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Facebook Is Killing Off Trending As It Tries To Revamp Newsfeed (betanews.com)

Posted by msmash on from the good-riddance dept.

Mark Wilson writes: Facebook has announced plans to kill off the Trending feature of its newsfeed. The social network says that this is to "make way for future news experiences." Over the years, Facebook has experimented endlessly with the presentation of news, and has faced criticism for failing to weed out "fake news" and also accusations of liberal bias. Now the company wants to find new ways to help people find news that matters to them, ensuring that it comes from reliable sources.

55 comments

  1. Re:my DAMN balls are trending by BeauHD+br+ · · Score: 0

    trend:

    v: turn sharply; change direction abruptly; "The car cut to the left at the intersection"; "The motorbike veered to the right" [syn: swerve, sheer, curve, trend, veer, slue, slew, cut]

  2. News *EXPERIENCES* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did they misspell "fake"?

  3. Fuck Newsfeed and Fuck Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We don't WANT a newsfeed on Facebook. AT ALL. We want to find out what are friends are doing. WE DON'T GO TO FACEBOOK FOR NEWS!

    Just show us our friends posts, let us screen out the political garbage, and stop switching from Most Recent to "Top Stories" EVERY! FREAKING! TIME! we log on!

    Why is this so hard for Facebook to understand

    1. Re:Fuck Newsfeed and Fuck Facebook by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      I need to agree. Is is a shame you used an Anonymous Coward post, as this will not get moderated to a level it deserves.

      The reason why Facebook took over MySpace was due to its simplicity. Making things more and more complex. Makes using Facebook a chore vs. Something fun.

      I will get ads, most likely targeted based on what my friends and myself post. But that is expected from a free service. But news feeds, political stuff, and having to see over and over again one of my friends popular post, where I am more interested in what is happening with my more boring friend.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re:Fuck Newsfeed and Fuck Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think that's called Google Plus.

    3. Re:Fuck Newsfeed and Fuck Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ... let us screen out the political garbage, ...

      Yeah, right. Political garbage took off because people kept sharing it and re-posting it.

      Political garbage took off because people like just hearing what they want to hear. They want to live in their little bubbles and feel that they are right about everything.

      It's emotionally painful to see and accept the truth when it runs against one's world view that they are attached to. And very few people are willing to challenge their own beliefs.

      So, fb ending news feed won't do a goddamn bit of difference.

    4. Re:Fuck Newsfeed and Fuck Facebook by rikkards · · Score: 1

      I have no issue per se for Ad based service, I DO have issue with seeing ads I have already marked as not relevant or not interested already.

    5. Re:Fuck Newsfeed and Fuck Facebook by MobyDisk · · Score: 4, Informative

      While I agree, the problem is that lots and lots of people *do* go to Facebook for news. And the people who use Facebook for news, are the least discerning news readers, so they share the stupidest most flamebaitish "fake" news, which causes a recursive singularity of stupidity, and is why Facebook is in so much trouble. But since sooo many people like to log in and share news, and that gets them so much attention and ad revenue, they aren't going to take that feature away.

    6. Re:Fuck Newsfeed and Fuck Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If you don't understand why Facebag is pushing propaganda

      But Zuck didn't want us to elect a Cheeto. The stuff Facebook likes is American left-wing.
      The stuff that allegedly got us in this mess flew right under their radar due to money and the Al Gore Rhythm.

    7. Re:Fuck Newsfeed and Fuck Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      WE DON'T GO TO FACEBOOK FOR NEWS!

      I think you're confused about what the Facebook Newsfeed originally did. It started out showing you what was new that your friends had posted. i.e. "what [our] friends are doing". Then friends started posting mainstream-news items and they became liked/shared so much that Facebook thought everyone wanted to see them. That's where the problem started. Eventually, FB set up a system where people could pay cash to have their ads labeled as "trending on facebook", so you weren't even seeing the trends amongst your friends any more, nor Facebook as a whole, but instead whoever had a pile of money and a meme.

    8. Re:Fuck Newsfeed and Fuck Facebook by sconeu · · Score: 2

      Thank you!!!!

