 This is your reminder... There is no algorithm that brings posts to your timeline. The only posts you will see under your Home tab will be either people that you follow, or the boosts from people that you follow. BOOSTING IS THE LIFE BLOOD OF MASTODON. If you read something that is interesting, funny, thought provoking, news worthy, or beautiful, then BOOST IT. Hitting "Favorite" lets the poster know that you liked it BUT IT DOESN'T LET ANYONE ELSE KNOW. Keep Mastodon alive. BOOST. 37 comments
@Mrfunkedude I just see three icons with numbers next to them under a post. I don't know which one (if any) of them means "BOOST". Using standard Mastodon app on Android. π€ @Mrfunkedude Good to know, I'm definitely going to boost more now! I semi-assumed it was the star until now... Wonder how someone came up with the arrows icon... Looks like "repost" to me. Thanks πππ @doctorambient @Mrfunkedude ππ That makes sense in a totally non-intuitive way. I wonder how many failed boosts normal people experience on average before figuring that out π³π€ @jgivoni @Mrfunkedude I have spoken to a lot of people here who've had a very hard time figuring out these differences. It's not at all obvious coming from other places, that's absolutely true!  @Mrfunkedude Um ... "there is no algorithm" ... follow by ... an actual description of the algorithm: "The only posts you will see under your Home tab will be either people that you follow, or the boosts from people that you follow." @TimWardCam I'm using the common usage of the word "algorithm" which most people know as code that factors in your past behavior, interactions, and preferences to curate a personalized experience. While I understand the technical usage is to say that it's a set of rules and instructions that determines the content you see on your social media feeds, I use the common definition to illustrate the difference between here and other similar services. Hope that clears it up. @Mrfunkedude I do hate it when people take perfectly good technical terms and turn them into meaningless gibberish. Like "organic" as a description of food - what "inorganic" foods *are* there, apart perhaps from salt and water? @Mrfunkedude Thank you for that - I had Tim 'splaining that I was wrong when I said no algorithm too. One minor point: at least on some instances/servers, there is a "what's happening" or some other similarly named feed. That feed *does* take into account likes as indicators that a post is important enough to feature. I do realize that most Mastodon users either don't know about such feeds or don't watch them, so I'm not disagreeing with your main point, but likes are used in other ways in the Mastodon universe. Although your point is absolutely right! @doctorambient I get your point. It's just that I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible for new people. Also because of limited character usage. Thanks for understanding. @Mrfunkedude Absolutely! Your point is very important for new users! The reason that I mention it is that I think it's a much more interesting feed, at least on my server, than the feed that shows the entire federated universe. It's funny, the kinds of people who come here to avoid an algorithm like on other sites, are exactly the kinds of people who, when put into a similar algorithm but without commercial interests, actually produce very interesting results. @doctorambient @Mrfunkedude On my server at least, the only thing I see lke that is the trending section, and Iβm pretty sure thatβs based on number of boosts, not likes. Iβve never heard of number of likes having any effect on visibility of a post. Sorry, I got the name wrong. It is the "explore|posts" feed specifically that I was talking about, and the attached picture shows what mine says. I could be being lied to, but... "Trending now," I thought, was based on the number of posts with a particular hashtag. I think you might be right about boosts being included in those counts. (Sorry about all the edits!!)  @doctorambient @ducky @Mrfunkedude I spend most of my Mastodon time under Explore - Posts which *does* seem to take favorites into account @juancnuno @doctorambient @ducky Just so that we're clear, I said... "There is no algorithm that brings posts to your timeline. The only posts you will see under your Home tab " The "Explore" tab is not part of YOUR timeline. This is why I also clarified by saying "Home tab". Your "Home, Notifications, or list" tabs are specific to YOU. The "Explore" tab is not. Hope that clears up any potential confusion. @Mrfunkedude @lardier I follow a lot of Hashtags as well. This is an excellent point. Thank you for sharing it. @Mrfunkedude Just a minor comment on what you posted: you will also see posts containing hashtags that you follow in your home feed, even if you donβt follow that person and itβs not boosted by someone you do. Whether you see a post or not gets even a bit more complicated than that, but itβs not necessary to know the other intricacies of it since thereβs not much we can do with that knowledge.  I don't favourite much. I prefer to reply if I like something, usually a photo, even just a few words tells the poster I cared enough to write something rather than just click on an icon. If something engages me I usually try to make a thoughtful comment, even if i am disagreeing.  @Mrfunkedude OR As boost + star to show how much i agree and like it  @Mrfunkedude after using twitter for many many years it took me a while to unlearn the algo driven feed. This is important and how I discover a lot of interesting / funny / thought provoking content. However, it does nothing to take you out of your bubble unless you seek out communities that hold different convictions / opinions than yours. @Mrfunkedude @JugglingWithEggs Starring isnβt entirely invisible. I can see that ~175 people starred your post, and my client (Mona) lets me see who they are. I donβt immediately see a way to get from a user to that userβs starred posts; is that the βnot let[ting] anyone else knowβ you mean? @Fpccraig @JugglingWithEggs You have to see the post first before you know that it's been liked. You wont see the post in your home timeline unless it's from someone you follow, or someone you follow boosts someone. The point is that boosting is a way to bring others content into peoples home tab. Hitting the favorite button does not. Hope that clears things up. π |
Gregory's Server
@Mrfunkedude
Corollary: provide alt-text for your images. Many people, me included, don't boost posts with no alt-text.
Occasionally I add alt-text in a reply, but it's not the same.
@meganL