Ok, well here's my trip report.

Clicked on Hank Green's link from his Twitter profile. This is the only way you'll ever get me to sign up, by linking me to content, I'm not going to be googling to sign up for mastodon just because. So wherever I land better have an easy way to sign up.

There's a create account form right there, super easy stuff. I was ready to agree with you. After creating the account I didn't appear to be logged in. Checked my email for a verification link, nothing there.

At this point both the Log In and Create Account button don't do anything. They just refresh the page with no error. An hour later I tried again on, same issue. Realized I should check the spam folder, and that's where the verification link is, with a big red scary UI. The email is from "trumpet" which I don't recognize myself.

I click it, and that makes it so the log in button actually logs me in.

This wasn't worth it to find out if I want to have a mastodon account. Simple fix though, the UI should tell me to check my spam folder instead of making the login and create account buttons do nothing except refresh the page.

edit: There's more. I try to go back to it to check it out again and end up at mast.to which directs me to some foreign website, takes me a while to figure out it was mas.to that I signed up on. I decide using the browser maybe ain't it for this, so I install the iOS app instead. It wants to know which server I signed up on, which luckily is the thing I just worked out. I type mas.to to find my server in the iOS app, frankly a concept I shouldn't ever have to care about if you want me as a user, but OK. And all I get is a pop up that says HTTP 200 OK.

I'm stuck again with zero indication of the error or how to progress. This is bullshit.

I haven't signed up.

Not because I'm not interested in the technology.

But because the technology isn't the point.

People use twitter because it's NOT inherently segregated. It is a place to find things organically. Aside from Facebook, which had an initial purpose of networking your friends and family, social networks that do this are largely more successful than the ones which federate themselves because users aren't having to explicitly search for conversations that interest them.

Mastodon is just a modern interpretation of Usenet with more moderation.

If you have to read a blog about how to sign up for it, it's not "easy to sign up".

Signing up for mastodon is a series of hurdles with some extra steps in between. Conceptually it's pretty far from what people are familiar with.

It's a classic trap of tech nerds being way, way off base thinking that others would enjoy jumping through obscure hoops just like they do. Most people really don't.

(This is coming from someone who grew up on dialup / bbs / sweaty underground diskette auctions)

They're pretty clearly being sarcastic; they don't actually think it's "super easy to sign up for Mastodon."

I made the same mistake. Judging by the first few sentences.

Heh, you had me in the first half.