Mastodawn

Brett Nelson Mar 16

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

@sarae I personally don’t fav because favs don’t autodelete as far as I can tell! But favs are great if you’re not worried about that!

@Recalcitrant @sarae yes that's my concern also
for a time (back when we had forget.codl.fr) I deleted favs manually but that is gruesome and not rewarding

@Gargron please add fav's to the auto deletion

@Recalcitrant @sarae

Deborah Preuss, pcc 🇨🇦2d ago

@Recalcitrant @sarae do you mean "faved toots of others" or "my own toots, which someoone has fav'd" do not autodelete?

@deborahh @sarae when I fav a post the fact that I’ve fav’d it is there forever afaict

Deborah Preuss, pcc 🇨🇦2d ago

@Recalcitrant @sarae ah, I see.
But, at least, unlike Xitter, only you and the OP can see that you liked it.
Well, and it makes the post itself searchable on your instance.

@deborahh @sarae oh nice I didn’t realize the fav list wasn’t accessible to others…

Deborah Preuss, pcc 🇨🇦2d ago

@Recalcitrant @sarae one way I use likes is this:
My posts ares set to autodelete after X time.
*Except* any post with at least 1* like.
So if I make a toot and want it to not autodelete, I just go and Like it!

* configurable. I set it to 1.

Deborah Preuss, pcc 🇨🇦2d ago

@Recalcitrant @sarae (also: if you Like my post, and then I edit it, you get a notification - or not, depending on your notification settings).

@deborahh @sarae yes, I know about that setting and have it on! I just don’t want the list of every other post I’ve ever liked to be saved anywhere

Deborah Preuss, pcc 🇨🇦2d ago

@Recalcitrant @sarae "anywhere"? Or "anywhere in the US"? 🤭

@deborahh @sarae anywhere!

Limnobotanik 2d ago

@deborahh @Recalcitrant @sarae I can see who liked a post by clicking on the number

Deborah Preuss, pcc 🇨🇦2d ago

@Limnobotanik @Recalcitrant @sarae oh, wow, it's true! I missed that.

But, unlike Xitter, they cannit go to *your* profile and see all toots you liked.

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 6d ago

@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 11h 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

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 6d ago

@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 6d ago

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

trissc̈hen 1d ago

@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 🇳🇱2d ago

@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

ShnoofleBear /ʃnuːfɛlbɛːr/Mar 15

@sarae Sounds like the old "gaming the algorithm" mind set. Luckily, on Mastodon, things that are worth spreading, are spread, whether you fav it, or not.

Frank Davies Mar 16

@ShnoofleBear @sarae spreading for meta reflexivity purposes

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!