Logo
ScienceStack
Table of Contents
Fetching ...
Sign In

Understanding Decentralized Social Feed Curation on Mastodon

Yuhan Liu, Emmy Song, Owen Xingjian Zhang, Jewel Merriman, Lei Zhang, Andrés Monroy-Hernández

TL;DR

This paper investigates how Mastodon users perceive and manage decentralized feeds and how to empower personalization through tool design. It employs a two-part interview study with 21 users and introduces Braids, a web-based feed curation tool featuring a unified, semi-chronological feed with slider-based preference controls and data-source badges. The findings show a strong preference for chronological feeds but indicate opportunities for transparent, rule-based or ML-assisted curation to help catch up or tailor content, while seamful design enhances understanding of algorithmic influence. The work advances pedagogy and实践 for feed curation in the Fediverse, offering design guidance on unified feeds, transparency, and the trade-offs between new apps and add-ons for decentralized social platforms.

Abstract

As centralized social media platforms face growing concerns, more users are seeking greater control over their social feeds and turning to decentralized alternatives such as Mastodon. The decentralized nature of Mastodon creates unique opportunities for customizing feeds, yet user perceptions and curation strategies on these platforms remain unknown. This paper presents findings from a two-part interview study with 21 Mastodon users, exploring how they perceive, interact with, and manage their current feeds, and how we can better empower users to personalize their feeds on Mastodon. We use the qualitative findings of the first part of the study to guide the creation of Braids, a web-based prototype for feed curation. Results from the second part of our study, using Braids, highlighted opportunities and challenges for future research, particularly in using seamful design to enhance people's acceptance of algorithmic curation and nuanced trade-offs between machine learning-based and rule-based curation algorithms. To optimize user experience, we also discuss the tension between creating new apps and building add-ons in the decentralized social media realm.

Understanding Decentralized Social Feed Curation on Mastodon

TL;DR

This paper investigates how Mastodon users perceive and manage decentralized feeds and how to empower personalization through tool design. It employs a two-part interview study with 21 users and introduces Braids, a web-based feed curation tool featuring a unified, semi-chronological feed with slider-based preference controls and data-source badges. The findings show a strong preference for chronological feeds but indicate opportunities for transparent, rule-based or ML-assisted curation to help catch up or tailor content, while seamful design enhances understanding of algorithmic influence. The work advances pedagogy and实践 for feed curation in the Fediverse, offering design guidance on unified feeds, transparency, and the trade-offs between new apps and add-ons for decentralized social platforms.

Abstract

As centralized social media platforms face growing concerns, more users are seeking greater control over their social feeds and turning to decentralized alternatives such as Mastodon. The decentralized nature of Mastodon creates unique opportunities for customizing feeds, yet user perceptions and curation strategies on these platforms remain unknown. This paper presents findings from a two-part interview study with 21 Mastodon users, exploring how they perceive, interact with, and manage their current feeds, and how we can better empower users to personalize their feeds on Mastodon. We use the qualitative findings of the first part of the study to guide the creation of Braids, a web-based prototype for feed curation. Results from the second part of our study, using Braids, highlighted opportunities and challenges for future research, particularly in using seamful design to enhance people's acceptance of algorithmic curation and nuanced trade-offs between machine learning-based and rule-based curation algorithms. To optimize user experience, we also discuss the tension between creating new apps and building add-ons in the decentralized social media realm.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 34 sections, 3 figures, 4 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Decentralized Social Media and Mastodon
  4. Feed Curation in Centralized social Media Platforms
  5. Existing Feed Curation Tools in Mastodon
  6. Method
  7. Study Methodology
  8. Participants
  9. Data Analysis
  10. Findings: Understanding People’s Perception and Interaction with Mastodon Feeds.
  11. Participants prefer chronological feeds but also identified scenarios where algorithmic feeds might help
  12. Participants selectively interact with Mastodon feeds by choosing the home server based on community and moderation policy
  13. Participants' interaction frequency of Mastodon feeds depends on their home server size
  14. Participants manage their home feed by applying filters for hashtags or accounts
  15. Participants use multiple apps/tools at the same time because there is no one-fits-all solution
  16. ...and 19 more sections

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: Advanced Web Interface in the Official Mastodon Web App.
  • Figure 2: An overview of how braids.social generate feed
  • Figure 3: Design Considerations of braids.social