LinkedIn ran social experiments on 20M users over 5 years
1–10 of 36 posts
Re: LinkedIn ran social experiments on 20M users over 5 years
#2Non Paywall Link: https://archive.ph/v2ehO
Re: LinkedIn ran social experiments on 20M users over 5 years
#3I think this is extremely common for social networks to experiment with this kind of things. Trying out various blends of user experience, social circles and so on to see what best converts users to premium members.
Not saying it's right, just that it constantly happens.
Re: LinkedIn ran social experiments on 20M users over 5 years
#4I think this is extremely common for social networks to experiment with this kind of things. Trying out various blends of user experience, social circles and so on to see what best converts users to premium members. Not saying it's right, just that it constantly happens.
It should be easier to notify people involved in these studies that they may have be adversely affected in the course of the study, rather than having to go decipher a peer reviewed paper on some specialist academic journal site, for the common user at the very least.
Re: LinkedIn ran social experiments on 20M users over 5 years
#5This sort of knee-jerk reaction to a paper is exactly why companies at large prefer to treat their R&D as 'strictly confidential'.
Can you imagine how much we could advance if the whole of Industry contributed and published their 'non-secret sauce' research in the same way academia currently does.
Re: LinkedIn ran social experiments on 20M users over 5 years
#6Every company with algorithmic recommendations will run experiments to try to improve it according to various metrics. This is the well known knowledge in the industry, not a conspiracy theory.
Trying to improve peoples chance of getting a job as opposed to something lame like "engagement" is laudable. The key question is how big the difference between the groups. If the difference is marginal, then I think the knowledge justifies it. This will lead to more people getting jobs in the future, so the total utility increases. But if it was night and day, and they really fucked some people over, then it was unethical.
Re: LinkedIn ran social experiments on 20M users over 5 years
#7dang.
Re: LinkedIn ran social experiments on 20M users over 5 years
#8I think this is extremely common for social networks to experiment with this kind of things. Trying out various blends of user experience, social circles and so on to see what best converts users to premium members. Not saying it's right, just that it constantly happens.
It should be easier to notify people involved in these studies that they may have be adversely affected in the course of the study, rather than having to go decipher a peer reviewed paper on some specialist academic journal site, for the common user at the very least.
I'd imagine the terms of service we all agree to 'notify' us of such consequences.
Re: LinkedIn ran social experiments on 20M users over 5 years
#9Non Paywall Link: https://archive.ph/v2ehO
Thanks!
Re: LinkedIn ran social experiments on 20M users over 5 years
#10dang.
On HN, reposts of an article aren't considered dupes until the article has had significant attention. This is in the FAQ: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html.
It's also not the convention to link to previous submissions unless there are actual discussions there. (That's no doubt why users flagged your comment.)