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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

#321

Post by ok123456 »

yojo wrote: post #302
ok123456 wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone wanted to watch and share video clips on their computer directly on the web without and without having to care about codecs, file formats, and hosting. No one wants to have business meetings wearing VR headsets or give NFTs to virtual panhandlers or any of the other silly usecases for a modernized version of Lawnmower Man.

Maybe? I generally agree with you, but playing devils advocate: What does the generation raised on Minecraft and Roboblox do when they grow up? They spent their adolescence in virtual worlds. Do they grow out of that? Or does it start to bleed into other parts of daily life? VR still seems clunky as hell, but if the tech gets less obtrusive I can imagine a world where a sizable chunk of daily life is mediated through…

Find a new form of escapism? A large driver of kids and teens seeking out escapism like this is that compulsory education is unsatisfying and they have very little self-determination generally. This isn't new to Minecraft and Robolox. A generation ago, it was watching way too much TV. What are those kids who watched 6 hours a night of TV doing now?

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

#322

Post by foobarbecue »

I really miss having a way to talk to my friends online.

It was possible in the early 2000s with multi-network instant messaging clients, and then in the late 2000s to a few years ago with Facebook.

And then Facebook destroyed itself (as described in this thread) and now I honestly can't find a frictionless way to get in touch with people.

My most common use case was posting "hey I'm going climbing / surfing / caving, anyone want to join"? or "I'm in town X, anyone want to hang out" or "BBQ at mine." Facebook is useless for that now and there isn't a replacement. Hopefully, something with critical mass will rise from the ashes.

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

#323

Post by JohnFen »

ok123456 wrote: post #190
elcomet wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> No one over 40 would be caught dead of facebook otherwise.

What? The over 40 crowd is FB's main demographic.

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

#324

Post by martin_a »

Gud wrote: post #314
martin_a wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems to me social media is ripe for disruption. I think what we see is that every social media site goes down pretty much the same way at some point. FB was great until they started that whole recommended post stuff which fucked up the feed. Instagram was great until they were bought by Facebook and had to get some metrics straight, too. TikTok will be the next one to go down as influencers and other parasitic…

I agree! But what I've learnt from being on HN for a fairly long time is that online communities can be built to last. Maybe not forever, but for a long time. I think _community_ is the important part, as soon as the site builder tries to cater to everyone it eventually just becomes another ad platform.

I think we might have had something like that community when we were all hanging around in bulletin boards something like... 15 to 20 years ago.

I remember that I had a very dark time and some moderator (I was one, too) managed to find out my phone number (I think he dailed every number with my family name in our town till he found mine) and called me, after I had posted in a moderator-only group that I would take some time off and wasn't sure about returning because everything was shit.

That really touched me, although we had and have never met. It was human and very unexpected and I don't think you'd find something like that in modern day communities, build on Facebook.

Also: FB Groups probably killed bulletin boards because it was just very easy. What a loss.

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

#325

Post by ok123456 »

drumttocs8 wrote: post #318
ok123456 wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Huh? In my experience, no one under 40 uses the site much anymore for its original purposes. The only status updates and memes being posted are from the older crowd.

I meant under.

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

#326

Post by benjaminwootton »

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…

LinkedIn went through the same algorithm led spiral of decline.

Initially, they seemed to stop pushing out good on topic content. Instead, they rewarded and promoted Facebook style posts and made up stories probably due to metrics and A/B tests.

The good authentic posters then either stopped posting or had to feed the beast by pushing out the same crappy content in the house style which the algorithm rewards.

Almost everyone on there now is writing purely for the algorithm and not their industry peers whether they realise that or not. They are just chasing the doamine hit of likes.

The product is worse for it and I’m sure it ultimately kills the golden goose for social platforms despite a short term uplift. They become much less engaging and sticky when the social element is lost.

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

#327

Post by foobarbecue »

martin_a wrote: post #320

Another anecdotal data point: I loved Facebook around 2010-2015. I was in university, had lots of "friends" that I had met in person, was a user of the groups, events, everything. It was great to stay in touch with old and new people I knew. As people finished university, they had less time for FB, posted less and so FB probably decided to fill up the blanks they had left with "XY liked this", ads, and "you could lik…

I have a similar experience, but when it comes to:

people posting less --> "XY liked this", ads, and "you could like this" posts

I'm pretty sure the cause and effect is reversed. Facebook decided to prioritize BS over friend content on the feed, and suddenly it became lame because nobody was interacting. A bit chicken-and-egg / feedback cycle I suppose, but I really think FB started it by adding "sponsored content" and even likes (remember when you had to actually type out a response if you wanted to reply?).

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

#328

Post by tomrod »

chitowneats wrote: post #20
tomrod wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Memes aren't cancers, they are ideas.

Certain unhealthy ideas throughout history seem to metastasize and cause great harm to their host societies until they are eventually discarded or defeated.

What do you have in mind? I can think of few modern examples that resulted in failed states and losers in wars, but many other bad ideas persist (but identifying them as such can be socially and politically sensitive) without dying off.

Memes aren't cancer, but I agree that they can be pathogenic.

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

#329

Post by BeFlatXIII »

tootie wrote: post #60
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…

I quit FB a few years ago when I realized the suggested posts were just way more interesting than anything my friends posted. Idk what that says about their algorithm. Or my friends.

I was going to disagree with the GP for the same reason you pointed out. I liked all the page and group posts because they were funny and not someone I haven't spoken to eight years planning their wedding in public. There aren't as many organic posts from my friends to share anymore.

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

#330

Post by elcomet »

ok123456 wrote: post #260
krferriter wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether or not it's fun doesn't isn't the primary driving factor in its continued popularity. People use it because other people use it. It got big and now has a network effect of inertia holding it in place until something else takes off and replaces it.

Then, why does my original post have +30? It must have struck a nerve with more than just myself.

Because there's a certain group of people who feel the same way as you do. And maybe people who read HN are more likely to belong in this group. But HN is not representative of the world.
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