In many ways, Mastodon feels like rewinding the clock on social media back to the early days of Twitter and Facebook. On the consume side, that means that your home feed has no algorithm (this can be disorienting at first).

Practically, it means that you see only what you want to see and only see it linearly. You never wonder “why am I seeing this and how do I make it go away?”. Content can only enter your home feed via your followed tags or handles and the feed is linear like the early days of social media.

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[–] The_Tribble_Juggler@kbin.social 139 points 2 years ago (6 children)

Mastodon is cool, and I'd use it more if I could get used to the format. The Lemmy/Reddit forum style is my preference.

[–] penguin@sh.itjust.works 39 points 2 years ago (10 children)

I just don't understand how people find accounts they like to follow.

[–] Domille@sh.itjust.works 40 points 2 years ago (2 children)

just follow hashtags you like, that way you'll see people who post about interesting stuff.

[–] mesamunefire@lemmy.world 19 points 2 years ago

Same as really old old Twitter.

[–] skybox@lemm.ee 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That's the main reason why I'm half and half on mastodon (besides the terrible user search and onboarding). I believe the way hashtags are implemented in microblogging services is so inorganic, and I prefer having a little help finding cool posts and people through some kinda filter. Bluesky has been a better experience in those aspects for me so far.

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[–] Eccitaze@yiffit.net 15 points 2 years ago (3 children)

First, it's important to find an instance that caters to your interests, especially if you have more niche hobbies. Once you're set up, search for and follow hashtags related to your personal interests, and use those to find accounts you like. Use hashtags in your own posts so that people can discover you more easily, and browse users that follow you to see if they'd be interesting to follow back and expand your network out. Keep an eye on the local and federated timeline for interesting posts, which includes all posts from people on the same instance and from all federated instances. Eventually, as you build up a follow list (and especially as you follow highly active accounts) your followed accounts will start introducing you to new accounts themselves through boosting posts.

It's more work since you're building the network yourself instead of having it spoon-fed to you by an algorithm, but it's overall much more rewarding, and lets you tailor your experience to your own personal preferences.

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[–] notatoad@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Mastodon is a good reminder of why algorithmic feeds exist

The option for a chronological feed is nice, but without an algorithm filling in the gaps it’s really hard to get started on there

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[–] lorax@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 years ago

I prefer pull vs push media. Less intrusive. I have a feeling lemmy users may also like RSS feeds for the control it provides. I know in mastodon you decide who to follow, but the whole culture to encourage re-blogging means a lot of potential unwanted crap in our feeds.

[–] Izzy@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I completely agree. I like the concept of Mastodon and like that it exists, but I just can't get into the idea of following individual or organizations rather than topics. Thankfully Lemmy is a thing.

[–] BeautifulMind@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

FWIW you can follow hashtags in mastadon If you know where to look you can see trending hashtags In other fedi clients (particularly firefish) you can configure antennae and channels to give you the ability to have pre-set feed filters and focuses (e.g. search by hashtag, keyword/subject, etc) You can also curate lists (can include people you don't follow if you don't want) in case you want to look at what the law or history or cycling people on fedi are talking about just now. Often when I want to change subject I'll check to see what #lawFedi or #histodon or #biketooter have to offer today

If that sounds a bit like rolling your own algorithms, that's probably because it sort of is

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[–] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 years ago

Agreed

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[–] Izzy@lemmy.world 121 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (24 children)

Put it simply I just hate ads. Anything that puts in ads is terrible. Including Sync for Lemmy who seems to have completely missed the point of getting the hell away from Reddit.

The next terrible thing is automatically generated content and bots, but I guess those are also really just ads.

[–] emptyother@programming.dev 70 points 2 years ago (9 children)

I disagree. I hate ads with a passion too. But as long as we can pay a sum to remove it, it is fair to have a free option with ads. A kinda unlimited "demo".

We are fools for thinking anyone would give away their own time and effort for free forever. We have completely lost the perspective of how much things should cost because of how much we've taken for granted that was paid for with our personal data. And the biggest fools is those who think most software developers and server admins can live reliably on donations alone.

Though Youtube is taking the ads a bit far, maybe. One shouldn't scare away users before they have even become customers.

[–] ryncewynd@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago (6 children)

Absolutely agree with your comment.

I don't really know the solution either... I can't afford to pay for all the things I enjoy online.

I was considering supporting 1 Twitch streamer I enjoy until I saw subscription cost. And if I paid that for every streamer or YouTuber I enjoy, I'd be broke in a single day lol.

I get so much incredibly good info and discussions online about my hobbies, all for no charge.

I used to subscribe on Patreon to my most useful resources/people, but in the end I just could afford it and had to cancel all my Patreon

I hate ads but I don't understand how the internet would function without ads. No one could afford it

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[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 30 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

The second ads are required the customer stops being the users and starts being the advertisers. This starts the enshittification ~~snowball~~ shitball, Randers.

[–] ljdawson@lemmy.ml 17 points 2 years ago (6 children)

I'm working on the app full-time and the ads / subscriptions cover development costs.

