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Meta Just Proved People Hate Chronological Feeds
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this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2023
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Technology
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Less engagement doesn't mean dislike.
That said I do think people get a little too excited about chronological order. I'm fine with any transparent algorithm, I think the old reddit "best" algorithm thatthe xkcd guy made is still a very good way to order comments and I liked the Q&A sort method in specific cases.
The xkcd guy made that?
I slightly mis-remembered apparently, he introduced the idea to reddit and was a heavy heavy advocate for it, but I he didn't come up with it.
https://web.archive.org/web/20100115155608/http://blog.reddit.com/2009/10/reddits-new-comment-sorting-system.html
So is there a Lemmy/kbin equivalent?
Hmm... 2008... when did Reddit stop being OpenSource?
Yep! The Reddit version, at least. Dunno if the Lemmy/Kbin sorts are the same or not.
Before that, it was sorted by top. I think subreddits were top/day, and comments were top/all time. Frontpage was top/day for all the subreddits you were subscribed to (or top/day for a selection of "default" subreddits if you didn't have an account).
Do you have a source for this? That's interesting but I can't find the origin of this story.
Best I could find is here, which is an article by Randall Munroe (the xkcd artist), and states:
This blog post links to another wayback machine page (thank you archive.org!) here, which explains the sorting algorithm and states it's original author:
https://web.archive.org/web/20091210094533/http://blog.reddit.com/2009/10/reddits-new-comment-sorting-system.html
@Sproux for you as well.
I would also like a source for this, thats really cool.
I mis-remembered apparently, he was just a heavy heavy advocate for it.
https://web.archive.org/web/20100115155608/http://blog.reddit.com/2009/10/reddits-new-comment-sorting-system.html
In Facebook, where I'm following family members and news sites, is where I'd want chronological feed the most. I don't want the "best" of my family's posts from one week ago.
I think that's valid, my point wasn't that meta should do "best" sorting (it doesnt even make sense without downvotes) but rather there are good algorithms that aren't just niave chronological order (which i think some people put into a pedestal of being "algorithmless" or pure). I quite like seeing the occasional post from my crazy uncle, but if it was chronological order it would just be a nonstop deluge of his posts with hardly any from the rest of my family.
Also consider many people use social media for many different things. To me Facebook market place is by far the dominant reason for ever using the platform and pretty much the only reason I still have an account. The sorting for market place shouldn't be chronological, nor should the comments under it.