4 ms·

Yea, there’s a strong resistance because somehow the community thinks algorithms are only there for the benefit of investors and could actually be of benefit to

Yea, there’s a strong resistance because somehow the community thinks algorithms are only there for the benefit of investors and could actually be of benefit to users who don’t want to micromanage who they’re following. As for search, it’s bizarre any community would be against such a basic feature. From TechDirt: “I would talk about some of the cooler Mastodon algorithms I’d been finding, but after a few them then were yelled at by a bunch of Mastodon users, I’ve generally decided it’s not worth promoting those useful tools, for fear that people yell at them to shut them down.” https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/28/six-months-in-thoughts-on-the-current-post-twitter-diaspora-options/ https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/28/six-months-in-thoughts-o...

vidarh 3y ago
Personally I 1) want algorithms, and will do some for myself when I get a chance, and I detest reverse chronological, but I get the resistance given that Twitter has kept pushing it (e.g. you can switch to "following" but it doesn't stick - Twitter keeps switching back), 2) would like search. But to search what you need to realise to get why this resistance is there you need to keep in mind that a lot of early refugees from Twitter were marginalised users for whom search was regularly weaponised against them to harass. Search will come - there are regularly new attempts and a lot of the resistance will be less relevant as the userbase change, but to get buy-in it will need to provide a strong degree of opt-in and user control. Any system that fails to provide that will fail to win over those users who see that control as a strong reason to use the Fediverse.