Don't listen to anyone who says "likes don't matter" on here.
Yes, it's true that there's no algorithm for them to feed.
But letting people you know that you like what they're sharing, that you agree with them, that they're not just shouting into an empty abyss? That matters.
@design_law likes are good but don't increase the visibility of the post.
To me a like here is a personal acknowledgement of thx.
You have to Boost if you want anyone else to see it.
The problem is that #mastodon fundamentally changed what the *vast* majority of ppl think it means to 'Like' something. Don't call it the same thing as something but then make it different.
@puddleofchaos @design_law then we're agreed almost all modern social media users rightly expect a 'favorite' to be visible based on Twitter, FB, YT insta etc.
Thanks.
Whatever, you literally proved my point.
Didn't say that...at all.
Serious question, is English not your first language?
"You have to Boost IF you want anyone else to see it."
That's not saying people are obligated to boost anything. That's stating a simple fact that if you want other people to see the post, it requires boosting it, a favorite will not do that.
@yordansic *somebody* got all holier than thou and claimed I totally said something I didn't.
Then retreated to "It was heavily implied"...so it *wasn't* actually said?
Stay in school kids.
@falcon @design_law it is so I'm wrong on that. As evidence by your and the other posters stmt that most social media has been doing it the way I'm describing for years... I believe my point is valid. That it was done differently a decade ago is irrelevant to switching *now*. It's still a switch.
This is *meant* to be social. Here boosting is the way to do that whereas favorting won't
There is no *correct* way.
As you agreed, the basic behavior here changed from the system where majority of users here came from.
It's a change and significantly different.
@JonGretar @falcon @design_law
well that's not my experience, and since it was something you had to do explicitly...that says most people didn't.
In any event, my point is ppl need to Boost if they want things to have more visibility.
Precisely this,
@design_law I LIKE toots that I find amusing, relatable, or insightful. I boost toots that I would like to see get engagement from more people.
Sometimes, I do both. Or neither.
It can lead to finding new followers and followees too. And like others, my account tends to be really broad in interests so just boosting everything makes me feel like a damn spammer instead. Curation happens on many levels, and a personal feed still should have some.
I've always been mystified by the people shouting DO NOT LIKE (favorite), BOOST! because why does the button even exist, then? Remove it if it's that big a deal.
The actual bookmark function works better for that, which I use when someone adds a really interesting link or something that I don't have time to read 🖖
Local and federated timelines are ideal for finding random stuff, though those are bit on the firehose side so I kind of stopped poking them. I'm following enough accounts now that my personal timeline has a bunch of varied content, at least. 😅
@design_law There *is* an algorithm for them to feed: Trending Posts (Explore > Posts in the standard web interface), which shows the most Boosted OR Favourited posts on your server over the last day or so. It's where I found this post!
So, "favourite" away to your heart's content in the knowledge that you're not only showing appreciation but also helping promote the post.
@ech @hughster Yeah, so this could have been clearer. I was responding to a particular argument I've seen, which bemoans the lack of a Twitter-like algorithm.
But that wasn't my point.
The point is that even if likes aren't increasing the visibility of a post--or increasing the visibility of a post in the same way--they still have value.
@charette @design_law
Across every platform that allows users to leave comments, there is a way to "like" the post. In this case it is the favorites button. It is more common than the ability to reshare (boost).
Even Yahoo Answers!, which was designed to be a database of serious answers (like Quora that came after it) turned into a social median platform with memes and likes. I think it is a property of people, regardless of the platform or what the button is called.
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