9 ms·

Removing Trending From Facebook

114 points by champagnepapi 8y ago

Elect2 8y ago
Since it only includes a link and summary, no value added, why not submit original link? https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/06/removing-trending/ https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/06/removing-trending/
- jawilson2 8y ago
  Kind of unrelated: when I click this link in Firefox, it seems to erase the history for the current tab, and the back button doesn't work. It looks like it works in Chrome though. What is going on?
  - inetknght 8y ago
    Facebook using dark UX patterns?
  - ovao 8y ago
    I checked in Firefox Quantum 61.0b and it doesn't disable the back button, so this potentially only affects the stable version.
  - zentiggr 8y ago
    Firefox's Facebook Container. Segregate any FB url from the rest of the browser state to minimize tracking etc.
- minimaxir 8y ago
  I submitted that link a couple hours ago (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17206065 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17206065), but it got no upvotes, and eventually duped to this submission.
  - dang 8y ago
    Yes, sorry—there's randomness in what gets upvoted and the order we happen to see things in. The best current answer for this is "keep posting good things and it evens out in the long run". But we're working on some ideas about how to link related submissions and distribute karma more fairly. It's not that the karma matters so much, but I do think that rewarding earlier submitters would incentivize the most valuable behavior on HN, which is to find good stories that haven't been posted yet and post them.
    - DanBC 8y ago
      Or it'll incentivise people to post like bots and submit everything possible. The old guideline (don't post so much that you dominate the page) feels a bit out of date.
      - dang 8y ago
        That problem is detectable. If we have to, we'll write software to deal with it. In the meantime, if you see someone dominating the /newest page with their submissions, it would be good to let us know (hn@ycombinator.com) so we can rate-limit the account.
  - Elect2 8y ago
    >but it got no upvotes I guess it's because of the title "Removing Trending from Facebook". The title is OK on Facebook news site. But in here it sounds like a guide. Your second submission has a more clear title.
- delbel 8y ago
  I am not able to click on this due to having facebook blocked at my router, but the original link worked.
dang 8y ago
Url changed from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-01/facebook-says-it-s-removing-trending-feature https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-01/facebook-..., which points to this.
politician 8y ago
All you need to know here is that where Trending is algorithmic, Breaking News is a flag set by a trusted set of content providers. On the plus side, this simplification should allow Facebook better control of how to steer its users towards revenue generating content.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
  - politician 8y ago
    Facebook decides. It's in their announcement post.
    - igolden 8y ago
      This is where the real power is. Trustworthiness is a problem that needs to be solved in MSM. cc: Elon EDIT - meant to the thread, not the thread reply
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
  - Jordrok 8y ago
    Love them or hate them, they are a news source No, they really aren't.
- ams6110 8y ago
  Won't those providers be tempted to set the "breaking news" flag on every post, just like they do on their TV news channels?
  - gowld 8y ago
    Sure, but they might lose their privileges if FB doesn't like their choices.
seibelj 8y ago
Those “We apologize for fake news” ads on TV and the subway from Facebook seem really weird to me. Like FB thinks that the reason their numbers are down is because people are mad about them and some ads saying “we’re sorry” will fix it. I think Facebook has been supplanted by a variety of better tools, some of which they themselves created, and it’s now going to be a long term stagnation and decline
- colordrops 8y ago
  The thing that drove me away from Facebook is not fake news, but that there is news (and other viral content) at all, fake or not. 90% of my feed is content about people and events I have no connection to or care for. I thought to whole point of FB was to connect with people you know.
  - dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
    For me it was the fact that the spammy hyperactive friends were prominently featured, whereas knowledgeable silent types that posted once in a while were completely removed from the feed. It should be exactly the other way round.
  - d4l3k 8y ago
    The feed thing is pretty easy to fix. You just have to tell Facebook you don't want to see posts like that (three dot menu). I did that a while back and don't get any memes or shared links on my feed anymore.
    - izzydata 8y ago
      You would think so wouldn't you? But if you tell it you don't want one thing on your feed it is then supplemented by 10 others. It is virtually endless and there is no hiding all content that is not hand written by your friends and family.
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
lostmsu 8y ago
We already did it for you with a custom uBlock rule, thank you.
- TheCapn 8y ago
  I wrote a Greasemonkey script to pull apart the div element and replace it with a random image from an imgur subreddit gallery*. I'm certain far better javascript programmers could take this and improve on it. Calling myself a novice would be embellishing my skills. https://gist.github.com/GrahamBlanshard/d7211436088e0159164a https://gist.github.com/GrahamBlanshard/d7211436088e0159164a I heard it conflicts in ways with the facebook chat sidebar which I never use, so if you're interesting in fiddling around with that on GreaseMonkey or TamperMonkey just keep that sort of thing in mind. EDIT: Example of what it does on the sidebar for you: https://i.imgur.com/Yqc2jdY.png https://i.imgur.com/Yqc2jdY.png
lacker 8y ago
It was a constant source of bad publicity when offensive things would hit Trending. Once Facebook conceded that manual curation would be necessary, it was just a matter of time before they deemed it not worth the cost.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
