ottaross, 
I never found Mastodon confusing to jump onto and get proficient. But #Lemmy on the other hand is quite opaque.
The federation of discussion groups or "communities" seems to have most users confused, judging by the discussions I've browsed there.
You can find communities that are visible by visiting a particular instance, but that can't be seen nor connected-to from your Lemmy account.
That's the biggest problem I think. You just can't get started participating.
