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Good journalism suffers if subjected to popularity algorithms. What a weird wave this has been, where Facebook's News Feed used to be okay and then sucked, wher
by tunesmith 8y ago
Good journalism suffers if subjected to popularity algorithms. What a weird wave this has been, where Facebook's News Feed used to be okay and then sucked, where my curated Twitter feed used to be okay and then sucked, etc.
There's a difference between what people say they want (as interpreted by views, clicks, eyeballs), and what they want to want (as interpreted by values, what feels rewarding in hindsight, what they're glad they did later). I wonder if these algorithms will ever evolve to start serving up metaphorical vitamins instead of potato chips.
- kirRoyale 8y agoI miss when my twitter feed wasn't 85% ads.
- masklinn 8y agoUse a third-party application while they still work?
- maxk42 8y agoThe "popularity" algorithm is potato chips. Good moderation is vitamins.
- thaumasiotes 8y agoExcessive consumption of vitamins will cause much bigger problems than excessive consumption of potato chips.
- tunesmith 8y agoAre you just making a specious argument, or are you literally arguing that acting in accordance with one's values will cause bigger problems than engaging in addictive behavior?
- pavel_lishin 8y agoBut in moderation (heh), eating vitamins is much, much better for you than eating potato chips. Nobody's arguing for an excess of anything. Obviously a completely locked down subreddit that rejects and deletes all posts and comments would be useless, but so would one that's completely unmoderated.
- 794CD01 8y ago>Obviously a completely locked down subreddit that rejects and deletes all posts and comments would be useless, Not necessarily. Reddit used to have some of those as running jokes. /r/blackfathers and such. Disagreeable uses are still uses.
- pavel_lishin 8y agoSure, but that's more of an art installation. Duchamp's Fountains is a neat work of art, but I can't really use it for its intended purpose.
- 794CD01 8y agoFirstly, you probably could do what you mean for that specific piece, at least once or twice. But more importantly, that statement presupposes the wrong intended purpose.
- jerf 8y agoThe thing about metaphors is that they're just metaphors, not equalities.
- dredmorbius 8y agoI'd go for "good moderation is high-nutrition, well-prepared, real food", thogh I catch your drift.