Mastodawn

Jennifer Ann's Group Mar 15

seeing another round of "don't favorite posts on fedi"

folks it is a kind and lovely thing to favorite someone's post and anyone who tells you not to be kind and lovely has told you something about themself

it's true that it doesn't particulary increase the distribution of your post but the idea that we're all here to get things distributed as far as possible is pretty weird

universe Mar 15

@sarae when i say something here and it's a funny/emotional/interesting thing to me, then a friend presses that button, it makes me go "hehehe! they saw that :D"

@awawawa yeah I often use it as a way to let people know I saw their reply in a conversation

or as a "hey, right on"

deer witch Mar 15

@sarae @awawawa yes! I sometimes read as +support +love +you’re seen

in disability communities I feel especially it never vibes “they LIKE that I’m having a brutal week,” it’s “they saw I’m having a brutal week & sent me a boop to know I’m not alone”

I think it’s v weird when I see discourse and ppl are adamant it only means “I like this”. Have your friends not been suffering & do you not boop support?

Greg Johnston Mar 15

@moss @sarae @awawawa Agree. If someone posts that they’re having a hard time, often I might not fully understand why or how and worry about commenting delicately. So I favorite the post to be supportive, to acknowledge their discomfort .

@GPJohnston @moss @awawawa yep exactly this

"hang in there buddy times are tough but I am on Team You and hoping for the best"

@sarae @GPJohnston @moss @awawawa all of this. Yes!

nellie-m Mar 16

@sarae @GPJohnston @moss @awawawa

Sometimes e.g. in the actuallyAutistic group, people post kind of personal things, and even if they didn’t set it to followers only, I sometimes feel it should perhaps stay in the group. Then I just favour it, rather than boost.

Also, I have a pinned post about this very topic 😊

Lisa 🦔Mar 15

@moss yeah, I definitely use it as a boop of friendly acknowledgement too.

blob_raccoon_blueheart

@sarae @awawawa

Willow (she/her)Mar 15

@mycrowgirl @moss @sarae @awawawa I use it the same. Sometimes I don't have the spoons to reply to someone having a difficult time. I want them to know they aren't alone.

@MsHearthWitch @mycrowgirl @moss @sarae @awawawa The Like/Favourite buttons doesn't only mean "I like this post," no matter what some people claim. It can be:

- I see you
- Support
- I agree with what you wrote
- Etc

Jeffrey Haas 6d ago

@HollieK72 @MsHearthWitch @mycrowgirl @moss @sarae @awawawa While the FB "like" options have negative algorithmic effect over there, the wider variety is one of the things I think is still a missing experience here on M.

@mycrowgirl @moss @sarae @awawawa They should henceforth be known as 'Boops'.

Lisa 🦔Mar 15

@runoutgroover absolutely!!!

Also nominate that the collective term for a group of boops be henceforth known as A Kindness of Boops.
@moss @sarae @awawawa

Lisa 🦔Mar 15

@runoutgroover someone here could make a great electronic track called Boops and Boosts

Morgan ⚧️Mar 16

@moss @sarae @awawawa it's a great way to bridge the gap between "no one cares" and "no one knows what to say"
The latter is a much easier truth to accept!

reticuleena Leena Simon Mar 15

@sarae @awawawa Roughly 33 People just used it the same way ;)

Sam at BLAG Mar 15

@sarae Fringe benefit of starring posts that I discovered is that they then show up when you search using the 'in:library' qualifier.

This is a nice way of not trying to bookmark everything that you might want to find again at a later date.

I am still trying to boost or comment rather than favourite where I can, as I do think these forms of engagement are really important here.

@blag oh I'm a big fan of boosting, obvs

but I also kind of have an idea about "these are the topics I'm sharing news about" and when things are way outside that, it's good to have another tool in the box

I use boosting more like I use sharing articles the the family group texts

Sam at BLAG Mar 15

@sarae PS. Should have put previous comment in context by saying that I tried for a few months to *only* boost and reply.