      Facebook should be embarrassed that the need for FB Purity exists

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    9. Re:Fuck Newsfeed and Fuck Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Their "most recent" code doesn't work anyway.. reverse sorting by date is easy for most programmers, just not those who work at Facebook

    10. Re:Fuck Newsfeed and Fuck Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you don't understand why Facebag is pushing propaganda

      But Zuck didn't want us to elect a Cheeto. The stuff Facebook likes is American left-wing.
      The stuff that allegedly got us in this mess flew right under their radar due to money and the Al Gore Rhythm.

      FB was used like the tool that it is.
      FB didn't care where the money and influence came from.
      Their "American left-wing" principles get "trumped" by money and power every time.

    11. Re:Fuck Newsfeed and Fuck Facebook by DaFallus · · Score: 1

      and stop switching from Most Recent to "Top Stories" EVERY! FREAKING! TIME! we log on!

      To me, this is one of the most irritating aspects of actually trying to use Facebook. Every single time you view your feed it is something different. Good luck going back and finding something a friend of yours "liked".

      --
      No one cares what your captcha was

      Houston TX, USA
    12. Re:Fuck Newsfeed and Fuck Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Check out Facebook Purity Project.

      I set mine to always set date order, I removed most of the garbage around the edges. I removed the games. I removed shares.

      Now it's just my close family and friends and what they are doing in their lives. It's still facebook so don't expect miracles but I can just browse through it once a day in 2-3 minutes. It's great since I live 300 miles from most of my family.

    13. Re:Fuck Newsfeed and Fuck Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But Zuck didn't want us to elect a Cheeto. The stuff Facebook likes is American left-wing.

      I see you still believe in the Left vs Right bullshit. You're a slave to that low level false illusion of choice, PSYOP? How mundane.

    14. Re:Fuck Newsfeed and Fuck Facebook by jrumney · · Score: 1

      In case it wasn't clear to any Facebook employees reading, see this story from earlier in the week, and some of your predecessors that have gone this route before. You are living in a bubble - please raise the alarm to the others in there with you before it pops.

    15. Re:Fuck Newsfeed and Fuck Facebook by corbettw · · Score: 2

      having to see over and over again one of my friends popular post, where I am more interested in what is happening with my more boring friend.

      This is one of the things that eventually forced me to shutdown Facebook for good. I got sick and tired of seeing the same posts over and over. Then I'd switch from "most popular" to "newest", and what do know? There were tons of posts that I never saw because Facebook declined to include them in my feed.

      Just let me see what I want to see, not what you think I should see.

      --
      God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
    16. Re:Fuck Newsfeed and Fuck Facebook by Stinky+Cheese+Man · · Score: 1

      You can show Most Recent all the time by bookmarking https://www.facebook.com/?sk=h_chr

    17. Re:Fuck Newsfeed and Fuck Facebook by jtgd · · Score: 1

      Not only do I want to see things chronologically, I want it in FORWARD chronological order, not BACKWARDS chronological order. It only makes sense to see things in the order they are posted. I want to see everything exactly ONCE, and I don't want to miss anything, so I'd like to pick up where I left off and progress towards the present. But no, they make ME try to remember if I read something when I get to it. Isn't remembering things like that what computers are supposed to do for us? I guess what I really want is a frickin RSS feed, but I'm sure there's no hope for that.

      --
      J
    18. Re:Fuck Newsfeed and Fuck Facebook by ayesnymous · · Score: 1

      That's why I created a list and put all my friends in it. I just go to the list and it shows all my friends' posts in chronological order.

  4. Making sure only state sponsored "News" shows. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird
    What you think you see on the "News"
    What The "News" Actually does to you

    Yes the USA are the same as Russia.

  5. corepirate nazi race to use violent words by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the 'language' is completely abusable for almost any caucasian, machine, psychopath... cease fire stand down.. all this scriptdead bullonly fairytail fanthefirefair conquerish aggression is the result of centuries of abuse by psychotic inbred crown royals & religion peddlers.. the moms of the nile would have all that mass deception cleared up in a matter of weeks... thanks again

  6. I can hardly wait for my by oldgraybeard · · Score: 0

    "future news experiences." oh wait, I don't have a Facebook account. Guess I wil just settle for real news the old fashioned way.

