I really don't like the idea of topic-specific instances being the standard way to handle group discussions in Mastodon. I don't want to juggle 15 different identities and 15 different sets of credentials just because I'm interested in 15 different things. Early adopters may put up with that kind of hassle, but a mass audience never will. And having to set up and maintain a whole instance just to host a group means that few groups will ever be formed.

I feel like there has to be a better way.

@jalefkowit

a while ago I said instances were like districts of a town that you might live in. You might live in the art district of the city, or you might commute there. You might be hanging out at that cafe near the university, or you might have a summer home you occasionally visit out in rural areas. Anyway I will not repeat the whole metaphor. :D [cont]

@jalefkowit

I don't think the point of having special interest instances is having every single member of the community literally on that instance. Some people will be commuting elsewhere and that is ok! Although if you are constantly commuting with one instance above others, (participating to the activities etc) you might want to move closer, (which was why I moved from mastodon.social to mastodon.art) [cont]

@jalefkowit
similarly it might make sense to have an extra place to stay at a very far away location that you travel regularly. (in network terms one could consider instances with less networking as "far" as data is less likely to spread from there to rest of the fediverse)
[cont]