At this point, we can all agree that the federated timeline is the worst experience because of the sheer glut of information from people we have no connection with.

The fedi shines when we can connect with like-minded people and build communities around those organic connections. Sure, it takes more time for discovery, but personally, I've always thought that was a strength of the fedi, and my stance has always been to build an experience around that.

And while I never look at the federated timeline, a case could be made for an open-source algorithm that runs in the background that could suggest specific users based on your preferences, likes, follows, etc. Of course, this would be completely optional, and one could click a check box not to participate.

But yeah, we gotta get away from the federated timeline as it stands now. It's just an awful experience.