Gregory's Server"Mastodon is Rewinding the Clock on Social Media β in a Good Way"
Terrific read by @chrlschn. Totally agree.
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30 comments
 @davemark this is a good way of putting it: βP.S. Itβs important to understand that the Mastodon model is oriented around topics and communities more so than creators. As such, youβll get the most out of your experience by following tags for topics you are interested in first and then follow handles for folks that post to those tags or communities.β @seachanger @davemark 100% agree! Once l discovered following hashtags, Mastodon became a whole new experience.  @bradthornborrow @seachanger @davemark I agree! Though it's not really intuitive at first. It's completely different when following hashtags, I like to use a list to follow friends because hashtags change my feed so much.  @davemark I think the thing I differ with the biggest Masto fans on is following hashtags. Every time I've tried it it's meant my feed is filled to the brim with spam, junk content. It's like drinking from a firehose, and really exposes how most of the things people post on social media aren't of interest to me. Finding people who post and boost interesting things has proven WAAAY more useful to me. I suppose it's nice that Masto allows me to have a good experience too.  That would be a great feature. I have begun blocking and reporting accounts that spam using hashtags. It's a problem we had on the dead bird site, too. Another good thing about hashtags, though, is that they're easy to block so if everyone starts tooting about something you don't care about, you can block the tag but keep the accounts.  @matt i think following the F1 hashtag to be v effective - means I can join in subject specific conversations, without following people who are otherwise v diverse / different to my interests... @gpollara I get that. For me I just find the firehose of every single personβs posts on a topic to be overwhelming. The hashtag drowns out the people in my feed I specifically follow as well, which is a bummer. If it works, then thatβs great! I just think following hashtags is often pitched as a one-size-fits-all solution, which I donβt think it is. I'm with you on some hashtags. I tried #watercolor and #watercolour and was quickly inundated with too many images, many of which were NOT watercolor but WERE for sale. That's spam. I had to turn it off. But #boating has generally been pretty good to me. I think it depends on the hashtag. Don't give up. Sometimes a hashtag will lead you to good accounts to follow even after you turn off the hashtag. Good luck.  What really bothered me were the posts with two dozen tags, half of which didnβt even apply, that were trying to sell a rather crappy piece of art. And I was hoping to see regular people sharing what theyβve done, motivating me to get back to painting. I @mlanger The trick to making #watercolor work is to block the hashtags that the spammers always use. They always use a set of hashtags, and just blocking one eliminates all of them from your watercolor feed. @jimmylittle @davemark Someone would have to make up a name for that sort of timelineβ¦ π  Following hashtags works better in the web interface multi-column mode, where you can put a followed hashtag in its own column, and then ignore it unless something piques your interest. @matt @davemark agree, have had same experience. Except for with #NewHampshire cuz, ya know, there are only 20 of us in the state, and maybe 3 of us on mastodon π |
@davemark Spot on! Thanks for sharing and thank you @chrlschn for writing this