mekka okereke Dec 19, 2022

Fair warning: I boost a lot.

I boost trans content into Black spaces, Black content into tech spaces, tech content into political spaces, and vice versa on all 'o that.

The statement "There is no algorithm here!" doesn't even make sense. There's always an algorithm. It's just that here you have to roll your own manually, by understanding Mastodon features etc.

I think this is still a poor UX, but folk are working on making it smoother. Until then, discover ways to keep your feed manageable.

OrangeCat 5000Dec 20, 2022
Show threadAdnan
@mekkaokereke Mastodon supports the ability to hide boosts from specific accounts, so if anyone has issues with someone's prolific boosting (not me), they can disable it.
Dec 19, 2022 at 11:30pmWeb
Show threadJohn PanzerDec 19, 2022
@Decad3nce @mekkaokereke Nice. Boosting this.
Show threadFree WortleyDec 20, 2022
@Decad3nce @mekkaokereke How is the feed curation algorithm written for Mastodon? Is that something that you're able to customize on the client, or is it assigned to you by the server? (It would be cool to be able to script my own feed, or at least select between multiple implementations.)
Show threadAdnanDec 20, 2022
@freeqaz There is no curation algorithm, everything is chronological from activity pub. If you're interested in some work in the area of generating digests and whatnot, check out @MattHodges
Show threadmekka okereke Dec 20, 2022

@freeqaz @Decad3nce

There is no feed curation algorithm, but I think there should be. I'm in the minority viewpoint on this, but that's cool.

I think that when folks say, "I don't like Algorithms!" what they really mean is "I don't like Algorithms where someone that I don't *trust" has *control* of the *objective functions*, and the *trade-offs* inherent within. I want more *transparency and control*."

I'm thinking federated learning, and user controlled algo for timeline management.

Show threadHaplogroup News    Dec 20, 2022
@freeqaz @Decad3nce @mekkaokereke

You have the option of putting people on lists if you follow them. This lets you, for example, consciously choose to go to your news list and read through news posts.

You can also follow hashtags or a guppy group based on a hashtag. #JohnMastodon @[email protected]
Show threadAdnanDec 20, 2022

@HaplogroupNews The problem with lists on Mastodon is that you can only make lists of people you already follow. I assume that's because there's no other way of getting content from activity pub without subscribing to another entity.

The groups idea is super ad hoc and not really discoverable, but I guess it works.

Show threadHaplogroup News    Dec 20, 2022
@Decad3nce

The thing that makes the groups work is that it is 100% ad hoc. All you have to do is find a hashtag you are interested in and search for the group. If it does not exist yet, the act of asking the a.gup.pe server to find it triggers its creation.

Misskey servers also have the nice feature of letting you create sets of hashtags to follow. They call this Antennas. It might be more powerful than hashtags, because it is catching keywords in text for me too.
Show threadHaplogroup News    Dec 20, 2022
@Decad3nce

I just added you to a list on my Misskey server, and I don't follow you. Thus, it must be a Mastodon thing and not an ActivityPub thing.