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Mike McCue

One thing I absolutely love is that hitting star in Mastodon just sends an appreciative signal to the poster. It doesn't influence algorithms. It doesn't shape what I see in my timeline. It doesn't broadcast a signal to my followers that I favorited something.

It just does one thing incredibly well: it sends a simple thanks.

@mike Yep! I also love how each #Fediverse platform is unique in that regards. In #Misskey you have thousands of ways to “like” a post, while on #Mastodon they keep it simple.

@darnell @mike
>It doesn't broadcast a signal to my followers that I favorited something.

To me this is the best part. "Danny likes child slavery" (as Cyanide and Happiness put it) is a very real problem, and there are places (e.g., Russia) where you can get jailed for publicly liking a post that the government doesn't like...

@mike
not doing something that doesn’t seem to influence/benefit feels kind of capitalistic to me — like only doing things that aim to “profit.”

Giving a ⭐️ makes the poster feel appreciated/seen, which is essential in social interaction, imho. It also creates a subtle connection between strangers here on Mastodon. 🫶

@mike also, boosting too much can make some people to hide the boosts, and which doesn’t do anyone any good.

So sometimes, I choose to boost some “must share for the collective good” posts in a different time frame. I think it helps, well, I hope so.

@otterX yeah totally. I try not to boost too much. though sometimes I just can't help it. :-)

@mike oh you have put this just so well! I’m an avid stargiver from many years ago and galaxies far away from ours here today. Next level up for me is also adding a comment and tops is also boosting. Like so…
😄

@mike @bagpie True, and I also use it as a way of saying "Acknowledged"; particularly when you've reached the end of a conversation and there's no more to be added, but you want to show you've read the last reply.

@mike@flipboard.social If you switch to Firefish, you'll be able to send emojis instead of stars.

@mike the only time I don't use it is on a post about someone's death, I mean I wouldn't start the a post about the death of a normal person. But yes for Kissenger/Rumsfeld/McConnell/etc.

@mike THIS.

One thing I love about here is how that + the "hide follower visibility" neatly cuts off infamous routes of harassment on twitter.

You can thank someone or show appreciation for them with *no one but them and you knowing,* keeping harassers, bigots, stalkers etc from seeing/attacking open support for a target

And your followers, can, too, be private, cutting off stuff like harassing them to get at you or demanding you cut off people over drama/their having a bad take etc

@mybarkingdogs Totally. These kinds of mechanisms are incredibly helpful to protect against abuse. More features like this should be done. Notably, deleting a reply from a thread you started. It's your thread. You should be able to control who can be visible in it.

@mybarkingdogs @mike
This is true, although conversely, I’ve had people harass me and they switched the follower visibility to private so no one else could see their nasty behavior. The few times I’ve been given a rude personal remark in public, there is usually another person who has jumped in to defend me.

@mike wild to see a feature on a social media site that just facilities social interaction and not ad revenue

@mike not to burst your bubble or anything, but the “explore” page counts stars and boosts in a simple formula to find some “trending” things, but it’s limited to users who opt in to having their posts publicly discoverable from there

@sickmatter well, fair point. I guess that will happen at some level. Fortunately it's not influencing my feed or broadcasting the fav to my followers.

@mike those two aspects are the worst! Glad they’re not here

@mike True for now, but I think it's very likely that this will depend on whatever clients people use in the future. Especially once app developers start experimenting with discovery more, in order to improve the onboarding experience for new users.

@mike on Friendica, this is a simple like button. I just like your post 🙂

Hear that, Meta? I only like his post, that's it!