3 ms·
I remember years ago someone talking about the idea of "open algorithms" in the sense that for any given platform the sort algorithm itself could theoretically
by crystal_revenge 2y ago
I remember years ago someone talking about the idea of "open algorithms" in the sense that for any given platform the sort algorithm itself could theoretically be made available for users to submit and share their own custom sorting implementations. A company could just release some DSL of config setup that would make it possible to tweak your own feed. Even if this was tricky, you can image users that were more technical creating algorithms that other users could apply.
I understand why this never happened (algorithms are, after all, optimized to the benefit of the company, not the user), but still it's a shame that this was never explored (at least not to my knowledge).
- martythemaniak 2y agoBluesky is pretty much that?
- crabmusket 2y agoYes and no. One of Bluesky's goals was enabling custom feeds, and they're definitely working on the app. I really enjoy the Quiet Posters feed. On the other hand, making a custom feed involves hosting your own server, not writing config in Bluesky itself: https://docs.bsky.app/docs/starter-templates/custom-feeds https://docs.bsky.app/docs/starter-templates/custom-feeds
- corytheboyd 2y agoI think the whole custom sort DSL is swinging the pendulum back a bit too hard. People just want a deterministic sort, with no injected ads or hate-bait, from exactly the people they follow, with the ability to apply basic filters on top of that. You know, the old default, the one that was designed to be useful, not to extract maximum ad dollars from people’s eyeballs with vacuum tubes.