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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

#181

Post by edgyquant »

umeshunni wrote: post #151
ericraio wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instagram turned into being what Facebook was supposed to be.

and now it's moving away from that and pushing more suggested content. The death spiral is: 1. Show friends content to attract users 2. Realize that friends don't product enough content to increase engagement. 3. Start introducing suggested content to increase engagement 4. Friend stop producing content since their content is deprioritized and not getting engagement 5. Now your feed is full of suggested content and i…

Almost like building a business around “engagement” is a model that leads to a death spiral. Social media sites are basically giant MLM schemes that sell the idea that become real companies before the scheme runs out.

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

#182

Post by JonathanBeuys »

It wouldn't be that hard to write a bookmarklet that scrolls through your feed, removes posts from people you don't follow and sorts the rest by time.

A good portion of people here on HN would be capable of writing it.

That nobody does shows that there is not really a strong preference for this type of experience over the current suggested/ads/friends mix.

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

#183

Post by greatpostman »

darth_avocado wrote: post #37

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…

This is basically the flaw in A/B testing

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

#184

Post by antisthenes »

hk__2 wrote: post #121
antisthenes wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an extremely liberal use of the word friend. A more accurate way to state it would be to say 'facebook connections'. If you don't regularly communicate with them, they aren't your friends.

That’s nitpicking. These people are called "friends" on FB, not "connections".

It's not nitpicking. It's the correct use of a word with its established definitions.

If you want to use the FB corporate meaning, go ahead, but label it appropriately.

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

#185

Post by greatpostman »

ineptech wrote: post #61

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…

Their current market cap can’t be sustained by going back to their roots. They need addictive attention

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

#186

Post by nerdponx »

ineptech wrote: post #61

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…

This seemed to be their strategy for several years in the early 00s. Facebook was pretty enjoyable to use back then!

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

#187

Post by spoonjim »

munchler wrote: post #132
mullingitover wrote: post #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…

Why would you want to unfollow your own friends? To me, that's always been the one useful feature of Facebook.

The problem is FB uses that to suggest content from their friends. Then you get random stuff from randos

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

#188

Post by nerdponx »

mrweasel wrote: post #109
ineptech wrote: post #61

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…

"Won't someone please think of the shareholders"... It seems like the obvious idea, it is exactly their strengths and their user base is old enough for those features to be of value. The thing is that would mean making Facebook less valuable, causing the current shareholders to lose money. It's going to be hard to get someone to accept a business plan that will cost them money, even if the alternative is worse long t…

> The thing is that would mean making Facebook less valuable

Would it? Is the stock market completely irrational and incapable of seeing the long-term value here? Or does the market know something we don't?

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

#189

Post by psygn89 »

munchler wrote: post #132
mullingitover wrote: post #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…

Why would you want to unfollow your own friends? To me, that's always been the one useful feature of Facebook.

It's easy when you don't have any.

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

#190

Post by ok123456 »

elcomet wrote: post #91
ok123456 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

That might be the reason for you, but there are many other reasons why people still use the site. For example, coordinating events with friends, discover local events, discussing on messenger, sharing photos, discussing in groups...

The people using Marketplace are the people who wouldn't be using the site otherwise, and who are there for the express purpose of doing commerce. No one over 40 would be caught dead of facebook otherwise.
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