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My suggestion to improve the algorithm adds no barriers to the user. Reddit is already using an algorithm to sort comments ("Best", no idea how that works), so

My suggestion to improve the algorithm adds no barriers to the user. Reddit is already using an algorithm to sort comments ("Best", no idea how that works), so it's certainly feasible that they could either improve that, or offer alternative algorithms like "Insightful" or "For You" like I recommended in the article. The modal on downvote does add a barrier, but maybe it would reduce downvote=disagree. Or maybe not. I don't know. Either way it could be worth testing, though obviously wouldn't be as impactful as changing the algorithm. Happy to hear recommendations on subreddits on higher quality discussion, especially pertaining to things like politics and current events where it's very difficult to find high quality discussion.

dkonofalski 5y ago
>My suggestion to improve the algorithm adds no barriers to the user. While that's true, it's also completely empty in terms of usable, actionable steps that can be taken. You mention an algorithm that rewards based on the length of comments but that also rewards any kind of copy-pasta or bot-driven blogspam comments. The other suggestion is to use an AI/ML to improve the quality but that completely ignores that AI has to be trained to be useful. If Reddit, whose goal is to generate views on ads and clicks to sponsored content, trains the model to suit them then it's no more useful to you than the current algorithms (which, for reference, sort by disparity between upvotes and downvotes - top equals most upvotes while ignoring downvotes, "best" equals highest upvotes with lowest downvotes, and controversial sorts by the smallest delta between upvotes and downvotes). As for recommendations, I don't think you'll find what you're looking for on Reddit. Even subs like /r/neutralpolitics, by virtue of today's political climate, lean left and subs that tend to lean right are full of deleted comments, over-enthusiastic mod censorship, and memes.
- JSavageOne 5y ago
  Nothing you said negates ML as a possible solution to better tailor content for people. Other platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. already use algorithms to try to better tailor content for users to increase engagement, absolutely no reason Reddit couldn't offer something similar (with the option to use the classic mode obviously). Also to be clear I'm talking more about comment quality than post quality (there are no ads in comments). Of course using length of comments isn't perfect, and that should never be the sole input in any general-purpose algorithm, just one variable among many. I still believe it could be used to help improve quality. It would likely be more about punishing extremely short comments (eg. one or two sentences) which are rarely insightful, rather than simply scoring comments based on length.
  - dkonofalski 5y ago
    >(there are no ads in comments) This explains everything anyone needed to know about your original post. Reddit itself is an ad. Those other networks you mentioned use their algos to do one thing and one thing only and that's make money.

dkonofalski 5y ago

>My suggestion to improve the algorithm adds no barriers to the user. While that's true, it's also completely empty in terms of usable, actionable steps that can be taken. You mention an algorithm that rewards based on the length of comments but that also rewards any kind of copy-pasta or bot-driven blogspam comments. The other suggestion is to use an AI/ML to improve the quality but that completely ignores that AI has to be trained to be useful. If Reddit, whose goal is to generate views on ads and clicks to sponsored content, trains the model to suit them then it's no more useful to you than the current algorithms (which, for reference, sort by disparity between upvotes and downvotes - top equals most upvotes while ignoring downvotes, "best" equals highest upvotes with lowest downvotes, and controversial sorts by the smallest delta between upvotes and downvotes). As for recommendations, I don't think you'll find what you're looking for on Reddit. Even subs like /r/neutralpolitics, by virtue of today's political climate, lean left and subs that tend to lean right are full of deleted comments, over-enthusiastic mod censorship, and memes.

JSavageOne 5y ago
Nothing you said negates ML as a possible solution to better tailor content for people. Other platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. already use algorithms to try to better tailor content for users to increase engagement, absolutely no reason Reddit couldn't offer something similar (with the option to use the classic mode obviously). Also to be clear I'm talking more about comment quality than post quality (there are no ads in comments). Of course using length of comments isn't perfect, and that should never be the sole input in any general-purpose algorithm, just one variable among many. I still believe it could be used to help improve quality. It would likely be more about punishing extremely short comments (eg. one or two sentences) which are rarely insightful, rather than simply scoring comments based on length.
- dkonofalski 5y ago
  >(there are no ads in comments) This explains everything anyone needed to know about your original post. Reddit itself is an ad. Those other networks you mentioned use their algos to do one thing and one thing only and that's make money.