Mastodon and Pixelfed got a short mention on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
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You’re very fixated on something we all agree with and missing the thrust of the point.
People want an algorithm, whether it’s parasitic or manipulative or whatever. Most people do not care enough to object. They will pick it over a mastodon/lemmy/etc experience to get curation. That’s all we’re saying
I'm carrying on multiple conversations in this thread, so I'll just copy what I said in a different thread:
Of course people like these features, these algorithms are literally trained to maximize how likable their recommendations are.
It’s like how people like heroin because it perfectly fits our opioid receptors. The problem is that you can’t simply trust that the person giving you heroin will always have your best interests in mind.
I understand that the vast majority of people are simply going to follow the herd and use the thing that is most like Twitter, recommendation feed and all. However, I also believe that it is a bad decision on their part and that the companies that are intaking all of these people into their alternative social networks are just going to be part of the problem in the future.
We, as the people who are actively thinking about this topic (as opposed to the people just moving to the blue Twitter because it's the current popular meme in the algorithm), should be considering the difference between good recommendation algorithm use and abusive use.
Having social media be controlled by private entities which use black box recommendation algorithms should be seen as unacceptable, even if people like it. Bluesky's user growth is fundamentally due to people recognizing that Twitter's systems are being used to push content that they disagree with. Except they're simply moving to another private social media network that's one sale away from being the next X.
It'd be like living under a dictatorship and deciding that you've had enough so you're going to move to the dictatorship next door. It may be a short-term improvement, but it doesn't quite address the fundamental problem that you're choosing to live in a dictatorship.
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What's non-political content, Lemmy?
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Non-political Lemmy is... Bluesky?
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I'm carrying on multiple conversations in this thread, so I'll just copy what I said in a different thread:
Of course people like these features, these algorithms are literally trained to maximize how likable their recommendations are.
It’s like how people like heroin because it perfectly fits our opioid receptors. The problem is that you can’t simply trust that the person giving you heroin will always have your best interests in mind.
I understand that the vast majority of people are simply going to follow the herd and use the thing that is most like Twitter, recommendation feed and all. However, I also believe that it is a bad decision on their part and that the companies that are intaking all of these people into their alternative social networks are just going to be part of the problem in the future.
We, as the people who are actively thinking about this topic (as opposed to the people just moving to the blue Twitter because it's the current popular meme in the algorithm), should be considering the difference between good recommendation algorithm use and abusive use.
Having social media be controlled by private entities which use black box recommendation algorithms should be seen as unacceptable, even if people like it. Bluesky's user growth is fundamentally due to people recognizing that Twitter's systems are being used to push content that they disagree with. Except they're simply moving to another private social media network that's one sale away from being the next X.
It'd be like living under a dictatorship and deciding that you've had enough so you're going to move to the dictatorship next door. It may be a short-term improvement, but it doesn't quite address the fundamental problem that you're choosing to live in a dictatorship.
My dude I agree with you we are saying that we need to fulfill the request for an algorithm.
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Wish I did! I know lemmy has https://lemmyverse.net which seems accurate. Maybe others can chime in?
Ive been keeping my eye on fedidb for a time, after they stated we had over 12 million users...then it dropped off to 11 almost overnight. It did some retroactive counting. I then looked at software in general and found they are not counting things correctly. Some things overestimating wildly (like the example above) and some its not indexing at all.
I guess there's also Fediverse Observer:
https://fediverse.observer/statsThey put the whole Fediverse at 1.38M active, so a bit lower than Fedidb. Might be more accurate.
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I guess there's also Fediverse Observer:
https://fediverse.observer/statsThey put the whole Fediverse at 1.38M active, so a bit lower than Fedidb. Might be more accurate.
Interesting. I hope so.
I cant find GotoSocial so I cant check the above server I used as an example. However I do have a couple of servers. Let me see if they show up.
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It's Twitter 2.0. It's what the average person wants. It's popular because it has algorithms and all the other addictive things from corporate social media.
Mastodon and others don't have these things and are harder to get started with. Picking a server is weird and scary. After that, getting your home feed started is difficult if you don't know to just follow some hashtags.
Plus, you could pick a server that quashes free speech (looking at you .world)
(Yes. I know I’m guilty too)
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Non-political Lemmy is... Bluesky?
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Better marketing, better UI, lots of users, and plenty of non-political content.
Fediverse is intimidating to normies.
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Fediverse is intimidating to normies.
"Email is hard!"
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It's Twitter 2.0. It's what the average person wants. It's popular because it has algorithms and all the other addictive things from corporate social media.
Mastodon and others don't have these things and are harder to get started with. Picking a server is weird and scary. After that, getting your home feed started is difficult if you don't know to just follow some hashtags.
Its better than nothing though. The fediverse wasn't catching on. We're lucky a worse alternative didn't gain traction instead.
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Then you're the target audience for Bluesky and similar. Mastodon and other fediverse sites don't have that and that's what most of the people here prefer.
I forgot about Lemmy for a few days just because it's not so addictive and I like that. It's actually refreshing when you realise you've been gone for a few days without missing it.
Yes! I used to open reddit instinctivly when I was bored.
I do find lemmy more entertaining, just less addictive.
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