Chris TrottierMay 29, 2023
#Bluesky now allows you to “choose your own algorithm”.

Which sounds “incredible” and “sci-fi”—but it really isn’t.

What it essentially does is give a Twitter-like service Reddit-like features.

As an aside, now I’m wondering why Reddit doesn’t offer an alternative web front-end to make it more Twitter-like!

But how does this apply to the #ActivityPub flavour of the #Fediverse? This feature now makes me realize how big a deal Fediverse groups are going to be, and if I were @Gargron, I’d be even more excited about rolling out Mastodon’s group functionality.

Because while groups aren’t exactly relevancy algorithms, once you add a “New”, “Hot”, “Best”, etc. feed to groups, now you’re in business.

I don’t know if choosing your own algorithm is the killer feature that Bluesky thinks it is. My experience is that most people hate choice. Nevertheless, I still thinks it’s important.

@[email protected]
Show threadChris TrottierMay 29, 2023
If this is "choosing your own algorithm", #Calckey has actually had this feature long, long ago.

We call it "Antennas" -- and you can easily build an Antenna yourself.

Here's a screenshot for Antenna creation settings.
Show threadChris TrottierMay 29, 2023
So I'm thinking about this in more detail, and I think the "choose your own algorithm" feature with #Bluesky is really not hard to implement, and something very doable on the #Fediverse.

What do we exactly want from an algorithm? Topics.

And we want topics sorted according to the following:

1. Hot
2. New
3. Top
4. Rising

Some people would like a "controversial" feed, but we don't have to give it to them 😉

As for "Top", we can sort it according to time parameters.
Show threadᗰᗩᖇǤᗴ against Putin #NAFOMay 30, 2023
@atomicpoet I don't know if this belongs here. I find it unfortunate that current events like earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. take a long time to arrive in the Fediverse. Can something like this be improved by an algorithm?
Show thread♾️ Yuki (스노 雪亮) 🐬 🧮🗝️
@aniho91

I think it relies on various factors:
1. Is the account pushing emergencies and disaster alerts a bot sourcing from Twitter or elsewhere? Or, is it an official account?
2. If it is an official account, are they posting it manually or automated? If it is the latter, how do they prioritise posting to the fediverse?
3. The fediverse instance they are using, did that instance set a reasonable setting for pushing to other servers?
4. If so, is the instance's software not throttling down the account in any way?
5. For your instance, how frequent are they polling the accounts you are following? Is it reasonable? Or, is there a time period when the load is high that it slows things down to make it manageable?

There are probably other factors involved.

I think the best way is for the fediverse software to have some flag for verified emergency/disaster alert accounts which will prioritise them in pushing their posts. However, the receiving instance would have to know which accounts are official for them to be able to increase their priority on their end as well.

@[email protected]
May 30, 2023 at 5:02amWeb
Show threadᗰᗩᖇǤᗴ against Putin #NAFOMay 30, 2023

@youronlyone

Now I know I know nothing about algorithms.😳

cc: @atomicpoet