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But every socmed site/app does this. You'll never find user research that says "I want to see more strangers I don't follow on my feed". It's not for the user,

by rchaud 4y ago

But every socmed site/app does this. You'll never find user research that says "I want to see more strangers I don't follow on my feed". It's not for the user, it's for advertisers that need users to spend more time in the app.

charcircuit 4y ago
The success of YouTube and TikTok proves there is demand for content from people that have not been followed. Most of the content people watch on these platforms are from people they are not following. People gain value from seeing content that is relevant to them.
- munk-a 4y ago
  YouTube has a "Show me something different" button that'll show up every once in a while. I don't click on that button but that's my choice. Give people an option, sure - but don't force it on them. It'd be pretty sweet if autoplay also followed this principle... but it doesn't, so I just disable it.
  - wholinator2 4y ago
    Really? I've used YouTube for years and i don't think I've ever seen a "show me something different" button. Occasionally it'll have a too bar with a list of topics i can choose from but it refuses to let me enter my own desired topic and seemingly only randomly shows me the bar anyway. I find myself frustrated that it's never there when i want it, and a selection that was there last time is not there this time. Very frustrating to see the potential of a better user experience but be refuted it for seemingly no reason.
    - munk-a 4y ago
      If you're familiar with the YouTube homepage (where it displays videos in rows by topic) you can usually scroll down and find one of the cards a sort of colorful "Show me something different" card instead of a regular video card. I putzed around with YouTube for a bit and was unable to get it to come up but it's a pretty rare thing to see - it's possible it was a limited time feature trial but it also just might require a lot of weird actions to summon. I swear I have seen it before and it wasn't just a fever dream though!
professorsnep 4y ago
On the contrary, I'm a user of social media for exactly that purpose. When I use Twitter or Instagram, I'm specifically using it for the natural discoverability it offers. Almost half of the people I follow on Twitter are people I never would have known existed if I didn't see them pop up in my feed one day. It's why I can never get into stuff like Mastodon or Misskey with how they are today, it's extremely difficult to just naturally find people to follow.
marcinzm 4y ago
You're contradicting yourself I feel. As you said yourself users use the app more and don't churn for other apps which means they do find value in the feature. No company cares about what users feel or say but rather about what they do. The former is merely a proxy for the latter.

by rchaud 4y ago

charcircuit 4y ago

The success of YouTube and TikTok proves there is demand for content from people that have not been followed. Most of the content people watch on these platforms are from people they are not following. People gain value from seeing content that is relevant to them.

munk-a 4y ago
YouTube has a "Show me something different" button that'll show up every once in a while. I don't click on that button but that's my choice. Give people an option, sure - but don't force it on them. It'd be pretty sweet if autoplay also followed this principle... but it doesn't, so I just disable it.
- wholinator2 4y ago
  Really? I've used YouTube for years and i don't think I've ever seen a "show me something different" button. Occasionally it'll have a too bar with a list of topics i can choose from but it refuses to let me enter my own desired topic and seemingly only randomly shows me the bar anyway. I find myself frustrated that it's never there when i want it, and a selection that was there last time is not there this time. Very frustrating to see the potential of a better user experience but be refuted it for seemingly no reason.
  - munk-a 4y ago
    If you're familiar with the YouTube homepage (where it displays videos in rows by topic) you can usually scroll down and find one of the cards a sort of colorful "Show me something different" card instead of a regular video card. I putzed around with YouTube for a bit and was unable to get it to come up but it's a pretty rare thing to see - it's possible it was a limited time feature trial but it also just might require a lot of weird actions to summon. I swear I have seen it before and it wasn't just a fever dream though!

professorsnep 4y ago

On the contrary, I'm a user of social media for exactly that purpose. When I use Twitter or Instagram, I'm specifically using it for the natural discoverability it offers. Almost half of the people I follow on Twitter are people I never would have known existed if I didn't see them pop up in my feed one day. It's why I can never get into stuff like Mastodon or Misskey with how they are today, it's extremely difficult to just naturally find people to follow.

marcinzm 4y ago

You're contradicting yourself I feel. As you said yourself users use the app more and don't churn for other apps which means they do find value in the feature. No company cares about what users feel or say but rather about what they do. The former is merely a proxy for the latter.