This survey, and the replies, brought me back into the starring frame of mind:

https://typo.social/@blag/115966097175995921

Sam at BLAG (@[email protected])

Should I start 'liking/starring' posts again? Context: I've tried to be more actively engaged here by forcing myself to only boost or reply but am now thinking about flexing my star button again. #AskFedi #Fediverse #Mastodon [ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] Other, hit reply

typo.social

@sarae @blag I usually use a favourite as I've seen this, feel with you, button, while a boost means that it's something that I think people following me will find interesting.

Greg Johnston Mar 15

@sarae I’ve not seen the nega-fav posts, what they got against favoriting?

@GPJohnston it doesn't feed an algo so that's a problem, I guess? idk it's a mindset that doesn't fit well with how I use the system

Lee from Colorado Mar 15

@sarae @GPJohnston It's also policing behavior, telling other people how they should be behaving. I don't like it. Not one bit ...

@colo_lee @GPJohnston I think people are often coming from a place of believing that others genuinely don't understand how things work, because they recently didn't understand themself

but in this case I'm like, you are correct that the tool doesn't do the thing a similarly-named tool did elsewhere

that is because you are now in a space designed by people who found that tool's behavior elsewhere fairly upsetting

(I notice the same thing about QGIS vs Esri products, in my work life)

Lee from Colorado Mar 15

@sarae @GPJohnston that is a generous read of the situation in your first sentence. I'll try to follow your example and share the assumption of good will ...

@colo_lee @GPJohnston lol I get up every day and try to remind myself about that

and sometimes it really is that way but daaaamn also people are people an upsetting amount of the time 😆

Corinna Balkow Mar 16

@sarae @colo_lee @GPJohnston it is very nice to assume someone just wants to share newfound knowledge.

maybe it is worded as "advice" because this a style of conversation people are used to.

you can also word it as "something I learned" and hope that others find useful so I am sharing it.

@coba @sarae @colo_lee @GPJohnston

Yep. Stating things as "this is what I do, and here's why" works a whole lot better for me than telling other people what to do.

@sarae oh no, not this nonsense again... I remember last time they were saying, "never fav or boost, only leave comments!" as if there aren't enough reply guys already!

actual discussion is good of course, but commenting for the sake of commenting... why?

@lalah that really confused me as well

commenting doesn't increase post visibility in this system, and yeah...unless I have something to say I should keep my mouth shut

hell a lot of the time when I have something to say I should DEFINITELY keep my mouth shut, lol

Tuukka R Mar 16

Commenting does *decrease* post conversation visibility, though. The worse the noise-to-signal ratio, the earlier people give up reading a thread

trissc̈hen Mar 21

@Tuuktuuk @sarae @lalah yes and that’s indeed annoying at times, but also technically it actually sorta increases visibility, when someone looks at someone’s replies or has their friends’ replies set to appear in their timeline. Definitely not a reason to reply for of course :D

Sebastiaan Ammerlaan 🇳🇱Mar 20

@lalah @sarae I've come across this term a few times but I'm not completely sure on its meaning. What is a reply guy, in your definition?

@bammerlaan it's basically someone who replies excessively or in an unhelpful way, often without understanding what the original poster was talking about. I think it's usually about unwanted/bad advice, but I also use the term for annoying commenters in general.

I didn't really understand it until being subjected to it a few times. I like to post about shows and movies I like and I have had to deal with people showing up and explaining the plot/characters to me in the replies, even though I never asked. One time I posted some screenshots from a show I had watched, included the series name and plot description, and a guy tried to argue with me that I was "mistaken" and that I was wrong about what show I was watching... I wasn't lol. I had no idea how to even respond to that so I just blocked him.

