Post B4DXdB23hNe8ekeVzU by msh@coales.co
 (DIR) More posts by msh@coales.co
 (DIR) Post #B4DXbMED6LDwniT7k8 by fname@kamloops.social
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       So, my lastest project is complete—sort of.It all started with the question: why do people still cling to platforms like Facebook when the user experience is terrible and/or outright hostile?Part of it, for sure, is network effects (all their friends are there), but I think part of it is also that Facebook does ‘local’ really well. Pretty much all the local news and community stuff is on Facebook. Yes, there’s a Fediverse equivalent (Friendica) but it’s pretty empty in there. So how, I wondered, could that local feel be brought over to Mastodon?The solution I came up with was to create a number of regional Mastodon instances that would act as friendly, localized ‘on-ramps’ onto the Fedi for folks that are maybe a bit intimidated by the global nature of it all. Along the way however, I realized that I have little interest in being responsible for running a Mastodon instance, with all the cost, stress and responsibility that goes along with it. (My hat is off to those that do—don’t forget to tip your server!)So, what I ended up doing was creating regional local news-bots that would curate news feeds relevant to folks in particular geographic areas of BC. The five regional news accounts are:@local@local@cranbrook.social@local@princegeorge.social@local@kelowna.social@local@nanaimo.socialEach regional bot posts stories with hashtags related to the keyword that their feeds are drawn from. The process is automated, so the feed may draw in some anomalous content from time-to-time. By following (or muting) certain hashtags, one has full control of what content one receives (or doesn’t receive).Overall, I’m quite pleased with the end-product. Hopefully other folks out there can get some value from it as well.Feedback is welcome, but please be kind. 🙂
       
 (DIR) Post #B4DXbOCrkJKww7r4vQ by fname@kamloops.social
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       Nice! Today the wife saw something on the news about an incident in a specific B.C. town. I just pulled up the hashtag and boom, there were all the stories about it, posted by the bot.Love it! 😀
       
 (DIR) Post #B4DXdB23hNe8ekeVzU by msh@coales.co
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       @fname "Facebook does ‘local’ really well."LOL no, not at all really!  Any success "Local Facebook" enjoys is DESPITE Facebook/Meta, not because of it.  Our community association posts events and The Algorithm suppresses or delays it for like half the followers of our neighbourhood pages unless we use the "everyone" tag (which is severely limjted) or we pay for boosts.As for any sort of "community?  HA. If we didn't have dedicated volunteers doing VERY significant moderation work our neigboughood pages would be total spam-infested, rage machine hellscapes. It is orders of magnitude more difficult to moderate our presence on Meta platforms than it is to moderate a small to medium presence on the Fediverse.Meta is AWFUL at local. the dedicated community volunteers that endure these fully enshittified services are AMAZING.  Give these people ethical, humane platforms and they could do SO MUCH BETTER.