@Mastodon I like the direction you’re taking here and I look forward to seeing how this works out. One idea: would a “starter pack” of hashtags be a thing that would make sense? I really appreciate the ability to follow hashtags; maybe that could be a way to help on board new folks: “Not sure *who* to follow? Follow your favorite hashtags and find your people!”

@Mastodon I hate this idea. I like Mastodon because it's NOT like corporate social media.

Having an empty timeline until you find people to follow is not a problem that needs solving; people are just too used to being spoon fed by the algorithm.

If you add this feature, please allow people to opt out of being added to starter packs.

@Mastodon „Herd“
Mastodonians are not wolves, we don't form packs like the fascists on X.

@Mastodon For the quick start part of it, maybe users during onboarding (say in the app) could pick starter packs first, and then be recommended instances partly based on what the people in their chosen starter packs are using?

You're interested in anarchist starter packs, here's some anarchist instances for you. Of french lierature or cycling or whatever.

It has some matthews effect potential, but I don't think it's a terrible idea.

@Mastodon we should borrow the collective noun of elephants, and call it a parade!

@Mastodon Mastodons group up in “herds” right? 😉

@Mastodon I'd just like to suggest you plan ahead and make any lists of users for any purpose useable/tranformable for any other purpose -- vs on bluesky sharter packs and feeds were different somehow and not exchangeable. Also keep a user list of changes to their account, so they know what happened, and the ablity to UNDO.

@Mastodon based on how this played out on bsky, I urge you to reconsider this feature. At minimum you need controls to opt out of packs entirely at the account level. They very easily became a vector for abuse or unwanted attention and confused replies.

@Mastodon If not “packs” then maybe “sets?” I’d be hesitant to obscure the meaning too much for the sake of thematics, the simpler the better.

Something else that they did that helped with onboarding was to create shareable lists (called feeds) that are for certain topics based on words and tags within posts. I know we can search topics via words or tags, but a topic of interest being a click or two away vs manually entering the search terms is powerful, almost like a subreddit but not.

@Mastodon It would be nice to be able to browse through such “albums.” So far, it’s been challenging to discover accounts by focus or interest. “Packs” brings to mind stray dogs, but also piles of material, so I suppose it depends on personal perspective.

@Mastodon @FediFollows Has helped me find a tonne of accounts I wouldnt have found on my own. Their feedback (as you've mentioned) may be worth something(?).

@Mastodon The first two things that come to my mind are that I'm pleased we can choose to opt-out of being included, and the way hashtags work on here is most satisfying and I'd like to see it continued.

@Mastodon hell ya, get it

@Mastodon The Internet runs on cats. We could be a Tribe or Pride.

@Mastodon @pluralistic I propose gangs.

Or cults.

Oh, or polycules.