8 ms·
I wonder what the "author_is_elon", "author_is_power_user", "author_is_democrat", and "author_is_republican" labels are for [1]. [1]: https://github.com/twitte
by tech234a 4y ago
I wonder what the "author_is_elon", "author_is_power_user", "author_is_democrat", and "author_is_republican" labels are for [1].
[1]: https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/blob/main/home-mixer/server/src/main/scala/com/twitter/home_mixer/functional_component/decorator/HomeTweetTypePredicates.scala#L224-L247 https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/blob/main/home-mixe...
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- jaywalk 4y ago\* \* These author ID lists are used purely for metrics collection. We track how often we are \* serving Tweets from these authors and how often their tweets are being impressed by users. \* This helps us validate in our A/B experimentation platform that we do not ship changes \* that negatively impacts one group over others. \* From: https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/blob/7f90d0ca342b928b479b512ec51ac2c3821f5922/home-mixer/server/src/main/scala/com/twitter/home_mixer/functional_component/feature_hydrator/RequestQueryFeatureHydrator.scala https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/blob/7f90d0ca342b92...
- tech234a 4y agoThat makes sense; I guess that means Elon is considered a "group" now.
- lhnz 4y agoI know there's a joke about this regarding his ego and there's certainly some truth in that, however it's also quite believable that after a deployment he might have noticed the popularity of his tweets going down (since he no doubt checks his reach), so I can kind of understand how he might see "republicans", "democrats" and "celebrities_it_makes_sense_to_check_this_with_my_account_as_i_am_a_very_active_user" as core categories that need to have their reach balanced.
- NERD_ALERT 4y agoWe don't need to speculate on this. It sounds like he did actually fire engineers over his tweets getting less engagement than he wanted. https://www.platformer.news/p/elon-musk-fires-a-top-twitter-engineer https://www.platformer.news/p/elon-musk-fires-a-top-twitter-...
- lhnz 4y agoHonestly, if you read behind the lines, it sounds like the employee was intentionally making a joke about it at his expense in front of a bunch of people, and I think a lot of CEOs would take that badly as this is effectively the same thing as calling your boss egocentric. But, we do have a bit of code that measures metrics on his account, so can we find the bit of code that increases the engagement on his account?
- mochomocha 4y ago> But, we do have a bit of code that measures metrics on his account, so can we find the bit of code that increases the engagement on his account? There doesn't need to be. When they run AB tests, it's possible that they'd pick the winning cell if it makes the Elon metrics look better. Even if the algorithm doesn't do anything explicit about boosting him, it can be tweaked through AB testing to favor him.
- lhnz 4y agoYou mean A/B testing of weights/biases?
- mochomocha 4y agoNo, the "weights" of your model are trained from the input data. What is usually AB tested are hyperparameters of the model, or different "flavors" of (model+input data).
- 4y ago
- gregw134 4y agoSo now engineers working on the algo can ensure their launches won't lower Elon's tweet visibility. Looks like those remaining at Twitter have a knack for corporate survival.
- capableweb 4y agoYeah, surely the fan-boys who remain at Twitter are interested in lowering the visibility of Elon, not the opposite.
- SauciestGNU 4y agoI read that as being able to make sure they don't lower his engagement with a release
- jacquesm 4y agoMakes you wonder how they would deal with a reduction in Twitter users.
- japhyr 4y agoI think they meant that Twitter developers can make sure their most recent changes won't get them fired by lowering his visibility.
- 908B64B197 4y ago> Looks like those remaining at Twitter have a knack for corporate survival. If Green Cards quotas suddenly became available how many would stay?
- cvhashim04 4y agoWhen your visa is on the line, you’ll do anything
- sabellito 4y agoEngineers who work at twitter can easily find another job in the US.
- afavour 4y agoStill smells to high heaven to me. Not the Elon part, I don't really care about that. But collecting metrics about "republican" vs "democrat" sounds like a particularly bad set of priorities at work.
