this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024
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Tech so loves to repeat the same loops, and IMO I think it's on us the fediverse for really failing to communicate the value of instances as well as making them easy.
(Number of people that have told me they think mastadon sounds like a good idea, but they don't know how to pick the right instance). I try and smack them and say "it's just like e-mail, you and your friends don't have to choose gmail, your friend can be on yahoo, and you still talk to eachother. Whcih makes sense when explained, but it seems like few hear that kind of comparison.
So... we have a new platform, to replace twitter... yay!... should we take counts on how long before either enshittification begins, flooding of ads or changes to be unusable), or it sells out to another already established billionare that abuses the power of media control etc...
A bunch of people came over to Mastodon when Elon bought Twitter, but they left because it was missing features. The big ones I saw were
Also no quote tweets. And many people are used to algorithms now. I love Mastodon but I have to say Bluesky is more polished. Mastodon can be weird about threads and replies to posts. Sometimes I see a reply before I see the post, especially in the "lists" view. Chronological timeline is great but it has its own issues too. For example people living in different time zones will have their posts buried when everyone is asleep. The algorithm, for better or worse, shuffles things around which can work for you or against you. If you browse for 5 mins here and there, algorithm helps you see the most relevant posts in that widow. Having both chronological and algorthimic feeds would be so helpful to me in Mastodon. I know there a front end that does a "catch up" feature, but it's a bit hacky
Honestly that's the most poorly designed part of mastodon, replies aren't arranged chronologically. You click on a comment you see a few replies to it then go back and scroll down you see some more replies but they are just tagged comments to the person they replied like it doesn't make any sense at all
Honestly, mastodon uses a open protocol, so in my opinion having an algorithm feed is a missing feature of the client/frontend that is used to interact with mastodon rather than a mastodon backend issue.
I read an article today about these newer social media apps, and they mentioned that Masto is focusing now on quote posts among other features, so that may be coming soon.
Oh yeah, I forgot about quote tweets.
A couple of those items have at least been addressed to varying degrees now.
There’s definitely a screen to show you “who to follow” now, and an Explore tab to show popular posts of the day.
Not saying that solves all the problems, but at least they have made some strides in the last couple of years.
Yeah, I assumed there would be progress. Here's hoping the next time there's a wave of registrations, the users stick around.
Quite true... I suppose that's also the problem of the networks that are focused at privacy/control nerds first, and trying to get more mainstream users second.
The suggested follow is the types of features we are afraid of... The developers came to these places because they don't want to be told what to do... IE literally that's the exact problem with twitter right now, is Musk is personally shoving his right wing crap in our faces whether we want to look at it or not. But what regular people want... is to have crap shoved in their faces that they like and agree with.
Which I suppose development of mastadon and the like just hadn't reached the point, we go at minimum viable, and get what you specifically are looking for... with a lack of excitement for trying to use algorythms to tell people what they like.
That's lazy journalism. There's a functional search bar as well as trending hashtags.
There will never be suggestions by design, but there's accounts like FediFollow and guides on how to get started with Mastodon. If you meet those people in the future, tell them to follow hashtags for topics they like, and encourage them to start using hashtags. They'll find people that way.
This is also by design: there's no suggestions, because there's no algorithm. You decide what goes on in your feed (boosting is another important part of that). If you've looked at everything, explore a new hashtag, follow more people, check the Local or Global feeds, or Satan forbid anyone actually take that as a sign to take a break and go touch grass.
heaven forbid if people had to start using their own brains again