this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 87 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

Personally I think it's more important to break big-tech's hold on online communication. Every single user who leaves a centralized platform to join the Fediverse is a win in my books! Another thing is that we never had a mainstream decentralized, nonprofit and non-algorithmic social network before afaik, I'm actually not sure if the climate will evolve like it did with the other networks.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I don't get the hate against algorithms, they're just a tool, can be good and bad

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I'm referring to recommendation algorithms, the bad thing about them is that they can be used to manipulate people. Algorithms in general are fine of course.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

recommendation algorithms are fine too, the problem with modern social media is algorithms tuned for engagement.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

And which algorithms would that be?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Whatever algorithms youtube, tiktok, instagram etc. use to drive engagement. They don't have any names that I'm aware of

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

The problematic ones for that are mostly recommendation algorithms afaik, but there are others like gamification ofc. You can call them engagement algorithms if you want to be a bit more broad. But that's what I mean when I criticize "algorithmic" platforms, and I think that's what most people mean when they talk about algorithms in this context.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Honestly, I’m scared of what will come of it. Lemmy is fragile and the lessons of yesteryear don’t apply thanks to AI and evolving spam methods. That said, I’m still cautiously optimistic about the future of lemmy.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I guess I just don't have faith in the majority's conversation. Once you have a lot of dumb people, all the content starts devolving. Especially the comments.

As a dumb myself, it's a difficult problem that I don't have an answer to.

But maybe it's a net positive. Don't spend all day on one platform. And the dumb jokes are nice for being less serious all the time. As long as there is still good conversation

Bro, we've had like 3 dozen memes at the top about Taylor Swift's airplane just in the last week. We are not exactly avoiding what I just complained about. So I guess it'll be okay

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Once you have a lot of dumb people, all the content starts devolving. Especially the comments.

As long as the influx of dumb users is matched by a sufficient influx of less-dumb users to help grow niche communities, I think it might be fine. I rarely browsed the large 1M+ subreddits, and mostly stuck to the subs with a few thousand users.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Honestly I feel like the proportion of dumb people here is ever so slightly worse than it was on reddit. It feels like people here are always missing the point of everything, not getting simple jokes, arguing about dumb stuff...

Yeah, even more than on reddit.