Post · bonfire.cafe

Post

Newsmast Foundation

@newsmast@backend.newsmast.org · 2 days ago

We're building custom Social Web platforms for morally-aligned organisations and groups.

The Social Web is growing and we're so excited to be a part of it.

#SocialWeb #DigitalCommunity #Fediverse #Apps #SocialPlatforms

A graphic reading: "What would your platform look like?" Alongside screenshots from Newsmast Foundation app screens.

Hardly

@hardly@beige.party replied · yesterday

@newsmast

Ok, Newsmast.

Your 41 in-house boosts aren’t just a one-time thing. They’re a pattern. YOU DO IT ON ALL OF YOUR POSTS.

That is so unethical.

What have you got to say for yourselves?

Newsmast Foundation

@newsmast@backend.newsmast.org replied · yesterday

@hardly

Morning Hardly, hope you're having a good day?

We've spoken to the team at Mastodon about this and we've worked out controls to prevent it on major servers.

Unfortunately, this is just a side effect of how the trending section on some servers works.

Our posts reach our Channels because that's where our users are. This account is a listed contributor in our Channel feeds.

We have no desire to be on anyone's trending page/feed and this tech was implemented before that was possible!

Hardly

@hardly@beige.party replied · 24 hours ago

@newsmast

So in a nutshell, seems these automated .community accounts of yours are set up to auto boost your toots.

Are you going to keep doing that?

Newsmast Foundation

@newsmast@backend.newsmast.org replied · 24 hours ago

@hardly

Our Channels were set up as part of our charity mission, to share knowledge. They boost a variety of accounts and users who post with relevant hashtags. They boost this account because we created them and it is how we share information with their users.

If you look at the Channels, you will likely notice a variety of content across the Social Web.

In the past, when others noticed this behaviour, we did unfollow this account across the Channels because we agree - we don't want to inflate metrics or end up on a trending page - but this was a mistake and we reinstated the following.

In the future, it is likely we won't need to reach our Channel users in this way (and hopefully trending will better reflect the Social Web as a whole), but until then we will continue with this account as a contributor across all Channels.

If you don't want to see the work of our charity, please feel free to defederate from our instances (if your server allows) and/or block this account.