christina bNov 17, 2022

hi wonderful people

i know a lot of folks are detoxifying and the birdsite incentives sometimes made it seem like only posting your own stuff was wise. Maybe never boosting others over there made sense.

It's different here. Here, #PeopleAreTheAlgorithm

Which means, if you interact with me, and I look at your profile and it's full of yourself. Well...kinda speaks for itself.

Boosting others here helps re-knitting lost and creating new networks of care. Be generous and share your discoveries.

Show threadAlexandra ThornNov 17, 2022

@christina

I actually kind of disagree with the idea that boosting is important. I do boost stuff quite a bit, but I often feel apologetic doing so, and I try to put some real thought into whether the toot in question is really of high enough quality that my followers would appreciate seeing it.

(Not that I think I'm perfect at this, but the intention is there.)

Show threadAlexandra ThornNov 17, 2022

@christina

With Mastodon's strictly chronological feed, it's very easy to end up absolutely flooded, and given a choice between following someone who posts 5 of their own thoughts a day and nothing else, and someone who posts 20 boosts a day, I'm much more likely to follow the former (assuming that I appreciate what they have to say).

Show threadcailín sí
@athorn @christina I have a similar struggle with people who default to posting threads of 5-10 toots at a time dominating my feed. What’s worked best for me there is corralling those posters in their own list and everyone else in a second. Having to build lists by adding everyone individually makes it a time consuming solution though.
Nov 18, 2022 at 3:10pmWeb
Show threadcailín síNov 18, 2022
@athorn @christina
It’s interesting to hear how others are tailoring their mastodon experience as I’m curious how and why it varies. I tend to focus more on curating what I see than who, so a 20-boost person boosting things I wouldn’t have seen otherwise, esp from outside my instance, would likely get a follow. But I’m also someone who is more inclined towards commenting than making my own posts, so that probably plays into it somewhere.
Show threadchristina bNov 18, 2022

@athorn @elfgirl

Yeah, it’s all contextual. This is such a unique moment right now, and I wish I’d specified the importance of this *in this moment* in my original statement 🙃

Show threadcailín síNov 18, 2022
@christina Yeah, part of what makes mastodon so cool (imo) is ultimately there isn’t right way to ‘do’ mastodon. Want to only follow/chat with friends and never venture outside your home feed? You can. Love being a content nexus and want to just find and boost all the coolest stuff? You can do that too. And choice of instance too, a huge influence. But, to your point I think, the gradual socialization that has normally led people to those choices isn’t happening right now in this moment.