seeing another round of "don't favorite posts on fedi"

[alan@mindly.social]

@sarae Marking something as a favourite is saying "I like this"; boosting it is saying "I think this has value to the people who follow me." My guess is that people who say this find that people favourite their stuff much more often than boosting it.

That's a reflection on what they post, not on other users.

Trying to dictate how the platform gets used is futile. If they want more boosts, then maybe they should work on content that people feel is boost-worthy instead of trying to make it someone else's problem.

[elshara@www.mediacy.net]

@nanowiz @sarae I don't get it either. don't post it if it's not meant to be shared.

[fd93@fosstodon.org]

@ShnoofleBear @sarae spreading for meta reflexivity purposes

[sunguramy@flipping.rocks]

@sarae It lets me know it was seen, and I was heard. If you just scroll, there is zero interaction. I'm not here for that. Comment, boost, or leave a little star that means "hey, I see you" at the very least. Sometimes I post things and they get nothing, and that's honestly a bit depressing.

[wjmaggos@liberal.city]

@sarae

for me, the key to social media is the boost. human virality, not algos. but favorites are about acknowledgement and appreciation. they are awesome.

[penpencilbrush@mstdn.social]

@sarae That was a whole lotta mansplaining. I admire your restraint.

[nev@flipping.rocks]

@sarae i'm so old i remember when "likes" on Twitter and Facebook didn't actually increase a post's visibility either because the timeline was strictly reverse chronological. i am 40 and apparently am the oldest person by far alive on earth, with amazing powers of memory that scientists are still trying to unravel

[superball@norcal.social]

@nev LOLLL. I was so annoyed when they implemented that. My likes were supposed to be to the individual, not for the world to see! When I came to Mastodon, I breathed a sigh of relief about that!

@sarae

[donelias@mastodon.cr]

@mastodonmigration favorites (and boosts) are used to fill explore timelines @sarae

[raphaelmorgan@disabled.social]

@moss @sarae @awawawa it's a great way to bridge the gap between "no one cares" and "no one knows what to say"
The latter is a much easier truth to accept!

[xenophora@mastodon.art]

@schratze @sarae

I've seen it a few times and I just ignore it. I like a lot of stuff, but wouldn't boost it all because if I do, I can't delegate at least 25% of my brain to putting forth my own nonsensical jabbering.

[naturepunk@ecoevo.social]

@sarae I think fav's are an important part of how Masto works. They can mean loads of things.

I both liked and boosted your post because I want other people to see it and I want to reinforce the fact to you that I did that because I fully support it.

My favourite kinds of Fav are the ones the ones that are summed up with the Welsh word cwtch. A whole range of supportive warm feelings being sent the posters way as appropriate

[bradbury@ruby.social]

@sarae - Sometimes a post says everything perfectly, adding some comment is not required and sometimes my brain is only functioning just enough to touch the little ️ icon.

[nini@oldbytes.space]

@sarae I always treat a fav as a little "I like this" between me and the tooter.

[coba@gruene.social]

@sarae @colo_lee @GPJohnston it is very nice to assume someone just wants to share newfound knowledge.

maybe it is worded as "advice" because this a style of conversation people are used to.

you can also word it as "something I learned" and hope that others find useful so I am sharing it.

[earlytwix@sueden.social]

@sarae an not every post I write is meant to be distributed. Some posts are just for fun - or because I know my followers are interested in - but not the whole world

[firlefanz@writing.exchange]

@sarae

I favorite posts a LOT.

And that favorite could be an internet hug, an encouragement, a genuine like - basically a sign of interaction and possibly kindness.

We all need more kindness in life.

[nellie_m@autisticpri.de]

@sarae @GPJohnston @moss @awawawa

Sometimes e.g. in the actuallyAutistic group, people post kind of personal things, and even if they didn’t set it to followers only, I sometimes feel it should perhaps stay in the group. Then I just favour it, rather than boost.

Also, I have a pinned post about this very topic

[nellie_m@autisticpri.de]

@kimapr @sarae

wow, that’s interesting, thank you! I didn’t know that!

(Mastodon user here)

[primo@donphan.social]

@sarae I'm baffled. I remember discoursr on Twitter where people were displeased with faving pushing tweets into other peoples timelines, because they would have used retweets for that.