Newsflash: boring white guy thinks fedi is bad because people here are not interested in his AI content

Anyway, Happy First Contact Day everyone.

I donโ€™t even TRY (not my goal in life, I use mastodon for fun) and never had a problem with โ€œengagementโ€

I have said this before:

A lot of journalists, influencers, etc have a problem with fedi because they donโ€™t bother understanding the format

Theyโ€™re used to platforms that work like this:
- share hot take
- receive likes

The fedi works differently:
- Engage with the community
- Connect with like minded folks regularly so they see you as a peer
- Eventually share your hot take
- Get responses
- Interact

And there you have it. Thatโ€™s how you make friends instead of just followers.

@renata It's funny, that's how Twitter worked in the early days, and all but a very few of the friends I made in that era tried Mastodon for a while and then went back. Some of this I understand, they've built businesses around the platform, but others I fear have become addicted to being enraged, and rage farming has an incredibly short half-life here.
@alan It sure makes people addicted and itโ€™s very scary to think about it. I also know people who had the same behaviour and it makes me sad.
@renata Sad and frustrating. I've tried to pry a few from the clutches of the dopamine feedback loop, and what I get is "I can't. All my fellow dopamine feedback loop addicts are here with me." ๐Ÿคฆ
@alan
100% this
@renata