@acegikmo Nothing here is algorithmic, which is a blessing or curse, depending on your stance.

It certainly does mean feeds are horribly weighted by people who just Cannot Stop Posting - especially those who endlessly repost themselves.

Still, I find the explore and live feed tabs can be fun for discovery - their lack of algorithmic weighting can mean you're more likely to see smaller accounts, which is a nice change from the birdsite.

@acegikmo

"but no algorithmic discovery thing"

For now, it is "de bouche à oreille".

Algorithmic discoverability is somehow related to Mastodon searchability and privacy, discussed here by @timbray

Join the conversation!

https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2022/12/30/Mastodon-Privacy-and-Search

@acegikmo

> I feel like I'm only here to share my stuff and read replies

that's a completely fine way to use it, of course. otherwise i second the hashtag thing. you can also hide people's boosts or only show certain languages when subscribing to people, which i find quite helpful.

@acegikmo For me discovery really was through hashtags, but honestly for learning about graphics it was by following graphics people.

About the local timelime, this only makes sense on a thematic instance, since I'm on a gamedev instance the local TL it's mostly just about gamedev, which for me it's a good thing.

On my personal account I'm on an brazilian instance, I don't check much tbh, but it's still more focused and on topic on what happens here.

1/2

@acegikmo honestly, i think what you're looking for doesn't mesh with a lot of the base design of mastodon. Algorithmic feeds aren't any less possible here than on bsky but it would rack up costs for the servers, which seem to be kept barebones on purpose to avoid that. bsky can eat that cost with venture capital.

The local timeline functions more like a discord server to me. It's pretty good at being bad to advertise on. I assume that for a content creator that makes a social medium less interesting.

@acegikmo
It's frustrating to me as well - it seems like the platform is purely targeted for power-users who put a lot of effort into customizing their experience. If you don't follow frequent posters, the app is empty. If you do follow them, you see nothing from infrequent posters.

A very simple algorithm to show top posts of each of your follows+followed hashtags since the last time you opened the app is all it needs. Is there a (web)app that does this?

@acegikmo A couple of unsatisfying suggestions from this thread: https://social.coop/@shauna/111779980804397831

1. If high volumes of boosts are a problem, use Phanpy and toggle the "boost carousel".
2. If missing posts from infrequent posters are a problem, bucket your follows into a rare-posters list, a frequent-posters list (hide these from home timeline), and everybody else.
2b. ...or set up some kludge where you read fedi posts through an RSS reader that collapses all posts by the same person, cohost-style.

@acegikmo Easiest way to discover new people is to check hashtags (which are used much more here than on twitter, as there is no algo to punish you for using them).

Hashtags and Boosts (RTs) are how you find new stuff here.

Would recommend having hashtags in a separate column in the browser (Advanced View, similar to Tweetdeck) over directly following hashtags, because following hashtags puts them in your Home feed, which can get confusing and cluttered.

@acegikmo when I occasionally click on "explore" i see a lot of messages from other instances.. and at least on the instance I'm on there's also a "trending now" thing, which I just ignore like I did on shitter..

and there's even a thing called "live feed", but that just goes bonkers, flooding me with toots like crazy (but also lets me view things from other instances)

but also, I kind of enjoy the quiet of my Home feed tbh.. never liked the manipulative algorithmic feeds tbw

@acegikmo The chronological feed is one of the main selling points to many, myself included; I used TweetDeck (RIP) for the same reason when I was still regularly using Twitter.

That said, I had a much easier time finding new accounts to follow on Twitter, even without the algorithmic discovery. I'm not sure *why*, though... like, is it quote tweets? A larger or just different user base (feels like there are less games industry folks here)? I miss feeling up to date on what's going on :(

@acegikmo in addition to what a lot of others have already said about following hashtags, I can recommend finding an instance that better fits your interests - I'm on a small-ish instance with ~250 active people, and the local feed is all but useless, I spend almost as much time there as on my home feed.

It's a much more manageable volume of posts that e.g. . social's endless firehose, and generally more focused on topics I'm interested in.

https://joinmastodon.org/servers can be a good place to start, or just actively looking at the people you interact with, see if there's a common instance among them that keeps popping up

@acegikmo I feel pretty similar in the way that the chronological feed gives way too much spotlight to whoever is the most active out of those you follow.

I'd honestly love to see something like this https://github.com/pkreissel/fedialgo implemented in an app or the Mastodon instance itself?? I'm not knowledged enough on this to know where it would make the most sense. I'd just be happy to use it.

@acegikmo local feed is amazing when you are on an interesting instance, though.

Please continue posting here, I really enjoy your posts!

@acegikmo
Best you can do to offset that is follow hashtags and groups for topics you're interested in, since there is no algorithm these are how you get your posts in other people's feeds and how they should land in yours.

Discovery is harder because there's no algorithm, but I've weirdly come to enjoy it over the "we think you might like this" being shoved in my face to retain my attention just for a few extra seconds.