sually-friendly populations that will help you find a more niche instance if that's what you're looking for. Be warned, though, that because of their size, the Local timelines on these instances can move *very* quickly.

(*A brief note about mastodon.social: it **is** the largest general-purpose instance (the largest overall is a Japanese-language instance). Many people go there and never check out other instances. If you make an account on mastodon.social, consider treating it as a temporary waypoint while