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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

#351

Post by JohnFen »

didgetmaster wrote: post #134

It's called signal-to-noise ratio and it affects everything these days. We stopped reading newspapers and magazines when it became harder to find articles in-between all the ads. We stop watching broadcast TV when a typical 30 minute show has 18 minutes of commercials. We stop visiting websites when pop-up and flashing ads overwhelm the site. Social media sites are no different. The question is will they wake up befo…

> We stopped reading newspapers

I didn't stop reading newspapers because of ads. I stopped reading newspapers because a handful of large companies bought them all and turned them into crap.

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

#352

Post by jmugan »

Tao3300 wrote: 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.

I don't know. There's plenty of posts from my friends. I just don't see them because I'm not willing to wade through all of the junk ads and sponsored stuff.

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

#353

Post by projektfu »

benjaminwootton wrote: post #326
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…

When LinkedIn arrived, it seemed like a good idea -- sort of a way for people who aren't great at networking to see how to expand their network. Then, like any dating site, you needed to buy credits to participate, and only "players" are willing to do that. Then, they erased any additional value brought by their thought leaders by promoting third-rate content with catchy headlines like you mentioned. Now, why would I trust them with my resume? And if I have no interest in them, likely anything else on there is either out of date or some sort of lie.

Friendster, Myspace, Orkut, Facebook.... Similar things for social. Use the network to find more people to hang out with, feel less alone. But then, again, that is not actually a business and people aren't paying for it. So, you either show generic ads (not a bad idea) or you get people to pay to get their content in front of you. But then people stop caring about what they see there and move on.

I agree with other posters -- I used to keep Facebook around because my family was there. Now I don't even see their posts when I'm on it. So, there's no value anymore.

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

#354

Post by didgetmaster »

JohnFen wrote: post #351
didgetmaster wrote: post #134

It's called signal-to-noise ratio and it affects everything these days. We stopped reading newspapers and magazines when it became harder to find articles in-between all the ads. We stop watching broadcast TV when a typical 30 minute show has 18 minutes of commercials. We stop visiting websites when pop-up and flashing ads overwhelm the site. Social media sites are no different. The question is will they wake up befo…

> We stopped reading newspapers I didn't stop reading newspapers because of ads. I stopped reading newspapers because a handful of large companies bought them all and turned them into crap.

Well, there was that too...

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

#355

Post by commandlinefan »

I got back on FB after having given up on it for years and now my feed is nearly all leftist memes (not exaggerating - super left-wing pro-marxist/pro-communist stuff), no matter how many times I try to "hide post", they just keep coming. I'm starting to remember why I left Facebook in the first place.

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

#356

Post by badwolf »

pfortuny wrote: post #160
dvtrn wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made the conscious effort before leaving Facebook to trade phone numbers, addresses and birthday dates from the people I wanted to really wanted stay in touch with, and put them in my phone. This was all within the last three years. I’ve sent birthday gifts in the mail, and I’ve gotten gifts in mail from these very people. Sometimes, when I wonder where the convenience that gets talked about in the context of Faceb…

I do send postcards and people like it so much they ask me not to stop.

Big fan of this. I also print and mail memes and photoshops I make to people. It's nice getting something in the mail that's not a bill.

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

#357

Post by alkonaut »

Facebook has lots of good corners of their products. Marketplace is ok-ish. Events is OK. Even Messenger is an ok sub-app of Facebook.

The one app that’s unusably bad is the “feed” (or whatever it’s called these days). I use Facebook almost daily but can’t understand why anyone would use the feed bit. Even back when it was friends’ posts it was bad. Now that it’s half commercial half TikTok rabbit hole why does anyone even use it?

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

#358

Post by badwolf »

londons_explore wrote: post #27
Tao3300 wrote: 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.

You can see this by going to https://www.facebook.com/?sk=h_chr

This temporarily forces chronological feed by most recently posted. My feed of actual people turned into a ghost town.

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

#359

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

Yeah, but the original FB did not even have a "feed". Hence these complaints are about an uncontrollable "feature" (a so-called "feed") that no one asked for.

The idea that someone starts using some software or website because it looks useful (original FB had no advertising) and then later the software or website unilaterally decides to morph into something else (FB did this very early on with the addition of a "feed") reminds me of the phrase "bait and switch".

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