There is a built-in mechanism in Mastodon's server software which reduces how often you see the same post boosted again and again.
If you have seen a post boosted, boosts of the same post are automatically hidden from you until 80 other posts have passed through your timeline.
This mechanism previously allowed boosts to repeat after 40 other posts. The developers recently doubled this to 80 other posts, so repeated boosts should be much rarer now.
🌴 Seph 💭 👾
in reply to Fedi.Tips • •like this
weserfeuer 🌦 and Kim Possible like this.
gabboman the wafrn dev
in reply to 🌴 Seph 💭 👾 • • •flammableengineering
in reply to gabboman the wafrn dev • • •⁂ Fish Id Wardrobe
in reply to Fedi.Tips • • •Vint Prox
in reply to ⁂ Fish Id Wardrobe • • •Fedi.Tips
in reply to Vint Prox • • •@vintprox @fishidwardrobe
The boosts you see in your Home timeline are from the people you follow.
The mechanism only comes into play if several people you follow are boosting the same post at around the same time. The idea is to avoid a situation where e.g. ten of your followers all boost the same post and you see it ten times in a row.
You can switch the mechanism off if you want though, it's at Preferences > Other > Group Boosts In Timeline (untick it to switch it off, then click "save").
⁂ Fish Id Wardrobe
in reply to Vint Prox • • •@vintprox no, no, no. without boosts this place is nothing at all. people don't understand that. boosts are what make the fediverse *work*.
the expectation (rightly or wrongly, for better or worse) is that if someone i follow boosts something, i see it on my timeline at that point.
maybe the fediverse is better off for this not being literally true! i don't know!
but.
Vint Prox
in reply to ⁂ Fish Id Wardrobe • • •@fishidwardrobe Ah, I understand THE concern. You refer to having a boost in chronological order as well. I see some value in such a setting, would help some people that really struggle with concentration.
Boosts' reappearing nature kinda breaks through this constraint and have a life of their own. Meanwhile, getting creative with the time of publishing a post is nonetheless important to get a few more eyes to it.
But I wish we didn't have to do this at all and just chillax: less boosts, more control over reading flow, schedule, where one stops reading and gets a neat scroll-around to catch up with what they missed while being offline.
The way official Mastodon apps work right now is I have to scroll manually in reverse chronological order. And some replies don't ever make sense without seeing full thread, so why would I read them in reverse! Come on, Mastodon.
Maybe I should just get used to Phanpy. Alas, its loading speed on mobile often leaves me in dismay.
Fedi.Tips
in reply to Vint Prox • • •@vintprox @fishidwardrobe
"And some replies don't ever make sense without seeing full thread, so why would I read them in reverse!"
You can see the full thread by clicking on the reply, and the full thread is shown with the oldest post at the top.
Chao-c'
in reply to Fedi.Tips • • •Fedi.Tips
in reply to Chao-c' • • •@xChaos
It would be, and it's been suggested by lots of people on the Mastodon Github page, but the developers don't seem to be keen on it for some reason. Possibly causes technical headaches that aren't obvious?
you're all idiots
in reply to Fedi.Tips • • •it would be nice to have more generalized duplicate reduction.
Some people have multiple accounts and post the same thing with the same hashtags to all of them. Following one of those hashtags gives a couple of posts that look like duplicates, but of course they're not actually the same post.
Fedi.Tips
in reply to you're all idiots • • •@idiot
I'm not sure why they are posting 100% identical content from different accounts on the same network? Possibly they don't realise that posts from different servers end up on the same feeds of their followers?
mikaiah
in reply to Fedi.Tips • • •Fedi.Tips
in reply to mikaiah • • •@mikaiah @idiot
Yeah, that's definitely possible, they might not realise posts from different Fediverse platforms are all entering the same feeds and search results.
Allpoints
in reply to Fedi.Tips • • •Fedi.Tips
in reply to Allpoints • • •@allpoints
There's nothing specifically about self-boosts (which are usually just used to reach different time zones), but you can hide all of an account's boosts if you want: fedi.tips/blocking-and-muting-…
Blocking and muting accounts on Mastodon | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse
fedi.tipsbartosz 🚲🌳🐍🦀
in reply to Fedi.Tips • • •Fedi.Tips
in reply to bartosz 🚲🌳🐍🦀 • • •@btel
It's the second option, the boosts are allowed to repeat (if someone you follow boosts them) after 80 other posts have scrolled through your timeline.