IronWolve 8y ago
People think if they can control facebook, they can swing elections. Hillary just recently made that comment if she controlled facebook. Look how Yahoo news and Google news pushes editorial pieces above news, almost like an agenda. Same thing was happening with facebook.
- colordrops 8y ago
  It's not almost like an agenda, it is an agenda.
- gaius 8y ago
  Wikileaks revealed email showing that FB was actively helping Hillary as they did Obama. She did control FB and it still didn’t work.
  - InitialLastName 8y ago
    FB were actively helping Trump too [0]. They offered employees to both campaigns as "embeds" to help coordinate social media outreach. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/08/trump-digital-director-brad-parscale-facebook-advertising https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/08/trump-dig...
- freehunter 8y ago
  It seriously annoys me how major publications have editorial content on their main domain, on their main site, with the same template. Sure, it says "editorial" below the headline, but at first glance it looks like news. Washington Post, NYT, etc all put the full weight of their name behind content that's literally just a random blog from some random person with no fact-checking. If I see a headline on HN or Reddit or Facebook that says "'Giant Meteor Likely to Impact Earth' - NYTimes.com", how do I know if that's an impending disaster or just someone saying "NASA says it's theoretically possible"? The only way is to click the article and look for the "editorial" line, at which point the newspaper has already won.
  - pofilat 8y ago
hello_1234 8y ago
Every day or two I see something new about facebook on hackernews front page, and pretty much all the discussion boils down to "how awful facebook is", "oh, I quit it five years ago, I don't understand those people who still use it; oh, they sell our data to generate so much profit". Facebook has more than a billion active users, and is probably the most used social network in the world. I wish hackernews users stop repeating how awful facebook is and rather provide some constructive criticism.
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago
  > provide some constructive criticism instead Call your Congressman, Senator and State Attorney General and advocate for Facebook being broken up under antitrust law.
  - ng12 8y ago
    Broken up into what? I don't understand what meaningful monopoly Facebook has, especially when compared to Apple and Google.
    - gliboc 8y ago
      Likes, interests, social relationships. Mostly every social data that is not provided by either pictures, internet history or contact list (which is about all Google and Apple have).
      - gliboc 8y ago
        And I forgot geolocation but all of them have it anyway.
      - ng12 8y ago
        Is there a precedent for this? Is it a monopoly if there's nothing preventing you from starting your own competing product collecting the same data? Of course Facebook has a monopoly over Facebook's own product.
amelius 8y ago
Please remove everything except Events.
samspenc 8y ago
This was interesting: "However, it was only available in five countries and accounted for less than 1.5% of clicks to news publishers on average. From research we found that over time people found the product to be less and less useful. " I've found it to be somewhat useful on Facebook - and LinkedIn has a very similar feature as well. I wonder if the clickthroughs on LinkedIn are somewhat similar.
jasaloo 8y ago
This move comes two weeks after they announce a new strategy to fight against "misinformation and foreign interference," namely, by partnering with the Atlantic Council, a think tank heavily funded by NATO allies, gulf states, and weapons contractors. While Facebook was never really the democratic information platform everyone assumed to be, this move seems like a death blow. Does anyone else view it that way?
LUmBULtERA 8y ago
Don’t you think Facebook looks tired?
- giancarlostoro 8y ago
  "Doctor! What did you say? Doctor!!!" Amazing how the rumor spread from 1 person. Fiction I know but still amazing.
jds375 8y ago
They seem to suggest that it is being removed because it wasn’t being used. Does anyone else find that hard to believe? Obviously it’s totally antectodal, but I checked that EVERY time I logged onto Facebook. Just because people don’t click on it doesn’t mean everyone doesn’t read it.... Afterall it’s visible right in the top right of the site. To be honest this kind of sounds like Facebook is trying to skirt around the real reason for removing it (it was contributing to promoting fake news). Does anyone know if all of the trending items were reviewed by editors? If so, then I’d be more inclined to believe their explanation
- qop 8y ago
  Yeah, they want it gone because people are making a stink about the agendization of what news is shown on the feed. I'd like to see trending reflect my geographical trends more than anything. What are my hometown friends talking about, and that sort of thing. I don't give a shit about what the average person talks or thinks about, that's the whole point of only having my friends on facebook, or so I thought. Turns out I am supposed to read fake news, click ads, and shut up.
jl2718 8y ago
Facebook is now a newsertainment media platform. Same playbook as LinkedIn. Neither have anything to do with ‘connecting people’ anymore. I don’t get it. News media is dying. Why would you want to copy them? How is this profitable?
ybrah 8y ago
When I used to use Facebook, I had it filtered because I avoid any targeted news headlines. I think targeted news headlines are dangerous because they can be used as propaganda devices.
remarkEon 8y ago
>However, it was only available in five countries and accounted for less than 1.5% of clicks to news publishers on average. "on average"
Twirrim 8y ago
> and increasingly through news video Well, yes, because Facebook's timeline is optimised to surface videos over other content. If you priorities one type of content, it's no wonder it becomes what people consume the most.