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[–] Hexagon@feddit.it 15 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Wrong. The next terrible thing is mass-AI-generated propaganda and disinformation. Like in the "dead internet" theory

[–] OpenStars@kbin.social 10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Next? I think you misspelled "current":-D

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[–] vonbaronhans@midwest.social 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I just paid the one time fee for no ads. Works for me.

[–] kratoz29@lemm.ee 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This is only FOSS bros making a bigger deal than it should, I like FOSS I use FOSS but they need to chill a bit.

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[–] te_abstract_art@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

I hate ads too, but devs have to eat so why should we not pay them when we use an app or service they spend countless time making and maintaining?

Sync is a one-time payment of £17.99 / $20 to remove ads and for the amount I'll be using this app, I think that's absolutely fair. I'll spend more on one takeaway pizza on a Friday night.

[–] Geert@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago (3 children)

It would suck if Sync was the only option but it's not. Nobody forces you to use it. You have such a hateboner for Sync it's ridiculous. So the guy asks money for his work, who fucking cares.

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[–] d00phy@lemmy.world 71 points 2 years ago (9 children)

The problem is that #10 in this article is why 99% of people won’t leave Xitter for Mastodon. Most of the people with lots of followers on X aren’t on Mastodon. It’s really that simple. Some “influencers” need to be convinced to open up Mastodon accounts and advertise exclusive content on there for their followers. Until then, we will be stuck with a handful of journalists, Flipboard, and Stephen Fry.

[–] TheProtagonist@lemmy.world 42 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

I really don’t think that Mastodon needs influencers. It’s just normal people talking about normal stuff. Don’t need any “I‘m so glorious, and here’s my product that will make you think you’re glorious, too” kind of influencers there, thanks!

[–] sheogorath@lemmy.world 17 points 2 years ago

This, very much this. I've been having more pleasant discussions with random people replying to Mastodon posts compared to the brain parasites victim making their nest on xitter.

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[–] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 40 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I mean, you guys are stuck with me as your only real celebrity for a while... (and the Debian logo design person.)

[–] d00phy@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Wow. Finally got a reply from her! Big fan of what you’re doing (you know, the Barbie movie and whatnot).

[–] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 28 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Big fan of what you’re doing.

You mean striking against the studios and shitposting on Lemmy?

[–] Wumbologist@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

Someone has to fight the good fight

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[–] thecodemonk@programming.dev 22 points 2 years ago

Please, just no. Keep those scum influencers away. It would immediately ruin the platform.

[–] jayandp@sh.itjust.works 20 points 2 years ago

Xitter

LOL, my brain read that as "shitter" and I found that pretty fitting.

[–] Invertedouroboros@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago

There's a part of me that legitimately wonders how far Twitter could go as an influncer bubble. Granted this is unlikely to happen but if everyone who's not an influencer just left for Mastodon and Twitter just became a hollow shell of influencers trying to sell products to customers who just aren't there, how far would Twitter's inerta carry it before anyone realized?

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[–] Boozilla@lemmy.world 40 points 2 years ago

Preach. I hate the "bubble" that curated / sponsored feeds try to wrap everyone inside of.

[–] people_are_cute@lemmy.sdf.org 34 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Most people used Twitter and Facebook not as a social network but as a pastime. They didn't create or post anything, but simply lurked and browsed random stuff on the platform to amuse themselves and keep up with trends. The random content in feeds that articles like these complain about were rather the main feature of those platforms for many. And this is a feature Mastodon fails to provide for its own good.

[–] timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That's assuming mastodon even wants that and I honestly very much doubt it does.

It's not a Twitter clone- it's its own social media take.

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[–] DarienGS@lemmy.world 26 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You never wonder “why am I seeing this and how do I make it go away?”

I actually find myself wondering this a lot. Mastodon doesn't allow people to add comments to things they're reposting, so you're left guessing as to why they elected to insert something from an unfamiliar account into your timeline.

Mastodon is also short on tools for discovering interesting new posts and accounts that aren't already on your radar. In this regard I agree that it's behind the times. Threads handles this much better, giving you a classic chronological feed of people you're following plus an algorithmic feed that shows you things that are popular with people like you.

[–] emptyother@programming.dev 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

But I don't want anyone to make assumptions about "people like me". Those kinds of services are always ways off.

At best I could do with a feed from followers of my follows. But repost kinda does that already.

A comment to reposts would be nice though.

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[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 25 points 2 years ago (2 children)

My timeline has always been this way. Third party clients man. They were so good.

Algorithmic timelines are toxic.

[–] mo_lave@reddthat.com 32 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Hot take: Algorithmic timelines are cool, provided we can (1) opt out from the default algorithm and (2) plug in our own algorithms

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[–] superduperenigma@lemmy.world 18 points 2 years ago

The virgin official app: NOOOOO!!! YOU NEED TO PAY A SUBSCRIPTION TO AVOID SEEING ALL THESE ADS DISGUISED AS POSTS!

The chad third party app: Hey man this whole thing is maintained by one dude so I gotta show a banner ad every now and again. I know that sucks so I'll stop if you wanna make a one time donation of a buck or two.

[–] lapommedeterre@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

One thing I want from Mastodon is to see the likes of people because I like to follow artists and see what they're liking lol -- but that might go against the intended usage, not sure.

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