BOOST OR QUOTE THIS!
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@meganmariehart
I think about “engagement” differently on Mastodon. Before the Elon-gation of Twitter I had more than 12k5 followers there (I left at that point!) Here I have fewer than a quarter of that number, but I feel far more engaged. People scrolling past one’s Tweets without even glancing at them counted as being ‘seen’ — a meaningless statistic!I'm kind of mixed. I'd rather have 10 comments than 100 boosts, but I'd rather have 10 boosts than one comment.
I don't know what that says about me.
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@futurebird Now, that’s an interesting perspective I hadn’t considered! As a performer, my main use of Mastodon besides playing games is to post “Look at what I will be doing“ and “Look at what I did”
… and “Look at my cat,” of course. -
… to demonstrate that Fediverse posts are worth the time and effort. Perhaps there is also an argument for a feature request: maybe there should be audience metrics for toots?! Though I imagine that could be difficult due to Federation. Again, I have no idea if one already gets numbers and insight by running an instance.)
Perhaps we can move beyond numbers in the long run, but for now, I fear people enjoy them even if they gain nothing from them. Kinda like a game highscore, I suppose.
7/7
@meganmariehart gamification is indeed a huge part of how the social media usage feedback loop works. LinkedIn and Reddit tell me not just how many people interacted with a contribution, but also how many people saw it. I often find those numbers more disheartening than encouraging (500 people saw a post, 0 commented and 10 responded with an emoji reaction?), but to each their own, it could be a useful feature for people that want to know the reach of their information.
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@meganmariehart I love what your end game here is; getting theaters involved in the Fediverse. I suspect that the metrics you're asking about are available to those running an instance. Otherwise, how would "Trending" be established. I think you need to talk to someone running their own instance. I think a good place to start would be https://fedi.tips/
@SteveJB Thank you, I bookmarked it! Another aspect was just mentioned to me offline: “metrics” might not be as important as “optics” – since German theaters are publicly funded and there are more and more elected officials here, being visible to them might end up being beneficial!
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(Nobody actually asked why, but I imagine someone must have thought it.) Curiosity is one reason, the other is a recent offline discussion about whether we are hindering a more wide spread adoption of the Fediverse because we dislike advertisements. It’s possible that brands and “influencer”-type people aren’t getting the kick they’re used to from the Fediverse because there are no metrics showing how many people have seen a post. Perhaps it’s different with your own instance – I don’t know!
2/7@meganmariehart
Influencers live on metrics.
They require numbers just to exist
Mastodon doesnt rate big numbers for influencing.
Probably because people dont fall for that bullshit here. -
Maybe I'm very strange but my metric for a post "doing well" is replies not likes or boosts.
A good post spawns a million threads and subthreads.
However, I'm on social media to ... socialize (crazy right?)
People who view social media as a publicity tool don't reply to posts, they don't even read their own replies. It's like they aren't even here.
Sad that on places like X/twitter replies were seen as a negative: a sign that people were angry at you. Dysfunctional.
"Maybe I'm very strange but my metric for a post "doing well" is replies ..."
Me too.
Some if this is valuing dialogue.And at a slightly different angle I'm getting interested in "What we know" as in "we the folk here and now". So "what is our common knowledge or combined knowledge?".
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@Sevapopov @meganmariehart I use hashtags because I and others follow them to find specific content. Some people block things like the name of the president to avoid seeing it. They are my favorite tool.
@farbel @Sevapopov @meganmariehart you may already be aware, but hashtags are the primary vehicle for searching on Fedi, thus, the primary mechanism for broadcasting topical content.
They also are "the algorithm" - there's nothing finding toots with engagement or funding and putting them in front of your eyes. Hashtags are it... And I honestly think that's a good thing, though I'd like better tools for consuming them.
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BOOST OR QUOTE THIS!
Trying to find out how many people see a post without hashtags. Thank you!
(edit: Why, you ask? Long thread coming up … 1/7)
@meganmariehart TL; DR what?
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@meganmariehart dont boosts also go against the 'i want to test the default reach of posts?'
boosting a post means it will show up in someones timeline, where it wouldnt have shown up in if not boosted
@44 Yes, in a way they would kinda defeat the purpose if I wanted the natural reach of a post, but how would I measure that?
Besides, I wanted to find out how well a post with some interesting content would do, in order to persuade people (or theaters) to join the Fediverse. Asking for it to be boosted or quoted seemed like a way to simulate an interesting post. Worked. -
@meganmariehart when you say "theater", I think "backstage" and 'images", and then maybe pixelfed instance in the end, not mastodon?
