I’ve spent the better part of a decade writing open source projects for few to see. An empty repo gets hundreds of stars immediately. It’s all a popularity contest.
twitter/the-algorithm
181–190 of 403 posts
Re: twitter/the-algorithm
#182Nice, making it much easier to game!
Re: twitter/the-algorithm
#183I know the algorithm i use, it ends with ORDER BY date DESC.
Is that actually possible on Twitter? (I have an account but don't use it.) I do believe them that when a user follows several 100+ other users, it would probably be impossible to read every tweet chronologically.
i always use chronological, atm following very few people, but in the past following too many to keep up w/.
even when following too many to read everything, i preferred chrono because it would yield a coherent slice of what was happening. an unbiased sample.
twitter is basically a medium for conversation.
imagine there's a large party. would you rather listen to an out-of-order "most important" set parts of the conversation, or just a slice of conversation from a particular time?
well, actually, both can be interesting, but generally the slice is more coherent. :-)
Re: twitter/the-algorithm
#184I've worked on very large scale recommendation systems at a FAANG. If Twitter's system resembles anything like ours, the concept of publishing or open sourcing "the algorithm" doesn't make sense. Even if we were to open source all associated code and publish all related documents it would be very difficult to make sense of the entire system. That is precisely why companies such as Twitter A/B test the hell out of eve…
I don’t understand people like you. Just because Elon Musk used the term “the algorithm” in conversation, it must be interpreted literally? And for someone like Elon Musk, he doesn’t know the complexity and need you to point out?
It's so weird. We get it, data scientists, your implementations are a garbage mess of last minute paper submission levels and you yourself are blind to half the things happening. That doesn't mean an implicit algorithm doesn't still exist. The term is perfectly applicable and it would probably do you a world of good to abstract it to the point where you can legitimately put it into a single repo.
Re: twitter/the-algorithm
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
Twitter Locks Down Product Changes After Agreeing to Musk Bid - https://finance.yahoo.com/news/twitter-locks-down-product-ch...
> Twitter imposed the temporary ban to keep employees who may be miffed about the deal from “going rogue,” according to one of the people. What could a rogue employee do?
look up confidential user information for the saudi government?
Re: twitter/the-algorithm
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't believe the point was ever to convey an complete understanding of the system, but to allow for the identification of "red flags": Specific functions that would be deemed controversial or counter to equal opportunity speech.
Is the idea somewhere in the-algorithm there's a function called `derankGOPMembers()`? Twitter's been pretty transparent in how it "deranks" certain accounts [1]. What more would come from opening the code that certainly not include the actual database of "no no terms" (if you were to believe that exists)? [1] https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2022/our-ongoi...
The idea is that people should be able to find out if there is such a function. It's taking a stance that Twitter has nothing to hide. In my opinion, it's a great way to build trust with users, something that all of the popular social media platforms lack.
Re: twitter/the-algorithm
#187Can someone explain this to me? All I can see from this link is an empty GitHub repository. Not sure what I'm missing here.
It's just a declaration of intent at this point.
Re: twitter/the-algorithm
#188I've worked on very large scale recommendation systems at a FAANG. If Twitter's system resembles anything like ours, the concept of publishing or open sourcing "the algorithm" doesn't make sense. Even if we were to open source all associated code and publish all related documents it would be very difficult to make sense of the entire system. That is precisely why companies such as Twitter A/B test the hell out of eve…
Of course it doesn't make sense. I think it's just a dog whistle to the people who believe google have a guy in a room somewhere turning the "conservative search results" lever down a notch during elections.
"Among the elite, and within Twitter specifically, there is much more inclination to ban the right.
I say this as someone whose political views, if you force them onto the left-right spectrum, probably end up about 80% toward the left. E.g. I've spent millions over the past several elections supporting the Democrats.
It used to be that censorship was something the right did, and free speech was something the left were in favor of. But over the last few decades, banning "problematic" ideas has become a huge component of left culture (http://paulgraham.com/heresy.html).
Plus tech companies in general, and especially Twitter, lean to the left. Imagine walking around Twitter pre-Covid. You'd find plenty of openly far-left employees. How many openly far-right employees would you find? I don't think you'd find any.
The combination of (a) the left's recent focus on banning heretical ideas, (b) the leftward lean of tech companies generally, and (c) the leftward lean of Twitter even among tech companies, means that right-wing speech is much more likely to get banned on Twitter than left.
That's why people on the far right keep starting lame Twitter alternatives. You don't see people on the far left doing that. They don't need to. They have Twitter."
Re: twitter/the-algorithm
#189Wait until Musk finds out its a bunch of gnarly PHP 5.4 code much of which is a black box everyone is afraid to touch.
Re: twitter/the-algorithm
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of course it doesn't make sense. I think it's just a dog whistle to the people who believe google have a guy in a room somewhere turning the "conservative search results" lever down a notch during elections.
> turning the "conservative search results" lever It may not have been algorithmic, but it definitely happened.
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