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 threadSteve BateMay 30, 2023
@atomicpoet How would you determine "Hot", "Top", "Rising"? Mastodon, and probably other implementations, don't federate likes. That may be true for reply counts too.
Show threadeshepMay 30, 2023
@atomicpoet @steve, could you expand on "don't federate likes" please?
Show threadAllen but one of the good onesMay 30, 2023
@eshep @steve @atomicpoet From what I've seen, if you and I are not on the same instance, and we both see a post from somebody on a third instance, and we both like that post, then the following happens:
OP sees both our likes. But I don't see your like, and you don't see mine, unless we use "View on original page"
Show threadeshepMay 30, 2023
@steve @atomicpoet @uastronomer, hmm, hadn't noticed that. Do you see any likes on this thread from my question to here? I see only the two I just made.
Show threadAllen but one of the good onesMay 30, 2023
@eshep @steve @atomicpoet Nope! The only like I see is one I made on Steve's "How would you determind..." post a bit further up the thread.
Show threadeshep
@steve @uastronomer @atomicpoet Thanks, good information to know! I don't see any likes on that post. Now I'm curious how that ""feature"" works across other softwares. I wonder if it's just another case of Mastodon not playing well with others, or this is equally shit across the board. Anyone tested this thoroughly between different AP interfaces?
May 30, 2023 at 7:40amWeb
Show threadAllen but one of the good onesMay 30, 2023

@eshep @steve @atomicpoet I could be wrong, but I seem to recall this being a design feature of Mastodon itself - the idea being that "Going Viral" is everything bad about social media, because disinformation and chasing clout and so on, so the idea is to hide a post's popularity so that people are less likely to respond to a message because of it's popularity and more likely to engage based on the content of the post itself.

Personally I think that this is just a feature of how human brains evaluate the importance of information, it's a feature of how we communicate, and that it is how ideas naturally propagate through societies and cultures. I think that social media merely amplifies this process, and did not create it from nothing, and that trying to solve all those problems by amputating it completely is a mistake that ends up neutering conversation completely... but what do I know, I'm just some random guy on the Internet *shrug*

Show threadeshepMay 30, 2023
@steve @uastronomer @atomicpoet Good point with the "viral" garbage. I don't dislike that likes wouldn't be seen by anyone other than the two parties directly involved. It makes sense when you translate it to real life conversations. Usually, people don't advertise how many people agreed with something they said, or how many nodded their head when a good point was made during conversation. But as you said, forcing people to not do things they would prefer to otherwise, never goes as expected.