Complete this sentence:
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@smallcircles
I experience the fediverse a bit like riding public transit: often you meet interesting people, occasionally you meet hostile people, sometimes you meet people in crisis, and you have a nodding acquaintence with some folks almost every time you ride. Most people are buried in their phones. You hear bits of conversations (sometimes a little, sometimes a lot), the infrastructure is uneven and often confusing, and every now and again there is a flood, storm, fight, or someone pulling a weapon.@geoffduncan an interesting analogy to common day to day life activities, thank you.
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@oblomov @smallcircles @Tattooed_Mummy I’ve found some. If I were better at socialising, it would help.
@benjamincox @oblomov @Tattooed_Mummy
You are doing well, and attracted a sizable village to be part of together, looking at your profile. Thank you for your input.
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@Netraven I would not express it like that, but I know what you mean.
Mastodon.social can be compared to a large metropole, and it becomes not much different than Twitter platform's megapole in terms of social dynamics and culture. It's a New York that has its charms, but also many unsafe back alleys and ghetto's that are best avoided at night
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@fwtl yes, I'm quite positively surprised at all the good social experiences people have.
> An algo is a tool that can be used for good and the lack of one is really big problem for normies
I don't think that is necessarily the case, more so than that we are dealing with different social networking paradigms. And when people do not realize that, their expectations are off. I call this paradigm #PersonalSocialNetworking..
How We Reimagine the Social Web
We find novel ways to collaborate and create value together.
Social coding commons (coding.social)
Hopping from #twitter to #mastodon is not just switching to another microblogging platform, that happens to be decentralized. The lack of algorithm gives an opportunity as well as a responsibility in order to get the most out of the fediverse: you are in control and should curate your own feed. By choosing who you follow, you shape your own village, and over time you may nurture it into a bustling city you are part of.
Algo's may help, but it is more Starter packs and app websites that can do a better introduction to fediverse social media.
@smallcircles everything you said can still be achieved with a customisable algo or litterally two tabs in the app : one with the chronological algorithm (still an algo btw) and one with the customized feed with your interests.
Without the second one the app is dead unless you build your feed yourself, that's really bad and explains why people got into bluesky instead of mastodon.
Also if you want to have mass appeal you don't expect people to have a boring app and understand the "new paradigm" -
@smallcircles Fedi (feeee diiiiii) is coming like a ghost town. All the clubs have been closed down.
@RolloTreadway thank you.
That poses the question if that is just at the town where you are at, or all across the fediverse countryside.
The analogy with towns, villages and cities breaks down here. On the fediverse we have this social fabric we weave ourselves that determines the city or village we want to live in. By carefully curating our own following and followers. I call this Personal social networking..
How We Reimagine the Social Web
We find novel ways to collaborate and create value together.
Social coding commons (coding.social)
It would be an interesting experiment if by doing some curation and turning it into habit to garden your connections, you can arrive again in the village or city that is to your preferences.
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@smallcircles everything you said can still be achieved with a customisable algo or litterally two tabs in the app : one with the chronological algorithm (still an algo btw) and one with the customized feed with your interests.
Without the second one the app is dead unless you build your feed yourself, that's really bad and explains why people got into bluesky instead of mastodon.
Also if you want to have mass appeal you don't expect people to have a boring app and understand the "new paradigm"What is mass appeal though? In our little analogy we might call it Urbanization. And to the extent that that applies, it does not have only positve effects, on the contrary.
Algorithms are railways and highways, and while they may bring what we call 'modern life', there's a cost to that. Urban life, the rat race, not knowing your neighbor, pursuit of vain things and status, following the latest trend just to feel you still belong, are a player.
Algorithmic support to our new and diferent social networking landscape will come, but it may be good if that happens by slow growth and gradual evolution, so the culture can catch up and not deteriorate rapidly by inrush of city dwellers all over the country side and littering it beauty with trash, so to speak.
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@RolloTreadway thank you.
That poses the question if that is just at the town where you are at, or all across the fediverse countryside.
The analogy with towns, villages and cities breaks down here. On the fediverse we have this social fabric we weave ourselves that determines the city or village we want to live in. By carefully curating our own following and followers. I call this Personal social networking..
How We Reimagine the Social Web
We find novel ways to collaborate and create value together.
Social coding commons (coding.social)
It would be an interesting experiment if by doing some curation and turning it into habit to garden your connections, you can arrive again in the village or city that is to your preferences.
@smallcircles I'm sorry. I was making a joke reference to the Specials song Ghost Town. My brain mostly thinks in songs.
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@smallcircles I'm sorry. I was making a joke reference to the Specials song Ghost Town. My brain mostly thinks in songs.
@RolloTreadway ah, nice. I did not know that song, ha ha.
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What is mass appeal though? In our little analogy we might call it Urbanization. And to the extent that that applies, it does not have only positve effects, on the contrary.
Algorithms are railways and highways, and while they may bring what we call 'modern life', there's a cost to that. Urban life, the rat race, not knowing your neighbor, pursuit of vain things and status, following the latest trend just to feel you still belong, are a player.
Algorithmic support to our new and diferent social networking landscape will come, but it may be good if that happens by slow growth and gradual evolution, so the culture can catch up and not deteriorate rapidly by inrush of city dwellers all over the country side and littering it beauty with trash, so to speak.
@smallcircles i recommend this video explaining my point. (search on peertube even in the app is still so bad when it's such a good platform it's a shame) https://video.fedihost.co/w/a1522517-704e-44a3-aa0e-5c4e7d49e7d1
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@smallcircles i recommend this video explaining my point. (search on peertube even in the app is still so bad when it's such a good platform it's a shame) https://video.fedihost.co/w/a1522517-704e-44a3-aa0e-5c4e7d49e7d1
@fwtl thank you!
