Bluesky also has a followers feed like Mastodon. I use that one sometimes, but it's easy to toggle over to one of the algorithmic feeds as well. Sort of best of both.

Worth noting that some algorithms can be done client-side, but it may not be feasible or desirable to do so. For example in the open protocol of email, some huge majority of all mail is supposedly spam. Filtering client-side would be a tremendous waste of resources. I suspect the same could become true of any open protocol like Mastodon or AT.

Either way, I think the proliferation of sites is good for the digital ecosystem.

> some huge majority of all mail is supposedly spam. Filtering client-side would be a tremendous waste of resources. I suspect the same could become true of any open protocol like Mastodon or AT.

I once had access to the Twitter Firehose.

It was, as you say, a mindbogglingly tremendous waste of resources.

The solution was always: provide several algos on top of chronological order, and let people choose.

Client side Algo cannot be implemented because the API does not give you enough controls (I know, I have written Mastodon clients)

If you can get the messages, you can run a client-side algorithm - just download everything in the last 24 hours or whatever, and algorithmically choose what to display in what order.

That's a huge waste of resources on the client side. If every client does that it will bring the servers to their knees.

While I agree with you, technically everything can be done with API, but what are the bottle neck of just have everything accessing a db table directly? Cutting out the http API middle man?

Too much work for not enough reward.