The actual fedi experience for a non techy:
- Search Mastodon app
- Choose a Mastodon app, which one is the official, which one is the best, thereâs so many!
- Instances? Why canât I just sign up with Mastodon, whatâs going on?
- Okay, why are these all different rules, what does this mean, and why are they all different?
- What am I actually signing up for? Who owns this instance, which I donât understand the concept of? Will it randomly shut down?
- Who am I giving this personal data too?
- Okay, how do I find content, why is my feed so boring?
- Okay I clicked somebodyâs link and it takes me to a different website, why canât I like/reply/follow? Where am I?
At each one of these steps, thereâs a new learning curve. If itâs not easy enough for your grandma, then it needs improvement.
Right, that used to be how it was done, but itâs not anymore. The very first result in the iPhone app store and Google play store is the official app. The official app has not prompted the user to choose an instance since May of this year.
Many of the other questions (like about data and privacy) are extremely valid but also apply to any app, so by that logic Twitter for example would have considerably more steps than Mastodon simply by virtue of a significantly more complicated TOS.
You should try the sign up process, you donât understand it. Explore tab shows you top posts on your instance to follow and no one posts links to masto comments because it doesnât look good.
The only actually confusing thing is people trying to quote tweet when it isnât possible, and maybe losing followers when thereâs server defed drama. Thankfully there hasnât been any recently.