Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm • Hacker News Board

Re: Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

#491

Post by astrange » Fri, Mar 31, 2023, 9:30 PM UTC

Laaas wrote: post #134

dmonitor wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

immediately getting rid of the sparkle button is one of the few reasons i still have a small amount of faith in elon’s vision of twitter

- Open sourcing this - Lists as tabs - _Heavily_ reduced spam - Can look at Twitter without logging in I'm likely missing some other obvious/uncontroversially good changes. I still use Twitter and plan to continue using it. I am satisfied with most of his changes.

There's not any less spam. How could there be when he laid off all the antispam people?

If you expand "see more tweets" sometimes there's normal tweets hiding down there and sometimes it's a bot trying to sell you guns.

Re: Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

#492

Post by javajosh » Fri, Mar 31, 2023, 9:30 PM UTC

Is there demand for a service that simply shows you the things the people you follow wrote? (It would be up to you not follow so many people that you can't keep up.)

Re: Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

#493

Post by boringg » Fri, Mar 31, 2023, 9:31 PM UTC

dd36 wrote: post #457

tablespoon wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I thought it was interesting how it explicitly doesn't boost independents. So much of the two-party system is self-reinforcing. Is it boosting? Others are claiming this code is just for metrics collection: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35391896 . But on the topic of Democrats vs. Republican vs. independent; a big factor may be that "Democrat" and "Republican" are much more cohesive groups and therefore much…

Why measure something if you don’t intend to change it?

There are many reasons to measure things if you don't intend to change them.

Re: Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

#494

Post by matsemann » Fri, Mar 31, 2023, 9:31 PM UTC

bluetidepro wrote: post #142

Sebguer wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you try to use the Following tab on Android, every refresh brings you back to the For You tab.

Is your app up to date? I have it on my iPhone, iPad, and an Android device which all have no problem always remembering the "Following" tab selection. As well as desktop/web.

Pressing the home button on Android often switches the tab over to "for you"

Re: Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

#495

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Mar 31, 2023, 9:31 PM UTC

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #382

sschueller wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well someone just asked about it in the live spaces[1] Elon is hosting and he said that should not be there. An engineer said afterwards it is just for metrics but then Elon chimed in again and said "we should get rid of it, it should be gone." [1] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1641880448061120513?s=20

Doesn't necessarily mean he didn't want it there in the first place. Why else would it be there?

[deleted]

Re: Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

#496

Post by robertlagrant » Fri, Mar 31, 2023, 9:31 PM UTC

jandrese wrote: post #373

jawns wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author_is_elon flag doesn't surprise me, but the two political designators are somewhat shocking. I'd sure like to know what changes based on what Twitter knows about your political affiliation.

I thought it was interesting how it explicitly doesn't boost independents. So much of the two-party system is self-reinforcing.

Isn't it intrinsically self-reinforcing, if you have a winner takes all system? It's almost always better to join an existing team than start a new one.

Re: Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

#497

Post by robertlagrant » Fri, Mar 31, 2023, 9:33 PM UTC

airstrike wrote: post #476

philistine wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American's lax attitude towards cultivating more than two parties is literally killing the republic from the inside.

You'd think a country that played a central role in a global, decades-long unstable regime of bipolar power that routinely pushed mankind to the brink of nuclear oblivion would know better than to have a bipolar electoral system

> routinely pushed mankind to the brink of nuclear oblivion

I'm struggling to think of a reason why this is anything but bad faith nonsense.

Re: Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

#498

Post by adamckay » Fri, Mar 31, 2023, 9:33 PM UTC

tormeh wrote: post #488

airstrike wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also how about.... everyone else in the world who is not an American voter?

This is what it means to let another country own your social media. Their ideas and memes unconsciously get preferential treatment. This is maybe not a good thing, but it is what it is.

> Their ideas and memes unconsciously get preferential treatment.

I think as this repo shows it's conciously, rather than unconsciously, getting preferential treatment.

Re: Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

#499

Post by TaylorAlexander » Fri, Mar 31, 2023, 9:34 PM UTC

nonethewiser wrote: post #367

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parent didn’t say it’s not “political”. It’s reasonable for a wealthy person to feel that a system that discriminates against the poor is not a system they want to participate in. (Note that I use discriminate in the literal sense, as a simple statement of fact.)

But the example you give is an appeal to a universal moral good. Not partisan politics. So despite saying it’s not not political, your justification is that it’s not political. Also, how did you get a blue check before being able to buy one?

Some people unfortunately view concern for the poor as political. However my point of mentioning politics is to say that “it’s political” is not any kind of gotcha when it was never denied as being political. Regardless of the actual justification being political or not, the “political” gotcha is nonsense.

Re: Twitter's Recommendation Algorithm

#500

Post by froggychairs » Fri, Mar 31, 2023, 9:35 PM UTC

endorphine wrote: post #424

froggychairs wrote: post #269

Why is nobody pointing out that this is likely an April Fools joke? We just deployed our April Fools joke into production today too.

Yeah this confused me a lot while reading the comments here. I wonder what percentage of the comments are trolling vs. fell for it vs. think it's legit. Perhaps this calls for an HN poll...

Yeah....

I should add, I dont think all of it is a joke, but stuff like the "author_is" labels are incomplete and only 4 were shown for the bit