Eugen RochkoDuring the #Eunomia meeting, I was asked, who are the most influential accounts on Mastodon? I know what Mastodon thinks about popularity contests, so don't get me wrong, I am not going to publish what I find, but I am thinking of methodologies for determining who in this network has influence.
Lord Guysbert de Fieri 
@Gargron how about by doing a sociology study instead of trying to create a technological algorithm to mimic human assessment and considered study
infinite love ⴳ@InspectorCaracal @Gargron what would the methodology of such a study be, though? methodology doesn't have to be technologic, but it does have to be consistently qualitative or quantitative.
@trwnh @InspectorCaracal Conducting a study is an algorithm too. Now, I am not a sociologist (I minored in philosophy, not sociology), but it seems to me like asking people head on who they are most influenced by is not a good way to find out who they are most influenced by. You would maybe find out who they think they are influenced by. And at a much smaller sample size...
@Gargron @trwnh I'm not a sociologist either but imo it would take an extended period of observation by sufficient people doing the study to identify all of the circles of influence by behavioral patterns and passage of ideas. And the people doing the study would have to remain uninvolved in the dissemination of ideas and to be up-front and aware of their own potential biases.
@Gargron @InspectorCaracal hmm, interesting point. you could measure how fast memes spread. but maybe not so easily because there's no way to track who you boosted something from, as in tumblr. tumblr had a reblog tree extension/lab that was pretty interesting at identifying influential nodes