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People like RSS because it's not algorithmic. People like Mastodon because it's not algorithmic. What I'm mainly curious about here is what drew this author to

People like RSS because it's not algorithmic. People like Mastodon because it's not algorithmic. What I'm mainly curious about here is what drew this author to these two technologies in the first place? What's the hook for them? --- Subjective aside: before I read the line on algorithms & the HN comments bemoaning the same, I was already very turned off by the awful AI header image. Until tools like Dall-E, &c. get to the point where they can reliably generate images that aren't blatantly & obviously AI-generated (they seem a surprisingly long way off still), I think this effect is worth keeping in mind: for me the aesthetic is a massive turnoff for any product page.

rsynnott 3y ago
Some people like Mastodon because it's not algorithmic, some people like it because it's not centralised/has no real single point of failure, some for other reasons. I'd definitely buy that at least some people would quite like an algorithmic view of their Mastodon feed; wouldn't be for me, but one reason that people go for Bluesky over Mastodon is that it is algorithmic.
- lucideer 3y ago
  > one reason that people go for Bluesky over Mastodon is that it is algorithmic My comment does seem a little dogmatic whereas there's always a broad variety of approaches & preferences with anything. I was somewhat exaggerating, but my goal was to represent the typical user as best as I can glean. As someone who advocated heavily for Mastodon (& continues to), I spend more time on bsky now, but I've found people's reasons for being there over Mastodon to be either my reason: network effect, or for the vast majority of folk: UX. ActivityPub client/server UX remains abysmal in comparison to centralised services (not complaining as I know it's a harder problem for decentralised tech, just stating the fact). Algorithmic feeds haven't come up in the context of bsky prefs mainly because - in my experience - algorithmic feeds in any app/website are broadly hated by all but the most tech-savvy of people.
andrewaylett 3y ago
Actually, I wouldn't mind a little bit of algorithm in my feed. "Newest first" is annoying because unless I manage to read everything that's new then I have gaps. If I've only got a couple of minutes now then I want to be able to see a few things without losing track of what I have and haven't read. "Oldest first" is annoying because -- as much as I might want to -- I can't keep up. "Newest unread" is annoying because if someone's posted a series then I want to read them in order. "Prioritised unread" might be OK -- if someone only posts once a month then I probably want to prioritise reading their post over reading absolutely everything by someone who posts multiple times a day. I'm currently reading my RSS with Newsblur, and it's not perfect but it does give me flexibility through the "intelligence trainer" to highlight the stuff I want to prioritise. Aside, RSS and Mastodon definitely are algorithmic. "Chronological ordering" is an algorithm, and it's not always the most appropriate.

rsynnott 3y ago

Some people like Mastodon because it's not algorithmic, some people like it because it's not centralised/has no real single point of failure, some for other reasons. I'd definitely buy that at least some people would quite like an algorithmic view of their Mastodon feed; wouldn't be for me, but one reason that people go for Bluesky over Mastodon is that it is algorithmic.

lucideer 3y ago
> one reason that people go for Bluesky over Mastodon is that it is algorithmic My comment does seem a little dogmatic whereas there's always a broad variety of approaches & preferences with anything. I was somewhat exaggerating, but my goal was to represent the typical user as best as I can glean. As someone who advocated heavily for Mastodon (& continues to), I spend more time on bsky now, but I've found people's reasons for being there over Mastodon to be either my reason: network effect, or for the vast majority of folk: UX. ActivityPub client/server UX remains abysmal in comparison to centralised services (not complaining as I know it's a harder problem for decentralised tech, just stating the fact). Algorithmic feeds haven't come up in the context of bsky prefs mainly because - in my experience - algorithmic feeds in any app/website are broadly hated by all but the most tech-savvy of people.

andrewaylett 3y ago

Actually, I wouldn't mind a little bit of algorithm in my feed. "Newest first" is annoying because unless I manage to read everything that's new then I have gaps. If I've only got a couple of minutes now then I want to be able to see a few things without losing track of what I have and haven't read. "Oldest first" is annoying because -- as much as I might want to -- I can't keep up. "Newest unread" is annoying because if someone's posted a series then I want to read them in order. "Prioritised unread" might be OK -- if someone only posts once a month then I probably want to prioritise reading their post over reading absolutely everything by someone who posts multiple times a day. I'm currently reading my RSS with Newsblur, and it's not perfect but it does give me flexibility through the "intelligence trainer" to highlight the stuff I want to prioritise. Aside, RSS and Mastodon definitely are algorithmic. "Chronological ordering" is an algorithm, and it's not always the most appropriate.