• Guy Dudeman
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    1383 months ago

    So stupid. Just use Mastodon. No algorithms. No billionaires. No monetization. No bullshit. And some really great folks, too.

    • @Corvid
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      1653 months ago

      No algorithms isn’t a selling point to the average user. My Mastodon feed is kinda sad and boring, if I’m not on top of it I’ll just miss interesting posts that happened in the days I didn’t open the app.

      Bluesky custom feeds really help with that, while still providing the chronological no-algorithm view as your main feed. It’s just a more interesting experience for people that aren’t chronically online.

      • Chozo
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        683 months ago

        Yep, discovery is still a major pain point for pretty much every Fediverse platform. Probably the biggest issue the Fediverse faces right now, IMO.

        Part of it is due to technical limitations due to the way ActivityPub/federation in general works. But another big part of it is (what feels to me like) a stubborn aversion to convenience, a trend I see a lot in FOSS dev communities. When you have devs that would be content reading a news feed off of a .TXT file passed to them on a 5" floppy, and users who want features on their platform, you end up with the situation we’re in, where it’s impossible to convince the mainstream user to migrate. If the mainstream user doesn’t already know who is even on the platform in order to follow them, and has no effort-free way of discovering accounts to follow, they’re not going to stick around. Especially when on just about any Mastodon server you join, your local/global feeds are almost all politics and high-level tech discussion.

        I think that the average user would be supportive of FOSS and the Fediverse in general, and probably likes the idea of a non-corpo platform where they have more control over their feeds and their content. But I feel that it’s not worth trading away discovery or “algorithmic” tools for most users.

        I think if Mastodon (or a Mastodon-adjascent platform like Misskey or Pleroma) could find a way to develop an algorithmic recommendation engine that respects user privacy (perhaps basing recommendations on a file stored on the user’s account, which they can modify/backup at will), we could see a sizable increase in Fedi users.

        • @[email protected]
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          153 months ago

          There’s a major section of mastodon users who like mastodon because it doesn’t have any recommendation algorithms. Both from the side of “I don’t want to be told what to click on” and the “I don’t want an algorithm surfacing my posts in a way I’m not in complete control of”

          This might curse it to forever be the platform with the smaller number of users, but the nice thing about activitypub is that there may be other services/clients that will be willing to take up that mantle for those that want it.

          • @[email protected]
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            43 months ago

            Couldn’t there be an implementation thay leaves everyone satisfied?

            Sort of like implementating a new optional tab for discovery and allowing users to choose whether their posts appear on it. The implementation should of course be fully honest without dark patterns, though due to the lack of profit incentive it shouldn’t be difficult to achieve a satisfying implementation.

            • @[email protected]
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              43 months ago

              I don’t think it would last long as a clean implementation.

              The problem with having a completely open algorithm for discovery, you give spammers an instruction manual for how to consistently get to the top of the rankings.

              Eventually these systems would always get abused and become completely filled with useless nonsense.

              An alternative is to have the discovery completely exist on the client side, but I’m not sure how that would even work given the way activitypub works.

              Personally I think any social media recommendation/discovery system is a dark pattern.

        • @rottingleaf
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          23 months ago

          When you have devs that would be content reading a news feed off of a .TXT file passed to them on a 5" floppy

          As a perpetually overloaded autistic person, yes please.

          Seriously - something like federated Hotline would be so cool. Distributed - even better, of course.

          OK, dreaming.

          • @[email protected]
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            23 months ago

            I’d want the floppy disc to be a standard size though. You can’t just chop a ¼" off like that. It won’t work.

          • @[email protected]
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            23 months ago

            Whatever interests you! Personally I’m following hashtags related to board games, specific programming languages, etc…

      • CrimeDad
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        73 months ago

        If the developers could fix search, it would go a long way in improving Mastodon.

      • Guy Dudeman
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        -863 months ago

        My Mastodon feed is kinda sad and boring

        Either you’re following the wrong people or this says more about you than it does about mastodon

        if I’m not on top of it I’ll just miss interesting posts that happened in the days I didn’t open the app.

        Oh no!! Heaven forbid you miss a social media post!! Whatever will you do?!??

        • @tyrant
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          823 months ago

          You really leaned into the ‘jerk’ vibe with this one

          • Guy Dudeman
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            233 months ago

            Yeah, I guess I do that sometimes. Sorry.

          • Guy Dudeman
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            -253 months ago

            I never thought I would see the day that people WANTED algorithms. Jesus. Get of my lawn, kids.

            • @[email protected]
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              173 months ago

              There’s always an algorithm.

              Sequential order with no weighting for what you care about is just a particularly bad one.

    • @rottingleaf
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      153 months ago

      No algorithms.

      Could we please use words for their actual meaning?

      • @[email protected]
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        83 months ago

        How would you say “no obscure algorithm to determine your timeline, hiding posts of people who follow and showing posts of people you don’t” without having to write a full paragraph each time?

        • @rottingleaf
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          43 months ago

          “No algorithms” is a worse answer to this question than “no timelines”, “no posts” and “no people”.

          “No trickery” maybe. “No recommendations” is another.

          • Logi
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            23 months ago

            “Algorithmic timeline” might be appropriately specific?

    • @nutsack
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      3 months ago

      I very much appreciate the technology and philosophy behind Mastodon, but the content discovery on bluesky is much better. the feeds and the “popular with friends” tab are great. being able to click and see who someone is following is also quite good for discovery, and this seems to be broken for me on mastodon. on mastodon all i have is the wall of everything.

      • Guy Dudeman
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        -23 months ago

        Weird. You don’t use the search function?

        • @nutsack
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          23 months ago

          and search for what? balls?

          • Guy Dudeman
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            13 months ago

            There are absolutely mastodon servers primarily for dick and balls.

            • @nutsack
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              13 months ago

              cool if true

              • Guy Dudeman
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                13 months ago

                You want some links? I can get you links.

    • @PriorityMotif
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      53 months ago

      I didn’t understand the appeal of following individuals on social media

      • @[email protected]
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        3 months ago

        It’s like subscribing to a YouTube channel if you understand that. Some people consistently post interesting content so by following them, you will never miss out.

        • @nutsack
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          23 months ago

          yeah I’m hilarious for example