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The official Mastodon app is doing something new which is potentially very dangerous to the existence of Mastodon and the Fediverse.

The official Mastodon app now prompts users to join mastodon.social by default, when previously it prompted them to pick a server. If you're new this may sound harmless, but let me explain.

The entire point of this place is to be a social network spread out on as many servers as possible (the reasons are here: fedi.tips/why-is-the-fediverse).

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There is technically still an option on the official app to "pick my own server", but it's much harder to read or notice, and new users will probably click the mastodon.social button without even understanding the other button.

Mastodon.social just passed 1 million registered users about a week ago, out of a total network of approx 7 to 11 million users (dependiing on how you count them).

Most of these users probably signed up via the official app.

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For the first time ever, the most common way to sign up on the Fediverse is now directing people to sign up on one specific server, rather than making them choose.

This will make mastodon.social grow even more quickly than it has before, and future waves of new Mastodon users may end up mostly there. It's very plausible this one server could become the majority of the Fediverse in the near future.

If that happens, the Fediverse would no longer be protected from buyouts by nasty people.

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Yes, signing up on one server is much easier for people who are used to centralised services like Twitter, Facebook etc.

But as we have seen from Twitter, such a setup leaves you at the mercy of Musk-type takeovers. For-profit social networks do not like federation, they hate it as they see it as competition. It is very likely that a commercial takeover of a majority server would defederate it, to prevent people leaving and simplify its maintenance.

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This is not an attack on Eugen, I don't do those. Most of what @Gargron does is amazing, the Fedi owes him a great deal, and the fact he turned down large sums of VC money recently shows great integrity.

But eventually most people in that position will crack. Ever larger sums of money can make even the nicest people sell out.

If most of the Fediverse is on mastodon.social, it WILL receive more takeover bids. If it grows even further, these bids will become even higher.

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So, what can be done?

1. Tell new people to use third party apps, they are better anyway and have more features. More info at fedi.tips/which-apps-can-i-use

2. Tell people to sign up on the website. Mastodon's official site at joinmastodon.org is still asking people to choose a server, and is very professionally laid out. (I've also got my own amateurish effort at fedi.garden.)

3. If you're comfortable using github, give a thumbs up at github.com/mastodon/mastodon-i

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fedi.tips Which Mastodon apps can I use? Should I use the official app or a third party app? | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse
Andres Salomon

@feditips I think this is a good thing. Choosing a server is hard. Really hard. I first picked a server that ended up going away (I got locked out because their 2FA stopped working and couldn't migrate my account out, and the admin got sick and stopped running it). Then I tried mastodon.social. And that was when I actually started really using mastodon. Finally I found a server that fit me, I knew the admins, etc, and I moved to THAT.

@feditips That wouldn't have happened if I didn't get started on mastodon.social. Randomly picking servers gets you in servers which may not be run very well, or has a ToS you don't agree with, or just has a bunch of people you don't have much in common with. You've usually gotta spend some time here on a generic large server like mastodon.social, unless you have friends telling you to join their server (in which case you know to hit that "Pick my own Server" button).

@Andres4NY @feditips In my opinion this is the right way to go about it. I first joined a server, till i decided to roll my own and migrated.

The #fediverse allows us to migrate to a new server, so later on this is always an option for a user who deems it necessary.

Other users who don't reason on the right server, might never do it, and it doesn't matter on which server they are registered. It would even be wrong to use a small unknown server.