In a compelling move, Mastodon, the decentralized social media network, recently announced its latest update: streamlining the user onboarding process. This move comes at a time when the tussle for dominance in the decentralized social media universe is escalating, with platforms like Bluesky, backed by Jack Dorsey, and Meta also joining the fray.

Historically, Mastodon's onboarding process required new users to choose from thousands of servers, or communities, where they'd like to establish their account. However, this decentralized network revealed on Monday that it plans to direct new users to create an account on mastodon.social, the platform’s flagship and largest server.

This does not imply that the platform is confiscating the power of new users to sign up for a particular community. Instead, the signup page will now offer two distinct choices: “Join mastodon.social” or “Pick my own server.” The network emphasizes that users have the flexibility to switch servers anytime they wish.

Eugen Rochko, the CEO of Mastodon, justifies the change as an essential step to help new users overcome the sign-up process's complexities and start engaging with others quickly. He writes, "If we only attract people who already care about decentralization, our ability to make decentralization mainstream becomes that much harder."

The platform now boasts over 12,000 instances users can join, making it a daunting task for newbies to select one. Will it be mastodon.world or mastodon.online? Or perhaps a niche-focused server like birdon.social? The new approach aims to eliminate this confusion and create a more seamless user experience.

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Elon Musk's Embraces Decentralization: What about Mastodon, Bluesky, and Nostr?