It’s beautiful when he shits on the copy or even better, wonders out loud why the fuck anyone would use the product.

No war but gas war!

I think changing the verbiage from “server” to “village” or “herd” or “neighborhood,” or just something more familiar to the non-techie, combined with your proposal of displaying a full welcome feed of suggested material would go a long way to improving retention and marketability. Other fediverse portals can learn this lesson too.