Is your Mastodon timeline too empty or too full?
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p.s. Good grief. I'm trying to help people use this place and just got accused of "disinformation" and "causing harm" because they didn't like the way I used the word algorithm in the guide.
Can we please chill out and be a bit more friendly? The Fedi relies on volunteers helping each other and making suggestions in a constructive way.
If I've done something wrong it is brilliant if you point it out, most of the guides rely on people correcting me. But there is no need for personal attacks.
Technically, showing exactly the posts and boosts of those you've followed, in chronological order, with no filtering, adjustments, or heuristics *is an algorithm.*
Even when it is *not* the kind of "algorithm" used and criticized by the mainstream sites we criticize.
Our words are often ambiguous. We often need to clarify what *we mean* by them.
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And hey; I appreciate your good work!
I think many do.

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p.s. Good grief. I'm trying to help people use this place and just got accused of "disinformation" and "causing harm" because they didn't like the way I used the word algorithm in the guide.
Can we please chill out and be a bit more friendly? The Fedi relies on volunteers helping each other and making suggestions in a constructive way.
If I've done something wrong it is brilliant if you point it out, most of the guides rely on people correcting me. But there is no need for personal attacks.
The Mastodon HOA strikes again. Block whoever did it - guaranteed that's no loss - and take to heart the fact that the other 99% of us know how much good you do, and how much we appreciate it.
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Is your Mastodon timeline too empty or too full? Are you seeing stuff you don't want to, and missing stuff you do want to see? Is your timeline overwhelmed by someone who shares too many posts?
These and lots more timeline problems are solved in the "How to customise your Mastodon timeline" guide:
@FediTips lists are a feature I needed but didn't know existed, thanks!
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p.s. Good grief. I'm trying to help people use this place and just got accused of "disinformation" and "causing harm" because they didn't like the way I used the word algorithm in the guide.
Can we please chill out and be a bit more friendly? The Fedi relies on volunteers helping each other and making suggestions in a constructive way.
If I've done something wrong it is brilliant if you point it out, most of the guides rely on people correcting me. But there is no need for personal attacks.
@FediTips What in the universe? I am so sorry you have to deal with such people. That doesn't even make sense! Please know that most of us do have common sense, aren't offended by everything, and sincerely appreciate all of the work that you do.
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p.s. Good grief. I'm trying to help people use this place and just got accused of "disinformation" and "causing harm" because they didn't like the way I used the word algorithm in the guide.
Can we please chill out and be a bit more friendly? The Fedi relies on volunteers helping each other and making suggestions in a constructive way.
If I've done something wrong it is brilliant if you point it out, most of the guides rely on people correcting me. But there is no need for personal attacks.
@FediTips you are the most helpful and constructive presence in the fediverse.
Please know how appreciated you are. -
@FediTips Hang in there. I think you do a great job of helping out, thank you for doing it!
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p.s. Good grief. I'm trying to help people use this place and just got accused of "disinformation" and "causing harm" because they didn't like the way I used the word algorithm in the guide.
Can we please chill out and be a bit more friendly? The Fedi relies on volunteers helping each other and making suggestions in a constructive way.
If I've done something wrong it is brilliant if you point it out, most of the guides rely on people correcting me. But there is no need for personal attacks.
@FediTips
Haters gonna hate. Keep up the great work! -
Yup, this is the problem, people are using the wrong settings on their posts.
There is an automatic language detector but it isn't reliable enough on short posts to have it override the user. It does suggest to them when it thinks they've got it wrong though.
*Translatlation feature does not work*
Yep, this is correct.
It is an annoying, IMHO honestly avoidable issue:Automatic language detection seems to be an ubiquitous feature on many websites. It should be quite easy to perform in a #Fediverse app or on the PC as well, IMO.
Afterwards, a pop-up window could appear, e. g.: your post's language is set to English but appears to be in German instead. Would you like to change your language setting? "In the...
@AdrianRiskin @klu9 -
*Translatlation feature does not work*
Yep, this is correct.
It is an annoying, IMHO honestly avoidable issue:Automatic language detection seems to be an ubiquitous feature on many websites. It should be quite easy to perform in a #Fediverse app or on the PC as well, IMO.
Afterwards, a pop-up window could appear, e. g.: your post's language is set to English but appears to be in German instead. Would you like to change your language setting? "In the...
@AdrianRiskin @klu9...meantime, I try doing this manually, but forget from time to time.
Alas, if I remember correctly, it isn't possible to change the language setting without deleting and reposting, leaving all boosts and replies orphaned.Last point: from time to time I enjoy having a post from a language I don't speak automatically translated and get into contact with new people.
//
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p.s. Good grief. I'm trying to help people use this place and just got accused of "disinformation" and "causing harm" because they didn't like the way I used the word algorithm in the guide.
Can we please chill out and be a bit more friendly? The Fedi relies on volunteers helping each other and making suggestions in a constructive way.
