Mastodawn

Matt Blaze Nov 25, 2022

Stop saying there are no algorithms. Algorithms don't necessarily involve opaque machine learning-driven decisions. Showing posts in chronological order is an algorithm. Showing a partial ordering of posts coming in from other nodes in a federated distributed system is an algorithm. Anything involving computers uses algorithms.

Even if you can predict what it does, there's an algorithm. ESPECIALLY if you can predict what it does.

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

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fraggLe!

@mattblaze I personally am okay with "an algorithm" (spooky sense instead of real sense) for mastodon anyway, as long as it's open, designed to minimize abuse (of third parties *and* the people it's "for"), and if you turn it off it fucking stays off.

I think it'd be almost nice if my fediverse instance was clever enough to go "here's a post you didn't see that a bunch of your friends liked", to take the edge off the need to read the entire home feed.