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Algorithm-driven Mastodon timelines? [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2022-12-19

Whut? Oh hell no! Didn’t we finally say goodbye to our abusive ‘interests’ curator?

We did say goodbye to Twitter’s proprietary algorithm. The one that was finely-tuned to deliver maximum profit and ‘engagement’ to Twitter’s owners without regard to the damage to our society and individual health. And good riddance.

But there’s already a new kid on the block vying for your attention, except this time the ball will be in your court. Today, a Mastodon algorithm plugin announced and will be available on Github shortly. At this time, it is primarily geared toward developers, but I think it’s important that the user community begin to think about the implications and the possibilities.

I have only just begun to review the code, but fundamentally it is intended to offer (eventually) similar functionality as Twitter’s algorithm, with one enormous difference: you, the user, will control the algorithm configuration.

I am actually optimistic about the possibilities — I think that, properly implemented, user-defined algorithms can allow us to begin to use social media much more as a tool with well-defined goals and boundaries.

Maybe you’re interested in social media interactions only during certain times of the day. Or you’d like the algorithm to seek out new accounts and/or hashtags associated with your interests and present them to you for manual curation. The key being that nobody else determines what’s in your interest. You do.

I’m interested in working with the development code, because I’d like to see something that a relatively non-technical user could work with, somewhat similar to the way Outlook mail filters work (a stretch, I know, but you get the idea).

Not much of an article, I know. But I feel this could soon lead to fundamental changes in the way we use Mastodon. I can’t speak for the other popular social media services. My hope is that they might offer similar functionality, and keep their mitts off user’s algorithms. :) I really do think it could lead to a better experience for all of us.

Please share your thoughts on the subject, or any ideas that you have for how algorithms might be used as a force for good, instead of profit (for others).

I’ll just drop a plug in here for a fediverse-oriented tech news site: https://www.techmeme.com/

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/19/2141894/-Algorithm-driven-Mastodon-timelines

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