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> I'm all for criticizing SV for what it does wrong, but let's not overdo this. I'm actually less interesed in criticism than it may have appeared. I'm far mor

> I'm all for criticizing SV for what it does wrong, but let's not overdo this. I'm actually less interesed in criticism than it may have appeared. I'm far more interested in finding ways to harness the machinery built for generating revenue and refocus it to discourage the type of angry tribalism that's putting us all in danger. Sure, there are parts of it that are highly decentralized and difficult to influence in this way, but there are other parts that are more easily manipulated, eg. the content of a user's news feed. I'm trying to make the argument that it makes sense for Facebook et al to show users content that's less divisive even if it means less profit in the short term, as it helps to ensure that there will still be people around to use their platforms in 10 years.

TeMPOraL 8y ago
I'm sorry, I misread your comment as "how about you do X" kind of criticism. Now I see the point you were trying to make; it's interesting to think about, but I fear very hard to implement. Social media are pretty much a direct pipe to Moloch Himself[0]. The content that causes problems is made by a countless number of people, each deciding to get a little more for themselves by screwing up other people just a tiny bit ("just so little, it couldn't really hurt"). > I'm trying to make the argument that it makes sense for Facebook et al to show users content that's less divisive even if it means less profit in the short term, as it helps to ensure that there will still be people around to use their platforms in 10 years. I was going to write a long comment about how the divisive content is not Facebook's fault and they can't control it directly, but I guess all both know that. Facebook's contribution is the detailed mechanics of feeds, filtering, timelines, liking, sharing. They could tweak it a bit without immediately getting accused of censorship or not being a fair platform, but it's hard. But it dawned on me - there's one simple trick to unbreak social media, both Twitter and Facebook. One simple trick that's so obvious, that its absence seems to me very purposeful. The trick is: display content in chronological order. It would immediately make both platforms more useful and less addicting at the same time. (I can already hear the screams, "But this is hard! Think of the scale! Eventual consistency and all!". Well, so now you have a hard technical problem that's actually worth to be solved.) I'm not having much hope, though. If there's one thing proven about humanity it's that companies don't self-regulate themselves out of profits. It's a ratchet, there's no going back without a hard reset. -- [0] - http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/

TeMPOraL 8y ago

I'm sorry, I misread your comment as "how about you do X" kind of criticism. Now I see the point you were trying to make; it's interesting to think about, but I fear very hard to implement. Social media are pretty much a direct pipe to Moloch Himself[0]. The content that causes problems is made by a countless number of people, each deciding to get a little more for themselves by screwing up other people just a tiny bit ("just so little, it couldn't really hurt"). > I'm trying to make the argument that it makes sense for Facebook et al to show users content that's less divisive even if it means less profit in the short term, as it helps to ensure that there will still be people around to use their platforms in 10 years. I was going to write a long comment about how the divisive content is not Facebook's fault and they can't control it directly, but I guess all both know that. Facebook's contribution is the detailed mechanics of feeds, filtering, timelines, liking, sharing. They could tweak it a bit without immediately getting accused of censorship or not being a fair platform, but it's hard. But it dawned on me - there's one simple trick to unbreak social media, both Twitter and Facebook. One simple trick that's so obvious, that its absence seems to me very purposeful. The trick is: display content in chronological order. It would immediately make both platforms more useful and less addicting at the same time. (I can already hear the screams, "But this is hard! Think of the scale! Eventual consistency and all!". Well, so now you have a hard technical problem that's actually worth to be solved.) I'm not having much hope, though. If there's one thing proven about humanity it's that companies don't self-regulate themselves out of profits. It's a ratchet, there's no going back without a hard reset. -- [0] - http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/