Discoverability was an anti-goal for Mastodon initially. People from queer community felt it enables bullying. Mastodon has added search functionality since then, but it's still pretty basic.

IMO it's not necessarily bad though. It prevents the network from becoming centered around content and keeps it social. You discover new accounts as they get reposted by people you are already connected to

I feel like this is a clear case for "security through obscurity doesn't work" saying, and for the same reasons as the original meaning. "Normal" people won't find such community because it is pain in the ass to do, while bullies will get there just fine because they are motivated. It is like reverse moderation, filtering out less radical and less pro-active newcomers.

Interesting. Thanks for the history on this.

Mastodon is completely detached from the world, it's irrelevant.

This attitude is weird to see on Hacker News of all places, a forum that considers itself a quarantine zone from the rest of the world and the modern web, and which is also irrelevant to almost everyone, including much of tech.

Sure, but hacker news isn't an alternative to Twitter, nor does it market itself as such.