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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

#81
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.

> There's a tragic dimension that a system which connected so much of humanity to itself How would you say Facebook connected humanity differently from what MySpace was doing before Facebook ate their lunch with a more consistent UI? I also am increasingly of the opinion that humanity is not wired to connect globally. Our local social networks give us a buffer against centralized bad actors. When everyone was connect…

>before social media took off won the information war because they could bypass fact checkers that would refuse to pass them to their network

Lmao, my mother used to forward me these political chain letters. I'd reply all with sources debunking them. I quickly got removed from the list :^)

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

#82
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.

I have no idea what you are expecting from "high tc record"

I'm getting links about the highest temperature on earth and it is listing it in Fahrenheit so if the "tc" means "temperature celsius" it is failing for me.

All the other links are about high temperature superconductors.

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

#83

Crazy idea: FB should stop trying to lure people back from Tiktok with weird features and just lean in to its one remaining strength, which is that among social media sites, it's the most generic and boring and ubiquitous. Being the default place for non-influencers to do quotidian stuff like hearing about school closings, joining the PTA or HOA, coordinating family gatherings, see your nephew's school photos, etc wo…

Marketplace is the only reason a lot of people still use the site. This is since especially true for people looking for beater cars since Craigslist started charging $5 to post ads for cars.

If Apple or someone else with an ax to grind with Facebook really wanted to bust Meta's kneecaps, they could off to subsidize this charge. Maybe also help them out with fraud and spam detection, since that's where most of the overhead on that section is going to come from.

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

#84
post #43

The current FB is great for productivity! No need to mourn the former FB. It's gone. I've given up on FB as a social network a long time ago. I unfollowed all my friends and started following things that interest me. Followed the astronomical society so I can be informed when they have a public night. I get ads for everything I need for renovating my house: roof sealing services, AC repair, contractors, new windows,…

>The current FB is great for productivity! Good guy Zucc. Is the platform salvageable at this point? Probably easier to acquire a new social media platform than steer the old behemoth.

The point of FB is to make profit for shareholders. The platform can evolve into something new and profitable. There's no need to salvage the old. That's why the poor guy is driving his VR vision so hard!

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

#85
post #23

I suspect part of it is that Real People are posting less. Since the feed doesn't have a bottom anymore it makes up the difference with sponsored and suggested junk rather than going empty.

This. Most people have ~300 friends. Most of those friends never post, and the 10% that do probably only post a couple of times a year now. That means whenever you log in, there is no content from your friends to see.

People post liberally to private Groups you're a member of, and you don't need to be their friends. Group posts should be the majority of your newsfeed.

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

#86
post #53

What is worse, I have seen quite a few suggested pages spreading hardcore conspiracy theories.

I’ve witnessed the same. In addition, I’ve recently seen Facebook recommend posts that were outright racist and anti-Semitic. I tried reporting them to Facebook, but they weren’t removed since they didn’t call for violence. One would think that a company that’s been under heavy scrutiny regarding its role in the growing political polarization of America with its negative social effects would make a better effort with…

> but it’s another thing when I’m being recommended posts that encourage hatred and wild conspiracy theories that flirt with sedition.

What you're describing is literally one of the two mainstream political viewpoints of 2022. Imagine the backlash if those viewpoints get banned on Facebook.

(This is, by the way, not a good thing.)

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

#87

Crazy idea: FB should stop trying to lure people back from Tiktok with weird features and just lean in to its one remaining strength, which is that among social media sites, it's the most generic and boring and ubiquitous. Being the default place for non-influencers to do quotidian stuff like hearing about school closings, joining the PTA or HOA, coordinating family gatherings, see your nephew's school photos, etc wo…

Marketplace is the only reason a lot of people still use the site. This is since especially true for people looking for beater cars since Craigslist started charging $5 to post ads for cars. If Apple or someone else with an ax to grind with Facebook really wanted to bust Meta's kneecaps, they could off to subsidize this charge. Maybe also help them out with fraud and spam detection, since that's where most of the ove…

I use it for groups. Many of our local clubs do great on facebook

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

#88

And the irony is Reddit social feed is "broke" when trying to view details about how FB is broke :-/

I'm seeing the "You broke reddit" screen as well but you can still access the post if you use .compact or the `new.reddit.com` domain.

https://old.reddit.com/r/facebook/comments/tvqddc/fb_feed_is...

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

#89
post #54
post #23

I suspect part of it is that Real People are posting less. Since the feed doesn't have a bottom anymore it makes up the difference with sponsored and suggested junk rather than going empty.

By comparison, Instagram - the other part of Facebook - still puts a "no new posts" item in the feed, so there's a clear indicator that you can put Instagram away and you won't miss out on anything. However, Facebook has been slowly chipping away at it, by putting suggested posts afterwards (instead of accounts you actually follow) so if you're not paying attention, you'll still get ads / engagement. I expect the "no…

Funny, I see the opposite on Instagram - it's loaded with "suggested posts" based on things you liked, other accounts you follow, or apparently just things that you stopped scrolling for a second or two on, which I guess it detects. It even switches you to an endless list of suggested posts to scroll through once you have seen all of the posts from people you actually follow since the last time you opened the app - you have to click to an alternate screen/feed if you want to see an "old" post again.

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

#90
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Google is supposed to be able to understand this given how much data they collect on individuals and the web.
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