Matt Birchler

Another thing I'd love Mastodon to try and improve is discoverability.

I deleted the Twitter app and I'm all in on Mastodon for the next few days at least, so I'd love to find more people with similar interests.

Searching for things like "apple" and "f1" or "games" in hashtags returns basically nothing, but I know these people exist on the platform.

Nov 21, 2022 at 12:06amMetatext
Show threadLeeFromVT πŸŒŽπŸŒŒπŸˆβ™‚οΈβ™πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦Nov 21, 2022
@birchtree I'm bad about remembering to hashtag my posts but all are clickable if you edited your post and hash tagged the items in quotes others would see your post when they searched?
Show threadJasonNov 21, 2022
@birchtree yeah seems like search is limited to posts and not profiles. Would be good to be able to search hashtags used in profiles. The way current search is set up, having a pinned intro post seems to be crucial for discoverability.
Show threadMatt BirchlerNov 21, 2022
@endonend That definitely sounds good! I don’t want to have to rely on people including hashtags in their post for them to be at all discoverable, so this would be a nice way around that,
Show threadπŸ’ πŸ– 🌺 π•‚π•šπ•‚π•šNov 21, 2022

@birchtree Are you using an app, or a browser for Mastodon?

If in doubt, some things work better in a web browser. Some things work better in different apps. πŸ€·β€β™‚οΈ

Show threadMatt BirchlerNov 21, 2022
@ZeKik I’m using it all right now πŸ˜‚
Show threadSunny Willow 🌞Nov 21, 2022

@birchtree

You can follow hashtags. That might help. I followed a few and found some interesting people to follow.

Show threadMatt BirchlerNov 21, 2022
@sunnywillow The challenge I’m having there is that even when I search for hashtags I thing might be relevant, *no one* is using them, so I’m not seeing these other accounts 😭
Show threadSunny Willow 🌞Nov 21, 2022

@birchtree

Have you followed them just like following a user? That way if anyone uses one of them they will show up in home timeline.

Show threadMatt HaugerNov 21, 2022
@birchtree Absolutely. Discoverability is even worse for users on small / personal servers. By default, Mastodon only seems to index posts from people that the local user(s) actually follow.
Show threadShmnel Nov 21, 2022
@matt @birchtree This is further hindered by the fact that not all instances see the same people either. If they improved searching and maybe someone created a big enough relay for Mastodon instances it would start to feel a little closer to Twitter.
Show threadMatt HaugerNov 21, 2022
@Shmnel @birchtree I hesitate to advocate for more centralization, but should there be an β€œofficial” relay server β€” one that includes all approved instances? Maybe allow users / instances to opt out, if they don’t want their posts to be indexed?
Show threadShmnel Nov 21, 2022
@matt @birchtree I totally get that. At one point there was (~2018?) but they couldn't keep up with all the traffic and shut it down.
Show threadMatt BirchlerNov 21, 2022

@Shmnel @matt I think you’re both right this would be helpful. Kinda like how Apple Podcasts acts as an unofficial hub for podcasts, even though podcasts remain open and usable anywhere.

Tough problem for sure.

Show threadStephen TattonNov 21, 2022
@birchtree major issue is that a lot of people have no clue that search is on hashtags. it took me several weeks to figure that out and i'm a huge techie. less oriented folks will take even longer and just be confused
Show threadAlex PlatteNov 23, 2022
@birchtree Matt, I really enjoy your YT content and I’m glad to find you here… completely randomly from scrolling the Fediverse. I think there’s hope that relevant content will surface over time?