If I've done something wrong it is brilliant if you point it out, most of the guides rely on people correcting me. But there is no need for personal attacks.
@FediTips thank you for everything you do. You've probably done more to help more people understand the Fediverse than anyone else out there (and probably more to help the world in general than the person criticising you)
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@klu9 @FediTips
I can understand not wanting to see posts in languages you don't know, although as a language nerd myself, I actually love the diversity and find myself thinking things like "I know some German, a little Dutch, and some Old English, I bet I can tease out the general meaning of this news headline in Swedish. Let me give it a shot!"@FediTips @halyihev I must admit I rather like seeing posts in languages I don't speak at all or in scripts I can't read too - in an odd way it feels nice to be part of a community of people all over the world going about their lives and being reminded that they're out there having experiences I can't understand
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@klu9 @FediTips
I can understand not wanting to see posts in languages you don't know, although as a language nerd myself, I actually love the diversity and find myself thinking things like "I know some German, a little Dutch, and some Old English, I bet I can tease out the general meaning of this news headline in Swedish. Let me give it a shot!" -
p.s. Good grief. I'm trying to help people use this place and just got accused of "disinformation" and "causing harm" because they didn't like the way I used the word algorithm in the guide.
Can we please chill out and be a bit more friendly? The Fedi relies on volunteers helping each other and making suggestions in a constructive way.
If I've done something wrong it is brilliant if you point it out, most of the guides rely on people correcting me. But there is no need for personal attacks.
Jesus Christ, some people need to go outside.
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p.s. Good grief. I'm trying to help people use this place and just got accused of "disinformation" and "causing harm" because they didn't like the way I used the word algorithm in the guide.
Can we please chill out and be a bit more friendly? The Fedi relies on volunteers helping each other and making suggestions in a constructive way.
If I've done something wrong it is brilliant if you point it out, most of the guides rely on people correcting me. But there is no need for personal attacks.
@FediTips you are not wrong. Unfortunately there are ignorant people even in the #Fediverse who it seems are quicker to display their ignorance by attacking you rather than expanding their horizons and learning new things.
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@FediTips I just glanced through the article to see how you were using the word. You even explained how you were using it and why while acknowledging that other meanings exist. I would give that an A+ for communication. I'm sorry someone decided to be mean to you. I hope one day they learn to chill out and help people instead.
*every* reply in this thread up until yours appears to have latched onto the word algorithm without having bothered reading the article and the very nuanced explanation of why it uses the term algorithm, and what it does, and does not mean.
The article is as near as possible to perfection as an introduction to the fedi verse can be.
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p.s. Good grief. I'm trying to help people use this place and just got accused of "disinformation" and "causing harm" because they didn't like the way I used the word algorithm in the guide.
Can we please chill out and be a bit more friendly? The Fedi relies on volunteers helping each other and making suggestions in a constructive way.
If I've done something wrong it is brilliant if you point it out, most of the guides rely on people correcting me. But there is no need for personal attacks.
@FediTips
I just want you to know that I really appreciate what you do here. You've been a big help to me, and judging by how often I see your posts boosted, I am not the only one who feels that way!
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I realise most people probably don't know this, but just in case someone reading this does want to make sure they have the right language setting, they can set their default posting language through the website and this should carry through to the clients.
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...meantime, I try doing this manually, but forget from time to time.
Alas, if I remember correctly, it isn't possible to change the language setting without deleting and reposting, leaving all boosts and replies orphaned.Last point: from time to time I enjoy having a post from a language I don't speak automatically translated and get into contact with new people.
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You can set the language to a default for your most common language, and then manually change if you use other languages as well.
You can change the language setting by editing if you forget on a particular post

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*Translatlation feature does not work*
Yep, this is correct.
It is an annoying, IMHO honestly avoidable issue:Automatic language detection seems to be an ubiquitous feature on many websites. It should be quite easy to perform in a #Fediverse app or on the PC as well, IMO.
Afterwards, a pop-up window could appear, e. g.: your post's language is set to English but appears to be in German instead. Would you like to change your language setting? "In the...
@AdrianRiskin @klu9"Automatic language detection seems to be an ubiquitous feature on many websites. It should be quite easy to perform in a #Fediverse app or on the PC as well, IMO."
There has been automatic language detection on here for many years, it lights up the language button if it thinks you are using the wrong language.
The problem is this is a microblogging platform so the posts tend to be very short. At very short lengths the detector is unreliable.
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@FediTips Well, "There is no algorithm on Mastodon" *is* wrong.
To a techie an "algorithm" is "a procedure which terminates".
In this case we're presumably talking about the algorithm which decides which posts a user sees. Which *does* exist, because the user sees post! - and is described in various places (starting with "you see posts from people you follow" and getting more complicated than that).
@TimWardCam @FediTips Why did I see your avatar when I looked up "pedant" in an online dictionary?
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