ZosGrinder
Tucker TeagueIf you enjoy someone's post on #Mastodon go ahead and click the star. If someone tells you that's meaningless because there's no #algorithm, ignore them. Sure, boost the post too if you want others to also see the post, but don't think telling someone you like what they posted is somehow unimportant. In real life I don't tell someone, "good job," or "well said," or "I love that," for the sake of some algorithm, I do it because I'm human and they are too. It's fundamental to being truly social.
Hollie@tuckerteague completely agree!
duanetoops@tuckerteague yes! Exactly! Well said!
Wijsgeer@tuckerteague it also suggest that the only reason I "liked" posts on Twitter was because of the algorithm. That's not true, it is a form of communication towards the poster. Human interaction. And I can for the life of me not see why this part of it wouldn't be the same here.
@wijsgerig Yes. In a kind of backwards way, when folks start mentioning there's no algorithm here it's like they're bringing a kind of "algorithm way of thinking" to help guide everyone here to somehow make the site work better. Boosting is good too, but I like the human side of this more than the "gamefication" of social networks.
Mathew Jobs@tuckerteague @wijsgerig True, without boosting it would be difficult to discover new people on the #fediverse.
Patrick LaForge@wijsgerig @tuckerteague Yeah, I remember when Twitter started aggressively showing my likes to other people & I wish they hadn’t.
Karyl 
@palafo @wijsgerig @tuckerteague and vice versa, too. Still one of the more irritating parts of Twitter for me (at least as far as “features” go)
The Spoonless Kitchen@palafo @wijsgerig @tuckerteague At one point when my account was being deliberately hidden by the algorithm (and this happened to others whose replies were being hidden from me), "liking" a post before you replied was the only way to ensure the person you were replying to would see it.
Otherwise (especially if it was a fact-check or science-based or a reality-based question to a science comms account), I would be buried under "Show more replies" or "Show more replies that may be offensive."
The algorithm was gross.
Lilian Edwards@wijsgerig it never even OCCURRED to me to like posts on Twitter to boost the algorithm ( as opposed to please the poster) & I still find it utterly bizarre that this was apparently what ROW was doing. Weirdos.
@lilianedwards likewise. It wasn't called "liking" for nothing. It was a little bit of connection to the poster.
@[email protected] did it become an algo input on Twitter anyway? It wasn't at start ( when I started!) Pretty sure..
Wasn't there a point at which Favourite became like / bkmark?
Sebastian Marsching@lilianedwards I think it started when they added the “Home” mode in addition to the “Latest Tweets” mode. I never used the “Home” mode (because I found it very strange to let Twitter’s algorithm decide what I should and shouldn’t see), but apparently a lot of people used it and are still using it. It seems like many people do not even know about the “Latest Tweets” mode.
Angry Centrist@SMarsching @lilianedwards For a while it felt like Twitter was randomly resetting back to the "home" thing. I'd see NOTHING from anyone I was following and all sorts of other random junk and then realize it had gone to the algorithm-driven "Home." I think it increases "stickiness" for a lot of users because it's all hot-topic crack for the addicts.
J H Dean
Jón Grétar@lilianedwards @SMarsching yeah I never used the Home mode. And I was quite oblivious to this whole algorithm thing. I liked things because I liked them.
TheCultOfRay@tuckerteague I was wondering why it seemed no one was bothering to like these posts.
Jane Fanghanel@tuckerteague There. Liked your post and re posted it cos it’s right.
Gigawatt121@tuckerteague that deserves a star
Spider@tuckerteague Wonderfully put my dude! 
Skulls in the Stars@tuckerteague I mean, for years the twitter 'like' had no algorithmic significance, either, but we were perfectly fine using it to acknowledge people!
Matt 🍸@drskyskull @tuckerteague frankly that was probably back when I loved Twitter, so just engaging with people to engage with people is nice.
Alex@tuckerteague absolutely agree.
I often star almost immediately after reading if it's been sent TO me. I think of it as almost an acknowledgement of receipt or someone wanting to save what was said.
I'm hopeful the people who drug thousands of people with them will eventually learn those people will leave if they don't engage with them.
Beameup Scotty@mentallyalex @tuckerteague
Yeah, I star if I read the post & agree/liked it. I boost if I think it's really important information or would be relevant to followers (on topic for my bio etc)
Yeah, I star if I read the post & agree/liked it. I boost if I think it's really important information or would be relevant to followers (on topic for my bio etc)
Dr. Juande Santander-Vela@tuckerteague @donmelton you could even say that the fact that the favorite only rewards the human side of the interaction is all the more reason to do it…
Panda_Say_What@tuckerteague Yes! It feels good to let others know they made you feel good! Keep the love rolling!
