Lemmy has an algorithm

Commercial website feed shaping algorithm:

• Promoter feeds you what you want (to addict you), not what you need (to improve your life), manipulating you to make money for advertisers. You may be allowed to follow things.
• Filter omits what is banned or shadowbanned by the platform owner, manipulating you politically. You may be allowed to mute or block things.
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They decide what you think about and don't know.

Lemmy feed shaper:

• Fuzzy promoter: You choose one from a handful of simple open source ranking algorithms (which can be fooled by bot activity)
  https://join-lemmy.org/docs/users/03-votes-and-ranking.html
  Unfortunately the default ranking promotes new content only, so older valuable content is forgotten.
• Strict promoter: You follow what you want (tediously one by one - there are no associations between similars)
  This too lets older content be forgotten - you have to go and dig up your followeds' content published before following.
• Filter: You block what you avoid (instances, communities, users), but topics leak between communities (but some apps support keyword muting, which doesn't work on pictures of text)
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Fediverse feed shaper lacks a defined topic hierarchy for accurate content tagging (of instances, communities, posts, replies, users) by users, preferably with web of trust between taggers.

Quora had a precise topic taxonomy until 2023 or so - my feed was excellent (except for some spam, because no web of trust). Then the remaining co-founder enshittified it, filling my feed with viral click-hits.