So I'm seeing a spate of posts in the format "Don't fave posts on the fedi. It [does something positive and nice]". These are clearly sarcastic/humorous responses to something, but I don't know what. Can anyone clue me in so I have context? 🙏
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@corbden Thanks for the context on the fave thing! That helps a lot! ❤️
... now can you explain the Nicole reference?
@TonyaMarie hehe yes. "Nicole" was a pervasive spammer. No matter the instance, we were getting near-daily DMs with the same copy-pasta text with a full intro, which was a little off but also kinda oddly endearing. Like, "hi I'm Nicole but you can call me the Fediverse chick" and other details that I've forgotten but I recognize them when someone is riffing. Her presence ebbed and flowed over months, because they just recreated the account on different instances.
I don't even remember what she was advertising. But the most ubiquitous spammer on here ever.
@TonyaMarie I can give a background!
During the major Twitter influx and several subsequent influxes, people were relearning social media etiquette. Faving a twoot here doesn't help promote the post in the algorithm like it did on Twitter, because the algo is purely chronological. So some folks were saying the like button didn't do anything, and you need to boost instead.
But then people were like, NO, the like button does do things! Like tell the poster you liked their content, comforts someone who is sad, etc.
So this joke is just riffing on that.
There are a lot of old fedi/mastodon-specific meme forms here that have outlived their original context. Like our friend, Nicole but you can call her the Fediverse Chick.