"The death of the newsfeed" by Benedict Evans https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2018/4/2/the-death-of-the-newsfeed
This makes an interesting case against the chronological timeline.
I think on Mastodon anyway, lists are what make the chronological timeline usable. Right now I have a curated list of 10-15 people who I think are really interesting, and whose toots I don't want to miss.
Whereas the Home timeline is more like this big gushing river I can dip my toes into every once in awhile when I'm bored. And if I miss something, no big deal.
Having accounts on different instances is also a great way to tame the chronological timeline. My mastodon.social and freedom.horse timelines are pure silliness, which I occasionally need as a respite from the dry tech stuff I follow on toot.cafe.
Evans' point about how "normal people" don't want to curate their feeds is probably right, though. Algorithmic timelines offer the tantalizing possibility that you can have your cake and eat it too. "Follow as many people as you want! We'll just show you the good stuff."
When I was on Twitter I totally fell into that trap, following 1000+ people and just hoping the algorithm would take care of the noise. Unfortunately once you've reached that point, it's almost impossible to switch to curation.
Maybe someday Mastodon could have an algorithmic timeline. At least unlike Twitter/Facebook, it'd be open-source and auditable. But I kind of suspect most Mastodonians would rebel against that, since they're explicitly joining Mastodon because they want *more* control over their online feeds.
I guess the question is whether curation/filing really is for the geeks and the power users, and "normal" people will always want an algorithm to do the work for them.
@nolan oh god please bless fedeverse without any algorithms
@EdwardTorvalds @nolan Oh yes, Mastodon must keep the chronological timeline! 🙏 I'd only like to see the 'algorithms' if they're user-defined and user-controlled. i.e. In the form of optional tools such as extra filters. (Could think of it like "Power Lists") 🤔...
@peter @nolan @EdwardTorvalds I recently heard the idea of an 'algorithm marketplace' where users can opt for a different model if 'likes & reshares' isn't their thing. The idea of per-user algorithmic systems appeals...
I'd definitely like to see an inversion of the current standard model - if I like something, show me less of it. Challenge my world view; help me fix my cognitive bias ;)
All of this has to be under users control, of course!
@gwmngilfen @EdwardTorvalds @nolan @peter A bit like https://gobo.social which offers tunable algorithms.
@gwmngilfen @EdwardTorvalds @nolan @22 Reminds me that I used to use Zite a lot before it shut down, but I always wanted more "power user" features, like the ability to say "less of this" / "more of that" - but with the insight to see what values that was actually changing under the hood (e.g. ontology weightings) and change them directly if I wanted too. (Been on my "ideas" list to try making something like that for years but never got round to it 😄)
@peter @22 @nolan @EdwardTorvalds if we're wishlisting stuff, can we also get a local AI for labelling email? I'm sure it'd be better than constructing 284746 filter rules :)
@22 @peter @nolan @EdwardTorvalds ooh that's interesting. Seems to rely on other social media accounts though, which I don't have ;)
I've also always liked the idea of an RSS bot (or similar) with Bayesian filtering or machine learning, so I can subscribe to way more than I'll read, and tune my own feed... Maybe I should investigate that a bit more...