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@fwtl thank you!
Note btw, that for the most part algorithms are not causing the issue of bad integrations between apps. These are due to the pragmatic nature in which our current app-centric fediverse evolves, i.e. by means of post-facto interoperability. Here app developers focus on getting app features on the wire, and whomever first succeeds in making their new custom protocol extension to become popular, becomes the de-facto standard for that feature. And everyone else should "follow the leader" or push themselves out of mainstream fediverse adoption, into their own app niche.
This is not a sustainable path, and I am among years-long advocates that we should do better in how we collectively evolve the fedi, so that it can truly become the social networking of the future. See also my posts from last week, like:
🫧 socialcoding.. (@smallcircles@social.coop)
#ThoughtProvoker :blobhyperthink: The current fediverse is an evolutionary dead-end for 2 reasons: 1. It has painted itself in a small niche of decentralizing typical social media use cases, by means of post-facto interop and the introduction of protocol decay. 2. Lacking a proper grassroots standardization process, and with the primary mechanism for fediverse extension being only post-facto interoperability, there is no way out. Congratulations to the early adopters, who managed to "cross the chasm" with their own app platforms. It took true grit to become deep #ActivityPub experts, and plug holes needed for your app, but you have made it. Post-facto interop works in your favor now. You are unrestrained to productively add more features in your app, and put them on the fedi wire for others to deal with. To avoid fedi to become less and less attractive to newcomers, we must now consider: “Why do we want to grow the open social web, and for whom?” -- @ben@werd.social http://coding.social/blog/shared-ownership/
social.coop (social.coop)
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@smallcircles everything you said can still be achieved with a customisable algo or litterally two tabs in the app : one with the chronological algorithm (still an algo btw) and one with the customized feed with your interests.
Without the second one the app is dead unless you build your feed yourself, that's really bad and explains why people got into bluesky instead of mastodon.
Also if you want to have mass appeal you don't expect people to have a boring app and understand the "new paradigm"@fwtl @smallcircles there’s a third path to avoid empty timelines vs ‘build your own’ and ‘algorithm’ - packs, which is what the Mastodon team are focussing on .. https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/10/our-ideas-about-packs/.
Because I saw your post and thought ‘oh but my timeline isn’t quiet’.. but rather than you having to find those 100s of accounts to follow to make it interesting, a pack supports different lists of accounts based on different interests. If they get it right (as they’ve got quotes right imho) then it could be really nice, and still no algo.
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Complete this sentence:
"I experience #fediverse as a .."
For me, it is bustling! Loads of interesting people, with lots of clever, funny, curious etc. things to say.
Best of all, the lack of content promotion / selection algorithms, and instead a simple, chronological, algorithm coupled with filters, means I mainly see stuff of interest to me.
Genuinely, the best social media experience that I've had in a long, long time!
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@fwtl yes, I'm quite positively surprised at all the good social experiences people have.
> An algo is a tool that can be used for good and the lack of one is really big problem for normies
I don't think that is necessarily the case, more so than that we are dealing with different social networking paradigms. And when people do not realize that, their expectations are off. I call this paradigm #PersonalSocialNetworking..
How We Reimagine the Social Web
We find novel ways to collaborate and create value together.
Social coding commons (coding.social)
Hopping from #twitter to #mastodon is not just switching to another microblogging platform, that happens to be decentralized. The lack of algorithm gives an opportunity as well as a responsibility in order to get the most out of the fediverse: you are in control and should curate your own feed. By choosing who you follow, you shape your own village, and over time you may nurture it into a bustling city you are part of.
Algo's may help, but it is more Starter packs and app websites that can do a better introduction to fediverse social media.
> I'm quite positively surprised at all the good social experiences people have.
Really?! This surprises me, but then perhaps I am biased precisely because I am one of those people.
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Complete this sentence:
"I experience #fediverse as a .."
@smallcircles a quaint town
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Complete this sentence:
"I experience #fediverse as a .."
@smallcircles cozy village when I interact with my server or closer servers, more or less a small group of people, bustling city when I explore all the rest
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Complete this sentence:
"I experience #fediverse as a .."
@smallcircles "I experience the Fediverse as the original promise of the internet" : genuine human connections without the interference of corporate interests (or algorithmic manipulation)
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Complete this sentence:
"I experience #fediverse as a .."
@smallcircles
city, but quiet weekend city time -
Complete this sentence:
"I experience #fediverse as a .."
@smallcircles A big village with highly motivated and sometimes obsessive communities with specialist interests but plenty of shared fun.
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> I'm quite positively surprised at all the good social experiences people have.
Really?! This surprises me, but then perhaps I am biased precisely because I am one of those people.
Don't get me wrong. I am one of those people too. My social experience is a cozy village, and I love to be on the microblogs, roam the timelines.
But there is also an ugly underbelly to our onlline cultures that is not properly acknowledged and discussed, let alone deep reflection on how to bring improvements. The fediverse is first of all a technosphere. Tech is created, rolled out, and culture must adapt accordingly. Externalities and unwanted side-effects are to be dealt with later, which is not easy in an app-centric fediverse where individual devs are in the lead of making feature decisions.
As an aside see this toot: https://social.coop/@smallcircles/116109447243110037
Just below the warm and fluffy surface of the cozy fedi culture there are parasocial tendencies and behavioral anti-patterns that make fedi a de-facto unsafe environment. If you don't know the mine fields and eggshells to walk on in certain areas, you may face harsh unexpected consequences, fedidrama.
We can do much better.
