@f1cf1cd7 It doesn't have to be, though. Mastodon intentionally "other-izes" itself, or, rather, "other-izes" the rest of the Fediverse, in a marketing bid to gain, essentially, a majority share-holding over the entire network. Mastodon is by no means the easiest/simplest to deploy, nor necessarily the easiest or most straightforward to use. Pretty much the only place that Mastodon really has an upper-hand on any alternatives is application support, and that's primarily because Mastodon has fought tooth and nail to brand itself as synonymous with "the Fediverse".