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Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

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Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#51

Post by notatoad »

minimaxir wrote: post #41
notatoad wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Complaints like this are the reason companies are reluctant to release public datasets. They don't have any obligation to release data, but they do. It's a gift. If they have to consider "how will this change affect the consumers of our public data releases?" every time they make a change, they're going to stop releasing public datasets.

For clarity, the Reddit datasets are not released by Reddit itself, but scraped through the API. (More context/examples of what I do with the data: http://minimaxir.com/2015/10/reddit-bigquery/ )

Okay, but reddit does also release some public data sets: https://github.com/reddit/public-data-sets

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#52

Post by [deleted] »

gohrt wrote: post #11

Silly that the announcements give so much attention to scores going up (due to a change in scale) and not to the content of the change. It would be trivial to keep the scale magnitude the same by multiplying by a factor ("old average frontpage post" / "new average frontpage post") or applying a logarithmic transform. Makes me think that they are intentionally kicking up dust around the scale change, to draw attention…

[deleted]

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#53

Post by koolba »

justinlaster wrote: post #46
koolba wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We need to lay to rest this ridiculous notion that reddit is actively censoring anyone. They have code targeting specific subreddits to actively prevent them from being on the front page. While not totally censoring those people, they are putting their fingers on the scale which many see as a form of censorship.

>They have code targeting specific subreddits to actively prevent them from being on the front page. Source? The only thing they've done is prevent certain mod tools from being used a slingshot to the front page for specific subreddits. And this wasn't done out of hatred, it was done after consistent and continual abuse of those mod tools to antagonize the rest of the community.

> Source? The only thing they've done is prevent certain mod tools from being used a slingshot to the front page for specific subreddits.

How about /u/spez himself: https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/5frg1n/tifu_...

Quoting part of his post (feel free to Ctrl-F to find the context):

>> Posts stickied on r/the_donald will no longer appear in r/all.

It's not a global change to everybody. It's only for that one specific subreddit.

> And this wasn't done out of hatred, it was done have consistent and continual abuse of those mod tools to antagonize the rest of the community.

Oh really? Then why not apply it to every subreddit?

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#54

Post by [deleted] »

covercash wrote: post #47
rokosbasilisk wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

bad argument. we dont let bakers discrimate against gay people. being a private business, doesnt mean you can do whatever you want. Edit: I agree with the posters below me. My point is a private business doesnt mean I can do whatever I want. There are still social rules and laws that need to be considered.

Speaking of bad arguments... supporting Trump is a choice, you aren't born that way.

[deleted]

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#55

Post by thesimpsons1022 »

rm999 wrote: post #30

It's pretty clear to me that Reddit has always lacked a solid experienced science-driven data person. Someone who can pinpoint an issue, formulate the issue into a product-driven concrete problem, come up with hypotheses on how to fix the problem, then use their vast wealth of data and users to test and/or implement them. It's not just the ad hoc unintuitive "solution" they came up with to mask votes (which most peop…

i've talked to a reddit engineer before and he said that the masking of votes was done more as an architectural decision rather than a feature. They have a queue of votes that takes forever to process and it's easier to mask the count than keep up with it

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#56

Post by jacalata »

thomasahle wrote: post #29
jstanley wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tying a user to a phone number does nothing but invade the privacy of most users, and slightly increase the costs for those who value their privacy. Source: at https://smsprivacy.org/ I run an online service offering completely anonymous phone numbers for ~£3/mo. And note that you only need 1 month in order to get the account validated. Most places check the phone number once at account creation time and then never a…

It also has the effect of increasing the price of running 1000 bots to £3000/mo.

No, £3000 startup cost, not monthly cost.

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#57

Post by rm999 »

clamprecht wrote: post #49
rm999 wrote: post #30

It's pretty clear to me that Reddit has always lacked a solid experienced science-driven data person. Someone who can pinpoint an issue, formulate the issue into a product-driven concrete problem, come up with hypotheses on how to fix the problem, then use their vast wealth of data and users to test and/or implement them. It's not just the ad hoc unintuitive "solution" they came up with to mask votes (which most peop…

Redditor of 11 years here. I don't want another filter bubble that only shows me what it thinks I want to read (like Facebook). I want to see what other people are seeing, and not just like-minded people either. For that I can find subreddits and subscribe to them.

That usually comes down to product and business decisions, not the algorithms. Facebook (like Pandora and many others) falls into the same trap of optimizing too much on top of their algorithms. Instead, some gentle prodding in an interesting direction is usually enough to prevent a bubble while guiding exploration.

I'd argue that without some guided exploration it's much easier to fall into your self-made bubble. For example unfriending people on facebook, or listening to the same 5 artists on Pandora.

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#58

Post by minimaxir »

notatoad wrote: post #51
minimaxir wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For clarity, the Reddit datasets are not released by Reddit itself, but scraped through the API. (More context/examples of what I do with the data: http://minimaxir.com/2015/10/reddit-bigquery/ )

Okay, but reddit does also release some public data sets: https://github.com/reddit/public-data-sets

Ah, right, forgot about those. (Although, those are traffic aggregates and wouldn't be affected by changed in the score ranking)

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#59

Post by toxican »

It doesn't help that the CEO admitted to editing Trump supporter comments. I mean I couldn't care less about those people, but that is censorship and suppression and I can't blame people for viewing anything reddit does from now on with a bit of skepticism. But obviously it's not that bad because they've still chosen to make reddit their home.

Re: Reddit overhauls upvote algorithm to thwart cheaters

#60

Post by visarga »

SEJeff wrote: post #44
rm999 wrote: post #30

It's pretty clear to me that Reddit has always lacked a solid experienced science-driven data person. Someone who can pinpoint an issue, formulate the issue into a product-driven concrete problem, come up with hypotheses on how to fix the problem, then use their vast wealth of data and users to test and/or implement them. It's not just the ad hoc unintuitive "solution" they came up with to mask votes (which most peop…

As a data driven scientist, if you were the king of Reddit, what would you do differently and why would it be better? Not playing devil's advocate, but just curious.

If I were in this position I would empower people to filter out cheap content, fluff, memes and keep the in depth discussions and articles. Each user could choose the filtering level.
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