    Just my 2 cents ;)

    1. Re:I can hardly wait for my by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://www.breitbart.com/ ?

    2. Re:I can hardly wait for my by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      "Which ad experience would you prefer?"

      I will put the window in the background and go do something else until it times out is what I prefer, along with the death of people who think up abominations like that.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    3. Re:I can hardly wait for my by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1

      If a company is trying to sell you on an “experience”, you can be sure that you are getting raped somehow. The only question is in which orifice...

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  7. Balanced or liked by Camarillo+Brillo · · Score: 2

    If we the people only get fed news that only appeals to us, how are we supposed to weigh out the issues of the day. Myopic insight only lead to self satisfied conclusions. Its sort of like only taking right hand turns and being bewildered why you only go in circles.

    1. Re:Balanced or liked by Train0987 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You confuse "news" with editorial opinion. Facts don't appeal to any one group over another. Some of us just want straight facts so we can form our own opinions. The media and these social media monopolies are trying to control opinion by disguising their agendas as fact.

    2. Re:Balanced or liked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      More insidious is the cherry-picking of facts. My daughter did a science fair project on fake news this week, and she watched ten hours each of MSNBC and Fox News. Both stations generally presented facts even though Fox did a lot of editorialization/option pieces, but they were clearly presented as such. The problem was that there was very little overlap on the facts they presented.

      A good example was Trey Gowdy's recent statement:

      “I am even more convinced that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do...President Trump himself – in the Comey memos – said, if anyone connected with my campaign was working with Russia, I want you to investigate it...He[Trump] was never the target – Russia was the target.”

      MSNBC (and ABC that I watched) only mentioned the first part that the FBI did what they should. Fox News only covered the last part which is Trump was never the target. No one covered the important middle part that was that Trump himself asked for an investigation. That looks good for Trump, but everyone ignored that.

    3. Re:Balanced or liked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Facts don't appeal to any one group over another.

      Not true. https://www.amazon.com/How-Lie-Statistics-Darrell-Huff/dp/0393310728/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527882398&sr=8-1&keywords=how+to+lie+with+statistics

    4. Re:Balanced or liked by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      Some of us just want straight facts so we can form our own opinions.

      Not possible. "The straight facts" is too much data for one person to assimilate. They must be filtered to produce something you can conceivably finish. So who do you want filtering your facts, since they must be filtered?

  8. Myspace, AOL, Facebook by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    Fall out of favor with the younger generation, and they move on to something else. If you don't use a blocker on FB, you get bombed with garbage in your "news feed" I just use uBlock to create block scripts and block all the garbage. Kids & ADVERTISERS will shift to instagram, snapchat or whatever is "hip and trendy" with the kids, because to advertisers, THAT is where the money is.

    1. Re:Myspace, AOL, Facebook by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

      ^^^ This. Might as well call it "mombook". Everyone else but constantly bitter people left a long time ago. (Kids too - no one wants their mom to see what they're really up to.)

  9. They still couldn't control the narrative by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 2

    Facebook and other Tech companies want to control the narrative. Once you control the narrative, you control the people.

    The problem is, that once you start issuing controls on the narrative, it becomes easier to spot those controls, and even circumvent them. That is part of the reason why Facebook is starting its downward trend. People, even ones that might like the narrative, don't want to be spoon fed preprocessed baby food news.

    --
    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    1. Re:They still couldn't control the narrative by Train0987 · · Score: 1

      You just described Slashdot's collapse.

    2. Re:They still couldn't control the narrative by syn3rg · · Score: 1

      I agree. Also, who decides what is reliable?
      "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"?

      --
      The contents of this message have been doubly encrypted by ROT13
    3. Re:They still couldn't control the narrative by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      I can decide what is reliable for my own world view. You may differ on that, as I may differ with your views. But I don't want to control what you decide for yourself. I'd rather be open and influence you, but control? Nahhh

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    4. Re:They still couldn't control the narrative by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Influence is just control without acceptance of responsibility.

