<![CDATA[It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”.]]>It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”.

Meanwhile I’m having a *great* experience here, because I use it to— I dunno— actually talk to people and form relationships?

I reject the premise that mastodon isn’t useful for reporters. I think it’s more accurate that modern news orgs use social media in purely extractive ways.

You might get more reporters that way, but you won’t like them.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/topic/0c27f5d7-47c9-46dc-a18c-953115759b36/it-s-been-a-weird-couple-days-i-keep-running-into-this-talking-point-that-journalists-won-t-use-mastodon-unless-we-incentivize-engagement-farming-.RSS for NodeMon, 06 Apr 2026 23:23:49 GMTMon, 06 Apr 2026 13:14:27 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 17:07:05 GMT]]>@Haste
Spot on. Most journalists don't want to participate, they want attention and reach. Mastodon is antithetical to their needs, which is what they stay on X.
As someone who worked in a newsroom for 14 years I'll say this: good, let them stay on X. A shame, but hey.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mstdn.social/users/MostlyTato/statuses/116358855103113008https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mstdn.social/users/MostlyTato/statuses/116358855103113008Mon, 06 Apr 2026 17:07:05 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 17:03:26 GMT]]>@rhold @Haste Since mastodon just shows you people who you follow, I don’t really see how corpos could even gain a foothold. I mean, I’d probably follow a company that posts news or changelogs or security notices but there’s already other channels for that.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/woltiv/statuses/116358840734234097https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/woltiv/statuses/116358840734234097Mon, 06 Apr 2026 17:03:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 17:00:47 GMT]]>@Haste
Some are here, one of my faves @rachelgilmore.substack.com is here at least as automated bridge.
I find people very engaged here with politics. It’s about finding people you genuinely resonate with their content here which means you also have to be genuine. And a lot of mainstream journalists are so busy playing an access, capitalist, and propaganda game, that what they offer is of no interest to most Mastodonians who seem to want to build a post-capitalism world.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/JoBlakely/statuses/116358830308142258https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/JoBlakely/statuses/116358830308142258Mon, 06 Apr 2026 17:00:47 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:55:01 GMT]]>@Haste

good social media is RSS with boosts and replies. I primarily want to follow lots of people who will then surface the best articles so I don't have to subscribe to everyone's RSS feed. and see some discussion.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://liberal.city/users/wjmaggos/statuses/116358807642367362https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://liberal.city/users/wjmaggos/statuses/116358807642367362Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:55:01 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:53:45 GMT]]>@Haste urgh yes ... https://mastodon.social/@patrick_h_lauke/116352556114517011

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/patrick_h_lauke/statuses/116358802639738342https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/patrick_h_lauke/statuses/116358802639738342Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:53:45 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:48:50 GMT]]>@odd in my experience: Basically after trying to interact with various journalists on Twitter, you'd know which ones were there to actually participate in a public discussions, which ones would only reply to their "mutuals" while scoffing at everyone else, and which ones only posted to self-promote and didnt engage at all. @Haste

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://tyrol.social/users/nitrml/statuses/116358783354937447https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://tyrol.social/users/nitrml/statuses/116358783354937447Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:48:50 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:36:16 GMT]]>@Haste SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic (1 fl. oz.)
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]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116358622125528027/statuses/116358733905502995https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116358622125528027/statuses/116358733905502995Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:36:16 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:18:35 GMT]]>@Haste weird, its almost as though the fediverse is strongly averse to monetization. I would expect this behavior if monetization had enshittified the internet, but that couldn't possible be, right? No. It has to be the fediverse that is wrong.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/ghostrunner/statuses/116358664388801247https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/ghostrunner/statuses/116358664388801247Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:18:35 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:17:28 GMT]]>@Haste
The only factor that should guide journalists (or anyone, really) about where to post and engage is whether their intended audience is there. Period.

I'd bet that Democracy Now! doesn't post to Truth Social. When JD Couchfucker established an account on Bluesky, he became one of the most blocked accounts.

Are your peeps there? If not, don't waste your time.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://ohai.social/users/shansterable/statuses/116358660018842889https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://ohai.social/users/shansterable/statuses/116358660018842889Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:17:28 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:13:12 GMT]]>@Haste it’s so much easier for them to negotiate a deal with a central owner of non-federated social media to artificially force their posts into your view.

That doesn’t work here if there is an instance devoted to fire and forget with no community participation I’d personally block it at the instance level.

It’s amazing to me that corporations have positions for social media posters but not necessarily participatory users. It’s all about an initial hook, click and view counts.

I don’t care who sees my posts here some are just into the void. I can be as weird as I want to be. Also I have no relatives that call when I post ambiguous song lyrics worried about my mental health.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://pwl.farted.net/users/pwloftus/statuses/116358643219357835https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://pwl.farted.net/users/pwloftus/statuses/116358643219357835Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:13:12 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:12:07 GMT]]>@Haste @drahardja
💯

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/freediverx/statuses/116358638945574874https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/freediverx/statuses/116358638945574874Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:12:07 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:11:16 GMT]]>@Haste Translation: They want an algorithmic platform that will amplify their broadcast. Despite the lip service most reporters don't actually want to engage, they want to put a story out and broadcast it. That's why Mastodon doesn't work for so many of them.
Also they usually want some sort of measurable metric so that they can justify their existence to their boss. 10k likes on a bot laden network still looks good to people who don't get it.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://thecanadian.social/users/mike/statuses/116358635639246863https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://thecanadian.social/users/mike/statuses/116358635639246863Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:11:16 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:57:44 GMT]]>@Haste Pfff, reporters can go fuck themselves ..

