i guess I've never actually said this to all y'all before, but opinion time: if you're on mastodon.social I 100% think you should leave it

i understand leaving a backup account there because it's one of the least likely to go down english-speaking instances on the fediverse, but mastsoc is harmful to federation

ideally, host your own instance, or get together some of your friends (and hopefully at least one sysadmin) and host one together for the lot of you, where all of you chip in. My instance costs $5 a month

as a backup, join the instance of someone you personally trust, imo if you can't form a personal relationship with the admin within reason, the instance is too big


also, pleroma is good damn software and it's getting better by the day, if you just want a closed instance for you and your friends, i highly recommend it, although open instances can be problematic because of it having weaker moderation tools than mastodon