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Comment by alkonaut | Hacker News Reader

> Hacker News is a site that presents data by algorithm

Does it though? I mean by "algorithm" in this context we mean "personalized algorithm meant to maximize engagement and retention".

Not e.g. "sort by upvotes and decay by time" or even "filter content based on coarse user location".

Does HN show me a different front page than everyone else based on which articles I have read or upvoted? That would make me feel worse about the site because I don't want a personalized HN feed I want to read what everyone else is reading (which is incidentally why I refuse to give up linear TV).

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> Does it though? I mean by "algorithm" in this context we mean "personalized algorithm meant to maximize engagement and retention".

I addressed that in the second half of my comment already.

But yes, HN qualifies as a site that displays by algorithm. If you mean personalized recommendation algorithm then it’s important to call that out. The last thing we want is regulation so broad that it catches every site that ranks things.

No one _ever_ even considers "algorithms" in the CS sense here (such as "sorting"), and even bringing that notion up would be deliberately dumbing down the discussion (yet it keeps happening in this thread over-and-over-again because people are for some reason very "well ackshually sorting is an algorithm").

"Algorithm" in this context is very clear what it is. It is not what the word means in Computer Science or in general. Just from the context and without any clarification needed "algorithms" in social media means "addictive personalized feeds".

I think we need a different word, so that Computer Science grads stop getting wrapped around this axle. We're obviously not talking about Quicksort when we're talking about social media algorithms and other recommendation/discovery algorithms. Heck if I know what that word would be.

Personalised algorithms.

Yes absolutely. Sadly I think that ship has sailed. Now if you ask 100 people in the street what "algorithms" are, I bet a majority among those who answer anything at all will answer it's something related to evil social media corporations.

We can call them crypto. Won't make any less sense than the current usages, and it's a really good indicator to stop listening.

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