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The way users might benefit is if Twitter learns what users like and dislike and curate a feed based on these preferences. At the very least one could expect th

The way users might benefit is if Twitter learns what users like and dislike and curate a feed based on these preferences. At the very least one could expect them to use it for the list of who to follow. One similar strategy would be how Reddit introduced a subreddit filter feature (which was previously only available in a 3rd party extension) to get metrics on which popular but disliked subreddit to quarantine. These majority disliked subreddits then got filtered from everyone's feed.

MrGilbert 5y ago
> ...and curate a feed based on these preferences. I personally don't need a curated feed on twitter. Hopefully, they'll never deactivate the chronological one.
oauea 5y ago
Excellent, more bubbling.
- rpastuszak 5y ago
  That's my worry too, but I don't know if you can already make it worse on twitter. Reddit has the random button and easy access to two "feeds" (chronological and "personalised"), so I'd like more of that.
  - oauea 5y ago
    That random button is just the top 1000 most popular subreddits by the way. Better than nothing, but still.
- playpause 5y ago
  I don’t see the post voting mechanism having much effect on bubbling. The problem with a filter bubble is not being aware you’re in it. If you’re aware, then it’s not a filter bubble. I think this comes from architecture, from Twitter’s presentation as one giant global conversation, as opposed to every post being made in the context of a distinct topic-based community. On Reddit you intentionally navigate from place to place, subculture to subculture. You’re less likely to mistake a certain political attitude as the new global norm, because you develop an understanding of which views and attitudes are common to which sub. Even if you only look at the front page, each post is clearly labelled as having come from a particular sub. Twitter in contrast presents itself as one single context for everything in your world, pushing the false idea that what you’re seeing is representative of what other people are seeing. That’s what’s behind the filter bubble effect, I think.
rpastuszak 5y ago
The chronological feed is a must-have for me, but here's a wild idea: having Home (personalised), New (chronological), Hot and a big Random thread button would be neat.
- tazjin 5y ago
  Twitter's current "chronological" feed is only chronological in that the posts that appear in it are ordered by creation date, but it doesn't include all posts from the people you follow. This was one of the reasons why I finally stopped using Twitter.
  - hobo_mark 5y ago
    You can make a clean chronological feed quite easily with the API (the API does not include sponsored content, suggested topics or suggested likes and replies, but I want none of that anyway), this is how I have consumed twitter for years. I have filters on top of it, but those are decided my me and not their algorithms. Have been thinking about polishing and releasing the service, but I'm not sure it is a convenience people would actually pay for?
    - tazjin 5y ago
      > Have been thinking about polishing and releasing the service, but I'm not sure it is a convenience people would actually pay for? You'd get shut down by Twitter as soon as it gains any traction, probably not a good idea.
      - hobo_mark 5y ago
        I know, but making it paid would mean that I'd never have more than O(1000) users (optimistically!), and I doubt twitter would care. My main question is whether users would.
    - mistermann 5y ago
      Something like that for YouTube would be nice also, I miss so many videos from channels I'm subscribed to because they don't show everything in your New feed. I would gladly pay $12/year for a service that does that and maybe a few other obviously useful features (tagging, attaching private comments, subscribing to friends public archives, etc).
swalsh 5y ago
Our feeds are already heavily curated. I recently subscribed to the WSJ, and got paper delivery of the weekend editionfor free. At first, I clicked the option because I use a charcoal grill and I'm paperless to the point I struggled to find material to start it with. But it seemed like a waste to not read it. Once I started though, I quickly started to really enjoy the experience of reading a paper news paper. Aside from the tactile feel, and fresh smell there is joy in a completely uncurated experience. I'm reading things that are way out of the bounds of my normal filter bubble. I'm exposed to topics I never knew I found interesting. Life is duller when its completely curated.
- danso 5y ago
  > Life is duller when its completely curated. A newspaper is the very definition of “completely curated”. There are entire, multiple positions devoted to the physical prioritization, and design and layout of content, including the precise wording of headlines that fit the space and gel with the surrounding context. It’s why imho a newspaper is very much worth reading, because its production is so much less cost efficient than any website or social media
  - swalsh 5y ago
    It is true, a newspaper is curated. But it's not curated to me. My entire digital life is curated to me, so being able to dip my foot into literally anything else is a new experience.

MrGilbert 5y ago

> ...and curate a feed based on these preferences. I personally don't need a curated feed on twitter. Hopefully, they'll never deactivate the chronological one.

oauea 5y ago

Excellent, more bubbling.

rpastuszak 5y ago
That's my worry too, but I don't know if you can already make it worse on twitter. Reddit has the random button and easy access to two "feeds" (chronological and "personalised"), so I'd like more of that.
- oauea 5y ago
  That random button is just the top 1000 most popular subreddits by the way. Better than nothing, but still.
playpause 5y ago
I don’t see the post voting mechanism having much effect on bubbling. The problem with a filter bubble is not being aware you’re in it. If you’re aware, then it’s not a filter bubble. I think this comes from architecture, from Twitter’s presentation as one giant global conversation, as opposed to every post being made in the context of a distinct topic-based community. On Reddit you intentionally navigate from place to place, subculture to subculture. You’re less likely to mistake a certain political attitude as the new global norm, because you develop an understanding of which views and attitudes are common to which sub. Even if you only look at the front page, each post is clearly labelled as having come from a particular sub. Twitter in contrast presents itself as one single context for everything in your world, pushing the false idea that what you’re seeing is representative of what other people are seeing. That’s what’s behind the filter bubble effect, I think.

rpastuszak 5y ago

The chronological feed is a must-have for me, but here's a wild idea: having Home (personalised), New (chronological), Hot and a big Random thread button would be neat.

tazjin 5y ago
Twitter's current "chronological" feed is only chronological in that the posts that appear in it are ordered by creation date, but it doesn't include all posts from the people you follow. This was one of the reasons why I finally stopped using Twitter.
- hobo_mark 5y ago
  You can make a clean chronological feed quite easily with the API (the API does not include sponsored content, suggested topics or suggested likes and replies, but I want none of that anyway), this is how I have consumed twitter for years. I have filters on top of it, but those are decided my me and not their algorithms. Have been thinking about polishing and releasing the service, but I'm not sure it is a convenience people would actually pay for?
  - tazjin 5y ago
    > Have been thinking about polishing and releasing the service, but I'm not sure it is a convenience people would actually pay for? You'd get shut down by Twitter as soon as it gains any traction, probably not a good idea.
    - hobo_mark 5y ago
      I know, but making it paid would mean that I'd never have more than O(1000) users (optimistically!), and I doubt twitter would care. My main question is whether users would.
  - mistermann 5y ago
    Something like that for YouTube would be nice also, I miss so many videos from channels I'm subscribed to because they don't show everything in your New feed. I would gladly pay $12/year for a service that does that and maybe a few other obviously useful features (tagging, attaching private comments, subscribing to friends public archives, etc).

swalsh 5y ago

Our feeds are already heavily curated. I recently subscribed to the WSJ, and got paper delivery of the weekend editionfor free. At first, I clicked the option because I use a charcoal grill and I'm paperless to the point I struggled to find material to start it with. But it seemed like a waste to not read it. Once I started though, I quickly started to really enjoy the experience of reading a paper news paper. Aside from the tactile feel, and fresh smell there is joy in a completely uncurated experience. I'm reading things that are way out of the bounds of my normal filter bubble. I'm exposed to topics I never knew I found interesting. Life is duller when its completely curated.

danso 5y ago
> Life is duller when its completely curated. A newspaper is the very definition of “completely curated”. There are entire, multiple positions devoted to the physical prioritization, and design and layout of content, including the precise wording of headlines that fit the space and gel with the surrounding context. It’s why imho a newspaper is very much worth reading, because its production is so much less cost efficient than any website or social media
- swalsh 5y ago
  It is true, a newspaper is curated. But it's not curated to me. My entire digital life is curated to me, so being able to dip my foot into literally anything else is a new experience.