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Comment by fireflymetavrse | Hacker News Reader

Why can't it be fixed? Just remove algorithms and show only subscribed content in chronological order. That's how most of the early platforms worked and it was fine.

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Probably because there's no monetary incentive for that, so "can't". It would mean the big social media companies collapsing, because their entire raison d'etre at this point is mass-manipulation.

> It would mean the big social media companies collapsing

And what would be the downside of that? :D

They mention that chronological order increases the amplification of extreme content. They don't seem to have tested only subscribed content though.

That will fix barely anything. Early platforms were also bad, but they were new, filled with people still discovering things and trying out this new world, people who had more hope, a more positive view on the world, a better upbringing and experience from the offline-world. This is gone now and won't come back. The global village is settled, and it's burning.

> That's how most of the early platforms worked and it was fine.

This is also how Mastodon works today, and it is fine.

I think it really is that simple. Have a discovery channel, recommendations side bar, just stop trying to add "shareholder value" through flawed machine learning attempts. Maintain a useful piece of software, is it too much to ask an earnings-driven corp? Probably.

stop using it then.

Guess what...

I left FB around the time of Snowden leaks. And watched the others all go the same way. I only use them judiciously now for specific information. Even YouTube i have history off so I don't see a recommendations page and I just check my subs semi regularly.

So yeah. The web is better and less stressful that way. New generation perhaps doesn't even know it.

why do you treat it like absolute voodoo? its a website that shows you videos, with the same algorithm theyve been using for 20 years. its now only a problem since basically iOS came out and now every single clueless non technical person is on the internet and discovering decade old memes for the first time.

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