Linear feeds are a dark pattern - A proposal for Mastodon
https://tilde.town/~dzwdz/blog/feeds.html

I’ve polished the CSS style a bit, you can try it here: https://eapl.me/treed/

@eapl.me@eapl.me Read flags are so simple, yet powerful in my opinion. I really don’t understand why this is not a thing in most twtxt clients. It’s completely natural in e-mail programs and feed readers, but it hasn’t made the jump over to this domain.

I think it is not easy to implement, you need a database. Timeline is an elegant solution: read and sort.

@eapl.me@eapl.me I like this idea. Another option would be to show a limited number of posts, with an option to see the omitted ones by user. Either way, I wonder how well that works with threading.

What exactly is a linear feed? 🤔

The article discusses the challenges posed by linear social media feeds, which often lead to disengagement and difficulty in prioritizing content from friends due to constant scrolling. The author proposes an alternative approach using a daily feed structure per day, which organizes posts by date, allowing for easier prioritization and reducing mindless scrolling.

Key Points:

1. Linear Feed Problem: Linear feeds present a long list of posts without prioritization, forcing users to scroll endlessly to catch up on friends’ content. This can lead to addiction and disengagement.

2. Proposed Alternative (Tree Structure): The daily feed structure organizes posts by day, enabling users to prioritize updates from friends who post infrequently while reducing scrolling effort.

3. Mastodon Experience: The author’s experience with Mastodon highlighted its effectiveness in allowing content prioritization and managing social media usage without dependency on algorithms.

4. Challenges and Considerations:

   • Implementation Challenges: Creating a daily feed system involves organizing content effectively and ensuring users can prioritize posts.
     
   • Platform Support: Current platforms may not have APIs conducive to such changes, making it difficult to implement without significant technical changes.
     
   • Engagement Metrics: The impact on engagement metrics needs to be considered, as traditional metrics might be misinterpreted in a tree structure.
     

5. Potential Applications Beyond Social Media: This approach could empower users by giving control over content consumption and aiding in balancing social media use without overwhelming them with information.

6. Future Directions: The author hopes for improvements in alternative platforms’ feed systems and engagement metrics, potentially through more interactive content models or changes in APIs.

In conclusion, the article emphasizes the importance of providing users with control over their content consumption, moving away from linear feed

I think the author is a bit out of their depth here. A linear feed isn’t quite what the author seems to be modelling in their view of the problems they observe and describe. A linear feed has a beginning and an end. You can (ideally client-side) sort it by Date, or by Subject like we do with our Twtxt clients. A Tree-structure isn’t what the author thinks either, this is more the structure that forms after you introducing some kind of “threading model”. The main problem with any kind of information system that tries to figure out algorithmically what you want to “see” is that type of interface has no start and no end. SO you end up with a “scroll of doom”.