@thomasfuchs "choose an instance" is definitely a hurdle to wider uptake & that's a bad thing.
Do you have opinions on solutions? Better directory / lookup / search that hid the decision behind questions about interests in might work but feels a bit clunky.
Wider uptake might come if orgs set up their own instances & people joined the one for their work / sports team / newspaper / political party etc. So that interests led to an instance rather than finding an instance that matches interests.
@thomasfuchs another way in that sidesteps the "choose an instance" hurdle is people asking friends which instance they use, like they do with Facebook groups etc.