[ColinWright]

Mastodon works for me, but you do have to work to build your network.

Discoverability is a problem, but you follow people on your home server, follow the people they boost, see who they follow and follow them ...

Then cull ruthlessly.

Repeat a few times and quite quickly you find your personal feed full of things from interesting people.

If you don't have "algorithms" to suggest things to you, you need to do the work for yourself. Thing is, it takes some effort.

That's another thing. Most of the people active on Mastodon have done, or are doing, that work, which is a positive filter.

[ch71r22]

I've had a similar experience with Bluesky, though it's much more like Twitter than Hacker News. You can curate a good feed by following a ton of people, then unfollow the noisy ones as you look over the feed. You can use "starter packs" and hashtags to help get started, too.

Once you've found some people you like, this tool is somewhat helpful for finding more people you might like to follow:

https://bsky-follow-finder.theo.io/

[ColinWright]

I totally get why so many peple are jumping to BlueSky, and I may yet, one day, join them. But I'm still almost exclusively on Mathstodon.xyz, only visiting a few places to stay in touch with a few people who are refusing to move (sometimes for perfectly valid reasons).

Having said that, I invite you to read this essay:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/02/ulysses-pact/#tie-yoursel...

I found that it expressed eloquently reservations of my own that I had been unable to put into words.

* https://wilwheaton.net/2024/11/nothing-but-bluesky-is-such-a...

For people who build connections and create content, I advise most strongly that they prepare from day one for having to move. Create your content elsewhere and then copy it to BS, keep a separate record of people you want to stay in touch with. Do not rely on a platform like BS for keeping anything.

The article exactly captures why I am using Mastodon-the-Platform and not BS. If I do put things on BS, I will be prepared to lose them, and connections.

But each person has their own reasons for using any of these platforms. I'm getting great technical content, mathematical content, connections, and conversations on Mathstodon.

PS: For the avoidance of doubt: mathstodon.xyz (carefully note the spelling) is one instance of Mastodon-the-Platform.

PPS: Again, I totally get why people are choosing other platforms, and this is not a criticism. It purely an explanation of my reasoning.

[jszymborski]

I recommend following hashtags to bootstrap your feed.

[satvikpendem]

Also, starter packs, they're community curated lists of people to follow for specific niches.

[ColinWright]

Seconded!

I forgot to mention that ... thanks. The ability to follow hashtags is excellent.

[ksec]

Which is why I never understand all the backlash on Twitter's feed.

Basically you have to curate your own feed. The platform should provide me with tools and features to do that effectively. Instead they keep trying to improve the algorithm.