There are also quite a few other Fediverse-based blogging solutions that allow people to blog right into other people's feeds.
Moss Wizard
in reply to Jürgen Hubert • • •Veronica Olsen
in reply to Jürgen Hubert • • •El Duvelle
in reply to Veronica Olsen • • •@veronica
5000 posts 😭 @juergen_hubert @FediGarden
(This is my post count.. I'm not proud)
me
in reply to Veronica Olsen • • •Jürgen Hubert
in reply to me • • •...out of curiosity, how often have you actually looked at it since you downloaded it?
El Duvelle
in reply to Jürgen Hubert • • •@juergen_hubert @me @veronica
I also spend hours (days?) figuring out how to get a twitter archive working.
Do I go back to it sometimes? Yes! I would say once every few months to try and find something that I posted. Unfortunately it couldn't archive other people's posts, or even poll results, so it's not that useful.
I also used it to (re-)make some of my pinned posts on here, e.g:
neuromatch.social/@elduvelle_n… (my "work" account)
neuromatch.social/@elduvelle/1…
This is the archive: elduvelle.github.io/
El Duvelle (@elduvelle@neuromatch.social)
El Duvelle (neurospace.live)katherine montalto
in reply to Veronica Olsen • • •Sci-Fi Girl
in reply to Fedi.Garden ☃️ • • •Do you plan to update the feditips article, section "just recommend one good server", now that mas.to is invite only? 🤔
@FediTips
Fedi.Tips 🎄
in reply to Sci-Fi Girl • • •@5ciFiGirl
Thanks, didn't notice that! I've put ohai.social on there instead as it's also a good general server with lots of connections to the Fediverse.
Emilio ʕ̡̢̡ʘ̅͟͜͡ʘ̲̅ʔ̢̡̢
in reply to Fedi.Garden ☃️ • • •Marc Thomas
in reply to Fedi.Garden ☃️ • • •I feel like this is really easily solvable by just having the apps randomly cycle which server is selected by "default" when people are signing up. Obviously still give the option for people to manually select their preferred network, but by having the default random.
Just limit the random server selection to something like 10-20 reputable instances that have a track record of quality administration. That would avoid sending people to an instance that is unsupported and at a higher risk of shutting down.
Fedi.Garden ☃️
in reply to Marc Thomas • • •@mthx
Yup, that's what a number of people have been saying, and it's what e.g. @nextcloud does on their Nextcloud instance picker.
Get a pool of reliable servers with a good long track record, recommend them in rotation instead of recommending mastodon.social.
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hannah aubry
in reply to Fedi.Garden ☃️ • • •damon likes this.
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Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
in reply to hannah aubry • • •@haubles this is so wonderful to hear! Good luck in your new position.
Hearing this I'm hopeful the issue of balancing on-boarding experience against encouraging new folks to join other instances is going to get handled in a thoughtful way, just as the quote-toots were. This is all very exciting!
@FediGarden
hannah aubry
in reply to Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦 • • •Thank you 😊 We are working very hard to make sure everything we do evolves in a thoughtful way, and in a way that protects and reflects the needs our community.
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Fedi.Garden ☃️
in reply to hannah aubry • • •@haubles
Hi Hannah,
Thank you for taking the time to reply about this 🙏
If it's any help for the discussions within Mastodon, Nextcloud solved this issue by drawing up a pool of reliable instances with good track records, then recommending one from the pool on a rotating basis.
Because they only recommended one at a time it avoided the "paralysis of choice", but as it was rotated it spread the growth, and because the pool was all reliable instances it maintained a level of quality.
Making Up Rowan 🏳️⚧️👩
in reply to hannah aubry • • •Sensitive content
hannah aubry
in reply to Making Up Rowan 🏳️⚧️👩 • • •Fedi.Garden ☃️
in reply to hannah aubry • • •@haubles @Rowan
Just to push back against this concept of a "starter server" or "launching place", that doesn't really exist. There are just well-run servers and badly-run servers.
There's nothing easier or safer or tutorial-like about using mastodon.social than other reputable servers, and if there was it would simply encourage even more people to join mastodon.social and stay there 😦
Making Up Rowan 🏳️⚧️👩
in reply to Fedi.Garden ☃️ • • •Sensitive content
My thought is that mastodon.social should enforce its role as a launching place by not allowing anyone to stay there long term.
Fedi.Garden ☃️
in reply to Making Up Rowan 🏳️⚧️👩 • • •@Rowan @haubles
I don't think throwing people off a server when they've done nothing wrong is a good idea?
It would be easier to just add tutorial features to the software itself so that they are available to new people on any server.
Making Up Rowan 🏳️⚧️👩
in reply to Fedi.Garden ☃️ • • •Sensitive content
Mastodon Migration
in reply to Making Up Rowan 🏳️⚧️👩 • • •@Rowan @haubles
Think it has merit. Another way to think about this concept would be to take a page from role playing computer games. When you start you arrive on "newbie island" when you walk through a few simple tasks that familiarize you with the UI and your various server options. But pretty soon you have to (get to!) move off into the real game equipt with some knowledge, the choices you've made, and a modicum of skill.
Only Ohm
in reply to Fedi.Garden ☃️ • • •