Fediverse Frustration: The Homogeneous World of Lemmy Feeds
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Fellow Fediverse wanderers, I've got a bone to pick with our current Lemmy experience.
The "All" Feed Syndrome
Has anyone else noticed how painfully similar the "All" feed looks across different Lemmy instances? It's like we're browsing the same curated content, just with different window dressings. The posts, upvotes, and discussions feel increasingly uniform - a far cry from the diverse, decentralized dream we signed up for.
My Wishlist: Local Votes Only
What I'm craving is a simple setting that would:
- Filter posts based ONLY on local instance votes
- Showcase truly instance-specific content
- Break the algorithmic echo chamber
- Highlight unique community perspectives
Imagine seeing genuinely different content on lemmy.world vs sh.itjust.works vs [your favorite instance]. Right now, it feels like we're just shuffling the same deck of cards.
A Call to Developers
Is this technically feasible? Would love to hear from the community about:
- Potential implementation challenges
- Interest in such a feature
- Alternative solutions to content diversity
Who's with me in wanting a more genuinely decentralized browsing experience?
#lemmy #fediverse #decentralization
This is already implemented and coming with Lemmy 0.20.0 afaik. Not precisely with this goal in mind, but more general to give instance admins more customizability over vote federation.
I kinda agree that it might be interesting to lean into the idea to have the all feed further curated by what instance members are interested in. It already is to some extend, but the bigger the instance the more it gets dilluted out right now.
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The "All" Feed Syndrome
Has anyone else noticed how painfully similar the "All" feed looks across different Lemmy instances? It's like we're browsing the same curated content, just with different window dressings. The posts, upvotes, and discussions feel increasingly uniform - a far cry from the diverse, decentralized dream we signed up for.
It's called All for a reason?!
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Has anyone else noticed how painfully similar the āAllā feed looks across different Lemmy instances?
Yes. That's how it should look.
Strongly disagree. This is just recreating what already exists, using a technology that's actually not great for it. Each website's connections should in some way resemble what that website is tailored to. And we don't need a network of websites that are tailored to "looking exactly like every other website, because we couldn't be arsed to pick a niche".
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Strongly disagree. This is just recreating what already exists, using a technology that's actually not great for it. Each website's connections should in some way resemble what that website is tailored to. And we don't need a network of websites that are tailored to "looking exactly like every other website, because we couldn't be arsed to pick a niche".
And we donāt need a network of websites that are tailored to ālooking exactly like every other website, because we couldnāt be arsed to pick a nicheā.
That's the whole point of the Fediverse, and Lemmy instances. Mastodon instances look like each other, to an extend.
And even here, https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/ and https://lemmy.world/ default themes look different.
If you want a truly different layout, there is https://fedia.io/m/floatingisfun
But that's a unique case, because Mbin allows community-based themes
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Strongly disagree. This is just recreating what already exists, using a technology that's actually not great for it. Each website's connections should in some way resemble what that website is tailored to. And we don't need a network of websites that are tailored to "looking exactly like every other website, because we couldn't be arsed to pick a niche".
Well, I strongly disagree right back.
Especially smaller instances regularly have reliability or federation issues, so it's vital for me to be able to hop to an alt account and still the same all feed.
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Thatās because thereās no algorithm but thatās not what OP is after, I think. We already have scaled sort which adjusts score based on community size. Whatās suggested here is to have some sort of sort/scaling that would assign higher weight to votes from local instance. This is a great idea that promotes decentralisation and I wouldnāt discard it like that.
thereās no algorithm
There are several algorithms to choose from. OP is upset because they don't like the default one. They don't seem to understand that they can change it.
Whatās suggested here is to have some sort of sort/scaling that would assign higher weight to votes from local instance.
But why?
promotes decentralisation
Decentralization is not the same thing as fragmentation. What you and OP are suggesting is the latter.
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Don't browse all, but curate your own feed by subscribing to communities.
Use All to get started. Check it out now and then for some variety and maybe to find new communities. But absolutely curate your own Subscribed timeline.
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Fellow Fediverse wanderers, I've got a bone to pick with our current Lemmy experience.
The "All" Feed Syndrome
Has anyone else noticed how painfully similar the "All" feed looks across different Lemmy instances? It's like we're browsing the same curated content, just with different window dressings. The posts, upvotes, and discussions feel increasingly uniform - a far cry from the diverse, decentralized dream we signed up for.
My Wishlist: Local Votes Only
What I'm craving is a simple setting that would:
- Filter posts based ONLY on local instance votes
- Showcase truly instance-specific content
- Break the algorithmic echo chamber
- Highlight unique community perspectives
Imagine seeing genuinely different content on lemmy.world vs sh.itjust.works vs [your favorite instance]. Right now, it feels like we're just shuffling the same deck of cards.
A Call to Developers
Is this technically feasible? Would love to hear from the community about:
- Potential implementation challenges
- Interest in such a feature
- Alternative solutions to content diversity
Who's with me in wanting a more genuinely decentralized browsing experience?
#lemmy #fediverse #decentralization
Break the algorithmic echo chamber
Showing things by a local vote only would do the exact opposite of this. The majority of Lemmy could be said to be fairly liberal moderate thinking folks, so globally that tends to be what gets reflected in the votes. There are however a handful of notoriously aggressive tankie instances who will pile on and ban at the slightest whiff of someone disagreeing with their perception. Allowing posts from more neutral places like .world to be viewed on these instances through a filter only of their local votes is only going to reinforce that already existing view.
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was this written with chatgpt or was your account hacked?
I'm not really sure why you're bringing this up again, either, as it seems like you already accepted this two months ago. https://kbin.earth/m/[email protected]/t/675872/-/comment/3762401
I was just about to ask, this writing style reminds a lot of LLM's.
