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The Facebook Algorithm Mom Problem

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Re: The Facebook Algorithm Mom Problem

#131

Post by russdill »

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #103
ryanbrunner wrote: post #95

I find a lot of sites feel like they're overtuning their recommendation engines, to the detriment of using the site. YouTube is particularly bad for this - given the years of history and somewhat regular viewing of the site, I feel like it should have a relatively good idea of what I'm interested in. Instead, the YouTube homepage seems myopically focused on the last 5-10 videos I watched.

Youtube is definitely over-weighing the last few videos. Then again, it's likely optimized for a different market segment. Especially with how many children are given tablets. Like, brief intense fascination with many subjects in general is genuinely hard to optimize for, especially when a huge portion of your market has long-lasting intense fascination with a few subjects.

If I watch a video I ended up not being interested in, I delete it from my watch history to avoid YouTube spamming me.

Re: The Facebook Algorithm Mom Problem

#132

Post by eightysixfour »

chickenfries wrote: post #120
eightysixfour wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish the Facebook API allowed for unfriending - I've always wanted to build a tinder swipe app for it.

That's basically what I want. Outrageous that they don't allow unfriending via the API, but not unexpected coming from Facebook.

It isn't really outrageous when you consider their core business model and the value of keeping you in a widespread graph of people. Someone with some time could easily do it with a plugin manipulating the JS on their friends page though.

Re: The Facebook Algorithm Mom Problem

#133

Post by anigbrowl »

duskwuff wrote: post #130
anigbrowl wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YouTube is weird. I made the mistake of watching a flat earth video last year in order to get a handle on that growing weirdo fad. Well it turns out that flat earthers are really avid content consumers (presumably because of the enormous cognitive reinforcement requirements to maintain such a belief) and YouTube really wanted to help me with that. It took a couple of months for it to stop offering me a portal to a be…

For future reference, you can remove videos from your YouTube history if you're logged in: https://www.youtube.com/feed/history Once a video is removed from your history, you'll no longer get recommendations based on it. If you aren't logged in, you can't view or edit your viewing history, but you can at least clear it. (Which will return you to YouTube's terrible default viewer profile... sigh )

Forgot about that! Thanks for the tip.

Re: The Facebook Algorithm Mom Problem

#134

Post by gthtjtkt »

ryanbrunner wrote: post #95

I find a lot of sites feel like they're overtuning their recommendation engines, to the detriment of using the site. YouTube is particularly bad for this - given the years of history and somewhat regular viewing of the site, I feel like it should have a relatively good idea of what I'm interested in. Instead, the YouTube homepage seems myopically focused on the last 5-10 videos I watched.

> Instead, the YouTube homepage seems myopically focused on the last 5-10 videos I watched.

Noticed the same thing happening for the past year or two.

I used to be able to go on YouTube and find a variety of interesting videos I'd never seen before. It seemed like there was a good balance of categories in the recommendations.

Now, I watch one boating video and suddenly my recommendations are 100% boat related with some random clickbait/viral garbage sprinkled in for good measure.

Re: The Facebook Algorithm Mom Problem

#135

Post by gabrielgoh »

ryanbrunner wrote: post #95

I find a lot of sites feel like they're overtuning their recommendation engines, to the detriment of using the site. YouTube is particularly bad for this - given the years of history and somewhat regular viewing of the site, I feel like it should have a relatively good idea of what I'm interested in. Instead, the YouTube homepage seems myopically focused on the last 5-10 videos I watched.

i think this is the right approach, you're not after all, the person you were 5 years ago, or even a week. most interests change with time, I lose interest in a topic very fast, and gain interest in another topic just as quickly. No good recommender system should be based off a reading of my "personality", whatever that may be - the most stable aspects of my personality, even if they can be divined from my viewing history, say little as to what I would be interested in watching next.

Re: The Facebook Algorithm Mom Problem

#136

Post by frenchie4111 »

Kubuxu wrote: post #98
frenchie4111 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone should make a browser extension that will automatically (or provides a button to quickly) load the cached version when a site is down Edit: I just made a super simple bookmarklet that does it: http://mikelyons.org/2017/06/12/Google-Cache-Javascript-Shor...

You can also write `cache:` in front of the URL. Works in FF, probably also in Chrome.

Oh sweet, works in Safari as well

Re: The Facebook Algorithm Mom Problem

#137

Post by jandrese »

Semaphor wrote: post #101
ryanbrunner wrote: post #95

I find a lot of sites feel like they're overtuning their recommendation engines, to the detriment of using the site. YouTube is particularly bad for this - given the years of history and somewhat regular viewing of the site, I feel like it should have a relatively good idea of what I'm interested in. Instead, the YouTube homepage seems myopically focused on the last 5-10 videos I watched.

I'm not sure if it is because of weird tastes or something else. But for sites like Steam, YT, Netflix I always wish for more tuning parameters because their recommendations are all horrible. On Netflix, for example, I get recommended stuff that's similar to other things I didn't like. Amazon is often the best of them for books because their engine seems to only really value the last few things I looked at / bought a…

Netflix's recommendation system is only good at recommending Netflix shows now.

Re: The Facebook Algorithm Mom Problem

#138

Post by kerbalspacepro »

Semaphor wrote: post #101
ryanbrunner wrote: post #95

I find a lot of sites feel like they're overtuning their recommendation engines, to the detriment of using the site. YouTube is particularly bad for this - given the years of history and somewhat regular viewing of the site, I feel like it should have a relatively good idea of what I'm interested in. Instead, the YouTube homepage seems myopically focused on the last 5-10 videos I watched.

I'm not sure if it is because of weird tastes or something else. But for sites like Steam, YT, Netflix I always wish for more tuning parameters because their recommendations are all horrible. On Netflix, for example, I get recommended stuff that's similar to other things I didn't like. Amazon is often the best of them for books because their engine seems to only really value the last few things I looked at / bought a…

Regarding Amazon:

"Oh, you bought a wallet? Here are twenty wallets of the exact same type but with slightly different colors that you might want to buy, too"

Re: The Facebook Algorithm Mom Problem

#139

Post by girst »

frenchie4111 wrote: post #49
timsayshey wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all heroes wear capes -- thank you!

Someone should make a browser extension that will automatically (or provides a button to quickly) load the cached version when a site is down Edit: I just made a super simple bookmarklet that does it: http://mikelyons.org/2017/06/12/Google-Cache-Javascript-Shor...

This one for FireFox supports Google Cache, Archive.org and Archive.Is - https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/resurrect-pages/

Re: The Facebook Algorithm Mom Problem

#140

Post by hk__2 »

russdill wrote: post #131
ThrustVectoring wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Youtube is definitely over-weighing the last few videos. Then again, it's likely optimized for a different market segment. Especially with how many children are given tablets. Like, brief intense fascination with many subjects in general is genuinely hard to optimize for, especially when a huge portion of your market has long-lasting intense fascination with a few subjects.

If I watch a video I ended up not being interested in, I delete it from my watch history to avoid YouTube spamming me.

Can’t you "dislike" it instead?
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