Lisa Melton23h ago

Recently I read a post by some jackhole techbro who wants a default automatic feed algorithm here just like Big Social™.

Opening the door for AI bullshit is not even the worst part of this idea.

Folks, all of us here ARE the algorithm. Personal curation is a feature, not a bug.

We make Mastodon awesome by following people and boosting what we find meaningful, significant or just cool. That's how it works.

Let's keep making friends. Let's keep sharing. Let's keep Mastodon alive. Together. 💖

Show threadhaliphax 👾
@lisamelton Nah, I'd love it if people that post only when I'm asleep, or people that only post occasionally get bubbled up so that I can read their stuff and not have it buried by folks that post several times a day, every day. "Algorithm" isn't an inherently naughty word.
Apr 15 at 1:10amWeb
Show threadTim 🏳️‍🌈15h ago

@haliphax @lisamelton

Agreed, at the end of the day even the ordered by time list of posts we have now is an "algorithm"

Show threadMorten9h ago
@haliphax @lisamelton @karlhigley
You can already have this with Lists. A list for sleep posters, a list for low volume posters. Clients can implement features to automatically create these kinds of lists for you without any change to how Mastodon servers work. Maybe it already exists 🤔
Show threadMorten9h ago
@haliphax @lisamelton @karlhigley I think to most people "the algorithm" means something that digs up the most popular posts across a specific social media and jams it into your feed. So you "are part of the global conversation". It sucks and selects for lowest common denominators (which is often US centric). Additionally, it typically optimises for engagement rather than enjoyment.
Show threadhaliphax 👾7h ago
@drgroftehauge @lisamelton @karlhigley Yes, I understand what most people think of when it comes to the capital A Algorithm. I also understand it's possible to do myself by fastidiously selecting and maintaining lists like a second job, and that software can do things. To my knowledge, no such feature exists in any client that I am aware of. Phanpy gets close, but not quite (and it's a very clunky experimental feature).
Show threadjandi10m ago
@haliphax @drgroftehauge @lisamelton @karlhigley It's all about choice and consent, take a look, for example, at FediAlgo: https://mastodon.social/@jandi/115720315643131726