Twitter has had a tough yr thus far, and already customers are flocking to Twitter options (opens in new tab), and I’ve discovered that Mastodon is perhaps an important selection, after making an attempt it out during the last week.

With new CEO Elon Musk charging $8 / £8 / AU$9 for blue ticks and allegedly muting customers who have not signed as much as Twitter Blue, I’ve seen a bunch of customers falling silent and shifting over to totally different platforms, together with Discord, Instagram and Mastodon (opens in new tab).

For those who’ve not tried Mastodon, consider it as Twitter however segregated into totally different communities, referred to as servers, that you would be able to be a part of. Nevertheless, you possibly can nonetheless observe your mates in the event that they’re in a special server in your timeline.

Eugen Rochko (opens in new tab), creator and developer of Mastodon, has already expressed shock at over 1,000,000 new customers becoming a member of the service previously week, but when he desires to maintain growing consumer numbers at this stage, he wants to take a look at simplifying how somebody joins a server.

Signing up is at present a headache

I have been a consumer of Mastodon (opens in new tab) since 2017, however I have been utilizing it extra previously month, as its simplicity in posting and studying content material is definitely welcome, and having the ability to curate your timeline to your pursuits, with none trolls or irrelevant adverts popping up is definitely refreshing.

But the one obvious subject I’ve discovered thus far is whenever you’re creating a brand new account you are overwhelmed with generally quite confusion decisions, comparable to a display screen asking you to affix totally different servers. You probably have an current account, it’s worthwhile to discover the server you made your account on, and discovering new customers is especially troublesome because it’s exhausting to record the accessible servers.

It is a complicated affair – and it makes for a foul first impression in the event you’re an off-the-cuff consumer who simply desires to strive the platform out. Some individuals could really feel confused as to what a ‘server’ truly means on this case.

I’ve additionally solely been capable of entry it via the net – Mastodon’s Android and iOS apps (opens in new tab), launched in 2021, each refuse to acknowledge my right credentials, however to be honest, that might be all the way down to the quantity of recent and current customers making an attempt to do the identical in the intervening time.

Regardless of the case, hopefully Rochko is wanting right into a repair for this, in addition to contemplating macOS and Home windows apps sooner or later.

But that is very early days for the platform – Fb, Twitter and even MySpace all had rising pains at the beginning, and it was due to its customers that these points had been ironed out.

What I’ve seen thus far is definitely encouraging, and it is a basis that might be the beginning of one thing particular for individuals trying to soar ship from Twitter.

Nevertheless, in the intervening time it is failing the take a look at of it being easy on the signing-up stage, and for the informal consumer, that might deliver Mastodon to an early finish if Rochko does not redesign the onboarding course of quickly.