@zazoobred Pixelfed is not fully usabel for many, myself included, because it does not support text-only posts and the video and audio support is weird. One is not really federated if the majority of the Fediverse is inaccessible, methinks.
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@nakedhombre I read that post as a satire of social media "broadcasters". You will see if you read the thread.
@NatureMC “Like and subscribe”
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@nakedhombre I read that post as a satire of social media "broadcasters". You will see if you read the thread.
Petra van Cronenburg @meganmariehart Oh, I see. So it's perfectly alright to adopt the same "broadcaster" mentality and behaviour when it's "satire". So cute!
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@NatureMC “Like and subscribe”
@meganmariehart @NatureMC More like "Mute and block"
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Great way to put it! And I agree with both of you. Obviously it's a personal preference, but a like/favorite/boost can mean anything.
I'd rather know:
Did the person really like this? How much? What did they not like? How can I improve?
@stefan @futurebird @meganmariehart Thanks
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@meganmariehart the underlying protocol of Fediverse is not dependent on any tags. strictly saying it does not have tags at all. it works like email and delivery depends on user addresses ;like username+servername. if a connected user reposts or comments some post in Fediverse, there's a chance that his followers get a copy if the original post too, so posts spread across trhe different servers on Fediverse.
some platforms (like Mastodon) allow subscription to tags and some filtering on tags. others do not offer that features. but tags often may be used in seatch engines on servers and people may sort out messages with tags for easier search.@iron_bug Thank you! … this was supposed to be my day off, and here I am now, learning things!
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@meganmariehart can’t find the thread
️@chris Weird?! Maybe you got the original, unedited toot? The edit was:
“(edit: Why, you ask? Long thread coming up … 1/7)” and then I posted replies, starting here:
https://mastodon.social/@meganmariehart/116045519152035105 -
… to demonstrate that Fediverse posts are worth the time and effort. Perhaps there is also an argument for a feature request: maybe there should be audience metrics for toots?! Though I imagine that could be difficult due to Federation. Again, I have no idea if one already gets numbers and insight by running an instance.)
Perhaps we can move beyond numbers in the long run, but for now, I fear people enjoy them even if they gain nothing from them. Kinda like a game highscore, I suppose.
7/7
@meganmariehart I use hashtags when I want to boost visibility, but I find that you really need momentum from your followers to get real traction. I think the most engagement I've ever seen on here is about 25k likes+boosts+comments on a post.
I think there's also a dampening on metrics where if I boost or quote something, the engagement from me won't necessarily be added to the original post. I'm unsure of this but I've seen boosts from different people with different numbers.
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@chris Weird?! Maybe you got the original, unedited toot? The edit was:
“(edit: Why, you ask? Long thread coming up … 1/7)” and then I posted replies, starting here:
https://mastodon.social/@meganmariehart/116045519152035105@meganmariehart thanks, now I can see the thread! Much appreciated. (It might be my home server being a little slow, not sure.)
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(Nobody actually asked why, but I imagine someone must have thought it.) Curiosity is one reason, the other is a recent offline discussion about whether we are hindering a more wide spread adoption of the Fediverse because we dislike advertisements. It’s possible that brands and “influencer”-type people aren’t getting the kick they’re used to from the Fediverse because there are no metrics showing how many people have seen a post. Perhaps it’s different with your own instance – I don’t know!
2/7@meganmariehart this is an anti-influencer platform for sure, it requires so much more effort to have minimal reach unless you have a built-in audience. It's very much like real-life organization I guess, where you need to find your audience and help them engage more with you specifically. People don't often stumble upon your content organically unless they have a federated timeline, which is wild and full of dicks.
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@Kirsty The thing is this: few people complain here about posting about what you do.
There are instances like .art that seek creators who post about what they do.
What people do NOT tend to react well to is the language of avdertising. This can also be about what you do (e.g. LinkedIn), or specific events and services.
What @meganmariehart gets 100% right is behaving as a human being with a job she shows passion for, where she will show what she does.
I haven't yet encountered anyone...
I suspect that the example of .art and other interest/topic based instances could be a good in between place: If a mid to large sized arts funder/coordinator were to spin up an instance so that theatres and artists can have a presence without having to run their own instances, that might help bridge the gap.
In the comments I read chatter about the different houses you’ve engaged with: what if there was an opera.de instance (orchester.de or just KlassischeMusik.de)
A large enough category with a large enough geography to create internal activity and share the burden of host and moderating but small and local enough to keep a unique character.
