Women Interface Network  Mar 13
#why #are #mastodon #users #like #this
Show threadGNUkko Sauvage (eris-ng) Mar 13
It #helps with the #algorithm. But #actually, I #think it's an old #Twitter style of #writing tweets from when its algorithm was less fancy

Show threadWomen Interface Network  Mar 13
@eris so it’s a vestigial linguistic structure persisting beyond its relevant context, interesting
Show threadMx. Chara Aznable (they/them) of the Pnictogen Wing
What the heck is vestigial about it? And why do you hate it so much? One can find pertinent things through hashtags here, and one can scarcely hope to find them any other way.
Mar 13 at 5:10pmWeb
Show threadWomen Interface Network  Mar 13
@mxchara @eris even searching for hashtags doesn’t work here on akkoma so we’ve all just given up on search, I forget it still matters somewhere 
Show threadMx. Chara Aznable (they/them) of the Pnictogen WingMar 13
I perceive there's a general notion that making search difficult to impossible is closing off an avenue for abuse and harassment, but there are legitimate reasons to want to search the fediverse on a given topic, so…not sure where to go from here.
Show threadWomen Interface Network  Mar 13
@mxchara @eris and it’s not that I hate hashtags in themself, there’s just this particular kind of guy on mastodon instances who replies completely missing the point and adding like 10 hashtags at the end of the post
Show threadGNUkko Sauvage (eris-ng) Mar 13
even searching for hashtags doesn’t work here on akkoma
what if you type #hashtag in the post window and then click on it in the preview area?  it might go through a different codepath

CC: @[email protected]
Show threadWomen Interface Network  Mar 13
@eris @mxchara interestingly I tried following that hashtag link from here and it took me to your instance’s search results
Show threadGNUkko Sauvage (eris-ng) Mar 13
oh yeah hehe it does that, maybe some snac thing, if I try to click on your hashtags, they go to your instance as well

CC: @[email protected]
Show threadWomen Interface Network  Mar 13
@eris @mxchara fascinating behavior, so they are links created by the origin instance and not by the instance reading it like usernames
Show threadCurioMar 13
@winter
If you look at the raw Mastodon client API responses, it actually serves all hashtags and mentions as HTML links with various <span> tag denoting their parts and function.
@mxchara @eris
Show threadGNUkko Sauvage (eris-ng) Mar 13
well, you can also search for the word itself, no need to hashtag half of the entire post

CC: @[email protected]
Show threadMx. Chara Aznable (they/them) of the Pnictogen WingMar 13
Is there something actually wrong with wanting a post to be easier to find on search?
Show threadGNUkko Sauvage (eris-ng) Mar 13
It is #wrong when the #post looks #horrendous like this, #yes.

CC: @[email protected]
Show threadMx. Chara Aznable (they/them) of the Pnictogen WingMar 13
Eyes of the beholder? You're telling me that hypertext looks horrendous, basically, with a deliberately tendentious example.
Show threadGNUkko Sauvage (eris-ng) Mar 13
That is what this thread is about? People who post like that? One of us here has a reading comprehension that pisses on the poor

CC: @[email protected]
Show threadMx. Chara Aznable (they/them) of the Pnictogen WingMar 13
Uh…hashtags piss on the poor? Could you explain that?
Show threadWomen Interface Network  Mar 13
@mxchara @eris I totally get dropping hashtags on the end of a long significant post you want to attract discussion to or something, but why would some random irrelevant reply need to be that easily searched?
Show threadMx. Chara Aznable (they/them) of the Pnictogen WingMar 13
I can't answer that, but surely there's no way to implement a mechanism allowing a person to signify, "I would like my post to be more easily found on search," that isn't going to be used badly or nonsensically at times. I think it's an acceptable drawback, a minor nuisance. It just looks silly.
Show threadWomen Interface Network  Mar 13
@mxchara @eris and that’s all I was complaining about, not the mechanism of hashtags themself, I don’t know why this argument was necessary 
Show threadMx. Chara Aznable (they/them) of the Pnictogen WingMar 13
My apologies. I happen to like that there's some kind of mechanism like hashtagging, and I myself feel like it's in the spirit of the early Internet (which often featured highly hyperlinked hand-coded webpages) so I am keen to defend it.