Is there a "discovery problem" in the fediverse?

[robtherunt@cupoftea.social]

@neil
Same here.

I’ve discovered so many interesting things and people while on here that I just didn’t in other places.

Like you for instance

[_ad@hachyderm.io]

@neil You and me both. I guess we're outliers because we actually put some effort into the process.

[zymurgic@mastodon.online]

@TimWardCam @neil friends I had lost contact with decades ago found me on Mastodon, mostly through shared interest hashtags, so it can't be that hard.

[neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk]

I will probably give Collections a try, just to see what it is like if nothing else.

And perhaps my perspective is skewed by having been here for a Very Long Time, and so I've had the chance to build up a feed of interesting and entertaining people (and you).

[pluvialgeist@fe.disroot.org]

@neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk in my experience, the ease or difficulty of discovery in the Fediverse depends a great deal on the software being used to interact with the Fedi.

Discovery through Mastodon and Mastodon forks is a breeze with the ability to follow hashtags, which surface new posts from people I'd never have found otherwise. I've had much less success with discovery using Misskey (and forks), Pleroma (and forks), and Friendica.

Of course, there are the other methods of discovery you describe, but nothing has been as reliably fruitful for me as hashtags followed from my Mastodon accounts.

[jalefkowit@vmst.io]

@neil All of these things depend on a certain degree of existing engagement, which means they're not very helpful for people who are brand new here. If you're not following anyone, you won't see any boosts, for instance.

When I first got here nine years ago the way you got over that bootstrap problem was just following anyone from the local and global feeds who looked even vaguely interesting, and then dropping the ones who turned out to be less interesting than they looked. That worked for me, but it requires a commitment I can understand a new user not really wanting to put in.

[neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk]

@jalefkowit

> following anyone from the local and global feeds who looked even vaguely interesting, and then dropping the ones who turned out to be less interesting

Snap!

[benjamineskola@hachyderm.io]

@neil my experience is similar. If anything I think I have to control the number of people I follow so it doesn’t get out of hand.

But perhaps that requires building up a critical mass. If you’re not following anybody at all, or only a small number of low-frequency posters, it might take longer to get to that point, which I imagine can be discouraging.

(I also used some recommender services when I started out, but even those require some initial follows.)

[vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de]

@neil you have to put effort into discovering people and/or monitoring timelines.

Its not a coincidence that there's a vast amount of radio amateurs / enthusiasts, both licensed hams and those from pirate/CB/scanner scenes who have flocked to the Fediverse, as we grew up searching for signals (especially unusual ones)...

[timwardcam@c.im]

@zymurgic @neil Also through mutual acquaintances - it's a small world.

(For example, how many people are there between me and Epstein? - one, because I once had to shake hands with Mandelson.)

[samloonie@mstdn.ca]

@neil Mastodon dot social turned off the local instance feed because it had become an unreadable firehose of toots.
Unlike a small instance with a community of sorts, where the local feed has useful content for a new user, M dot Soc now has nothing. It's extremely quiet and only the Trending feed has anything in it.

[sylvie@gabriel.havfruefestning.com]

@neil As someone who has been here a long time and likes to tinker with various fedi-platforms, yes. As an example… GoToSocial is technically in beta, but if you are running your own instance and so on, your server discovery may not be great. For example, as I was adding accounts to follow after starting a new server, accounts I knew existed on those same servers wouldn’t come up with a basic handle search, I had to use a fully qualified name for a good while. If you join an existing server you’re not going to see this issue as much.

The indieweb has web rings and blog rolls which I quite like for finding similar things amidst all the slop on the web these days, so having something similar directly within Mastodon rather than having to scroll through dozens of retoots I feel is much appreciated to quickly finding your people as it were.

[feff@comicscamp.club]

@neil For a lot of people starting out it can be intimidating and not quite as clear on how to discover, I think for me it was made easier that some people I knew had moved over when I joined so the discovery can be organic like yours but for others it's not.

I do like bsky's "starter packs" as people to consider following - but it does take me quite some time to whip up the courage to reply to people I follow even now ^^;