114 points by champagnepapi 8y ago

Since it only includes a link and summary, no value added, why not submit original link? https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/06/removing-trending/ https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/06/removing-trending/

jawilson2 8y ago
Kind of unrelated: when I click this link in Firefox, it seems to erase the history for the current tab, and the back button doesn't work. It looks like it works in Chrome though. What is going on?
- inetknght 8y ago
  Facebook using dark UX patterns?
- ovao 8y ago
  I checked in Firefox Quantum 61.0b and it doesn't disable the back button, so this potentially only affects the stable version.
- zentiggr 8y ago
  Firefox's Facebook Container. Segregate any FB url from the rest of the browser state to minimize tracking etc.
minimaxir 8y ago
I submitted that link a couple hours ago (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17206065 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17206065), but it got no upvotes, and eventually duped to this submission.
- dang 8y ago
  Yes, sorry—there's randomness in what gets upvoted and the order we happen to see things in. The best current answer for this is "keep posting good things and it evens out in the long run". But we're working on some ideas about how to link related submissions and distribute karma more fairly. It's not that the karma matters so much, but I do think that rewarding earlier submitters would incentivize the most valuable behavior on HN, which is to find good stories that haven't been posted yet and post them.
  - DanBC 8y ago
    Or it'll incentivise people to post like bots and submit everything possible. The old guideline (don't post so much that you dominate the page) feels a bit out of date.
    - dang 8y ago
      That problem is detectable. If we have to, we'll write software to deal with it. In the meantime, if you see someone dominating the /newest page with their submissions, it would be good to let us know (hn@ycombinator.com) so we can rate-limit the account.
- Elect2 8y ago
  >but it got no upvotes I guess it's because of the title "Removing Trending from Facebook". The title is OK on Facebook news site. But in here it sounds like a guide. Your second submission has a more clear title.
delbel 8y ago
I am not able to click on this due to having facebook blocked at my router, but the original link worked.

