Electronic mail is so confusing. Why do I need to choose a provider and how do I get even decide? And once I have an address, how do I find my friends’ addresses and send them letters? Will I only be able to send letters to people using the same provider?
@scottmatter Unfortunately choosing a mastodon instance has ramifications that new users probably won’t be aware of. Also, the instance one is on can be blocked at any time by any other instance. It’s like the post office refusing to deliver mail from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles.
@imabuddha @scottmatter Yeah, I gotta be honest. The attitude of some Mastodon defenders towards even expressions of mild bafflement about instances is, disturbingly often, condescending and off-putting in the extreme. It turns out that my initial pick was not the best fit; so I moved to Med-Mastodon, which was better. It was not as difficult as I feared it would be to switch. I was not, however, trivial, either.
@imabuddha @scottmatter Post office is usually run by government, so the simile is misleading.
A more apt metaphor would be that my volunteer-run local club of stamp collectors refuses to talk to your volunteer-run club of stamp collectors in your city.
@imabuddha @scottmatter The analogy is perhaps a bit unfair, in that a blocked instance is like one mailbox in Pittsburgh being sealed shut. There are plenty of other mailboxes there to use. Still, what a relief to not have the whole social media site being DeJoyed.
@imabuddha @scottmatter This analogy is only slightly flawed, It's more like the post office refusing to keep picking up outgoing mail from Ted Kaczynski's shipping company.
Only each post office gets to self determine your instance's unabomberness using potentially arbitrary justifications.
It isn't a perfect system. Just better than most.
@imabuddha @scottmatter If you have suggestions for new users about server choice, moving servers, I’d be interested. Thanks