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\* \* 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 tweet
by 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).
- lhnz 4y agoWhat people are implying is still unsubstantiated though. The engineers on the Twitter Space say that this is to ensure that changes they make do not bias one category over another, they don't say that it's in order that they can make discretionary updates to bias towards Elon Musk. Maybe after every update to the model, they check these stats to ensure that they haven't biased towards Elon Musk, and if so roll the change back.
- mochomocha 4y ago? Considering Elon as its own category is a bias.
- bcrosby95 4y ago> “When you’re asked a question, you run it through your head and say ‘what is the least fireable response I can have to this right now?’” one employee explained. Reading between the lines, Musk sounds like a giant baby.
- sangnoir 4y ago> it's also quite believable that after a deployment he might have noticed the popularity of his tweets going down He did notice it and it was treated as a 5 alarm fire, with a Musk cousin sending 2 am slack messages (on a Monday!) to Twitter engineers to urgently fix Elon's reach[1]. 1. 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...
- bcrosby95 4y agoThe proper way to do that is create a pool of celebrities and monitor them. Not just the CEO's account. For very active accounts, I assume that's what the "vits" or "power user" one is for. Or, heck, "vits" might actually be what you said.
- leye0 4y agoChatGPT suggests: Vitriolic accounts.
- 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.