- andsoitis 4y ago> sounds pretty suspicious. Sounds toxic to me
- bilekas 4y agoThis exactly.. But without the models or policies we can only infer, which give plausible deniability. Can't say I'm shocked overall, but it's strange to see it so 'on the nose'
- seydor 4y agobut the people who care about stats are usually american politicians. they can present them with this data. (and use Elon as a control LOL)
- JohnFen 4y agoAbout 40% of US voters are not registered with any political party, so at least they will avoid whatever this triggers.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- overthrow 4y agoI'd love to see the exact date author_is_elon was added. Too bad they didn't publish the commit history
- nijave 4y agoI think around mid February https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/14/23600358/elon-musk-tweets-algorithm-changes-twitter https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/14/23600358/elon-musk-tweets...
- qbasic_forever 4y agoIIRC it was very recent, there was a Twitter engineer that was fired after explaining to Elon that the algorithm was not biased against him: https://www.salon.com/2023/02/10/petulant-elon-musk-fired-twitter-engineer-for-explaining-why-fewer-people-are-reading-his-tweets/ https://www.salon.com/2023/02/10/petulant-elon-musk-fired-tw... Almost certainly after that event Elon had them explicitly bump his tweets in their reach.
- nonethewiser 4y agoThis speculation seems mostly informed by a negative opinion of Elon. Is there any real indication he gave this instruction?
- qbasic_forever 4y agoYes that weekend everyone started seeing Elon's tweets in their timelines: https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/14/23600358/elon-musk-tweets-algorithm-changes-twitter https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/14/23600358/elon-musk-tweets... You seem weirdly protective of Elon fyi
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- nonethewiser 4y agoI’m pretty neutral on musk. His fanboys are crazy but by and large they aren’t here so there isn’t much opportunity to challenge them. So much has been concluded about him here without any evidence, instead grounding it in the premise that he’s rotten.
- bilekas 4y agoAll in service of 'anti-bias' of course... /s
- RoyGBivCap 4y ago[dead]
- montag 4y agoElon is addressing this in the Twitter Space right now. "It definitely shouldn't be dividing people into Republican and Democrats; that makes no sense[...] you've identified something we should be getting rid of right away."
- sekai 4y agoHaha, that's pretty funny, of course that's a thing
- Someone1234 4y agoHere is a screenshot in case this changes later: https://i.imgur.com/F8GSeyH.png https://i.imgur.com/F8GSeyH.png And, no, this wasn't in a merge-request, it was in the "main" branch of HomeTweetTypePredicates.scala.
- tantalor 4y agoWhat's all the "DDG"? Is this data from DuckDuckGo?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- asddubs 4y agoI doubt it, since the isElon thing also has the abbreviation
- nanny 4y agoMaybe the name for an internal service/environment. It's also referenced in this viral tweet from November: https://twitter.com/EricFrohnhoefer/status/1591969100225736704?lang=en https://twitter.com/EricFrohnhoefer/status/15919691002257367...
- tyingq 4y agoProbably something like "Data Distribution Group".
- bcherry 4y agoDuckDuckGoose is the twitter A/B test framework
- nonethewiser 4y agoI see Twitter engineers are not from Minnesota.
- mcast 4y agoThat's actually kind of a cool and fitting name.
- spaceman_2020 4y agopretty sure Elon gets a boost in the algorithm. All okay - he's the owner of a private entity and can do as he pleases.
- mnd999 4y agoThat’s what he blew all that cash on. It’s the whole point.
- darth_avocado 4y agoI would not be surprised if “author_is_elon” was added after he bought the company and worked the engineers too hard to figure out why his tweets don’t have a lot of engagement.
- burkaman 4y agohttps://www.platformer.news/p/yes-elon-musk-created-a-special-system https://www.platformer.news/p/yes-elon-musk-created-a-specia...
- tgv 4y agoWait ... that was not a joke? And they actually removed it from the repo about 4 hours later? That doesn't look good.