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I like recommendation features in principle. I don’t want an unfiltered feed of stuff. It would just be nice if they were configurable, understandable and actu

I like recommendation features in principle. I don’t want an unfiltered feed of stuff. It would just be nice if they were configurable, understandable and actually worked for me. Some systems’ “We’re showing you this because ...” is an important first step, but it needs to go way, way, further. Big companies probably don’t do it because they’re afraid of overwhelming a user, disclosing too much about their own algorithm and the things they know (“We’re showing you this because someone you hung out with on Instagram just before you met”). Thus it’s probably up to open source projects again to make algorithms that actually work for people, not against them. Are there any such projects already? Are there projects trying to dissect common proprietary recommendation systems? They’re some of the most mysterious influences on current society.

lonk11 6y ago
My hobby project https://linklonk.com https://linklonk.com (use invitation code 'hn') is a content recommendation system that is built around these principles: - Control: what you see is based on your explicit upvotes & downvotes, not what you happened to click on. - Transparency: you see content from feeds that posted content you upvoted and from other users who upvoted what you upvoted, but did that before you. For example, when you upvote a link it will tell you that "You will get more content from 2 users that also liked it and from 3 feeds that posted it". And when you see a recommendation from other users you can see what likes in common do you have with those users (“We’re showing you this because ...”). - Fairness: the amount of attention every user and feed gets from you depends on how useful their past recommendations have been. Ie, the higher their signal-to-noise ratio has been for you - the more prominently their other upvoted items will be in your "feed". Give it a try and let me know what you think. I'd like to do a "Show HN" post for my project soon and your feedback would help me prepare for it. If you like to read a bit more here are my announcements with discussions: - https://tildes.net/~tech/u7f/linklonk_a_link_aggregator_with_a_trust_system https://tildes.net/~tech/u7f/linklonk_a_link_aggregator_with... - https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/mpqnpl/linklonk_a_link_aggregator_with_a_trust_system_an/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/mpqnpl/...
mateo1 6y ago
There is one problem really. These companies are not charging money for their services. It's the same problem with other mega-corps. They can afford short and medium-term losses to kill other players entering the field. This is the root cause of so many problems in capitalism. There are of course other challenges preventing people and corporations from entering this field but at this point I don't even think there's hope. They have not only destroyed everyone else in the private sector, but they partnered with governments and political entities in such a way that their continued rule is basically cemented in place. You won't get the recommendations that you know would be good for you because they're not trying to do something good for you, they're trying to extract more value from you.

lonk11 6y ago

My hobby project https://linklonk.com https://linklonk.com (use invitation code 'hn') is a content recommendation system that is built around these principles: - Control: what you see is based on your explicit upvotes & downvotes, not what you happened to click on. - Transparency: you see content from feeds that posted content you upvoted and from other users who upvoted what you upvoted, but did that before you. For example, when you upvote a link it will tell you that "You will get more content from 2 users that also liked it and from 3 feeds that posted it". And when you see a recommendation from other users you can see what likes in common do you have with those users (“We’re showing you this because ...”). - Fairness: the amount of attention every user and feed gets from you depends on how useful their past recommendations have been. Ie, the higher their signal-to-noise ratio has been for you - the more prominently their other upvoted items will be in your "feed". Give it a try and let me know what you think. I'd like to do a "Show HN" post for my project soon and your feedback would help me prepare for it. If you like to read a bit more here are my announcements with discussions: - https://tildes.net/~tech/u7f/linklonk_a_link_aggregator_with_a_trust_system https://tildes.net/~tech/u7f/linklonk_a_link_aggregator_with... - https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/mpqnpl/linklonk_a_link_aggregator_with_a_trust_system_an/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/mpqnpl/...

mateo1 6y ago

There is one problem really. These companies are not charging money for their services. It's the same problem with other mega-corps. They can afford short and medium-term losses to kill other players entering the field. This is the root cause of so many problems in capitalism. There are of course other challenges preventing people and corporations from entering this field but at this point I don't even think there's hope. They have not only destroyed everyone else in the private sector, but they partnered with governments and political entities in such a way that their continued rule is basically cemented in place. You won't get the recommendations that you know would be good for you because they're not trying to do something good for you, they're trying to extract more value from you.