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Facebook also has a serious problem in that its news feed is a content recommendation engine with only positive reinforcement but no negative reinforcement. So

by kromem 9y ago

Facebook also has a serious problem in that its news feed is a content recommendation engine with only positive reinforcement but no negative reinforcement. So you end up with a ton of false positives even when actively interacting with the content, and their system doesn't even know how wrong it is. And should you really not like some content, the solution is unfriending the poster, rather than simply matching against that type of content (political, religious, etc). The fact there isn't a private dislike button (that no one sees you clicked other than Facebook), is remarkable at this point. It's either woefully obtuse, or intentional so that a feed of false positives better hides moderately targeted ads.

alttab 9y ago
You can hide individual posts, posts similar to it, and posts from individual groups or people. That solution doesn't require defriending or unliking a page. Facebook uses this feedback when recommending content
objclxt 9y ago
I'm not sure I'd call it woefully obtuse, at least on the web (which is what I primarily use it for). See an example here: http://imgur.com/a/3Tjb7 http://imgur.com/a/3Tjb7 ...note that I can choose to dislike the post itself, or hide the entire source or app if I prefer.
pfd1986 9y ago
Is that also true to HN, since most users can't downvote?
- Tenobrus 9y ago
  Not really? It's a very different system, there's no plausible way to have a "private" downvote when the "recommendation system" here is entirely crowdsourced rather than personalized. I suppose the hide button is sort of an equivalent, but I don't think the systems are really comparable.
dghughes 9y ago
That's like YouTube lord help you if you click on a video you don't like by mistake you'll never see the end of it in the recommended section. It's to the point now where I just log out so I can see what's available rather than a continuous feedback of what I already watched.
- doppelganger27 9y ago
  You can go to the "History" page on youtube and delete the video from your watch history. It seems to stop youtube from using it for recommendations.
Broken_Hippo 9y ago
"The fact there isn't a private dislike button (that no one sees you clicked other than Facebook), is remarkable at this point. It's either woefully obtuse, or intentional so that a feed of false positives better hides moderately targeted ads." I vote the last option. I think there was an explanation, basically saying it would make people upset or sad and they wanted to avoid that. The solution wound up being a variety of emotions to pick from (which counts more than a simple like). They included negatives like "angry" or "sad".... I'd still just rather have a simple dislike button.

by kromem 9y ago

alttab 9y ago

You can hide individual posts, posts similar to it, and posts from individual groups or people. That solution doesn't require defriending or unliking a page. Facebook uses this feedback when recommending content

objclxt 9y ago

I'm not sure I'd call it woefully obtuse, at least on the web (which is what I primarily use it for). See an example here: http://imgur.com/a/3Tjb7 http://imgur.com/a/3Tjb7 ...note that I can choose to dislike the post itself, or hide the entire source or app if I prefer.

pfd1986 9y ago

Is that also true to HN, since most users can't downvote?

Tenobrus 9y ago
Not really? It's a very different system, there's no plausible way to have a "private" downvote when the "recommendation system" here is entirely crowdsourced rather than personalized. I suppose the hide button is sort of an equivalent, but I don't think the systems are really comparable.

dghughes 9y ago

That's like YouTube lord help you if you click on a video you don't like by mistake you'll never see the end of it in the recommended section. It's to the point now where I just log out so I can see what's available rather than a continuous feedback of what I already watched.

doppelganger27 9y ago
You can go to the "History" page on youtube and delete the video from your watch history. It seems to stop youtube from using it for recommendations.

Broken_Hippo 9y ago

"The fact there isn't a private dislike button (that no one sees you clicked other than Facebook), is remarkable at this point. It's either woefully obtuse, or intentional so that a feed of false positives better hides moderately targeted ads." I vote the last option. I think there was an explanation, basically saying it would make people upset or sad and they wanted to avoid that. The solution wound up being a variety of emotions to pick from (which counts more than a simple like). They included negatives like "angry" or "sad".... I'd still just rather have a simple dislike button.