pleroma.debian.social

I often read that Mastodon is too complicated for “normal” people. I’m curious: How tech savvy do you consider yourself to be?

I’d especially love to hear from #1 people.

My list of upcoming Mastodon improvements: https://2ality.com/2024/11/mastodon-weaknesses.html

Boosts appreciated, to get as varied a sample as possible!

@rauschma HTML is not programming☝️ *scnr* ;)

@rauschma User who programs (perl, python, shell, but never Javascript. HTML and CSS are not programming languages in the first place).

@rauschma Thanks for all your contributions. What would be really useful is to have a very basic algorithm that places the posts with the most boost by the ones *you* follow at the top, and to make it one of the default options, particularly for the new users. Not having any algorithm whatsoever is probably the reason many of my colleagues became completely inactive.

@geertaarts Interesting!

I’ve also seen comments from people who like that not having an algorithm (that mostly rewards drama) makes Mastodon more peaceful than, e.g., Facebook and Twitter.

What do these people miss most about algorithms?
– Finding the most relevant posts in their (busy) timeline.
– Discovering interesting posts elsewhere (while having an empty timeline)?

Well-designed algorithms could indeed be helpful.

@rauschma @geertaarts I’m going to hype the idea of a trust score to replace algorithms

You can set a “vouch value” for as many or as few people as you like — 0 to 100, or -100 to 100 so we can block others

Then inherit a proportion of that trust number via followers. It’s the “friends of friends” idea that worked well once before.

Plus “friends of enemies” works even more — as any former BBS sysop can tell you, you get more activity overall when you reject more bad activity

But we need something to replace the algorithm. Not everybody can do full timeline, or inbox zero.

(You control consumption by sliding a filter from 100)

@whophd @rauschma @geertaarts Computing a trust score IS an algorithm. Sorting according to the trust score IS an algorithm.

Algorithms are fine. The Internet and all of Informatics is based on them.

In social media, Algorithms should be open, documented, and optional.

@leyrer @rauschma True, HTML serves only one purpose: <script>

/sarcasm

@sils @leyrer @rauschma doesnt <script> begin a JavaScript?

@rauschma
There are other IT professionals who don't program.

@Boerps @rauschma This.

@rauschma I use IT “often” because it’s my job, but I’m not a developer. 🙄 I’m just developing anger issues when admins and security people are ignored.

@Zugschlus @sils @rauschma yes. and INSIDE that SGML Tag is JavaScript "code" ;)

@leyrer @sils @rauschma But it's not HTML. It's just an encapsulation.

@Zugschlus @sils @rauschma exactly. which is my point :)

@p1 Registrations aren't really "closed", we've just gone invite only for the time being. That being said, any member of the instance can generate an invite if you want one.

@rauschma