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Going from "certain features that cause virality are not implemented here" to "hence things cannot go viral here" not two weeks after #JohnMastodon went certifiably viral is… a take.

Going a step further and claiming this somehow means fedi could not have supported social movements is even more of a jump.

One way I could respond to that is: this whole network is a social movement, for Dog's sake! It started off as a social movement of people who wanted out of walled gardens.

But…

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This entry was edited (1 year ago)
…I think there's a more important point here that is missed.

I don't think such "virality-enhancing" features generate more attention in the system, so to speak.

On :birdsite: and other algorithmic social networks these virality-enhancing features only *shift* that attention towards certain things, at the cost of other things.

Wondering why you get more interactions around here with fewer followers? My uninformed hot-take is: that's why. Our "attention budget" is artificially redirected.

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So yeah, things are not algorithmically amplified — nor algorithmically buried either, however. There is no artificial virality, but there is also no artificial obscurity.

The dynamics are different.

This does not mean things *cannot* go viral — they can, as #JohnMastodon shows if anyone needed any proof.

I strongly believe Fediverse *can* support social movements (it is one), and that interactions here might be more meaningful thanks to lack of certain "virality-enhancing" features.

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This entry was edited (1 year ago)