> Nobody thinks of Mastodons when thinking of any form of communication, but we all hear birds tweeting every day and have been used in real life to send messages
This seems like backwards reasoning. If you named a new platform after pigeons, which were actually used for transmitting information, you'd get critics saying "It's so archaic, nobody has used pigeons for 80 years!" Birds carrying messages is just as "extinct" of a metaphor as Mastodons are as an animal.
Then your account is gone, but your friends on other servers are still where they were. With backup/import tools you can reconnect with them from a new account easily.
>I don't expect any major changes are needed for compliance, which is why it's been pretty low priority. it's just a matter of getting a document together that better informs admins.
Mastodon has all the features needed for compliance, and does not collect or store any data that's not for its primary purpose.
I'm seeing the opposite, as independent platforms like Mastodon won't be able to implement content ID they won't be complying with this new law, which means it'll potentially become legally dangerous to run Mastodon within the EU. It's like the EU parliament is bent on giving all the cards to Google and Facebook and shutting down European competition...