@pimoore @johnphilpin @jemostrom @simonwoods I see the point about building smaller communities, It's good and nice to have that option.

Very important is that anyone can start a Mastodon community so that groups that are repressed have a place to communicate and express themselves uncontrolled by governments and corporate suits.

The problem with Mastodon catching on with the person on the street lies partly in the explanation "decentralized, federated, open source, social network" you can see eyes glazing over by the second word. Then you need to find an "instance" (what's that?) and each instance has it's own rules. And if you join the wrong instance can you move and how do you move? It all adds a lot of friction.

But maybe it's best that Mastodon does not go to the lowest common denominator. There's some strange things living in the deepest cellar.