Friendly reminder to folks on Fedi: the engagement *you* see on a post might not be the engagement the *poster* sees.
Take my silly polls, for instance. I occasionally see comments saying "you'd have more responses if it said [variable]".
Those commenters probably can't see the responses, so they assume few are responding.
My last poll has over 1200 responses, but federation might not show *you* all of them. And that's OK! But don't assume what you see is what others see here.
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Stefan
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Stefan • •Proxfox Virtual Environment 🦊
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • • •Semitones
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •Veronica Explains
in reply to Semitones • • •Lord Hurkle-Durkle :bc:
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •@semitones
My 2 cents: The biggest problem with #Mastodon is the inability to detect whether or not you're logged into an instance, and automatically redirect links to posts and the "follow" button to your instance without having to type your instance into the popup.
Veronica Explains
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •Another aspect to this is replies. You might not see every reply to a post. It isn't like centralized social media... it's more like how you might miss some replies to an email chain if you weren't included.
This can fool us into thinking a post doesn't have nasty replies, or replies answering the question, or replyfolk being replyfolk, etc.
(It can also fool us into thinking Fedi feels safer than it can be for some of us, but that's a different topic.)
Veronica Explains
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •When I first got here, I incorrectly assumed that everyone could see what I saw.
Nowadays, as a poster, I try to keep in mind that the audience for my toots might not see the replies. Leaving space in the original post for clarification edits can help reduce redundant replies.
Grace toward Fedifolk is another thing, and I can't teach anyone that. But patience is a virtue and keeping in mind that not everyone here sees what you see is going to serve you well.
Fifi Lamoura
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •Mackaj
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •If I want to see what you're seeing and any conversation I might be missing then I select "Open original page" from the post menu and that takes me to your server.
At least I think that shows me everything.
Veronica Explains
in reply to Mackaj • • •@mackaj Not everything. It won't show you things from servers I've blocked, and things I've said privately. Also, I believe AUTHORIZED_FETCH can kill that but I'm not sure.
If I say "I don't want my server to host content from [bad server]", I don't think you're going to see it via "open original page". At least, that's what I observed in my testing, I'm not an ActivityPub dev and I only admin for myself.
Nathan A. Stine
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •Mark W. Gabby-Li 🐌
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •Absolutely the nature of the Fediverse uniquely contributes to misunderstanding, but "Not everyone sees what you see" is good advice for writing in general.
Misunderstanding is very common. Even in the best case when writers avoid poor word choices or other blunders that lead to miscommunication, readers often interpret words differently, skim, and miss context.
This effect is even more pronounced in longer forms of writing, where there can be as many interpretations as there are readers.
njsg
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •One other thing that doesn't always get federated is edits, I've had to explicitly search for a post to get the updated version [1,2]. But maybe the Mastodon official clients do something that Brutaldon doesn't?
[1] social.sdf.org/@njsg/113369896…
[2] social.sdf.org/@njsg/113357134…
njsg
2024-10-25 20:15:32
Andy Alderwick
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •Veronica Explains
in reply to Andy Alderwick • • •@alderwick I doubt it. If I tell my server "ignore [bad server]", I don't think you're going to see those replies here, but you might see them on a server which federates with [bad server].
I'm pretty judicious with my blocks, too. I don't give servers much benefit of the doubt if I'm getting hate from them. After that I don't see those nasty replies but sometimes folks think they're "helping" by DMing or emailing me the worst of it.
Andy Alderwick
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •I love how you freely block arseholes on sight, but I thought that the whole AUTHORIZED_FETCH config setting was to prevent servers you've blocked from ever seeing your posts, whether directly or indirectly? That's a real bummer if it doesn't work that way (but I'm making the assumption that you've turned it on).
(Obviously this doesn't help with folk taking screenshots and DMing or emailing you, but I thought Mastodon at least had the above feature.)
Veronica Explains
in reply to Andy Alderwick • • •@alderwick AUTHORIZED_FETCH seems neat, I don't think I've deployed it yet just because I haven't had time. My previous server did that, I believe, and I would need to do some research to figure out the ramifications.
What I would prefer TBH, is allowlisting servers instead of blocklisting the baddies. As in "these servers are great and I want my posts/replies to appear there" and "every other server is to be treated as potentially hostile with limits". But I don't see it happening.
Space Hobo
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •This can have many different effects. I have taken you at your word regarding the stuff you're putting up with here, and occasionally I feel like replying with something supportive. But since I don't see many replies it feels like I'd stick out in an empty room, which discourages me given you're often complaining about the volume of attention you *do* get.
So instead I usually just hit the "like" button and keep scrolling.
Veronica Explains
in reply to Space Hobo • • •Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Veronica Explains • •Hrrmmph likes this.
C.Suthorn :prn:
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •Veronica Explains
in reply to C.Suthorn :prn: • • •C.Suthorn :prn:
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •InsertUser
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •@Life_is do you know if you get the real proper number when the notification comes through for a poll ending?
Or is that just a timer on your instance rather than sent from the asker's instance?
TBH there are some polls I'd like to get completion notifications without voting. I'm not in the population of people who can answer but the results might be interesting.
wizardry variants lori
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •on an even more granular note, there can literally just be replies missing
I saw person A say something, then person B reply something that seemed weirdly harsh in response especially when it seemed like A and B agreed
Turns out I couldn't see person Z's post in-between them that B was replying to, which made the reply look like it was to A.
Veronica Explains
in reply to wizardry variants lori • • •mtzc
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •Sakura :02hai:
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •on here you have 5 replies and 8 boosts.
I was aware of this problem and honestly I dont like that it is like this. I want to see the real amount.
Veronica Explains
in reply to Sakura :02hai: • • •@sakura I understand why you feel that way, I felt it too at first, and sometimes still do.
A thing I try to think about with Fedi is that a side effect of decentralization is that the data about who reacts to what isn't "owned" - whatever that means - by all parties. What my server does is my business, what yours does is yours, etc. In that sort of network, we might have to let go of certain expectations.
But that feeling sucks sometimes.
Jonathan Lamothe likes this.
ottominati
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •Veronica Explains
Unknown parent • • •sinza collective
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •InsertUser
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •Xeno Danger Evil
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •Buttery Whiskers
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •Sovy
in reply to Veronica Explains • • •