Cum

I ain’t reading all that. I’m happy for u tho. Or sorry that happened.

When I got banned I tried to create a new account several times and used up several clever usernames which were immediately banned. So I gave up on having a Reddit account. Several months later I decided to try again, this time with a username that was just a random string of digits and using a brand-new browser. I think I was on a cellular connection instead of my home internet when I created the new account. For whatever reason it worked that time. Maybe the fingerprinting isn’t as effective if you haven’t logged into Reddit for several months?

It depends on the cause of your back pain so I agree with the people who said maybe see a doctor. Some people have weak back muscles so strengthening exercises help. My back pain was caused by tight hamstrings and overuse of my back, so I fixed it with a lot of hamstring stretches and getting out of my office chair as much as possible. My brother in law has a bulging disc so neither of those things would help him.

Probably the biggest help for me was WFH so I could get out of my office chair - I can lie down, walk around, or sit in different chairs when I’m taking a break, and I take a lot of breaks. I stretch my hamstrings after most workouts so I’m warmed up. I bend over to touch my toes with my feet together for 90 seconds, starting gently, breathing as I relax, and slowly increasing the stretch a little as my muscles loosen up. Then I take a 30 second break, then I move my feet to somewhere width apart and do another 90 second slow hamstring stretch. Another 30-second break, then I put my feet about halfway to a split and do a other 90 seconds touching the ground. Then a break then as wide as I can go and bend over to touch the ground. I think the slow process really helps me relax.

My wife is like this. I just set her up with Chrome’s password manager despite the fact that I’m a Firefox and Bitwarden user. Works in Chrome, on Android, and on iOS - she doesn’t have to use Chrome on iOS, you just have to install Chrome and set it as the iOS password manager and it still works with all apps and Safari. She doesn’t care if Google has her whole life on file and I’m not paid enough to care for her.

MetaFilter

I assume this was a grift — they “found” some bodies and declared them Arthur and Guinevere, and suddenly the site became a pilgrimage destination and lots of money started flowing in from the pilgrims.

Oh yeah this has little to do with the original question about why bsky is more popular. This suggestion of “let people write their own algorithms” is for the devs who think algorithms are harmful. They aren’t harmful if you give users the power to choose their own algorithm. Techie people can write the algorithms and non-techie people can choose them. Chances are a few algorithms would eventually become the most popular and very few would be written after that, but the point is you let the users decide instead of the Mastodon devs having to write the algorithms.

And now I realize bsky actually has something like this: Custom Feeds. If I understand correctly, they get around the “running untrusted code” issue by not running the code on bsky servers. Instead whoever wrote the custom feed gets the data from bsky, runs the algorithm on a separate server, then returns the custom feed. Pretty clever. https://docs.bsky.app/docs/starter-templates/custom-feeds

I was thinking along the lines of being given a list of popular algorithms, but if you find an algorithm you like on another instance you can copy it over to your instance. So it is not necessary to write code and nearly nobody would do it, they would just use ones that other people created.

But I realize this is an extremely difficult request so I’m not really serious when I propose it.

But it still won’t put my friend’s popular posts at the top, right? I don’t want to scroll past 20 pictures of people’s dinner and then find out one of my friends got engaged, I want the “I got engaged” post at the top because it’s probably getting the most interaction.

God yes. I used to share Lemmy links until I realized what a horrible UI I’m sending them.

I think people are misunderstanding what I mean by algorithm. An algorithm could show you stuff from people you don’t follow (yuck), but it could also show you popular stuff only from people you follow. That used to be how Facebook did it.

I didn’t say it was a bad thing, I just said it’s one reason Bsky is more popular. People are busy and want algorithms.

I’d you go to a post you are always told that the host server may have more replies

Just yesterday I opened a post on Masto that had 80 boosts. I went to my home instance to boost it, and it said 10 boosts. I get that things will sometimes be out of sync due to federation and I don’t think those numbers need to be exactly the same, but that’s a huge difference.

If you don’t like the instance (why wouldn’t I?) you can just move to a different one. Yes, and restart my network. It’s not really a good solution.

Yep. I’ve moved several times and the process sucks. It’s ridiculous that your posts and followers don’t follow you. It’s technically possible to do it: just give every account a public/private key pair for identity, and if you migrate to a new instance your public/private key pair come with you so you can prove that you are still you, and then there should be no problem bringing your posts and followers to the new instance. But despite the fact that switching instances is a core feature of the Fediverse, the process sucks.

It looks like that’s popular posts by anyone, not just by people I follow. So it’s a start, but different people want to see different things so having a single firehose like Explore doesn’t really meet the need. For me, I want to see popular stuff by people or hashtags I follow. Other people might want to see other things.

I didn’t say refusing to have an algorithm was a bad thing, I just said it’s one reason Bluesky is more popular.

Exactly, a lot of algorithms on for-profit sites are manipulative trash but refusing to have any algorithm at all is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Yeah being manipulated by algorithm is a problem. The best solution I can think of is Mastodon adding the ability to choose your algorithm. Not just a list of approved ones since the admins could manipulate that list, but the ability to actually upload some code so you can either write your own algorithm or choose one written by someone you trust.

That comes with a lot of problems like potentially overworking the server so I don’t know if it’s actually a viable solution but it would be nice.

I’m on both Mastodon and Bluesky. To me, Mastodon’s biggest problem is its refusal to have an algorithm to surface popular content. Yes there are problems with algorithms, but I don’t have the time or inclination to read every post in chronological order. A good algorithm would show me popular posts without manipulating me for profit.

Edt: a few people have misunderstood me. I’m not proposing “Mastodon shows me stuff from people I don’t follow,” I’m suggesting “Mastodon shows me stuff only from people I follow, but it shows me the popular stuff first.”

3dfx Voodoo 5 5500. I remember thinking it was so cool that it had 2 chips on the same board: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_5