Recommended Users section for the side panel

[MirceaKitsune]

I wanted to bring up this suggestion since the implementation of trending tags in the home UI. I believe it would be very helpful if just above or under the new Trending Now section, we could have a Recommended Users field too, showing users Mastodon determined you'd be interested in following based on your activity.

Note that this feature already exists on a separate page. If you go to https://instance.social/web/search you'll see a section called "You might be interested in..." which lists many users. This suggestion involves adding a short version of this in the side panel, displaying only 3 users in a randomized fashion (new entries each time the page loads).

The reasoning is once more inspired from my experience with Twitter: As I browsed its Home timeline, I'd see a panel to the right recommending someone for me to watch. I found several accounts I was interested in this way! For Mastodon I believe this would help further create new connections, also helping the fediverse expand and become more active in the process. Like me, many people aren't going to look at that search page frequently... we do however see the home UI all the time, meaning we'll always be presented with someone new that we'd be interested in.

[trwnh]

This already exists as Follower Suggestions #7918 and is implemented in the search tab (/web/search)

The only limitation is that the advanced web UI currently has no way to load this column.

[MirceaKitsune]

That is closer to what I was thinking of. My suggestion still was placing it directly in the rightmost panel, as a continuation to the new trending tags section. This way people will see it more easily, as long as it doesn't cause the UI to become too bloated.

[MirceaKitsune]

I managed to put together a mockup of exactly how I'm imagining this suggestion, less for the mismatching font style as I copied the graphics from the existing search panel. See the "You might be interested in..." field I edited in on the right side, just above "Trending now" (it could go below instead if that looks better).

[MirceaKitsune]

Any thoughts on this, whether it's become easier to implement and the team agrees with the idea? It's one of the things I'd find myself making use of even on instances I'm well established on: Finding new users of interest always takes manual action, something many don't feel like doing after following a few accounts then getting bored... this field helps any user find someone new and have a reason to keep going, something I could confirm when I used Twitter which has just such a field! I legitimately think it would be one of the little ways to help the fediverse grow and people to meet.

The "you might be interested in" section still exists, so an algorithm to recommend users is there, albeit its accuracy and recycling of recommendations could be improved. It's very obscure though: It only shows up in the search field when you don't search for any keywords by pressing enter in the empty field, something no one normally even thinks to try! This would simply be a visible shortcut to make the feature actually useful: Taking the top 3 - 5 entries and always showing them with the trending tags.

@Gargron Since Github says you didn't notice this issue when it was originally posted, poking you to bring attention if that's okay. I was reminded by the Patreon post you just made about keeping users engaged (in a non-intrusive and respectful way): As I commented there I think this would help even more than a one-time recommendation page for newcomers.

[aschrijver]

Based on the Patreon announcement Feature preview: Onboarding we started a discussion on SocialHub in relation to the functionality that is being introduced. It seems to me personally - unless I misunderstand - that this new engagement feature is more in line with becoming more similar to the traditional social media platforms, rather than taking new pathways that highlight the strengths and culture of the Fediverse.

Therefore I wonder if it is an UX improvement or not. I was most inspired by PixelFed @dansup on the announcement to remove engagement features that were already built, based on feedback of a fedizen complaining about their 'addictiveness'. That is humane technology in action. This onboarding experience to me seems to reinforce 'influencers' and the negative effects they bring along with them.

Here we discuss alternative ways to do Fedizen Onboarding: Improve “Onboarding” of fedizens but avoid problematic engagement features.

All opinions are welcome, and we invite anyone to join the discussion :)

[MirceaKitsune]

@aschrijver That's the Patreon post I was referring to. Thanks for sharing the other info as well.

As for my opinion on platforms being engaging: There's definitely a toxic way of doing it, such as the way Facebook / Twitter tries to find every absurd way to make you click on something new while also mining your activity for advertisers and the government at it. I definitely dislike that... still not all forms of being engaging are automatically bad! I enjoy having a platform programmed so that it does make you stay engaged, but by truly caring about what you want and without having other strings attached (eg: advertisers). Also without intruding into your privacy, which is possible by having the recommendations algorithm work by scanning your and other users public posts (eg: tags) then comparing them to determine what you'd like to see more of.

That sort of thing is fair game and what an intelligently designed platform should probably do to make users happy. And as long as it's decentralized and not controlled in the interest of any entity I don't mind it "being addictive" too, granted addiction isn't a purpose and simply comes from the user enjoying something that's well designed... same way some games are a bit addictive when we think about it, doesn't mean they're evil for it just good at what they do.

[JLoDoesIt]

I support such a feature, the way mastodon is designed today slows down considerably content discovery.
Later, as mentioned above, we need to add more original ways to discover (hashtags, meta data, etc.).
I will have to do such a thing in the scope of a research project anyhow to foster connections between researchers.
So I subscribe to this thread and let you know when I make progress. (not sure it will end on the main branch though)

[harrybailey]

Another one missing the 'suggestion' label?

[trwnh]

Could probably be closed as it is included in the Explore tab, I think?

[MirceaKitsune]

I still believe a shortened list could exist above the trending tags section, otherwise users will rarely be tempted to look and won't find others of interest as often since we usually just scroll through the home page. There should be enough room to show 3 recommended accounts or so. I think this would expand activity and making new connections in a positive way.

[limdingwen]

SoapBox implements this, if inspiration is needed as to how to do it. It works out of the box with Mastodon communities.