🫧 socialcoding..Complete this sentence:
"I experience #fediverse as a .."
Bustling city
Cozy village
Ghost town
Other (please comment)
Poll ended at .
Dawa@smallcircles How is ghost town only at 4 % ? the lack of an algo mean i got a lot of things i don't like in my tl bc of hashtags i follow and only get 1 in 8 post that i actually like. The rest of the time it's really quiet. i stay here bc i like the project and there are people i like here but to follow the news from where im from and in the world i need X bc nothing gets recommended to me.
An algo is a tool that can be used for good and the lack of one is really big problem for normies
An algo is a tool that can be used for good and the lack of one is really big problem for normies
@fwtl yes, I'm quite positively surprised at all the good social experiences people have.
> An algo is a tool that can be used for good and the lack of one is really big problem for normies
I don't think that is necessarily the case, more so than that we are dealing with different social networking paradigms. And when people do not realize that, their expectations are off. I call this paradigm #PersonalSocialNetworking..
https://coding.social/blog/reimagine-social/#personal-social-networking
Hopping from #twitter to #mastodon is not just switching to another microblogging platform, that happens to be decentralized. The lack of algorithm gives an opportunity as well as a responsibility in order to get the most out of the fediverse: you are in control and should curate your own feed. By choosing who you follow, you shape your own village, and over time you may nurture it into a bustling city you are part of.
Algo's may help, but it is more Starter packs and app websites that can do a better introduction to fediverse social media.
@smallcircles everything you said can still be achieved with a customisable algo or litterally two tabs in the app : one with the chronological algorithm (still an algo btw) and one with the customized feed with your interests.
Without the second one the app is dead unless you build your feed yourself, that's really bad and explains why people got into bluesky instead of mastodon.
Also if you want to have mass appeal you don't expect people to have a boring app and understand the "new paradigm"
Nicol Wistreich@fwtl @smallcircles there’s a third path to avoid empty timelines vs ‘build your own’ and ‘algorithm’ - packs, which is what the Mastodon team are focussing on .. https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/10/our-ideas-about-packs/.
Because I saw your post and thought ‘oh but my timeline isn’t quiet’.. but rather than you having to find those 100s of accounts to follow to make it interesting, a pack supports different lists of accounts based on different interests. If they get it right (as they’ve got quotes right imho) then it could be really nice, and still no algo.
