Hacker News Reader

I like TikTok, I think that algorithm is toxic and that "better" currently means "more toxic". My simple ask is that I wish we could control it a little better. It sends you down a tree, but I wish we could zoom out, visualize the tree and just pick a different branch to go down.

View on HN

They’re not going to do that because they don’t want you going down a different branch that will lead to lower engagement metrics for them.

The product/feature you're describing will never be implemented in their spyware.

What incentive do they have to satisfy this feature request?

Imagine there was a competitor which did have this feature.

And users appreciated it, and used it to discover more content that they were more interested in.

Preventing that happening would be a good reason to implement it. Don't wait for someone else to implement something users like...

Those platforms already exist though.

TikTok's differentiating feature is that it ruthlessly serves up algorithmic content so it can collect data on the result of that interaction and iterate.

Feels like you're fundamentally breaking it if you remove that.

The sad fact of the matter is that you are wrong. People do not want that. No matter what their words say, their actions is what bring in the revenue

Reply on news.ycombinator.com