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A load of mastodon users think groups are just autoboost accounts.

Just realised this, most mastodon users who have had experience with groups think they are just bots that auto-boost any posts they are mentioned in.

This is kinda annoying me.

24 comments
  • In a way it can be seen as a "bot" since how it works is like what feed bots are doing.

    Regardless, groups are by nature "boosters" even in silo SNS. Example, FB groups pushes group content to people's personal timeline/feed.

    It's similar to how mailinglists work. You send an email to the group's mailinglist address and then it gets boosted/sent to everyone subscribed to that mailinglist group/address.

    So, yeah, technically "bots" since its automated forwarding.

  • The closest thing to groups we have on mastodon really are just boost bots. It’s pretty annoying that mastodon doesn’t have more. But it’s pretty understandable that mastodon users would assume that.

    I’m guessing the issue is with mastodon users at-ing multiple communities on Lemmy/etc creating unnecessary cross posts / duplicates?

    • Its not really an issue, since most people aren't aware of the threadiverse, but people do think they are just glorified hashtags.

  • Like the @a.gup.pe ones? They are kind of autoboost bots, but they do have communities behind them and it's annoying when people treat them like hashtags.

    But I'd not use the term bots. They're more like old-fashioned email reflectors: a message goes in, and it then gets sent to everyone on the list.

  • That's because from a mastodon perspective, that's what they are!

    They're basically the same thing as gup.pe groups to them

  • Honestly, I tried to understand them but I failed. I don't see how a group, from the twittoverse perspective is different from the use of a hashtag, be it agupe group or Lemmy community.

    But I would love to hear your explanation and pass it on to the next people who will not understand it.

    • Hashtags is like search without the noise. (Unless of course someone is abusing it.)

      Groups are similar to hashtags but without the restriction on what content is allowed as long as it is within the agreed scope. Groups usually have moderation features as well. And it can also be set to private (if supported).

      Even if a group is public, if the feature was well-made, replies to a post posted in a group are usually seen by griup members only. Or, if the thread itself is opened.

      Compare that to hashtags, replies will always appear for everyone.

      • Even if a group is public, if the feature was well-made, replies to a post posted in a group are usually seen by griup members only. Or, if the thread itself is opened.

        I did not understood that thank you for the clarification.

    • Hashtags are designed for anyone to post to, with no control over who can post to it.

      Communities can be moderated, often have rules and an actual community/culture behind them.

      • Communities can be moderated Good point.

        Does moderation action fediverse well from Lemmy to the twittoverse?

24 comments