Mastodon makes it easy for newcomers to create an account on the platform. The decentralized network announced on Monday that it will start directing new users to create an account on mastodon.social instead of requiring them to choose from thousands of other servers on the platform.
This update doesn’t mean Mastodon is taking away the ability for new users to sign up for an account on a specific community, though. It will simply offer two separate options on its registration page: “Join mastodon. social” or “Choose my server”. The service’s flagship mastodon. social server is the platform’s largest, but the network notes that users can switch instances at any time.
Before this change, creating a Mastodon account wasn’t as simple as just entering your email and creating a password. Mastodon originally had users choosing which instance or community they would like their account to live on. For those new to the platform, the move is a bit intimidating, especially now that Mastodon now has over 12,000 instances that users can join. Should you join mastodon.world or mastodon.online? Or should you go for something more focused, like birdon.social? It can be confusing and confusing for a new user to choose.
“If we only succeed in attracting people who actually care about decentralization, then our ability to make decentralization mainstream becomes much more difficult.”
However, the change may frustrate existing users and server operators who would like to see Mastodon remain true to its promise of being a decentralized platform, which is not governed by any single entity. However, Mastodon CEO Eugene Roshko says this change is needed to help “new users bypass the sign-up process and interact faster with others.”
“We think it’s important that Mastodon is good as a product on its own merits, not just because of its ideology,” Roshko wrote in the post announcing the change. “If we only succeed in attracting people who actually care about decentralization, then our ability to make decentralization mainstream becomes much more difficult.”
In addition to the new onboarding experience, Mastodon is also rolling out citation posts and improving content, profile search, and groups. Rochko also says that the platform is improving its moderation tools, as well as “removing friction from decentralized features.”