wjs018 PieFed
Nemeski10 Comments
Comments from other communities
Personally I think the whole idea of packs is somewhat of a distraction, sure it helped Bluesky but also picking Bluesky because of packs was an easy way to justify being a sheep without having to admit it… which is fine but I doubt people are going to engage with the same energy with it when Mastodon isn’t something people are looking for an excuse to rationalize blindly following influencers too that feels more substantial than the truth. On the other hand this is really the only business model Bluesky has, selling a vibe of being in an elite club.
I am not against packs, not at all! I just think it was mostly a marketing vector/tagline for Bluesky.
I ended up getting TONS of followers from starter packs on Bluesky, so I followed a lot of them back. What I ended up with was a massive circle of people I have nothing in common with other than some shitposts here and there. And then I deleted my Bluesky a couple months later anyway lol I don’t know where I’m going with this. I guess that it kind of made everything a mess.
Seems like a good idea, although a simple, configurable algorithm would also be nice.
You select one or several topics, and it shows you popular posts in that category.
I guess in a way that’s what it offers, just that instead of an algorithm it’s human curated. Mastodon is a lot about boosts, so following someone doesn’t mean just following them, but also being subjected to whatever they boost (unless you silence their boosts of course). So if you’re interested in pottery and you follow a pottery starter pack, chances are that feed will end up a curated channel of pottery content.
The great thing is that it has quality control and cannot be abused the same way algorithmic feeds always end up being. The funky thing is, of course, that you also end up being exposed to everything else those people are interested in. But I think that’s part of what makes Mastodon feels so nice.
I see what you mean, but it’s never worked as well for me as a simple, well designed algorithm or even bsluesky feeds, or, incidentally, lemmy communities.
I wish there was something like this for tags. So: display only posts that contain tag X, but sort them with some algorithm. Ideally: steered by number of likes and date of adding. May be even the same that is used by Lemmy.
That’s what I want, it could be implemented like bluesky feeds, where you choose the tags and words you want included, and then choose what kind of ordering you want!
FYI all the Mastodon team is looking for feedback on featured collections (aka “starter packs") so they may check in on this post 🙂
Bluesky pioneered, eh? I distinctly remember using a feature called “circles” on Google+ back in 2011. It allowed people to create arbitrary “circles” of people, share them and have others bulk-follow/unfollow the people from a circle. It worked incredibly well and Google+ became a lively social network even with its small userbase at the time.
Interestingly, the person who added these to Bluesky say they’re a bad idea: https://blue.mackuba.eu/skythread/?author=hailey.at&post=3m2mldbsmys2t
Congratulations, you’ve been included in the “Assholes” pack.
If you wish to be removed from the pack, you must write a letter explaining why we should remove you and mail it to the address listed below with an attached blood sample in a crystal vial packaged in a refrigerated container with proper padding fit for shipping.
Mastodon Inc,
228 East 45th Street Suite 9E
New York, New York 10017
Spoiler
Disclaimer: this is a joke not intended to convey anything.
I really don’t understand the point of packs when Mastodon has hashtag follows. Mastodon is already winning in terms of discovery here and in fact I still don’t use Bluesky because its impossible to discover content there.
On Bluesky you get a pack of people but in linear timelines the power spammers just take over and then you have to do all that personal curation anyway but it’s often even a worse starting point than just blank slate. With hashtag following I just subscribe to #fediverse and discover new content and creators organically.
Instead I’d like to see Mastodon commit more to organic discovery rather than consolidation of power users by expanding post classification system like using AI classification that attaches topic hashtags to posts etc to help users discover content they actually want to see not follow personalities.