@feditips I posted a whole rant about server choice just an hour before finding about this change. I agree that forcing new users to the same monolithic instance is a terrible idea, but I also think "Welcome new user who doesn't yet know anything about this place, choose a server now, here are a thousand options" is a big obstacle.

What I'd suggested was rather just assigning a nearby instance, maybe based on geolocating IP address or something, and if that doesn't give a satisfactory result, then have them enter a few interests and use that as a keyword search on instance descriptions. The choice is a good thing, but it's also a huge mental block for new users. Migration is fine, and people should be actively encouraged to find the right instance, but not while they're still trying to figure out if they even want to be here.

@Gargron @atomicpoet @mastodonusercount Is it possible that accounts moving from server to server could be counted as duplicates? Am I right that a "Moved" account is actually a new account, with some data migrated and the old account redirecting to new?