For those new to mastodon...
There is no algorithm there. (for better or worse, mostly better)
Boosts are the *only* way that a post will get more visibility.
Bookmarks = I'd like to find this again in the future
Star/favorite = I read this, and it didn't suck.
Boost = more people should see this.
Use bookmarks!
The (nonexistent) algorithm isn't going to show you follow-up replies to a post you liked/boosted. You have to be in the reply chain to get notifications, so bookmark posts if you want to look back later at other replies to a post
@LisaBostaph @zebpalmer It looks like bookmarks are currently at least in test versions of the iOS "official" app: https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/109356239312833647
Not sure when they'll get into the standard versions.
@zebpalmer sudden realization.
Twitter communities are exactly like this. The only difference is that at least we can kinda search for posts on mastodon. Twitter Communities didn't have search.
Another #mastodon tip! Mastodon #search functionality is purposely limited. If you want to engage with people on a topic, use #hashtags, like the old days of the #birdsite, throw the # on any relevant topic #keyword in your posts. this will help others find your #content If you don't want to engage with more people on something, don't. and, if you really want to keep interactions limited, you can always change the post visibility settings to "followers only"
@zebpalmer 👍I have the Mastodon app, but found that not all apps have all features (‘Federated’ feeds from other servers - isn’t on the official app - but is on this new one!
Apparently DMs aren’t the same - will explore that too!
Yes, exactly. Your post points out, correctly, that boosting is the only way to increase a post's visibility.
I'd like to point out one thing explicitly for newcomers accustomed to other platforms that count and display likes/stars for everyone to see. Mastodon doesn't work that way. A like/star is only visible to you and the poster. Nobody else knows that you clicked the like/star. As stated in the OP, boosting is the ONLY way to increase visibility.
@zebpalmer I have trouble understanding "more visibility".
I mean: when I pull up the fediverse timeline, or my local instance timeline ... I expect to see *everything* (unless a poster has hidden it) ... since there is no algorithm filtering/prioritising posts.
So how can anything be *more* visible? 🤔
Can you help me understand what is not visible? So I can use this platform well.
Thanks. :-)
@deborahh the federated timeline contains posts by accounts that other people on your server are following. It doesn't show stuff from people your server doesn't know about. Thus, it's not everything -- though it's still quite a firehose on an active server.
But if someone you follow boosts something, it shows up in your main/home feed making it more visible to you.
@Covok check the other replies to my post. Apparently, some apps/clients don't support bookmarks yet or hide the functionality.
But it's just what the name implies, a way to mark a post so that you can find it later.
@zebpalmer and yet what you describe is an algorithm.
The result is predictable and understandable but it is an algorithm.
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