The people who dislike The Algorithm™ are either consumers who basically just want an RSS feed reader (nothing wrong with that) or people who brought audiences over from other platforms.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@dansup/115758581850714275

The people who dislike The Algorithm are either consumers who basically just want an RSS feed reader (nothing wrong with that) or people who brought audiences over from other platforms.

If you’re trying to create something and find an audience for it on the #Fediverse, you need some sort of recommendation algorithm. Otherwise, you’re just posting into the void.

#ActivityPub #Mastodon

@daniel Not every person who is doing/posting whatever is “building an audience.”

@daniel This is a rather harsh simplification. Not everyone has a brand or corporation to grow. "Number of friends" is an old Facebook vanity metric and doesn't really hold up. What I'm saying is, Mastodon people seem to like to hang out with their small social graph in these spaces and that's okay.

@senesens that's obviously completely fine. However I'm also talking to a lot of people who want to grow Mastodon and the Fediverse outside of these small bubbles and attract larger creators.

@tennoseremel sure. And Mastodon works fine for people who don't want that. But what about the creators do want that?

Mastodon needs 'content' to attract new audiences. And content creators need ways for those audiences to discover them.

@daniel I do get the need but it's the method that I disagree with I guess. Sort of the wrong place to elaborate my point but the thing is, I'm confused by all of these efforts that are trying to re-create the "big platforms" point for point but just "open-source" and run by a" non-profit" and "federated servers" or something like that. I'm not at all convinced that will solve their ills.

A noble effort, true, and I could understand how someone might just like the big platforms more than what the fedi offers today BUT... I think there's something to said about the culture and insular nature that's found on Fedi today.

Maybe Fedi is not just "trauma reaction" to the big platforms? The pains of federation, slow discovery, the whole "old-forum" dynamic that's going on...I personally find these "bugs" to actually be "features". Because ultimately, I suspect that when you cater to "brands" or anyone who wants to "~milk~grow an audience", it'll be at the expense of "people" that will have to share the space with them.

I'm not saying it's impossible to create a great middle ground that will work and I'd love to see Fedi take over the world but yes, my brows are furrowed at any attempts to reduce this friction that keeps this place sane.

@senesens I don't think that wanting to find an audience is inherently bad. Obviously there is *a lot* of slop on social media platforms. But there is also a lot of good content. And generally speaking the fact that anyone theoretically can be discovered through social media algorithms has been a great equalizer if you compare that to what we had before where a creator had to convince a traditional publisher or broadcaster.