Seeing stuff about reddit being posted to 10 different technology boards, plus reddit-themed ones, then reposted further just makes this whole idea a mess. Reposts have to be consolidated into a single comment thread.
Sorting by new also is an algorithm.
Not trolling here: I think this is something the fediverse will need to decide at some point. What are the acceptance criteria for timeline presentations? But this would also be a perfect example of diversity: don’t like the way our instance sorts your timeline? No problem, here’s some instances that do it differently.
The goal should be to allow users to choose their own algorithm, including third party algorithms you can install yourself or something.
Sure, but the algorithms themselves will have to be provided by the instance, so I guess different instance might make different choices, for example due to privacy concerns etc.