mekka okereke Jul 28, 2023

If we pretend that the only options are:

1) Chronological feed
2) Algorithmic feed where a company chooses the algorithm and objective function

And we pretend that "Share of time is a perfect metric for happiness," then this might make sense.

But... time spent isn't a perfect metric for happiness, and there is another option: 3) Algorithmic feed where the user has more control of the algorithm and objective function.

Eg, chronological *is* an algorithmic feed!🙂🙃

https://www.wired.com/story/meta-just-proved-people-hate-chronological-feeds/

Meta Just Proved People Hate Chronological Feeds

Some social media users and lawmakers say chronological feeds are healthier. A new study found that Facebook and Instagram users who were forced to see time-ranked posts turned to TikTok instead.

WIRED
Show threadDavid Scott MoyerJul 28, 2023
@mekkaokereke Livejournal did this ages ago without an algorithm. You had a chronological feed, but you could break up the people you followed into overlapping groups depending on what you wanted to see at any given time. I don't see the benefit of an algorithm except maybe with something like a music service where you want to find similar work. LJ also allowed you to search users by interest. That was good enough for me.
Show threadmekka okereke 

@farbel

Some of the [people] you follow might post on [topics] that you're less interested in. Your personal algorithm might rank posts from people on your list lower if they're talking about a topic that doesn't interest you.

Jul 28, 2023 at 4:13pmWeb
Show threadDavid Scott MoyerJul 28, 2023
@mekkaokereke So long as no external formula ever decides what I see, I'm down. I want full control.
Show threadMouseATJul 30, 2023

@farbel @mekkaokereke I’d benefit from better, per-user filtering on Mastodon. The ability to choose which users a specific filter applies to would help eliminate some timeline noise, without being overly broad.

The ability to see who made a collapsed, filtered post before expanding it (rather than just which filter applied) would also help.

Where I’d maybe benefit from a selectable algorithm is with hashtags. See everything from some, a selection from busy ones.

Show threadEmelia 👸🏻Jul 30, 2023
@MouseAT @farbel @mekkaokereke having recently refactored the streaming code relating to filtering, I think this is an interesting idea, but it'd need some workshopping to solidify exactly what this means / how it'd be implemented.
Show threadDevin M. CeartasJul 30, 2023
@MouseAT @farbel @mekkaokereke I don’t know the code, but it sounds like these enhancements would be possible on the client level?
Show threadMouseATJul 30, 2023

@devin_ceartas True, but that doesn't help if any of your interaction with Mastodon is via. the web UI.

Without support on the back end, none of the filtering can sync outside of said client. Unless you use the same client on all platforms, you can't configure your filtering properly on any one platform. IMO, there's no room for a proprietary solution here.

It's the reason why I consider Mona to be unusable, unless you never access the Fediverse from a non-Apple device.