Is #mastodon becoming an echo chamber?
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Is #mastodon becoming an echo chamber? This post from @carnage4life has me questioning our community. The Mastodon team is finally getting some traction, the product improvements are increasing, The #UX is improving, yet people posting on multiple platforms are making comments like this. It's confusing.
I *know* people here don't want this to be a classic social media-clone but we'd *like* journalists to be here right? They aren't coming with examples like this!
- The German part of my timeline has quite a lot of posts on local and national politics. English, not so much.
- Many programmers I guess? My programming posts seem to get most boast and likes, design and social research is very soso (despite being on an hci instance!) -
@scottjenson We want opportunity to have those things. But if they don’t come here… oh well.
It’s not gate keeping if some sorts of content simply don’t work well with the ecosystem.
Why are you wanting to chase growth? Why do you feel *this* is the issue, for example, and not the long storied history of neglecting Black voices in this space? As an example.
@mattwilcox I'm not "chasing growth" I'm saying the community is slowly leaving and I'd like to not ignore that fact. That's a VERY different framing of the problem!
I'm shocked you think neglected Black voices doesn't fit within my concern, it's exactly the same concern. Black voices were chased off this platform for nearly identical reasons so I'm massively confused you think I care about one and not the other.
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@ben But that's the very definition of a mono-culture. A vibrant community allows all of these topics, encourages them even. Then, with filters, who you follow, hashtags, and blocking you get the feed you want.
To get the culture you want by cutting off the supply is counter productive.
@scottjenson But I get pushed US politics all day by the main stream media & I'm not even in the US & current politics (here & there) is heavily slanted towards manufactured wedge issues.
AI is a similar, for me the moral and environmental arguments against are plenty before we get into the rest, yet as I work in software it's impossible to get away from.
So I come to a place where I can choose not to engage with it, I block/mute very little, I mainly ignore it if it ends up in my feed.
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@scottjenson But I get pushed US politics all day by the main stream media & I'm not even in the US & current politics (here & there) is heavily slanted towards manufactured wedge issues.
AI is a similar, for me the moral and environmental arguments against are plenty before we get into the rest, yet as I work in software it's impossible to get away from.
So I come to a place where I can choose not to engage with it, I block/mute very little, I mainly ignore it if it ends up in my feed.
@scottjenson But also I think that it's not a valid comparison those other sites all have algorithms that deliberately push stuff into people's feeds because "engagement/outrage" drives ad revenue.
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@scottjenson But I get pushed US politics all day by the main stream media & I'm not even in the US & current politics (here & there) is heavily slanted towards manufactured wedge issues.
AI is a similar, for me the moral and environmental arguments against are plenty before we get into the rest, yet as I work in software it's impossible to get away from.
So I come to a place where I can choose not to engage with it, I block/mute very little, I mainly ignore it if it ends up in my feed.
@ben and I want to support you, you have every right to view what you want. I'm not asking you to see anything you don't want.
I'm just saying that solving this issue by gatekeeping is a slippery slope. We need better filtering tools, not a purity test of who is allowed to post here.
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@scottjenson But also I think that it's not a valid comparison those other sites all have algorithms that deliberately push stuff into people's feeds because "engagement/outrage" drives ad revenue.
@ben Exactly. That lack is something we should be proud of.
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@ben and I want to support you, you have every right to view what you want. I'm not asking you to see anything you don't want.
I'm just saying that solving this issue by gatekeeping is a slippery slope. We need better filtering tools, not a purity test of who is allowed to post here.
@scottjenson I may have miss understood the initial post, I'm not suggesting the journalists shouldn't post, just that I think their engagement measurement may not be the right metric (but it is the one they are used to)
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Is #mastodon becoming an echo chamber? This post from @carnage4life has me questioning our community. The Mastodon team is finally getting some traction, the product improvements are increasing, The #UX is improving, yet people posting on multiple platforms are making comments like this. It's confusing.
I *know* people here don't want this to be a classic social media-clone but we'd *like* journalists to be here right? They aren't coming with examples like this!
As this conversation is spiraling a bit I want to make a few things clear:
1. I'd like Mastodon to be MORE inclusive and bring in more voices
2. Some people don't seem to want that
3. This is core problem to solve: How do we let more in, but not "pollute" your feed?
4. The solution is NOT "gatekeeping", revelling in the fact that AI journalists aren't welcome
5. This is the same reason we lost "Black Twitter" when it came over in 2022Yes, a lot of you don't want AI posts in your feed (or pick any other topic) but the solution isn't to keep "AI People" from joining Mastodon, any more than it is keeping marginalized communities off of Mastodon.
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As this conversation is spiraling a bit I want to make a few things clear:
1. I'd like Mastodon to be MORE inclusive and bring in more voices
2. Some people don't seem to want that
3. This is core problem to solve: How do we let more in, but not "pollute" your feed?
4. The solution is NOT "gatekeeping", revelling in the fact that AI journalists aren't welcome
5. This is the same reason we lost "Black Twitter" when it came over in 2022Yes, a lot of you don't want AI posts in your feed (or pick any other topic) but the solution isn't to keep "AI People" from joining Mastodon, any more than it is keeping marginalized communities off of Mastodon.
@scottjenson fedi has been an echo chamber as long as I've been here
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As this conversation is spiraling a bit I want to make a few things clear:
1. I'd like Mastodon to be MORE inclusive and bring in more voices
2. Some people don't seem to want that
3. This is core problem to solve: How do we let more in, but not "pollute" your feed?
4. The solution is NOT "gatekeeping", revelling in the fact that AI journalists aren't welcome
5. This is the same reason we lost "Black Twitter" when it came over in 2022Yes, a lot of you don't want AI posts in your feed (or pick any other topic) but the solution isn't to keep "AI People" from joining Mastodon, any more than it is keeping marginalized communities off of Mastodon.
