Is your Mastodon timeline too empty or too full? Are you seeing stuff you don't want to, and missing stuff you do want to see? Is your timeline overwhelmed by someone who shares too many posts?

These and lots more timeline problems are solved in the "How to customise your Mastodon timeline" guide:

➡️ https://fedi.tips/does-mastodon-and-the-fediverse-use-algorithms-does-it-start-pushing-stuff-at-me-based-on-my-interactions

#FediTips #Mastodon

Does Mastodon and the Fediverse use algorithms? How do I customise what’s in my timeline if there’s no algorithm? | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse

p.s. Good grief. I'm trying to help people use this place and just got accused of "disinformation" and "causing harm" because they didn't like the way I used the word algorithm in the guide.

Can we please chill out and be a bit more friendly? The Fedi relies on volunteers helping each other and making suggestions in a constructive way.

If I've done something wrong it is brilliant if you point it out, most of the guides rely on people correcting me. But there is no need for personal attacks.

@FediTips Well, "There is no algorithm on Mastodon" *is* wrong.

To a techie an "algorithm" is "a procedure which terminates".

In this case we're presumably talking about the algorithm which decides which posts a user sees. Which *does* exist, because the user sees post! - and is described in various places (starting with "you see posts from people you follow" and getting more complicated than that).

@TimWardCam

This is a fair point and you're not technically wrong.

I've tried to cover this in the guide itself, tl:dr the dictionary definitions of technical things are often veered away from by real world use. If they are different, I err on the side of real world common use as the site is aimed at non-technical people.

Another example I give in the guide is "computer", it technically includes smartphones but that's not what most people mean if they say "computer".

@FediTips Ah yes, the "I've got half a dozen computers in my wallet [chip and pin cards]" answer.

Personally if the context is unclear I say "phone" or "laptop" or "real computer".

@FediTips Trouble then is that "tablets" obviously count as "phones" - they're not real computers, are they?? - but some of them are Wifi-only and thus can't make phone calls ...