Correct. I am specifically referring to gatekeeping by the platform under the veil of "curation" where certain authors or articles are artificially surfaced based on arbitrary metrics. Anything that comes between me and the author of the work is unnecessary.
If it were yours to do, how would you encourage discovery without using curation as a starting point?
(Are you on Tumblr, btw? The pinnacle of social media that, at least historically, has one of the least top-down curated social experiences on the planet? ;-) )
I think taking people you follow and posts you like or restack as a starting point can lead to good results. I'm just not sure why some algorithms do a good job of this and some don't. For example, Spotify pretty consistently suggests music that I like by musicians I've often never heard of, while Netflix is more like "You gave a thumbs-up to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so we thought you might like High School Hot Tub."
I follow my own curiosity for discovery. Depending on the topic, I like to have free rein on how shallow or how deep I want to go. But if as a hypothetical my job description required me to contaminate the pool, I would start by putting a handicap on reach to make sure the playing field is equalized and everyone gets a fair shot. Then, I would employ a community based up/down voting system to determine what stays on top.
Yeah the handicap is key to ensure the oxygen isn't constantly sucked out of the room by the ones with the most followers. This becomes increasingly important as the platform matures and the gap between those who've been at it for a while and those who are just starting out widens.
As far as curiosity, my life mostly revolves around travel, so I usually pursue things that are informed by my interactions with others and IRL experiences. I am fascinated by exploring how others live and typically spend a lot of time talking to others. My life online is merely an extension of that.
I think Reddit though not perfect, has found a decent balance when it comes to up/down voting. The community in most subs is also very good at calling out others that are blatantly trying to horde attention.
I'm thinking on a totally practical level here: how do you discover online? For example, is it mainly through Google search, Reddit recommendations, links through publications you already enjoy... or other discovery methods?
So the up/down vote is monitored by the community, it sounds like? I'm curious if this happens at scale. (In other words, does Reddit use it to bring content upwards to a larger audience? Or does the up/down vote stay within a sub-Reddit and go no further as a form of influence? (For that matter, does the up/down vote influence discovery, or doesn't it? I'm not a Reddit user, thus am curious to hear from someone who is :)
I have not used Google for anything other than VERY basic tasks in many years. Things like directions, recipes and other similar straight forward queries I find still yield fairly good results. For topics of interest I go exclusively to UGC interest based groups where I can interact with real humans. Discord, Facebook Groups, Reddit and on some topics old school Forums are still great places to discover and have real conversations with others.
The up/down voting system on Reddit is limited to the sub for the most part, but certain subs will surface on the main page as they blow up in popularity. But most importantly, if you want to consume Reddit in it's original linear layout, you can always go to https://old.reddit.com and take it back to 2007.
Very much so. There are great authors from all walks of life here, yet there seems to be a not so subtle bias towards the low hanging fruit that can bring in the most revenue with the least amount of effort. The paragraph I quoted above just reeked of this in between the lines.
Can you say more about why you are against curation of any kind?
(Thinking: the best writing is, itself, a kind of skillful curation.)
Correct. I am specifically referring to gatekeeping by the platform under the veil of "curation" where certain authors or articles are artificially surfaced based on arbitrary metrics. Anything that comes between me and the author of the work is unnecessary.
If it were yours to do, how would you encourage discovery without using curation as a starting point?
(Are you on Tumblr, btw? The pinnacle of social media that, at least historically, has one of the least top-down curated social experiences on the planet? ;-) )
I think taking people you follow and posts you like or restack as a starting point can lead to good results. I'm just not sure why some algorithms do a good job of this and some don't. For example, Spotify pretty consistently suggests music that I like by musicians I've often never heard of, while Netflix is more like "You gave a thumbs-up to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so we thought you might like High School Hot Tub."
ha! :)
Ohhh, yes. I agree on Spotify. I wonder how their algorithm works.
I follow my own curiosity for discovery. Depending on the topic, I like to have free rein on how shallow or how deep I want to go. But if as a hypothetical my job description required me to contaminate the pool, I would start by putting a handicap on reach to make sure the playing field is equalized and everyone gets a fair shot. Then, I would employ a community based up/down voting system to determine what stays on top.
Fascinating idea about the handicap. Wondering about the implications of that.
Two more questions :) ...
тАв Where do you mainly find the means to follow your curiosity?
тАв Have you seen a community-based up/down voting system that works and isn't heavily gamed by users who want more attention?
Yeah the handicap is key to ensure the oxygen isn't constantly sucked out of the room by the ones with the most followers. This becomes increasingly important as the platform matures and the gap between those who've been at it for a while and those who are just starting out widens.
As far as curiosity, my life mostly revolves around travel, so I usually pursue things that are informed by my interactions with others and IRL experiences. I am fascinated by exploring how others live and typically spend a lot of time talking to others. My life online is merely an extension of that.
I think Reddit though not perfect, has found a decent balance when it comes to up/down voting. The community in most subs is also very good at calling out others that are blatantly trying to horde attention.
Love that, about the travel. :)
I'm thinking on a totally practical level here: how do you discover online? For example, is it mainly through Google search, Reddit recommendations, links through publications you already enjoy... or other discovery methods?
So the up/down vote is monitored by the community, it sounds like? I'm curious if this happens at scale. (In other words, does Reddit use it to bring content upwards to a larger audience? Or does the up/down vote stay within a sub-Reddit and go no further as a form of influence? (For that matter, does the up/down vote influence discovery, or doesn't it? I'm not a Reddit user, thus am curious to hear from someone who is :)
I have not used Google for anything other than VERY basic tasks in many years. Things like directions, recipes and other similar straight forward queries I find still yield fairly good results. For topics of interest I go exclusively to UGC interest based groups where I can interact with real humans. Discord, Facebook Groups, Reddit and on some topics old school Forums are still great places to discover and have real conversations with others.
The up/down voting system on Reddit is limited to the sub for the most part, but certain subs will surface on the main page as they blow up in popularity. But most importantly, if you want to consume Reddit in it's original linear layout, you can always go to https://old.reddit.com and take it back to 2007.
Very much so. There are great authors from all walks of life here, yet there seems to be a not so subtle bias towards the low hanging fruit that can bring in the most revenue with the least amount of effort. The paragraph I quoted above just reeked of this in between the lines.