@scottjenson I’m not interested in following any “AI people”. That doesn’t make it an echo chamber. We don’t need equal amounts of people who love puppies and want to kill puppies, not everything needs to be equally represented.
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@mattwilcox I'm not "chasing growth" I'm saying the community is slowly leaving and I'd like to not ignore that fact. That's a VERY different framing of the problem!
I'm shocked you think neglected Black voices doesn't fit within my concern, it's exactly the same concern. Black voices were chased off this platform for nearly identical reasons so I'm massively confused you think I care about one and not the other.
@scottjenson That’s not an observation about your stance specifically but that of Mastodon as a larger entity. It is undeniable that there have been many years of failure to listen to Black voices, which led to the massive disparity in representation here. I would far rather *that* get listened to than the concern about what boil down to corporate representation.
It’s not that journalists etc can’t post here. If the value they cared about was information dissemination they’d do it already.
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@scottjenson I may have miss understood the initial post, I'm not suggesting the journalists shouldn't post, just that I think their engagement measurement may not be the right metric (but it is the one they are used to)
@scottjenson @ben couldn’t agree more. Dare is an interesting character but he spray posts across platforms and is only able to engage so much, which results in engagement focussed elsewhere. I honestly thought the account here was a bot, which it sort of is.
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@scottjenson I’m not interested in following any “AI people”. That doesn’t make it an echo chamber. We don’t need equal amounts of people who love puppies and want to kill puppies, not everything needs to be equally represented.
@Gargron That is a personal choice and one which I totally respect. But I do think Mastodon should be big enough, and open enough, to allow an "AI community" to form, even thrive.
Too many people in my replies don't seem to agree with that.
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@Gargron That is a personal choice and one which I totally respect. But I do think Mastodon should be big enough, and open enough, to allow an "AI community" to form, even thrive.
Too many people in my replies don't seem to agree with that.
@scottjenson @Gargron I'd have to ask, what value would an an AI Booster community bring to the FediVerse?
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@Gargron That is a personal choice and one which I totally respect. But I do think Mastodon should be big enough, and open enough, to allow an "AI community" to form, even thrive.
Too many people in my replies don't seem to agree with that.
@scottjenson It's not that people who want to talk about AI aren't allowed. They're on here.
Most of us just don't want to follow them because it's tedious.
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@Gargron That is a personal choice and one which I totally respect. But I do think Mastodon should be big enough, and open enough, to allow an "AI community" to form, even thrive.
Too many people in my replies don't seem to agree with that.
@scottjenson @Gargron it if's a community comprised of ai I'm fine with it. if it's techbros abusing ai then meh
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Is #mastodon becoming an echo chamber? This post from @carnage4life has me questioning our community. The Mastodon team is finally getting some traction, the product improvements are increasing, The #UX is improving, yet people posting on multiple platforms are making comments like this. It's confusing.
I *know* people here don't want this to be a classic social media-clone but we'd *like* journalists to be here right? They aren't coming with examples like this!
@scottjenson @carnage4life The mute function is strong in mastodon so I don’t see certain posts which means less likes and interactions. I have it set to completely hide in my timelines.
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Is #mastodon becoming an echo chamber? This post from @carnage4life has me questioning our community. The Mastodon team is finally getting some traction, the product improvements are increasing, The #UX is improving, yet people posting on multiple platforms are making comments like this. It's confusing.
I *know* people here don't want this to be a classic social media-clone but we'd *like* journalists to be here right? They aren't coming with examples like this!
If you're all about the likes, boosts, and replies, I'm not here for you and won't follow. Same if you boost/post excessively to get attention.
If you're here only to drive traffic to your website, there's a good chance I'll mute or block you.
If you'e not using hashtags, I'll have a hard time discovering you.
If you're posting to start a discussion and participate in that discussion, you've got my attention so long as I find the topic and discussion interesting.
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@scottjenson @Gargron I'd have to ask, what value would an an AI Booster community bring to the FediVerse?
@cratermoon @scottjenson @Gargron This is a very rich ethics question hidden in a specific example.
Would you permit or allow any community with which you disagree to participate on a platform, even if you’re not forced to participate?
A shortlist of thought experiments, to broaden the perspective, some of which are already here, some not…
- The oil & gas community
- Forestry workers (logging)
- The cryptocurrency community
- Workers at a chick rendering plant
- The finance industry
- Adult content creators
- Religious communitiesIs there a litmus test for topics that you can or can’t discuss on the fediverse? Specific servers sure, but the whole fediverse?
Does that align with the values put forth by mastodon or the fediverse in general?
I don’t have the answers.
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As this conversation is spiraling a bit I want to make a few things clear:
1. I'd like Mastodon to be MORE inclusive and bring in more voices
2. Some people don't seem to want that
3. This is core problem to solve: How do we let more in, but not "pollute" your feed?
4. The solution is NOT "gatekeeping", revelling in the fact that AI journalists aren't welcome
5. This is the same reason we lost "Black Twitter" when it came over in 2022Yes, a lot of you don't want AI posts in your feed (or pick any other topic) but the solution isn't to keep "AI People" from joining Mastodon, any more than it is keeping marginalized communities off of Mastodon.
@scottjenson I really appreciate you advocating for a flexible and inclusive platform. I don't know what to do, but I support the mission. I'd love to see everyone on for-profit social media take collective ownership of their platforms. I'd love Mastadon to be welcoming to all sorts of people.
Based on your replies (including the founder of Mastodon!) I'm not optimistic that this platform will ever grow beyond niche microblogging for losers.
