BOOST OR QUOTE THIS!
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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 people who want a kick from numbers instead of quality not coming here, isn't a downside but an advantage though.
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@meganmariehart people who want a kick from numbers instead of quality not coming here, isn't a downside but an advantage though.
@codeschubse Right, assuming getting a kick from numbers is somehow an inherent part of their personality. I’d like to believe that they would soon realise that meeting and interacting with real people enriches their lives more than numbers do. Anything I can say to convince people to leave the old socials is anecdotal, and I was hoping for a good anecdote from my post. I got it!
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@meganmariehart Are you aware of https://stootistics.web.app/ ?
@meganmariehart @sonjaschuh01 that tool cannot give a complete answer because it cannot see everyone’s follower lists (they can be set to be not shown to others)
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@sonjaschuh01 @meganmariehart something I discovered is that if you post a link to an image, hit count on the image gives you an idea of views. I post my photos that way, and it seems to track. The same principle as "pixel trackers" in email. If you use a unique link for the post, to say a poster for the event, I don't see a problem with that.
@grant_h @sonjaschuh01 @meganmariehart no, it is instances that download the images, not users, because otherwise it would break privacy; the hit counts would be much lower than the actual views
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@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.
@ketmorco @farbel @meganmariehart @Sevapopov hashtags do not broadcast anything though, they serve as a selection filter of your instance’s global feed.
Meaning, someone on your instance has to follow the poster or someone who boosted the post, otherwise your instance will not know it and has no (literally no) way to find it in a search.
Instances tend to also load thread context, and public posts when you click on a profile. So, by joining in on discussions under posts (both your own and others’) you begin to build the reach that is necessary for the hashtags to even begin to work. (They also don’t always work for unlisted posts.)
So, hashtags are much less important on the Fediverse than elsewhere, due to the lack of a central registry.
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@meganmariehart Swear to god, hashtags mostly just annoy me. I follow people. They boost people. I pick and choose from their boosteds.
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@GeePawHill @meganmariehart
But for some IT IS easy to follow certain Hashtags they are interested in.@johkra @GeePawHill @meganmariehart won’t help unless they (or at least someone else on the instance) also follows the people. And by doing the latter, tou already see so much more. Then go into discussions to see more interesting people.
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@meganmariehart @metalbrawler The purpose of hashtags is to tag posts on a specific topic so that someone can find them—outside of the timeline, of course. I use both, depending on what I want to see.
@mxe @meganmariehart @metalbrawler won’t work as you think, see my reply above
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@meganmariehart I once run an experiment similar to yours. I asked people to boost a toot with a URL to a webserver I controlled, no hashtags either. It got <3k boosts. Yours will probably get similar numbers. At that point, IIRC, the Fedi (or was it just Mastodon?) was ~2M accounts, so it reached ~15% of the net. I wrote abut it here:
The mastodon effect: meta discussion
Yesterday1 I did something that I don't know how to qualify. At the beginning I was just playing a silly thing where I registered a new domain on a dynamic domain service. I set up Apache on my home s
.:: Marcos Dione/StyXman's glob ::. (www.grulic.org.ar)
1/
@meganmariehart @mdione most instance softwares do not do the Mastodon fetch preview thing, you know.
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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.
@meganmariehart @futurebird ooooh, tou’ll like the polymaths.social crowd’s hellthreads then, with all those subthreads…
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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. -
As someone with a large
following, do you have any recommendations for dealing with notifications?I've heard several times that creators that seem to be pretty good have trouble dealing with all the replies on Mastodon, specifically.
@meganmariehart @futurebird @semitones a client that groups them, like FediText; it also has a "Mentions only" filter for the notifs tab
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@ketmorco @farbel @meganmariehart @Sevapopov hashtags do not broadcast anything though, they serve as a selection filter of your instance’s global feed.
Meaning, someone on your instance has to follow the poster or someone who boosted the post, otherwise your instance will not know it and has no (literally no) way to find it in a search.
Instances tend to also load thread context, and public posts when you click on a profile. So, by joining in on discussions under posts (both your own and others’) you begin to build the reach that is necessary for the hashtags to even begin to work. (They also don’t always work for unlisted posts.)
