@meganmariehart

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.

(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.

@meganmariehart Are you aware of https://stootistics.web.app/ ?

@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.

@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.

@meganmariehart Swear to god, hashtags mostly just annoy me. I follow people. They boost people. I pick and choose from their boosteds.

@GeePawHill @meganmariehart
But for some IT IS easy to follow certain Hashtags they are interested in.

@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.

@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

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 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.

@futurebird

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

@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.

@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"

@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.

@meganmariehart

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.

@warzazel Boss people like numbers. Me try make numbers so boss people like Fediverse.

@meganmariehart

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.

@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.