Slashdot Mirror
Instagram's New Algorithm That Puts the Best Posts First Goes Live For All (instagram.com)
Instagram announced on Friday that it is rolling out its algorithmic feed around the world. The idea is, Facebook-owned photo and video platform says, users will see photos that they are likely to enjoy -- as opposed to seeing what people they follow have posted in reverse-chronological order. The algorithm uses machine learning to create a more personalized feed based on what it thinks you will enjoy more. TechCrunch reports: If you think that sounds a lot like parent company Facebook's News Feed algorithm, you'd be right. As Facebook came to understand long ago, the posts people want to see aren't necessarily those that are the newest. They're those that matter to you, personally. But since most of us aren't on our phones 24/7 -- hey, even the busiest people sleep for a few hours per night! -- we tend to miss posts from our favorite people. This is especially true if you're trying to keep up with friends in other time zones.
Slashdot's moderation system is another example of this we-think-we-know-what-you-want-to-see-but-we-really-have-no-fucking-idea-and-show-you-crap-you-don't-want-to-see philosophy at work.
That's why I have to browse at -1 all of the time. The most insightful comments are often at 0 or -1. A lot of the comments that are at 5 are inane, and sometimes just objectively flat out wrong. They only reason they're at 5 is because they say something that the moderators agree with, not because there's any inherent quality to them.
It's particularly pathetic when a really good comment is modded down just because it mentions systemd or points out some other problem with Linux, and some sensitive, thin-skinned moderators just can't accept it.
So Slashdot effectively shows me the most useless comments by default, and hides the most useful ones!
It totally defeats the purpose of having a moderation system in the first place when all it does is show shitty comments and hide the best ones.