    5. Re:They still couldn't control the narrative by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can decide what is reliable for my own worldview. You may differ on that, as I may differ with your views. But I don't want to control what you decide for yourself. I'd rather be open and influence you, but control? Nahhh

      And here is the fundamental problem we're facing. Your personal worldview is not how the reliability of information is decided. Ever. Under any circumstance Nor is mine, for that matter. If your worldview is that vaccinations cause autism (not saying it is) and you choose to act on that it directly affects everyone who doesn't believe that. If your worldview is that of a creationist that is a problem too. I was just told how there are closed-door meetings of all these scientists where they talk about how xyz can't be explained by evolution, that evolution is wrong and that none of this information is widely released because the scientific community is suppressing it. Of course, that's absurd and spits directly in the face of anything but junk science to people with a factual, knowledgeable worldview but if your worldview says god created everything with a plan then you might very well consider it a reliable source. This person did. You'd probably consider the bible a reliable source even though it can be definitely proven as anything but.

      So the bottom line is you CAN'T decide what's reliable based on your worldview. That is the very definition of bias. The fact that you otherwise come across as reasonably intelligent and don't understand that is truly terrifying. This is the exact thing that's going to end the world. No hyperbole there. Individuals deciding what is reliable based on their worldview instead of logic, reason, facts, history, etc is leading to moronic choices with real-world consequences. I absolutely cannot wait for the next smallpox or polio epidemic. We need some serious consequences for the decades of stupidity we've been spewing.

  10. Facebook's challenge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No reliable sources in this age.

  11. I would not trust Facebook by FudRucker · · Score: 1

    Facebook is trying to rebuild their respect after the big debacle about the fake news, and other crap, but i think they are incapable of being trustworthy, as soon as the next election draws near they are going to ramp up the bias and mud slinging and all the other dirty shenanigans that go with US politics, you facebook members are a product to be used for profits thats all you are to facebook, and thats all you will ever be to facebook

    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
    1. Re:I would not trust Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When the Zuck runs for president, they'll also be a built-in vote base.

      Holy hell! captcha: unbiased

    2. Re:I would not trust Facebook by jrumney · · Score: 1

      I always thought the fake news debacle was about the viral crap that friends share. I didn't know they had started posting actual news stories to the feed. My feed was always set to "Most Recent" since they introduce the rubbish "Top Stories" feed that shows me everything I don't want to see and nothing I do want. But lately they keep switching the feed to "Top Stories" if I log in on a PC, so I see a handful of my friends posts followed by an endless scroll of news stories. For now, the mobile web interface is still usable, but if that goes, I'm outta there.

      But with Google News's recent slip into showing only crappy local news and removing most of the options for customizing the feed, I can see why Facebook thought there was an opportunity. Even the "world" section now shows only stories about the country where I am's interaction with the outside world for me - it reminds me of when I'm in the US and getting free copies of "US Today" in my hotel.

  12. There is no truth in news by RandomFactor · · Score: 1

    Trending could be useful in its own right if they just wouldn't screw with it. Sadly curating is all the rage with FaceTwitTube.

    --
    --- Mercutio was right.
  13. In related news ... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

    News of Facebook not trending now trending - except on Facebook, where trending is not trending.

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  14. "Future News Experiences" by ausekilis · · Score: 1

    Holy crap! They're gonna predict the future!

    I estimate:
    Another 2-3 days before some other inane Apple news
    1 for Microsoft
    4 for Tesla
    Tomorrow will have another Trump tale, within another few months there will be another Kardashian in the White House. Likely with a reality show, "Keeping up with Celebrity Apprentice, YOU'RE FIRED Edition"
      it's gonna be another 2 weeks before another mass shooting (at current 2018 rate)

  15. Re:Facebook is for cows. by SirCowMan · · Score: 1

    moo!

    --
    !Equality through palindromes semordnilap hguorht ytilauqE!
  16. Easy fix by sixsixtysix · · Score: 1

    Just leave "Most Recent" as default ffs.

    --
    ...