dang 8y ago

Url changed from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-01/facebook-says-it-s-removing-trending-feature https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-01/facebook-..., which points to this.

politician 8y ago

All you need to know here is that where Trending is algorithmic, Breaking News is a flag set by a trusted set of content providers. On the plus side, this simplification should allow Facebook better control of how to steer its users towards revenue generating content.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
- politician 8y ago
  Facebook decides. It's in their announcement post.
  - igolden 8y ago
    This is where the real power is. Trustworthiness is a problem that needs to be solved in MSM. cc: Elon EDIT - meant to the thread, not the thread reply
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- Jordrok 8y ago
  Love them or hate them, they are a news source No, they really aren't.
ams6110 8y ago
Won't those providers be tempted to set the "breaking news" flag on every post, just like they do on their TV news channels?
- gowld 8y ago
  Sure, but they might lose their privileges if FB doesn't like their choices.

seibelj 8y ago

Those “We apologize for fake news” ads on TV and the subway from Facebook seem really weird to me. Like FB thinks that the reason their numbers are down is because people are mad about them and some ads saying “we’re sorry” will fix it. I think Facebook has been supplanted by a variety of better tools, some of which they themselves created, and it’s now going to be a long term stagnation and decline

colordrops 8y ago
The thing that drove me away from Facebook is not fake news, but that there is news (and other viral content) at all, fake or not. 90% of my feed is content about people and events I have no connection to or care for. I thought to whole point of FB was to connect with people you know.
- dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
  For me it was the fact that the spammy hyperactive friends were prominently featured, whereas knowledgeable silent types that posted once in a while were completely removed from the feed. It should be exactly the other way round.
- d4l3k 8y ago
  The feed thing is pretty easy to fix. You just have to tell Facebook you don't want to see posts like that (three dot menu). I did that a while back and don't get any memes or shared links on my feed anymore.
  - izzydata 8y ago
    You would think so wouldn't you? But if you tell it you don't want one thing on your feed it is then supplemented by 10 others. It is virtually endless and there is no hiding all content that is not hand written by your friends and family.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]

lostmsu 8y ago

We already did it for you with a custom uBlock rule, thank you.

TheCapn 8y ago
I wrote a Greasemonkey script to pull apart the div element and replace it with a random image from an imgur subreddit gallery*. I'm certain far better javascript programmers could take this and improve on it. Calling myself a novice would be embellishing my skills. https://gist.github.com/GrahamBlanshard/d7211436088e0159164a https://gist.github.com/GrahamBlanshard/d7211436088e0159164a I heard it conflicts in ways with the facebook chat sidebar which I never use, so if you're interesting in fiddling around with that on GreaseMonkey or TamperMonkey just keep that sort of thing in mind. EDIT: Example of what it does on the sidebar for you: https://i.imgur.com/Yqc2jdY.png https://i.imgur.com/Yqc2jdY.png

lacker 8y ago

It was a constant source of bad publicity when offensive things would hit Trending. Once Facebook conceded that manual curation would be necessary, it was just a matter of time before they deemed it not worth the cost.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

IronWolve 8y ago

People think if they can control facebook, they can swing elections. Hillary just recently made that comment if she controlled facebook. Look how Yahoo news and Google news pushes editorial pieces above news, almost like an agenda. Same thing was happening with facebook.

colordrops 8y ago
It's not almost like an agenda, it is an agenda.
gaius 8y ago
Wikileaks revealed email showing that FB was actively helping Hillary as they did Obama. She did control FB and it still didn’t work.
- InitialLastName 8y ago
  FB were actively helping Trump too [0]. They offered employees to both campaigns as "embeds" to help coordinate social media outreach. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/08/trump-digital-director-brad-parscale-facebook-advertising https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/08/trump-dig...
freehunter 8y ago
It seriously annoys me how major publications have editorial content on their main domain, on their main site, with the same template. Sure, it says "editorial" below the headline, but at first glance it looks like news. Washington Post, NYT, etc all put the full weight of their name behind content that's literally just a random blog from some random person with no fact-checking. If I see a headline on HN or Reddit or Facebook that says "'Giant Meteor Likely to Impact Earth' - NYTimes.com", how do I know if that's an impending disaster or just someone saying "NASA says it's theoretically possible"? The only way is to click the article and look for the "editorial" line, at which point the newspaper has already won.
- pofilat 8y ago