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.online/users/garbageman/statuses/116358582415492212https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.online/users/garbageman/statuses/116358582415492212Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:57:44 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:54:40 GMT]]>@Haste
"modern news orgs use social media in purely extractive ways"

And post junk instead of doing journalism.

Murdoch has replaced some titles with AI Slop.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.ie/users/raymaccarthy/statuses/116358570339573869https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.ie/users/raymaccarthy/statuses/116358570339573869Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:54:40 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:53:29 GMT]]>@gabbywheels @Haste I believe this is the right take.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://masto.hackers.town/users/megabyteghost/statuses/116358565681117278https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://masto.hackers.town/users/megabyteghost/statuses/116358565681117278Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:53:29 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:47:11 GMT]]>@Haste I guess to talk about it with other folks. But then again how often do I do that with articles I read. it just feels like personal isolated self development. Where do you go from there when you read an article?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://spacey.space/users/OliviaVespera/statuses/116358540936819287https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://spacey.space/users/OliviaVespera/statuses/116358540936819287Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:47:11 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:46:52 GMT]]>@Haste modern opinion-minded journalists should just include some form of sharing on the Fediverse. Specifically for the controversial stuff normally blocked by mainstream media/socials 😉

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.thelab.uno/users/ggrey/statuses/116358539693337099https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.thelab.uno/users/ggrey/statuses/116358539693337099Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:46:52 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:41:03 GMT]]>@Haste I think “engagement farming” is an odd term. It seems to me that many journalists are in broadcast mode, and don’t have time for conversation. My view is that Mastodon is fine for conversations (depending on your cultivation of follows) but not so great for broadcasting. I’m OK with that.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/gdinwiddie/statuses/116358516801213998https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/gdinwiddie/statuses/116358516801213998Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:41:03 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:32:12 GMT]]>@Haste Thank goodness there is someone here talking about one-way communication from journos and big follower “personalities”. Extractive is exactly the right term and I hate that approach. There should be engagement and community building - especially important now IMO. Just followed you.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mstdn.social/users/lawyersgunsnmoney/statuses/116358482014830090https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mstdn.social/users/lawyersgunsnmoney/statuses/116358482014830090Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:32:12 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:28:44 GMT]]>@CliffsEsport @Haste Yeah, back when I first started in journalism in the 90s, the major publications all had real experts who were assigned to or carved out specific beats like aviation, cars, healthcare, education, the environment, the courts, etc. These were largely well educated people who knew these awfully complex subjects intimately and could explain them simply but fairly to anyone. To the extent they want any reporters to write about these specific subjects anymore, newsrooms tend to favor young (cheap, replaceable) general assignment folks who lack that institutional knowledge.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/briankrebs/statuses/116358468346990774https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/briankrebs/statuses/116358468346990774Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:28:44 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:28:11 GMT]]>@Haste Could be. I'm pretty nostalgic for the time when search was Webcrawler and Altavista. Don't know if the early internet was as trustworthy as I'd give it credit for now, but at least there were less financial incentives to lie to users.

Now I don't really have the energy to retake the net. I read about the small web and it sounds a lot of fun, but somehow I can't really get the hang of it.

@bri7

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mstdn.social/users/odd/statuses/116358466239395542https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mstdn.social/users/odd/statuses/116358466239395542Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:28:11 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:23:17 GMT]]>@Haste I've run into a small handful of reporters and journalists who've done that, along with a few other content creators who... don't really engage with folks but are here to just drop self-promo and that's that.

I don't really mind certain kinds of self-promo (e.g., "I wrote a thing!" or "I made a thing!"), especially when it's nested within genuine interaction or other interesting posts (even if it's shitposting with another person). I love seeing people drop their art (whatever it is) or writing, and it's given me a lot of cool and new perspectives I haven't otherwise found.

But I think if more journalists and reporters actually engaged with people, it might alleviate (not solve) the issue of how a bunch of 'em forgot who they claim they write for and inform. It might even get a few to stop doing disinformation or strong one-sided perspectives of news stories (e.g., when all of their info for a story comes primarily from cops or corporate mouthpieces without further looking into it).

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whatanerd/statuses/116358446911229112https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/whatanerd/statuses/116358446911229112Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:23:17 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:22:31 GMT]]>@Haste @rhold those semi commercial FOSS brands (along with some of their devs) have been present on Fedi for years (you can add Nextcloud to the mix as well).

I'm occasionally mildly annoyed by the way some of these brand accounts never seem to reply to anyone and they often go quiet if folk point out bugs/issues in their replies, but they seem to have got better in that respect and at least its software/services that folk on here tend to actually use..

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.tchncs.de/users/vfrmedia/statuses/116358443945775305https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.tchncs.de/users/vfrmedia/statuses/116358443945775305Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:22:31 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”. on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:22:24 GMT]]>@Haste

Exactly this.

Getting engagement on Mastodon is quite easy. But if you're uninterested in a dialogue and sees engagement as a zero-sum game you must win, then you're in for a rude awakening.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.world/users/SuneAuken/statuses/116358443440298212https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.world/users/SuneAuken/statuses/116358443440298212Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:22:24 GMT