So, hashtags are much less important on the Fediverse than elsewhere, due to the lack of a central registry.
@mirabilos @ketmorco @farbel @meganmariehart Does it mean that if I post something without a hashtag, let's say in English it won't have a huge difference than if I post it with the hashtag? Or if I post with hashtag people who follow it will find it so there will be more engagement with the post? If hashtags are only like filters here, it means that this is the same like in Telegram where they are used to categorize posts in a channel and it doesn't make huge sense in using them then.
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@futurebird @meganmariehart
I'm on social media to watch other people socialize
.But as a general lurker, I like to use likes as a "keep it up!/hell yeah", and boosts are basically the same with an added element of "I hope more people see this too"
@adangerbartels @meganmariehart @futurebird tbh I use favourites like you say and boosts not, boosts are more like a "could be interesting to someone who follows me (recursively) even if it is not for me" as well as boosting some things like welcome posts for decency. Not so much real-life-local things, though.
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@mirabilos @ketmorco @farbel @meganmariehart Does it mean that if I post something without a hashtag, let's say in English it won't have a huge difference than if I post it with the hashtag? Or if I post with hashtag people who follow it will find it so there will be more engagement with the post? If hashtags are only like filters here, it means that this is the same like in Telegram where they are used to categorize posts in a channel and it doesn't make huge sense in using them then.
@Sevapopov @mirabilos @ketmorco @meganmariehart If you post something with the hashtag #science it is always boosted by the science bot. same with #news and a few others. If you search for a hashtag, you will find a whole lot of posts and people. If you follow one, posts featuring it will land in your feed. I gues what they are saying is that it won't be absolutely everything, but it is still a good tool.
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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.
@futurebird @meganmariehart agreed. To me, a post that elicits even one relevant reply is more "successful" than a post with a zillion likes and no replies. This medium is built for conversations, not just broadcasts. I sometimes start following someone with posts on a topic of interest, but then unfollow them again because they're 100% broadcast. Missing the point of an interactive medium...
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@warzazel Boss people like numbers. Me try make numbers so boss people like Fediverse.
@meganmariehart @warzazel the problem is that they will still need to drop that reliance on numbers very fast after joining, and learn to interact (both on own and others’ posts) quick. Not sure if that causes more disappointment then.
If it’s not the bosses who do the Fediversing though it can help. Bosses see numbers and give okay, and people actually trained to DTRT do the actual communication.
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I could be mistaken, but I see Fediverse interaction as more organic/direct. A post without hashtags is a cross between screaming into the void (low follower count) and addressing an audience (high follower count) with your content ultimately being spread by word of mouth (Boosts). Adding a hashtag would be the equivalent of posting on a bulletin board or presenting to a special interest group. Those who want to know will be able to find your post easier.
I don't think it's advertisements that are disliked but the unscrupulous use of tracking data and the bombardment of information which we neither asked for nor want. The latter is the primary use-case for "influencers" in my experience.
@meganmariehart @wulfric no, hashtags are also screaming into the void but with categorisation (see one of my other replies)
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@foobarsoft For posts about performances I usually add 'opera' and 'operaSinger' so people can filter me if they want the browser but not art. Then the work we’re performing, the composer, the city and if I have enough room the region. If I just blurt out a random though, I don’t tag them.
@foobarsoft @meganmariehart that is very sensible.
I have others whom I follow who, frankly, do hashtag abuse. And inline is bad for screenreaders (and even sighted people).
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@Sevapopov @mirabilos @ketmorco @meganmariehart If you post something with the hashtag #science it is always boosted by the science bot. same with #news and a few others. If you search for a hashtag, you will find a whole lot of posts and people. If you follow one, posts featuring it will land in your feed. I gues what they are saying is that it won't be absolutely everything, but it is still a good tool.
@Sevapopov @ketmorco @farbel @meganmariehart only if the bot (or someone on its instance) follows you, otherwise it cannot even know of the existence of the post. (See other reply, I need to zzz again, too much allergy for longer discussion)
