myrmepropagandistDec 28, 2022

I've been creeping around looking at a lot of people's accounts (I'm doing a survey) Noticed that people with very few followers have one thing in common: they have not boosted the posts of other people often if at all.

(When I see posts like this encouraging boosting I always think "well that person just wants boosts, whatever") That's not it. On twitter it was important to only boost exceptional content -- boost here to invite more people to join in talking about something. #mastodonhowto

Show threadAlexDec 28, 2022

@futurebird I've seen few people really concerned with their boosts.

Personally, I wish my exposure was better... but I've just been talking and trying to find my people. If it happens, awesome. If not... c'est la vie.

I'm curious if you've seen a lot of the same people boosting each other over and over. Something I have noticed.

Show threadpocket full of hawthornes 💦Dec 28, 2022
@mentallyalex @futurebird i've certainly seen the same posts reappear in my timeline from folks boosting them. but i've also seen some folks boosting their own posts too, and i'm not entirely sure how i feel about that. i mean, it's kind of cringey in a lookit-me-lookit-me kinda way but i don't know if my feeling that way is a holdover from the cynicism borne from the culture and algorithm gaming of previous social media sites.
Show threadmyrmepropagandistDec 28, 2022

@cobie

You should boost your own replies if you want anyone beyond whoever is tagged in them to see them. That is, if they can stand on their own, and aren't just something like "oh wow!" or something obscure and technical.

Replies can be much more hidden here. Combine that with some of the bugs on thread display and IDK how well conversations will function if people don't do that.

Show threadJohn LuskDec 28, 2022

@futurebird
Interesting that you consider replies more hidden. IME they're WAY more "public", since everything is a variant of "...and your followers, too". I live on my home feed and I get ~1,000 toots/day, replies and boosts and all.

@cobie
Re the cringey self-promo of self-boosting: there's a bunch of that on Twitter, too (repeated tweets) that always got on my nerves, but given how fast posts get lost on the river of time.... understandable. "Show me once/unit time" would help, there.

Show threadmyrmepropagandistDec 28, 2022

@tarheel @cobie

"Show me once/unit time" would help, there.

This turns out to be a kind of hard programming problem because it means tracking what every user has and has not seen (tiktok can do it)

I suspect it would be computationally expensive? Because it makes posts into a kind of notification, which can be viewed ... then not shown again. Can it be done it a lightweight way?

What about suppressing re-boosts of the same post from the same server in a short time when they occur?

Show threadsmells of bikes
@futurebird It seems like something along these lines already exists: [masto, twit, fb] remember if you've liked a post, and it seems unlikely that it's harder to track if you've seen one than if you've liked it, doesn't it?
Dec 28, 2022 at 10:12pmWeb