TL;DR: The current Mastodon-signup is only removing the confusion of users on first glance, because it either hides the server-choice altogether, or leaves them with a choice that is impossible to make at this point of their Mastodon-journey. Instead, it should introduce them to decentrality on a lower scale, with a handful of handpicked servers to choose from, such that the decision makes sense to them and shows them the merits and fun of the concept instead of scaring them away. Ideal would be to give them a sense of agency. Then, chances are higher that they consider migrating again in the future and eventually internalize it as a permanent option of the digital world.

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[–] Scrollone@feddit.it 30 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Not only decentralization is not a feature -- it's a burden. "Normal" users (read: non nerds like 99% of us here) couldn't care less about which server they should sign up to.

[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Tbh then just tell em to sign up for mastodon.social, or a specific instance you know they'd like since you know them fairly well, problem solved. They can migrate later if they want anyway, fuck it, they'll be fine. It's a masto acct not a limb amputation, like hair so to speak "it'll grow back."

[–] explodicle@local106.com 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Mastodon has account migration? Are we going to get that?

Edit: Yes. https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/pull/3976

[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 11 months ago

Iirc I heard that is part of this update along with blocking instances but I haven't yet figured out how to do either, and my instance just logged me out with the update so I finally made the move to eternity and am learning that UI now too instead of jerboa, so it may be a minute before I do figure it out lol.

[–] panicnow@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If you migrate your own account to a new server, do other people follows of you automatically migrate too? Or do all your followers need to then update to follow you at the new location?

[–] russjr08@bitforged.space 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I just did this the other week, all of your followers (who are on servers that are still online of course) will follow your new account and unfollow the old account.

It was a bit funny, because I had already signed into the mobile I used and was flooded with notifications as each account followed me (some might be slightly delayed, but all in all it didn't take more than an hour for the ~50 followers I had).

You will however want to export the list of people you follow from the old account though, because that isn't automatic. Once you plug the export file into the new account though it'll do the rest for you.

[–] panicnow@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

That sounds very slick. I never really used twitter so had no reason to use mastodon instead, but I am glad it exists!

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

And if it such a central feature

It's not. It's an important feature. It's not a central feature.

That's like saying two factor authentication is a central feature of Twitter. It's important, yes, but it's not central.