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Twitter Is Relaunching the Reverse-Chronological Feed (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the live-in-the-present dept.

Twitter is introducing a new toggle in the app to allow users to switch from the ranked timeline to the original, reverse-chronological feed. "The company says the move comes in recognition of the fact that Twitter is often most useful in real time, particularly during live events such as sports games or the Oscars," reports The Verge. From the report: The latest incarnation of the original Twitter feed can be accessed by tapping the cluster of small stars -- the company calls it the "sparkle" and now so shall we all, forever -- and switching to see the latest tweets. Over time, the company will learn your behavior. If you routinely switch to the latest tweets, Twitter will default you to them. This marks a change from the past, when the app would switch you back to the ranked timeline at unpredictable intervals.

4 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. Fed up! by deltaromeo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >> Over time, the company will learn your behavior. If you routinely switch to the latest tweets, Twitter will default you to them.

    I'm fed up of these algorithms trying to guess what I want. Just implement a setting and I will decide!

    1. Re:Fed up! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So the only way to make this the default setting is to manually switch to it a hundred times until eventually it sticks? Fucking lol.

      Also, the goal isn't to guess what you want, it's to *change* what you want by algorithmically manipulating what you see. For example you might not respond to constant, obtrusive "VOTE FOR ___" ads, but making Pro-___ users more visible to you than Anti-___ users will alter your own views long term. Forcing a chronological feed defeats this, and so will be made more difficult and eventually eliminated once the userbase can be conditioned to accept it.

  2. Get rid of it by ArchieBunker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I can make a sane argument that the world is better off without Twitter.

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
  3. Wildfire coverage by istartedi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The utility of chronological vs. their algorithm was very obvious when it came to wildfire coverage. In what world is a story from day 1 of an ongoing wildfire more relevant than anything from today when we're on day 4? Apparently, in the world of their algorithm.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?