hello_1234 8y ago

Every day or two I see something new about facebook on hackernews front page, and pretty much all the discussion boils down to "how awful facebook is", "oh, I quit it five years ago, I don't understand those people who still use it; oh, they sell our data to generate so much profit". Facebook has more than a billion active users, and is probably the most used social network in the world. I wish hackernews users stop repeating how awful facebook is and rather provide some constructive criticism.

JumpCrisscross 8y ago
> provide some constructive criticism instead Call your Congressman, Senator and State Attorney General and advocate for Facebook being broken up under antitrust law.
- ng12 8y ago
  Broken up into what? I don't understand what meaningful monopoly Facebook has, especially when compared to Apple and Google.
  - gliboc 8y ago
    Likes, interests, social relationships. Mostly every social data that is not provided by either pictures, internet history or contact list (which is about all Google and Apple have).
    - gliboc 8y ago
      And I forgot geolocation but all of them have it anyway.
    - ng12 8y ago
      Is there a precedent for this? Is it a monopoly if there's nothing preventing you from starting your own competing product collecting the same data? Of course Facebook has a monopoly over Facebook's own product.

amelius 8y ago

Please remove everything except Events.

samspenc 8y ago

This was interesting: "However, it was only available in five countries and accounted for less than 1.5% of clicks to news publishers on average. From research we found that over time people found the product to be less and less useful. " I've found it to be somewhat useful on Facebook - and LinkedIn has a very similar feature as well. I wonder if the clickthroughs on LinkedIn are somewhat similar.

jasaloo 8y ago

This move comes two weeks after they announce a new strategy to fight against "misinformation and foreign interference," namely, by partnering with the Atlantic Council, a think tank heavily funded by NATO allies, gulf states, and weapons contractors. While Facebook was never really the democratic information platform everyone assumed to be, this move seems like a death blow. Does anyone else view it that way?

LUmBULtERA 8y ago

Don’t you think Facebook looks tired?

giancarlostoro 8y ago
"Doctor! What did you say? Doctor!!!" Amazing how the rumor spread from 1 person. Fiction I know but still amazing.

jds375 8y ago

They seem to suggest that it is being removed because it wasn’t being used. Does anyone else find that hard to believe? Obviously it’s totally antectodal, but I checked that EVERY time I logged onto Facebook. Just because people don’t click on it doesn’t mean everyone doesn’t read it.... Afterall it’s visible right in the top right of the site. To be honest this kind of sounds like Facebook is trying to skirt around the real reason for removing it (it was contributing to promoting fake news). Does anyone know if all of the trending items were reviewed by editors? If so, then I’d be more inclined to believe their explanation

qop 8y ago
Yeah, they want it gone because people are making a stink about the agendization of what news is shown on the feed. I'd like to see trending reflect my geographical trends more than anything. What are my hometown friends talking about, and that sort of thing. I don't give a shit about what the average person talks or thinks about, that's the whole point of only having my friends on facebook, or so I thought. Turns out I am supposed to read fake news, click ads, and shut up.

jl2718 8y ago

Facebook is now a newsertainment media platform. Same playbook as LinkedIn. Neither have anything to do with ‘connecting people’ anymore. I don’t get it. News media is dying. Why would you want to copy them? How is this profitable?

ybrah 8y ago

When I used to use Facebook, I had it filtered because I avoid any targeted news headlines. I think targeted news headlines are dangerous because they can be used as propaganda devices.

remarkEon 8y ago

>However, it was only available in five countries and accounted for less than 1.5% of clicks to news publishers on average. "on average"

Twirrim 8y ago

> and increasingly through news video Well, yes, because Facebook's timeline is optimised to surface videos over other content. If you priorities one type of content, it's no wonder it becomes what people consume the most.