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FB feed is 98% suggested pages and barely any friends' posts

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Re: FB feed is 98% suggested pages and barely any friends' posts

#71
post #50

Yes it’s a negative feedback loop created by the very bad product decisions they made to optimize for local maxima of getting more ads revenue. You inject more and more ads followed by more and more suggested content, thereby reducing the in network content. The in network content doesn’t get as much of traction, therefore people stop posting. This in turn forces the feed to have more and more suggestions and a few s…

Sounds a lot like Google Search results. It’s almost as if advertising dollars are an addictive drug that ultimately kills the company.

But at least now a few MBAs can put "increased revenue at Meta by X%" on their resume!

Re: FB feed is 98% suggested pages and barely any friends' posts

#74
post #62
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds a lot like Google Search results. It’s almost as if advertising dollars are an addictive drug that ultimately kills the company.

It actively makes the product worse. E.g. from yesterday, if I search for "high tc record," I'm not looking for the set of bedsheets with the greatest number of threads.

In fairness, reading your search term, I had no idea what you were talking about so it's not entirely surprising the organic content producers don't match those terms well. Looks like the SEO folks do though.

Re: FB feed is 98% suggested pages and barely any friends' posts

#75
Facebook is a fantastic product, as long as you use it properly and not remotely as Facebook wants you to.

- Most important step: Unfollow every single person and page

- Follow entertaining groups like 'This cat is c h o n k y'

- Keep facebook messenger

- Use FB events for party planning

That's it, and it's easy: you get all the social graph functionality, all the event planning and chat stuff. The feed (if you even visit it, personally I might spend five minutes a week there) is fun and doesn't make you feel disappointed with your elderly family members.

Re: FB feed is 98% suggested pages and barely any friends' posts

#76
I never use FB but checked it just now and the mix seems fine. Out of the first 10 panels on my page 7 were friends or pages I follow. Remaining were 2 ads and one suggested post. I'm guessing it's worse if you use FB frequently and have seen all of your friends recent content already.

Re: FB feed is 98% suggested pages and barely any friends' posts

#77
post #50

Yes it’s a negative feedback loop created by the very bad product decisions they made to optimize for local maxima of getting more ads revenue. You inject more and more ads followed by more and more suggested content, thereby reducing the in network content. The in network content doesn’t get as much of traction, therefore people stop posting. This in turn forces the feed to have more and more suggestions and a few s…

Sounds a lot like Google Search results. It’s almost as if advertising dollars are an addictive drug that ultimately kills the company.

--that coupled with inability to realize that blasting ads at people doesnt make your product look better, it makes your product a source of frustration, and a daily/hourly annoyance, your product is associated with bad, and is avoided.

the answer to the problem includes the concept of less is more.

Re: FB feed is 98% suggested pages and barely any friends' posts

#79
post #14

Knowing the beast firsthand, there's no trace of doubt in my mind that the convergence to a junk product outcome involved a monotonous increase in ad revenue and likely, engagement metrics. There's a tragic dimension that a system which connected so much of humanity to itself so well would be rendered so toxic as a product and as a community in just a few years.

Ordinary people put up with a lot of inconvenience just to stay connected (in some way). This is why fb has not collapsed yet. I left it years ago when I realized it was just annoying me.

Users of FB have migrated to Instagram and WhatsApp (all owned by Meta) ... FB is now for old people / those who don't like new tech.
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