this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2024
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What are some ways you think discoverability might be improved across federated platforms? (lemm.ee)
submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/fediverse
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Discoverability in this context meaning the ability to more effectively find public communities/people of interest. Alongside improving this however, respecting people's decisions on whether and how they may be found, if at all.

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[–] Zak 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I've been finding discoverability pretty good on Lemmy, but maybe that's in part because the server I picked grew to be the largest not long after. Mastodon and the various microblog workalikes seem to have bigger problems there.

  • Backfill statuses when loading profiles from remote servers (Mastodon and workalikes)
  • Full text search, on by default, without a heavyweight dependency (Mastodon-specific)
  • Relay replies to all participants in a conversation (Mastodon)
  • An optional recommended feed with an algorithm (I know that's a bad word!) based on favorites and boosts by people who often favorite/boost the same things you do
[–] MajikalMonkey2000 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I think algorithms are fine if they're completely transparent and customizable. Knowing exactly why you're seeing what you're seeing and being able to choose different 'lenses' to view the fediverse through would be awesome. Just having some mixable sorting options would make a big difference on the microblog side.

I suppose we have some choice as certain fediverse platforms handle this slightly differently. However, I think a focus on user-driven algorithms could make these platforms even more compelling than they already are.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

I think algorithms are fine if they're completely transparent and customizable.

I think a focus on user-driven algorithms could make these platforms even more compelling than they already are.

Yeah, algorithms can be a problem when they are optimized for user-retention and profit, but algorithms aren't inherently evil. "New", "Top 24h", "Scaled", and "Hot", are all (simple) algorithms. More sorting and filtering options would be great.