A lot of research has been devoted to noting the relationship on mainstream platforms between algorithmically-driven feeds that prioritize engagement and the popularizing of erstwhile fringe material, to include outright lies, propaganda, the drug-addled ramblings of fascists… - ThreadSky

ubiquity75.bsky.social • 101 days ago

A lot of research has been devoted to noting the relationship on mainstream platforms between algorithmically-driven feeds that prioritize engagement and the popularizing of erstwhile fringe material, to include outright lies, propaganda, the drug-addled ramblings of fascists…

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ubiquity75.bsky.social•101 days ago

Platforms such as Twitter, where I worked for a period of time, claim that they need those recommender systems to reach audiences blah blah and any relationship between the appeal of extremist content and greater engagement is either not causal or just what people want.

ubiquity75.bsky.social•101 days ago

A pretty self-serving argument if I’ve ever seen one.

Meanwhile, real people are populating this platform in droves, and appear to be using “starter packs,” which are curated feeds by people and/or about topics they like and trust. Still not an engagement-driven algorithmic recco system though.

quioui.bsky.social•101 days ago

All if this! I just saw someone on Mastodon saying "what we need is an algorithm" and I thought... no.

ubiquity75.bsky.social•101 days ago

Oh, and how could I fail to mention: a big part of those recommender system-based content delivery, and delivering predictable sustained engagement in the form of daily/monthly active users has to do with…what?

ADVERTISING.

carlosdiazruiz.com•101 days ago

We know recommender systems are developed and optimized for advertisers instead of users. This creates an undesirable but predictable outcome: the most controversial and provocative content is recommended and thus receives a large share of ad spending. Please check https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2024.2421860

ubiquity75.bsky.social•101 days ago

That’s the whole point, or was for a long time: to deliver sustained engagement to advertisers that could then be further micro targeted based on feedback data, further enhancing the engagement to advertising loop.

Seen many ads on here?

nursecurse.bsky.social•101 days ago

I’m less stressed here. I like that I feel the community is more in control of the content.

sjjphd.bsky.social•101 days ago

Yep I think there are many this about this site that disprove some of the rationalizations for algorithmic feeds. Time will tell how long it lasts

ubiquity75.bsky.social•101 days ago

Eeeeexactly.

Another good feature is pretty tight moderation.

sjjphd.bsky.social•101 days ago

The devs were v responsive to moderation requests early on and I’m interested to see how/if that continues. They directly reached out to some of us with complaints about moderation and diversity on here and asked what would help and actually did the things which is why I continue to be a bsky stan

ubiquity75.bsky.social•101 days ago

And there is a significant portion of My peer group(s) who, after Twitter and given subsequent events, have said that they’re done with social media.* That is a pretty reasonable decision, too.

* more than a few of them have burner accounts on Reddit, but that’s not the same thing…

thetrw.bsky.social•101 days ago

We should ban use of content-recommendation algorithms on social media platforms. Humans curators could push content recs to all users or to subsets who have opted into a relevant interest category, but no more opaque automated systems poisoning the national bloodstream.

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