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Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

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Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#311

Post by EasyMark »

tom_usher wrote: post #33
lolinder wrote: post #19

The author sort of (but not really) acknowledges this midway through, but this is basically a summary of the most recent Technology Connections video, Algorithms are breaking how we think : https://youtu.be/QEJpZjg8GuA I'd rather they acknowledge Alec as the inspiration/source for this post at the beginning and explicitly, rather than just mentioning the video in passing midway through, but at least they do link to i…

I was definitely influenced to write this by Alec's excellent video which I recommend everyone watch. I'd hoped it would be a way to share my own opinions on it, summarise my own personal concerns, as well as adding my own recommendations - but totally appreciate if you feel it is derivative, and I appreciate the call out. As a big Technology Connections fan I certainly don't intend to steal his work. It's also inten…

Don't feel bad about it. He wasn't the first person to point this out, it was pointed out much earlier than his video. It's enough that you cited him and gave credit.

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#312

Post by alwa »

philipwhiuk wrote: post #299
alwa wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One difference is that HN uses a ranked list. You can generally count on things getting less salient the farther you “scroll.” It’s the same way that infinitely-scrolling Google results don’t have the same effect as infinitely-scrolling content chutes, which exploit the hunch that there might be something gold just around the next swipe…

I think the 'More...' link at the bottom is definitely invoking the same hunch.

Maybe! To me it’s more of a “OK, that’s the end of the important stuff, this way to the also-rans if you’re extra bored today”

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#313

Post by gradientsrneat »

ddq wrote: post #112
crims0n wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a book for this, aptly titled “You Should Quit Reddit”. It got me to quit, highly recommend it.

I would love to completely cut reddit out of my life but would enjoy a smaller, more positive alternative that aims to provide the benefits of reddit when it was at its best but without the inherent flaws of the system's design and the dark patterns it is now known to encourage. I'm a bit put off by lemmy from my initial, cursory glance for a variety of reasons, but maybe I'm just using it wrong. Would love to hear s…

Lemmy was founded by tankie Reddit expats, and the project has had super weird issues in the past like a hardcoded blacklist and no RSS feed support for a while. So, I can't say it's for me either. Would be nice to have a viable Reddit alternative. Although Reddit does still have RSS feeds, and Hacker News does scratch the itch for certain topics.

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#314

Post by icepat »

ddq wrote: post #129
icepat wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit, in my opinion, is the absolute worst platform for this. It's incredibly easy to manipulate the appearance of consensus opinion. Also, the degree of power the individual moderators have on shaping conversations means instead of an algorithm choosing what you see, someone who spends up to 8 hours a day on Reddit chooses what you see. Lots of these moderators are not the sort of people who should have any place…

Absolutely. The known ease with which voting manipulation is possible and the lucrative incentives for motivated actors and organizations to do so, and the fundamentally flawed moderation structure are the two key issues that, unless they are radically changed, systemically compromise the integrity of the entire platform. This is the natural, inevitable state of a system such designed. I wish Aaron Swartz were still…

I don't think it's a flaw as much as the system is operating outside the intended design capacity. Imagine how sideways HN would go if nothing at all changed in the way the site operates, and it scaled up to 100x the userbase.

Reddit absolutely had issues in the early days (ie: violentacrez), but the issue was mostly a dogmatic concept of free speech, rather than the moderation, and manipulation now. When your subreddit's user-base in in the hundreds, or thousands, rather than millions, it's much easier to pin down bots, and bad actors.

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#315

Post by gradientsrneat »

gooosle wrote: post #15
ph4evers wrote: post #2

Yes totally! I like Reddit because you can pick your own subreddits but even that can be flooded by ragebait/clickbait

Most subreddits tend towards complete bubbles, where anything that goes against the prevailing opinions gets down voted into oblivion or outright deleted by mods.

I used to think that the people who accused Reddit mods of being "power hungry" were overreacting and were just using that to deflect from their own bad behavior.

Then, weird things started to happen. Some of the things I would post/comment would only get one upvote, and my posts would frequently get immediately removed by an auto-mod. A year or so later, Reddit updated their UI, and the posts with one upvote had a message from Reddit saying they were intentionally hidden.

I conclude it's most likely a combination of subreddits auto-blocking people who post in certain subs, and in some cases the Reddit spam algorithm going completely off the rails. I think a few of my blocked posts criticized Reddit or another social media platform, but most weren't really that notable.

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#316

Post by thoughtstheseus »

I would pay tons of money for control of the algorithms. It’s annoying I can’t tell YouTube, twitter, etc. what type of content I want to see, what I do not, the frequency, etc.

The complete lack of control by users of their feed makes Feed Providers publishers imo. Give me control or take responsibility for the content.

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#317

Post by Xen9 »

lolinder wrote: post #19

The author sort of (but not really) acknowledges this midway through, but this is basically a summary of the most recent Technology Connections video, Algorithms are breaking how we think : https://youtu.be/QEJpZjg8GuA I'd rather they acknowledge Alec as the inspiration/source for this post at the beginning and explicitly, rather than just mentioning the video in passing midway through, but at least they do link to i…

Malgorhitms are. We could, if we didn't confuse use it with LoTR entities, have belgorhitms, which would not only be recommended by Kahneman & Tversky, but also recommend by intelligence analysts, the historical opposites of corporate analysts, minions Belegron.

Algorhitms, "changing how one thinks" is real, and ultimately good. The social changes, when they start expecting you to Anki your work contract (which would, if the Anki was monitored, be highly legally effective against you); or requiring you know Kellyed Bayesian decision theory because that's a prequsite for getting reasonably priced insurance, or simply, surviving, that is unknown. I give 37.7% confidence Elon Musk was gaming in 2025 U.S. politics using construct akin to a Bayesian decision tree.

It would be great if one didn't have to change how one thinks, whether they delve into CLRS or TikTok.

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#318

Post by ffiirree »

hedayet wrote: post #307

I used to be a social media addict and had even accepted the term addict for some time. But mid-last year, Facebook flagged one of my posts for violating its "platform guidelines"—and that was my breaking point. That moment made me realize something deeper: it wasn’t just the endless feed algorithms shaping my behavior, but also the platform "guidelines" themselves—subtly reinforcing a habit designed to keep me engag…

This is beautiful

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#319

Post by ffiirree »

nozzlegear wrote: post #251
ddq wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to completely cut reddit out of my life but would enjoy a smaller, more positive alternative that aims to provide the benefits of reddit when it was at its best but without the inherent flaws of the system's design and the dark patterns it is now known to encourage. I'm a bit put off by lemmy from my initial, cursory glance for a variety of reasons, but maybe I'm just using it wrong. Would love to hear s…

I've quit Reddit off and on over the years, and one of my fears the first time was missing out on news or helpful tips from small professional/hobby subreddits. I ended up building a tool that would email me the top 3 posts from a list of subreddits every day, and that was all I needed to quit without feeling like I was missing out. My tool eventually broke after Reddit's api change, but now I use one called redditle…

Nice! May try this

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#320

Post by pests »

hollerith wrote: post #310
pests wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are sponser segments and I have no problem with them. These videos can be expensive to produce and these people need to support themselves still. If you take away or reduce their ad revenue, how do we expect them to survive? There is an extension called SponserBlock that will automatically skip them and other marketing / time wastes. Otherwise I just skip ahead (the highest peak in the watch graph playbar at wi…

>If you take away or reduce their ad revenue, how do we expect them to survive? I want YT to pay them out of what I pay for YT Premium.

They do, and its a pittance.
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