@FediTips @noondlyt I joined Mastodon in 2018 and signed up with mastodon.social because there weren't many options. Some instances were only in non-English languages, some had requirements (be in a particularly profession, such as science), or required new users to request permission, or had only single-digit numbers of users and looked like they might not survive. (So far as I know, they didn't.)
Still my primary account, but I added two more, especially after Musk bought Twitter.