I'm filtering mastodon dot social and that helps cut down on unwanted replies and also spam

@lalah @bammerlaan from time to time people show up and try to tell me how things work within my sphere of professional competence

which...is pretty funny

I am kind of a wonk at work, like, I train other technical specialists

so someone who maybe saw a video about it this one time coming into my comments and telling me about my own work, that would be a reply guy

Davip Prestnod Mar 15

@sarae I generally have very low interaction stats on here though in general for digital socialising media but the little interactions I do have are quite warming to my cockles and perhaps help me to bring the hits to the niche masses. #mastodon #socialmedia #silentsunday

Lee from Colorado Mar 15

@sarae total agreement.

maximizing-reach culture is toxic. It's a very good thing to leave behind here in the fediverse.

Being kind and recognizing each other is good. And it's the kind of lovely action we should be encouraging...

schratze Mar 15

@sarae literally who says this

I've never seen anyone make this recommendation

@schratze I'm glad to hear this hasn't been part of your experience, since I think it's a fairly unhealthy way to approach online interactions

not as unhealthy as rocking up in a total stranger's replies and attacking their credibility

but pretty unhealthy, nonetheless!

schratze Mar 15

@sarae I did not intend to doubt your credibility. I apologize for that.

@schratze thank you

toothpaste_sandwich Mar 20

@sarae @schratze Tee hee I was amused by the way in which you put this.

it’s true that it doesn’t particulary increase the distribution of your post but the idea that we’re all here to get things distributed as far as possible is pretty weird

the funny thing about this: on the Pleroma/Misskey side of the network, favorites distribute posts across servers the same way boosts or replies do, they just don’t push the posts directly to followers’ Home Timelines — so they do increase distribution, but in a less obvious way (it’s more obvious on smaller servers like mine where any interaction could facilitate federation that would otherwise would not happen).

it doesn’t really work that exact way on Mastodon though from what i’ve seen, as Mastodon doesn’t seem to federate favorites at all except to the post author.

@kimapr oh interesting!

and I think that for those of us who read "trending" on a Mastodon server (which I do sometimes if I've been afk all day and want to catch up on the "big ideas") favorites do influence visibility, but yeah, it's in a diffuse rather than a direct way

(and see I boosted this because it's new-to-me information, lol)

nellie-m Mar 16

wow, that’s interesting, thank you! I didn’t know that!

(Mastodon user here)

@sarae l have always thought it was like giving a friendly wave to someone on the street to let them know I have seen them even if I am not going to stop to chat right now.

I’m sure someone would tell us not to do that either!

We’ll just wave at them and pass by

@clew @Yjeva @sarae There'll be someone coming along to say you should nod at people, not wave ...

Oatmeal Raisin Mar 15

I'm a big fan of making my own rules. That's why I graduated childhood.

🤡

Starring = I like! (1/1 stars!)
Boosting = I want everyone to see this.

Do what you mean. Don't let the bastards grind you down.

Beldarak Mar 15

I'll usually favourite stuff to encourage people for things I don't want to actually post on my profile.

You created your first 3D chair in Blender? Fav. You did some pixel art I don't like but you're proud of your progress? Fav. You posted some political comment under a post with tons of replies? Fav.

@Beldarak yeah, while I certainly recirculate some political stuff, on that esp I try to pace myself, because it can turn into such a barrage and I don't want to be like "here's a list of 47 horrible things I saw today" without chucking in some pictures of the cats or vegetables or a sunrise or whatever

it's easy to get pulled into that and I definitely do sometimes

Beldarak Mar 15

Yeah, the no algorithm thing means you can be super annoying to your followers if you boost too much in one shot, you're right :)

@Beldarak there are some people who I def like talking with but most of their feeds are stuff I find sometimes-really-upsetting and need to pace myself on

it's nothing personal and it's not like they're "doing it wrong" they're just doing it in a way that doesn't always work for me personally

TheNovemberFella ✊🏳️‍🌈 🇺🇦☸️🛰️🚀Mar 15

@sarae 👍💯👍