this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.
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This and the way Mastodon handles likes/favorites are the biggest things holding them back right now, IMO. People don't want to bother with a social media they actually have to put in the work to curate themselves, hell the algorithm is one of the main reasons why TikTok is so successful. Also, by having favorites (which is... weird and confusing? Just call it "likes", you don't need to reinvent the wheel here). Not only do people get confused between favoriting something and bookmarking something, but since it's only counting the favorites from your instance, it makes it look like posts are getting barely any interaction, giving this "screaming into the void" feeling that will cause a lot of users to lose interest. The number of ~~likes~~ favorites needs to be cumulative across instances.
You’re 100% right. The people who are already on these platforms are the ones that don’t like any algorithm at all, so they tend to be combative about its implementation. I don’t think there will be mainstream appeal until it is easy and fun to use for the average person