Hoshino Lina (星乃リナ) 🩵 3D Yuri Wedding 2026!!!Mar 14

RE: https://oldbytes.space/@gloriouscow/116224004520766154

There's a larger issue here here, and that is that it's trendy in certain spaces to be extreme and opinionated about your beliefs, and angry at anyone who doesn't share them. I see this a lot on Bluesky and Mastodon.

The problem is, this is a slippery slope towards ending up in a tiny bubble and losing many of your friends. And that doesn't lead to happiness or to good mental health. Not for you, and not for the people around you.

The two biggest topics I see this with lately is AI and trans discourse. The simple fact is, morality isn't absolute. Words don't have absolute meanings. Tools aren't absolutely evil or absolutely moral.

It's okay to be sad at the state of the world. I'm sad too! And it's okay to be angry at problem people (think, the billionaire class). But when you direct that anger at your peers, just because they don't share the exact moral compass you have, you're just hurting them and hurting yourself.

It's impossible to live in a world where your social circle is fully aligned with you on beliefs and morals. It just isn't. It's okay to be disappointed. But if you start cutting people off for it, you aren't making anything better.

(cont'd)

Show threadV For ViennettaMar 14

@lina I think half the problem really is that a lot of the Internet has got addicted to being angry at the state of the world, so they're actively looking for things to be angry about so they can portray that righteous anger.

This interacts *extremely poorly* with the fact that (as you say) on Bluesky and *ESPECIALLY* on Mastodon the "discourse" is *extremely* receptive to anti-AI stuff so "I hate AI, share if you agree!" stuff gets boosted more. There is a very narrow band of "acceptable" opinions on here and if you post stuff that validates them you get attention. Given how difficult it is to get attention on Mastodon to begin with, it's a vicious circle.

Honestly I echo what the post you quoted said, and it's part of why I reactivated my Bluesky, because at least I get the impression that people on Bluesky care about *something else in the entire world* other than tech sucking and the world being doomed.

Show threadJanne MorenMar 14

@j0ebaldw1n @lina
But also, on Mastodon it really completely depends on who you follow. There's no mixing in of new people so if you follow mostly a certain kind of tech people you'll get a lot of the same opinions over and over.

I try following more of a mix, including a lot of hashtags (they bring in more different opinions and viewpoints).

Show threadV For ViennettaMar 14
@jannem @lina I know all this. But the discovery is still bad and the network is still very much awash in one specific kind of person (Linux user/nerd/open source/anti-AI/at least vaguely leftist). Which is far as fine as it goes but it just overwhelms everything else. And also, maybe sometimes I want to see pictures of birds - I do not want to follow hashtag-bird and then see every single picture of a bird everyone on Mastodon ever posts. It’s a poor alternative to an algorithmic feed or good discovery system.
Show threadV For ViennettaMar 14
@jannem @lina I’m not sure anyone at the Mastodon product team, or its various evangelists, have really ever understood (or even really cared to find out) why half the network just stopped posting the moment Bluesky invites started proliferating - or in some cases they seem to actively welcome it for weeding out the unbelievers. @kissane’s piece from 2023 still rings extremely true today: https://erinkissane.com/mastodon-is-easy-and-fun-except-when-it-isnt
Show threadHoshino Lina (星乃リナ) 🩵 3D Yuri Wedding 2026!!!

@j0ebaldw1n @jannem @kissane Ngl Bluesky's "plug your own algorithm" thing is extremely cute and I wish it was a thing in Mastodon.

Like, I'm subbed to a feed there which apparently runs on someone's home server, and it consistently shows me stuff I really like (a good mix of relevant stuff from my follows and similar stuff from others).

Mar 14 at 9:53amWeb
Show threadJanne MorenMar 14

@lina @j0ebaldw1n @kissane
I do agree. User-selectable (and user-implementable, at the instance level) algorithms would be welcome.

If nothing else, I'd like one that bubbles up posts and boosts by people I typically interact with over other posts.

Show threadV For ViennettaMar 14

@jannem @lina @kissane Realistically I think a *lot* of people want that but the project is so ideologically against anything perceived as “an algorithm”, and proposing them tends to get you so many people intent on ruining your life, that it will just never happen

Just think a lot of people fail to realise that network effects intrinsically mean that every person who bounces off or never joins your network, because it misses key features or is hard to use or is full of boring stuff etc, reduces its utility to *everyone* even if they don’t feel like it