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aquarain t1_j1n0j09 wrote

Reply to comment by LeStiqsue in Tech Journalism Doesn’t Know What to Do With Mastodon by psychothumbs

Be the change.

https://en.as.com/latest_news/what-is-a-mastodon-server-how-to-pick-the-best-one-for-you-n/

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e_j_white t1_j1n3mlm wrote

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the federated servers.

I get that it can't be controlled if it's not centralized, but wouldn't separate servers lead to more echo chambers and bubbles?

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ghost103429 t1_j1nnuxt wrote

It entirely depends on the servers that you join. Some will have more liberal policies allowing any content from any server to come in within reason, others will be walled gardens.

Mastodon is designed to be software first and so how you experience it will be dependent on the configuration by the owner of the server or on how you configure it, if you setup your own just as how email is.

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e_j_white t1_j1okkg8 wrote

Hm, no nothing in particular is preventing the rise of echo chambers and walled gardens, it seems.

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oxala75 t1_j1n5m97 wrote

Not necessarily. You can still see posts from people across other servers, but that is very dependent on you following people, who also boost (retweet) things that their followers or people they follow post. Basically your inter-server stream of posts grows based on your ability to literally network - no algorithm involved.

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B-Rock001 t1_j1nc4qi wrote

That sounds like the definition of an echo chamber...

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leeharrison1984 t1_j1nkr99 wrote

Kinda?

Since there isn't an algo, the degree to which you create your own echo chamber is entirely up to you.

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B-Rock001 t1_j1ntfuh wrote

And people gravitate to their own tribe.... it's human nature. It's naive to think that people are going to a better job "without algorithms" to not create echo chambers.

But I also think you're using "algorithm" as a bit of a boggy man here... I mean how does mastadon know what to show you if not for an algorithm? It'd be like sorting by "new" on Reddit... yeah that works for some people but it's like taking a firehose of data. Most people want something a little more curated, which means something has to do that sorting

Algorithms aren't the problem, the incentives are. What we need are algorithms that have incentives encouraging positive discourse. Attention and likes are fine for your puppy and cat pictures that really don't mean anything, but if you want to talk about anything meaningful popularity is not the way.

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oxala75 t1_j1o5dt4 wrote

"sorting by "new" on Reddit..."

That is what I want on Mastodon.

Also, i don't think Twitter's algorithm promotes positive discourse. I believe that it promotes engagement at almost all cost.

Additionally, I've been having much more substantive discussion on Mastodon. In fact, that's currently my only gripe with my experience with the Fediverse - a lot of genuine connections and access to interesting people, but the silliness is in lower supply than on Twitter. I know why, and i'm aware that loving hot mess is a double edged swords.

Mastodon is not a Twitter killer, but I think that it can be a Twitter alternative for some. More importantly, it is something that has value. It is not for everyone, and isn't trying to be. It is harder to understand at first, and i wish that was different. But I'm very puzzled by people who are calling it useless, and by people who don't understand why living algorithm free wouldn't be desirable for some.

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B-Rock001 t1_j1oh6ml wrote

Never said it was useless. Just don't buy it's the revolution supporters (like the author of the article) want it to be... I think that has a lot more to do with the lukewarm reaction than "you just don't get it, man". Seems to me a good chance it simply exacerbates the bubbles we already find ourselves in if only those who are savvy enough to work with it sign up.

BTW, I know some like sort by new, but I find it's mostly trash (except maybe in small communities). I actually want something to sort through the dregs and promote the good stuff. Likes and attention is a terrible metric to use for that but it's all we've got so far. I want something better that starts encouraging healthy discourse for all, not just those who can figure it out... don't really know what that is, but mastadon ain't it.

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oxala75 t1_j1oq2fk wrote

I hear you. I'm not sure what the solution is, because Twitter also is a lot of (good!) things, but great at encouraging healthy discourse for all is not one of them.

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[deleted] t1_j1nmxmm wrote

[removed]

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oxala75 t1_j1nnuw8 wrote

...like in real life. You choose work, school, etc., along with other people who made conscious decisions to be in the same place, along with other people who maybe ended up somewhere. On bigger servers that aren't themed or organized around a particular principle, you may have a more diverse population.

That said, a lot of discourse is happening across servers - where you end up talking to people that you would not have sought out.

I appreciate that an algorithm mixes things up for me, but finding interesting new people was at best a side effect of the algorithm.

EDIT: I don't know what 'conaxious' is

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citrus_sugar t1_j1n6y4q wrote

It leads to security issues; there’s no way a server admin could protect against a a real attack.

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LeStiqsue t1_j1nvaxu wrote

Or, and I genuinely am just throwing this out there, I could be a Discord user. That's really my point here. Mastodon looks like cool tech that nobody needs.

I don't use a computer to be a revolutionary. I use it to make tasks easier. If someone wants to change it into something better, great, but it probably won't be me that does it.

I already have what I want.

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