I thought I’d start out here with how I arrived. But first, I want to thank @freemo for hosting this instance. I was not really looking to exit the twit as I had trimmed my follows down to some very useful feeds. But, once I noticed Mastodon due the mass exodus in the last weeks, it intrigued me. It sounded like a cross between bbs and the Well; all of which I enjoyed in the past. Once I understood I needed to find an instance, the hunt was on. After looking at many instances, uptimes, user numbers and reading many admins dispositions towards free speech in their instance, I settled on qoto.org. I was happy to see @freemo’s statement on free speech coupled with “but don’t be racist, sexist, hateful, and don’t harass people”. At the same time encouraging users to be adults and block what they don’t want in their feeds and providing directions to block lists for the more sensitive amongst us. Hit all the right buttons for me. I’m looking forward to learning about Mastodon and meeting new people. Oh yeah, and I like the character limits too!