Dr. Casey FieslerNov 24, 2022

So someone on tiktok was complaining that on mastodon there's no way to see "popular" posts, and I pointed out that it's just a chronological feed rather than a curation algorithm and they said they don't like it because they "have to sift through a bunch of boring posts to find gems."

I've always thought that lots of people SAY they don't like curation/recommendation and would rather just see everything, but they don't actually mean that. 🤷‍♀️

Show threadHenkPoleyNov 24, 2022
@cfiesler There is this good thread from a (former) Twitter designer that discusses how they found out that the majority of people really like the machine curation: https://social.lot23.com/@jon/109372257422277945
Jon Bell (@[email protected])

I'm about to leave Mastodon for a few months. Not because I had a bad time, or couldn't find interesting people, or don't think the concept of a fediverse is dumb. On the contrary, I think it's great. I just have other stuff to do. But before I go, I want to share some thoughts as an ex-Twitter designer and someone who's been on Mastodon since 2018. #mastodon #twitter #ux #design #critique #hashtags #introduction 🧵

Hometown
Show threadJoshua McNeill

@HenkPoley @cfiesler Honestly, I'm not taking the word of the guy who designed #quotetweets saying that quote-tweets don't increase #abuse based on his inaccessible internal studies, nor that chronological reply sorting is worse simply because the first reply can be #harassment.

But yes, naturally, algorithmically curated timelines will suck new users in better, but that only becomes the biggest priority when your primary goal is making money.

Nov 24, 2022 at 6:00pmWeb
Show threadHenkPoleyNov 24, 2022
@joshisanonymous @cfiesler Well, a 32 out of 33 attrition rate is kind of bad.
Show threadJoshua McNeillNov 24, 2022
@HenkPoley @cfiesler It really depends. Even taking his 97% claim on faith, what's the rest of the context? Was Tw adding 2mil accounts/day and losing 97% of them? That's still ~22mil new accounts/year. So who cares? People whose sole goal is money care. Additionally, Mastodon is not Tw but rather one part of the entire Fediverse, so it's not just, "You're gonna have the same problems as Tw and need the same solutions."