Doctor😷G 🇵🇹🇺🇸@tuckerteague There are MANY people in Birdland who almost never generate an opinion or thought, but just sit there and retweet. I unfollow these. So yeah, I totally agree!
graphictruthHey, I resemble that remark. I don't generally share original stuff. I retweet stuff I find compelling. I follow and retweeted a ton of folks, feeding that algorithm, while never getting across the 5k sandbar. I don't get mass reported, either.
I self-promote on occasion, but my fellow lefties can be super aggro about that and it makes me twitch for days.
Currently I am leaving that work elsewhere. See my profile for details.
I am not sure there's anything substantive to be said about #abortion, #guns, #education, #civilrights, #Healthcare or #StructuralPoverty that wasn't in academic literature 40 or 50 years ago. [#Racism too.]
But we can't permit the fascist bastards another inch. Those ideas are their chosen battlegrounds, and since I do feel some sense of duty to the children of the delusional, we need to be strong.
Authoritative, Not Authoritarian.
LJ@tuckerteague yes! This!
BodhipaksaSo the argument is that telling someone you that you like their post is meaningless unless it's something you're performing for the benefit of other people? I don't think that's how appreciation works.
@bodhipaksa I'm sure that's not what a lot of folks intend to mean, but I see a lot saying things like, "You know, when you just like a post it's meaningless, you need to boost it," and I think meaningless??
Lucy B@tuckerteague I needed to hear this. I don’t want to boost everything, sometimes I just want to acknowledge the person saying it.
Dr Dave@tuckerteague I worry I'm being too liberal with favourites, but then I also remember it's totally free to do that and might bring a smile to someone's face and mash that favourite button *so hard*.
Octo (he/him)I smashed the star on this post pretttttty hard in appreciation for and acknowledgement of your contribution, Dr. Dave. You're a good egg, sir
Snavenai@tuckerteague Good point about Mastodon and why it's really better than Twitter. It feels much healthier and I just have a couple of productive chats and don't doomscroll here.
Joanna Link@tuckerteague as I keep pointing out to people, the birdsite didn't have an algorithm until 2016
Jojanneke van den Bosch@tuckerteague This. So much this!! ❤️
chicagonzI liked the the post, so I liked the post.
AGTMADCAT 🇬🇧🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼🇵🇸@tuckerteague Hand out those dopamine hits freely! It's the right thing to do.
Steven Rogge@tuckerteague Absolutely. It supports the writer of the post and in this way increases engagement. Let's Favourite!
Roy S. 🇨🇦@tuckerteague Exactly, stars have value too!
ClipperChip 
@tuckerteague It can also mean "I've seen your reply, it'd good but I have nothing more to add to this."
Christoph Petrausch@clipperchip @tuckerteague as in real life. You sometimes just nod to.show your support of an idea.
Carol Nelson@tuckerteague Funny how we’ve been conditioned to expect others to like us more because an algorithm taught us it was important.
IanMoore3000@tuckerteague I'm old enough to remember when the Like button on the bird site just told the poster that you liked their post without feeding into some algorithm, so I hear you.
Looking for explanations…@tuckerteague In real life, if I say something affirming to someone, I don’t have to tell absolutely everyone else about it as well.
Gerbrand van Dieyen@tuckerteague star! Also if you reply with privacy settings to public, the reply can end up in the timeline of your followers.
Sally Bridge@tuckerteague totally agree 👍
Michael Scott Phillips
Pavel A. Samsonov@tuckerteague imaging telling someone "oh don't bother pressing that button, all it does is make their computer beep"
Making computers beep is the purpose of all buttons.
Debm133@PavelASamsonov @tuckerteague omg this hadn’t occurred to me, and I star with abandon!
phytolipide@tuckerteague Yup, I definitely note the favorites. Let's me know I'm not just shouting into the void.
Sebastian@tuckerteague Extra gift from Mastodon for starring a toot is indexing them, so u can find it later via search box :)
IamWahl@tuckerteague
So true! I have been clicking the stars liberally—whenever a toot tickles my fancy or funny-bone, or is otherwise affecting, interesting, or meaningful.
Also, I’m revelling in the differences here, rather than longing for the #Fediverse to be more of a clone of that place…
So true! I have been clicking the stars liberally—whenever a toot tickles my fancy or funny-bone, or is otherwise affecting, interesting, or meaningful.
Also, I’m revelling in the differences here, rather than longing for the #Fediverse to be more of a clone of that place…
DrS@tuckerteague Thanks for saying that, I feel the same way. Otherwise it leads to the same old need for exposure and views. That’s not why we should necessarily be posting anything.
Jeff ♨️ Darcy@tuckerteague Yet another way Mastodon is following in Tumblr's footsteps. There, it has long been common knowledge that likes do nothing to increase exposure but still feel super nice. I star/heart things that tickle my fancy; I reblog/boost things that I think my followers will enjoy. Lots of overlap, but definitely separate things.
Jake Rayson@tuckerteague and no-one apart from you will ever know whether I favourited your post!