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Fellow Fediverse wanderers, I've got a bone to pick with our current Lemmy experience.
The "All" Feed Syndrome
Has anyone else noticed how painfully similar the "All" feed looks across different Lemmy instances? It's like we're browsing the same curated content, just with different window dressings. The posts, upvotes, and discussions feel increasingly uniform - a far cry from the diverse, decentralized dream we signed up for.
My Wishlist: Local Votes Only
What I'm craving is a simple setting that would:
- Filter posts based ONLY on local instance votes
- Showcase truly instance-specific content
- Break the algorithmic echo chamber
- Highlight unique community perspectives
Imagine seeing genuinely different content on lemmy.world vs sh.itjust.works vs [your favorite instance]. Right now, it feels like we're just shuffling the same deck of cards.
A Call to Developers
Is this technically feasible? Would love to hear from the community about:
- Potential implementation challenges
- Interest in such a feature
- Alternative solutions to content diversity
Who's with me in wanting a more genuinely decentralized browsing experience?
#lemmy #fediverse #decentralization
I think it's a bad idea to have each server have one topic which I know is often how Fediverse is sold but I think it's not good.
I don't know you but I have more than one interest and I don't want a server to be about one interest and that's it. I want the server to be fair and have rules about discrimination and so on. I can choose the topics I want to follow thanks to federation that's the whole point, the server should focus on the moderation side.
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thereās no algorithm
There are several algorithms to choose from. OP is upset because they don't like the default one. They don't seem to understand that they can change it.
Whatās suggested here is to have some sort of sort/scaling that would assign higher weight to votes from local instance.
But why?
promotes decentralisation
Decentralization is not the same thing as fragmentation. What you and OP are suggesting is the latter.
They can change sorting and view but they will not get anywhere near their stated purpose. OP wants instances to gather people that share similar interests or beliefs so that his/her browsing experience is shaped by this choice in a natural manner.
As an very rough example, this could mean that in discussion-centric instances text posts would be ranked higher because users in those instances tend to upvote them more often. This would also mean that less interesting stuff is not filtered but lower in the ranking. Those seeking such experience (it does sound attractive to me) would have higher incentive to join smaller and more focused instances. Maybe they wouldnāt be so small then or theyād have to vet new users and itād be a terrible idea. Still worth considering imo.
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They can change sorting and view but they will not get anywhere near their stated purpose. OP wants instances to gather people that share similar interests or beliefs so that his/her browsing experience is shaped by this choice in a natural manner.
As an very rough example, this could mean that in discussion-centric instances text posts would be ranked higher because users in those instances tend to upvote them more often. This would also mean that less interesting stuff is not filtered but lower in the ranking. Those seeking such experience (it does sound attractive to me) would have higher incentive to join smaller and more focused instances. Maybe they wouldnāt be so small then or theyād have to vet new users and itād be a terrible idea. Still worth considering imo.
OP wants instances to gather people that share similar interests or beliefs so that his/her browsing experience is shaped by this choice in a natural manner.
That's what communities are for. Like....I don't understand.
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OP wants instances to gather people that share similar interests or beliefs so that his/her browsing experience is shaped by this choice in a natural manner.
That's what communities are for. Like....I don't understand.
Community has no control over who uses it except for federation policy. Random people browse communities through āAllā which leads to random downvotes, ignoring community rules and so on. I believe that idea that makes Activity Pub so nice is that you can use various apps and platforms as distinct ways of browsing and communicating with people that want to do it differently.
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Don't browse all, but curate your own feed by subscribing to communities.
Iāve never really understood how people could browse exclusively by All. I barely have enough time to keep up with my own hobbies and interests, let alone everyone elseās.
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That was two months ago and now I've changed my mind stalker.
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Community has no control over who uses it except for federation policy. Random people browse communities through āAllā which leads to random downvotes, ignoring community rules and so on. I believe that idea that makes Activity Pub so nice is that you can use various apps and platforms as distinct ways of browsing and communicating with people that want to do it differently.
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The "All" Feed Syndrome
Has anyone else noticed how painfully similar the "All" feed looks across different Lemmy instances? It's like we're browsing the same curated content, just with different window dressings. The posts, upvotes, and discussions feel increasingly uniform - a far cry from the diverse, decentralized dream we signed up for.
It's called All for a reason?!
Right?
I stopped reading after that.
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That was two months ago and now I've changed my mind stalker.
So, you resort to name calling? Why should any of us engage with you?
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If you don't want everyone to be allowed to participate, then you're simply using the wrong platform. Lemmy also supports private instances.
How does this prevent anyone from participating? This kind of sort would make one engage less with some content and users they donāt want to. You could do it for efficiency, mental health or whatever reason you come up with. Having an option of increasing importance of your local instance in shaping what you see is just one more way of tweaking your experience without affecting others. Itās dangerously close to āthe algorithmā but works without being a black box.
OPs issue is not solved by private instances because it cuts off contact entirely. You might as well set view to Local and ban other instances in your client.
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How does this prevent anyone from participating? This kind of sort would make one engage less with some content and users they donāt want to. You could do it for efficiency, mental health or whatever reason you come up with. Having an option of increasing importance of your local instance in shaping what you see is just one more way of tweaking your experience without affecting others. Itās dangerously close to āthe algorithmā but works without being a black box.
OPs issue is not solved by private instances because it cuts off contact entirely. You might as well set view to Local and ban other instances in your client.
How does this prevent anyone from participating?
OPs issue is not solved by private instances because it cuts off contact entirely.
...I mean that sounds like the entire point of what you're proposing? I guess I'm still confused but I will agree that BlueSky-style custom feeds would be a super-nice addition to any social platform.
