So, confession time: I was recently helping a new client get set up on the Fediverse—guiding them through their first steps into our glorious decentralized galaxy. And seeing it all again through fresh eyes?
Reader, it was brutal.
So much of what should be table stakes for any social media UX in the year of our Lord 2025 still is missing or deeply broken still. I know progress has been made and a good fight, fought.
They’re legitimate friction points.
In regards to instance selection paralysis, I think the solution is to invite people to instances specifically rather than an overarching community, software or protocol.
As for the Mastodon timeline, it should be a filter button that defaults to federated, one click to local, two to home.