@dividedsky I rebuilt my old GNUsocial instance as Masto back in 2018. I had to completely start over.

It takes a lot of time, there's no search (feature, not a bug) but it should be easier now because there are so much greater numbers of people. In the Web client (or Tusky if you use that) always use the federated timeline, this is the wider world and you'll find a lot of people.