
The role of mastodon.social in the Mastodon ecosystem - _jomo
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2019/03/the-role-of-mastodon.social-in-the-mastodon-ecosystem/
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jeena
I don't really get it, why do more people join when this specific server is
open? Is it because it is a general purpose server? If so then encouraging
those kinds of servers would be a good strategy.

~~~
WorldMaker
It's the "now I have to do _two_ things?" obstacle. When the goal is "join
Mastodon" and "here's Mastodon" leads you to a common, busy instance with open
joining that's a fast path without a lot of extra friction. The "this one is
closed, here's a link to a searchable list of lots of Mastodon instances
options" instead adds a lot of new steps and cognitive analysis paralysis
friction that many people would rather not do.

One of the best techniques I've seen for bringing people to Mastodon is the
opposite technique to general purpose servers, such as the approach that is
that used by instances like friend.camp and idlethumbs.social where a lot of
the users were directly invited by the instance admins (because they were
friends in RL, or on other social media) with basically "here's your account,
welcome, ask me if you need anything" (or similar). That reduces friction to
the bare minimum. It scales appropriately in the decentralized way Mastodon
was meant to (as lots of small instances), and that sort of "high touch" of
"I'm your friendly neighborhood admin" is the sort of "human scale" that
Mastodon can sell a lot better than other social media, when done right,
helping differentiate from first impressions why Mastodon isn't just "nerd
Twitter".

