I read an interesting point which I hadn’t realized before. Discussions on current social media are always current, not long term. You open the app or website to see what’s going on now. When you comment, it’s soon lost to history, buried by newer stuff. If you happen on a post more than a day or two old, it doesn’t make sense to comment as it’s already passed and nobody will read your reply. You’re not building anything of long term value. It was not like this in forums that predated social media. You could reply to a years old thread, and it would be bumped to the head of the queue. I suppose both the form of social media with its feeds and the algorithms designed to hook you and make you come for more are to blame.
How could we make kbin or fediverse in general more purposeful long term and less for instant gratification? Going back to old forum form is probably not the answer, but maybe something between feeds and forums or even something entirely new? With fediverse we have the opportunity to build something better and more useful than what we have now, as we are not bound by the economic imperative to make the users hooked.
I honestly think it needs a collective cultural shift by the users to not get so clickbait-y. I think one of the issues in social media is the constant pressure to stay updated, not just to post but also react. Interactions have a deadline and if you don’t meet it, too bad, so sad–which, to a degree makes sense for its usage. If I just want to keep people updated on the goings-on in my life, quick reactions are more than enough.
But if I want more meaningful discussions (which is what I hope for in the fediverse and what I tried to get from reddit), interactions should be normalized or even encouraged to have longer lifespans and users would ideally contribute more thoughtfully. This comes with the consequence of not having as much content, or having to be one of the few people constantly commenting and posting to keep a magazine or community active.
This is why I’m on the fence about “rule” posts. On one hand, it’s one way to populate the fediverse and I do like variety in my scrolling, but on the other, it detracts from being able to see discussions, and it can get tiresome to see meme after meme; because honestly, if I wanted a barrage of shit posts I would’ve stayed on reddit.