 Just realised that on Mastodon, boosting *is* the algorithm. There's no code trying to cleverly show me stuff it reckons I'd be into, based on what my contacts are into, instead my contacts are saying "I like this, I bet my contacts would like it too" and that is way smarter than any algorithm. Thank you, boosters! 64 comments
@sarajw … which funnily enough, is exactly what X-when-it-was-twitter did, back in the day.  @sarajw   @offnw I do believe the algorithms started with good intentions, but yeah, they ended up skewing stuff or getting in the way   @RichiH haha! Fair. But that's also somewhere you choose to look, not something that is thrust in front of you :)  So are hashtags! I'm awful at tagging my toots (I'm lazy, and mostly replying), but following like 40-50 hashtags is how I found most of my favorite follows. It makes social media a bit more of a DIY thing, but it also keeps you in control.  @sarajw You're right about the effect of boosting, but please people, don't overuse it. My main discovery strategy (algorithm, if you will) is following hashtags — that's where I find new people with shared interests. If someone I'm following boosts too often (more than a few times/week), they're spamming my feed with stuff I didn't choose to see; either I'll block their boosts (which is too bad, because I'll miss the rare, exceptional stuff) or I'll unfollow them completely. @david_megginson either it's the carousels on the Phanpy client, or I'm just following so many people now that even the heavy boosters don't overly flood my feed any more. I do admit I rarely follow a person if all I can see in their profile is boosts. @sarajw Just so. I wouldn't say that boosting is rude, per se — some accounts I follow genuinely boost things that I'm interested in and grateful for seeing — but that's the exception rather than the rule. It's too bad that some fedi clients don't support following hashtags, because I think that's one of the fediverse's superpowers.  @duviobaz is it really though? It gets them addicted, for sure. The first Facebook feed had no algorithm. Or twitter. Or Tumblr. They were all chronological to begin with. @schizanon @duviobaz when I start seeing the same stuff over and over, or my feed slows down, it at least helps me look away, hahah  @duviobaz @sarajw sorry but I absolutely 100% disagree. Algorithms maximising engagement that feed you stuff that makes you angry because angry people rage-tweet, make others angry, all engaged and ready to be served ads is the poison of this century. This is why I left Twitter, and Bluesky, and am happily un-angry here. @Mastokarl @duviobaz yes I definitely have a lot less of the righteous anger I suffered a lot on twitter.  @sarajw I mostly agree, except when I'm offline for a while, and I miss the boosts!  @sarajw yup, there's no global algorithm. Boosting will get toots on explore page 😁 @xgebi yeah I know, oddly front-end.social doesn't seem to have it! Wait might I have turned it off in my settings?   @sarajw I don't know if it is really smarter. People seem to be upset that their posts leave their bubble. @Stefan_S_from_H you can make your account and posts followers only, I think? Then they're not boostable. I've not seen any such upset, but it could be very likely that they're not in my circles. Hadn't considered that point of view.  @sarajw yes. That's a great feature. There is just one problem. There are some people I would like to follow, because they write sometimes interesting things, but they post 20 things every day. I don't have time to check so much posts of multiple people. So I would like to have a filter, that just adds the most important posts of them. @duco I find that's a problem of not following enough people 😅 the ones that are active do fill up the feed more when it's not very busy. You can mute just their boosts if that helps you? Otherwise yes, I find you either follow just a few people and want to see everything since your last visit, but the active people feel like they're hogging the feed, OR you follow lots of people which dilutes the heavy posters, and end up comfortable with the idea you won't catch up with everything. @laalsaas lol yes. Writing a post not asking for boosts but referencing and thanking boosters apparently gets one somewhat boosted... @sarajw what bothers me as a former Twitter algorithm user is how favorites are basically pointless; at best they serve as a voluntary "read receipt". I want a machine to learn from what I'm doing, highlight things that appeal to me personally. I need tools to manage all the novelty in the world!   @sarajw also consider what this means for accountability and agency. You always know *exactly* why a thing got into your timeline: either you are following the author, or someone you follow boosted it, or you're following the hashtag. Very easy to attribute stuff you might not like. And act upon that attribution. @rysiek yep! On twitter I used to laboriously go through and delete all the topics it had decided I was into, to try and kill off the suggestions. Would work for a while and then just start repopulating the list.  @endolexis it was always topics I really didn't need more of that were trending, culture wars or identity politics talking points etc. I found a hack somewhere to help you pick trending topics from a different country - I think I chose Fiji 🇫🇯 😅  @sarajw I'm on a solo instance so I've found boosters to be crucial to me having a good time. Without boosts, I think it'd feel a lot more quite over here 🥺 I'm really happy with the balance of new things showing up! Thank you boosters indeed 💚 @christian if it's any help I very rarely look at the local feed! Though of course it's nice when I do.    Can you even call it "the algorithm" if it's so transparent and driven by people you intentionally chose to follow intentionally pushing a button to share something with their followers? |
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@sarajw You are welcome, Sara. :ablobcatheart: