Obviously we don’t see the inner workings of algorithms, from Facebook’s feed to HN’s upvote/downvote/flag/decay system. However, my sense is that by clicking

Obviously we don’t see the inner workings of algorithms, from Facebook’s feed to HN’s upvote/downvote/flag/decay system. However, my sense is that by clicking the button I see fewer posts from the person who posted it, which is often quite effective at shaping my feed the way I want it anyway. Facebook does also seem to do some basic classification of hot topics (politics in particular) such that hiding a few politics posts results in fewer politics posts even from other people, too. Likes are upvotes, so it’s also important to hit the like button on content you want to see more of, and to not hit the like button on content you don’t want to see. I know it sounds obvious, but I know people who refuse to press Like buttons because they object to the concept of Likes. Using likes and the “hide post” features to curate a feed doesn’t take much more effort than upvotes and downvotes and it’s very effective at shaping my feed, in my experience. I think too many tech people simply ignore those features and can’t understand why their feed is only showing them content that other people are engaging with (often arguments).