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This is such a backwards-looking point of view. 0. The fact is, I want a algo timeline. There are far too many posts in a day for me to read everything. 1. Pe

This is such a backwards-looking point of view. 0. The fact is, I want a algo timeline. There are far too many posts in a day for me to read everything. 1. People made the same complaints about Facebook's algorithmic feed. Very few users complain about that anymore (outside of HN, I guess). If anything, without FB's algo feed, users would be overwhelmed with a flood of posts. FB will surface very granular posts like a friend liking something, so we are talking about multiple thousands of potential news feed posts per day. And if FB were to take out that granularity, that means potentially missing tens of highly relevant posts a day. 2. Obviously I don't have any inside info, but I guarantee you Twitter split tested the algorithmic timelines and is also measuring user engagement and they wouldn't have kept this highly complex feature (with probably a whole engineering team dedicated to it) unless there was a big boost. 3. Q1 of 2017, the first quarter they rolled out the algo timeline, user growth accelerated. 4. I don't know a single person with experience growing/measuring consumer web products who thought the algo timeline was a bad idea. It is such an obvious piece of low-hanging fruit.

gaius 9y ago
Those people think it is a good idea because they can sell the service of gaming it! People have accepted these timelines as a fait accompli but that's all.
pranavsinghca 9y ago
Point 2 - Yes, the original article actually confirms that they did A/B testing "Impact on people using Twitter is typically measured by running one or more A/B tests and comparing the results between experiment buckets. The set of metrics we use here usually relate more directly to usage and enjoyment of Twitter."
mythrwy 9y ago
A similar timeline thing recently appeared on G+. Not a Twitter or FB user, but do visit G+ once a week or so for a few minutes. Or did. Now everything is out of order and a jumble of crazy including surfacing my own long past contributions over more recent ones. I doubt I'll be back. I can't speak directly to Twitter timelines but if it's anything similar I wouldn't use it. There may be a point to reducing noise and promoting relevant feeds. Maybe it has to happen to keep the view-able volume to a manageable level. Maybe. Or maybe the strategy was get everyone in the door and hooked, then start controlling what they see. And that is hugely valuable to both commerce and government. A/B testing aside, my prediction is that removing user control over what is seen backfires hugely and may provide an opening for competing services. Until they manage to lock the internet down to 4 approved services anyway. Which probably has at least been considered.
altcognito 9y ago
My first thought when I saw what twitter was doing with my timeline was, "oh man, now they've gone ahead and ruined my twitter feed just like they ruined my Facebook feed."
fiatjaf 9y ago
Point 2 - Are you serious? People are not complaining because they're not on HN, if they were this kind of people they would be here downvoting you. Facebook users don't even remember they had a different timeline before, they don't understand and don't want to understand why some post shows and some other doesn't, they just accept it as a fact of life.

gaius 9y ago

Those people think it is a good idea because they can sell the service of gaming it! People have accepted these timelines as a fait accompli but that's all.

pranavsinghca 9y ago

Point 2 - Yes, the original article actually confirms that they did A/B testing "Impact on people using Twitter is typically measured by running one or more A/B tests and comparing the results between experiment buckets. The set of metrics we use here usually relate more directly to usage and enjoyment of Twitter."

mythrwy 9y ago

A similar timeline thing recently appeared on G+. Not a Twitter or FB user, but do visit G+ once a week or so for a few minutes. Or did. Now everything is out of order and a jumble of crazy including surfacing my own long past contributions over more recent ones. I doubt I'll be back. I can't speak directly to Twitter timelines but if it's anything similar I wouldn't use it. There may be a point to reducing noise and promoting relevant feeds. Maybe it has to happen to keep the view-able volume to a manageable level. Maybe. Or maybe the strategy was get everyone in the door and hooked, then start controlling what they see. And that is hugely valuable to both commerce and government. A/B testing aside, my prediction is that removing user control over what is seen backfires hugely and may provide an opening for competing services. Until they manage to lock the internet down to 4 approved services anyway. Which probably has at least been considered.

altcognito 9y ago

My first thought when I saw what twitter was doing with my timeline was, "oh man, now they've gone ahead and ruined my twitter feed just like they ruined my Facebook feed."

fiatjaf 9y ago

Point 2 - Are you serious? People are not complaining because they're not on HN, if they were this kind of people they would be here downvoting you. Facebook users don't even remember they had a different timeline before, they don't understand and don't want to understand why some post shows and some other doesn't, they just accept it as a fact of life.