Notices by Ben Sahlmueller (b3n@g0v.social)

@inthehands It’s especially weird for companies whose brand value could be to not be AI. Think journalism, the “human curated” part of media, etc. Well all drown in an ocean of meaningless autogenerated shit in a few years. What’s better then? Plastering your wall with a few globs that sticked or have the nice pool that doesn’t get its water from the sewages?

@inthehands many people under appreciate that googles main accomplishment is building the ad back-piping for most of the internet. It’s more about the infrastructure than the websites. (Which given how dominant the websites are says even more about the infrastructure).

@kaffeeringe @pfefferle @mattwiebe Great stuff! I look forward to many more blogs to get there fediverse presence!

Follow-up q about authors: it’s so far not possible to “hide” authors, right? And only those with existing posts are visible?

I have two cases in mind. An old author that might distract from newer ones. And - more importantly - a silent admin account that should stay invisible.

@inthehands @rodhilton In a way that’s the main purpose of competition and a big part of the „success“ of business vis a vis other forms of organizing. Ignoring this dimension altogether is a big hole in one’s world model (even the church couldn’t ignore gravity an more in the end), and finding a different answers to the problem of coordination is the central challenge for anyone trying to argue for alternatives to „capitalism.“

@feditips @pfefferle It works really well. Even answers to the feid posts are synced as comments to the WordPress posts.

See e.g. @photos
https://bensahlmueller.com/2023-06-14/

(You can search for the link in the fediverse, not sure it appears for you, that probably depends on wether your instance has federated with my homepage already.)

@inthehands 2 is an externality, so neither the way VCS are set up not the people running them are really geared to see it.

Thinking about it: the fact that the only externality these people are capable thinking about is “robots without bodies will destroy everything” should have been quite telling from the get-go…

@inthehands The problem with the latter approach is also that there is no real way to get back to the “user” focus if what you want to do is getting rid of the user in the first place.

@kallekn @pfefferle Thank you, that's good to know! I was looking at the Template Tags and missed the image there. I'll just try it.

Is there a user avatar shared with the blog? Maybe the Gravatar image?

I love how Automattic (the company behind wordpress) embraces the #ActivityPub protocol. It's a great fit philosophically and I am curious to see where it goes.

I just tried to hook it up via the plugin to use it to share photos. But it seems like images are not yet supported? Would be a nice way to build a personal instagram-like feed, especially when the comments are synced.

@pfefferle (sorry for summoning you so ruthlessly), are you planning to integrate support for the post's main image?

I would really like if Mastodon had the option to change the algorithm on a personal level.

I understand and agree that a centralized add-driven engagement algorithm is not the way to go. It affects the kind of content people are posting and motivates conflict.

Spoiler: Wouldn't this be way cooler!?

@leah, afaik you are quite active in the meta and community discussion; where is this debate taking place? What is the best way to take part in it?

Maybe for #IvoryIsComing #Ivory #MastodonApps?

The fediverse is permissionless, so this is something someone could just do.

Is it even doable on the app level? Given how much time a feature like this would save, it would be on the list of stuff for which I‘d strongly consider a subscription.

What’s the solution? I think giving users more power over the algorithm is. Sometimes I just want the algorithmischen feed. After being off for a while I might only want the highlights from each user, stuff that sparked the best discussions, etc.

There is a blockchain based social media platform, farcaster.xyz that uses such an approach. I’ve tried it and it’s really fun!

I do not think the solution are lists. They are quite complex (deep in the UI, not supported by all apps), they require another cognitive choice when using the app, they require maintenance, they make discovery harder, and they are not easy to use, as you can have both too few and too many. (They also often don’t work.)

Worst, they don’t solve the problem, they are still lifo.

lifo (last in first out) is also an algorithm (a very simple one) that also influences behavior. The principle it pushes is quantity over quality. Post a lot or you won’t be seen.

This is sad! And it’s probably the opposite of the actual philosophy underlying this platform.

@leah Sorry, the message was part of a thread...

I've seen blockchain-based slightly-federated social networks play with a more open way to individually change the algorithm. I think it's a way better way than just a chronological timeline as a lifo algo pushes for quantity over quality.

This is already a big debate, I'm wondering where it takes place.

See https://g0v.social/web/@b3n/109466477876281606