Why is the feed algorithm so horrendously bad on Lemmy? I keep seeing the same posts I had previously seen/interacted with, even if I refresh the feed. Is it because this platform has not enough users?
What algorithm? You can subscribe to whichever communities you want, and posts from them show up on your feed organized by whatever you pick. If you want to constantly see fresh content, view all communities and sort by new.
And if you view all and sort by new, thank you for your service 🫡
My block list is long, and I like it!
They mean “feed” but people always complain about algorithms determining what someone sees in their feed, that people now think algorithm = feed.
That’s a type of algorithm.
yeah, it’s annoying when people say that there are “no algorithms” here, since that’s not true. There should be a better way to distinguish sorting/visibility algorithms vs algorithms to drive engagement/outrage.
In the context of social media, it’s safe to say most people use the word “algorithm” to refer to the latter rather than the former. Sorting/visibility is technically an algorithm, but it’s transparent and can be controlled by the user.
Technically, but the algorithm consists of which communities you’re viewing and what order you sort posts. Generally when people talk about an “algorithm” in social media, they mean an opaque self-tuning selection process based on your usage patterns (and whoever is paying them the most). And Lemmy doesn’t have any of that.
If you’re selecting sort-by-new and you’re noticing problems with getting old posts mixed in, that would be a problem. But seeing the same posts when you’re viewing the same communities and sorting the same way isn’t a problem, it’s showing you what you asked for. Why blame the “algorithm”?
Sort by new/all, build your blocklist and enjoy. While this would never work for a popular platform, it works great for something as niche as Lemmy/piefed.
Lemmy ux isn’t focused on keeping you engaged all day. There are no ads to sell, no data to mine.
It’s a smaller platform. So there’s less on here if you’re used to Reddit/etc. Which algorithm are you using? Regardless, all the algorithms are simpler - nothing is going to track if you’ve seen/interacted with a post already. That’s some TikTok/YouTube thing.
My unsolicited advice is find some communities you care about, check in once or twice a day, and share a post of your own from time to time. Lemmy doesn’t do dopamine hits the same way corporation owned social media does.
Edit: also, welcome to Lemmy! It takes a minute to adjust, but I’ve been here for 4 years and I dig the vibes.
I don’t know if it’s exclusive to some clients, but on Mlem at least you can choose to hide/ show read posts. It works pretty well and prevents reading 5x the same thing.
It would be nice if the clients could group cross-posts or posts with the same URL, so that you don’t see duplicate content in the feed. Like right now with the posts regarding changes with Discord, there are 3 posts in the top 20 of my Hot feed, two of which that are cross-posted and another with the same press release URL. Everytime I cross post, I feel bad for people who follow both communities since i know i’m cluttering up their feed, so I do so sparingly, but there are other users who seem to be cross post happy.
PieFed can do this
Maybe you can reach out to your instance’s developers and ask them if it’s possible to implement this? Personally I haven’t had any issues with it
Edit:
Well I spoke too soon. But I believe it wasn’t even a cross post, the original poster just copied and pasted
not sure if its just a piefed thing but there is an option to not show posts you read or interacted with. you can also see posts you have read in your profile.
Voyager has this also on Lemme. Unfortunately not all apps handle this correctly.
The “algorithm” is entirely on how you sort shit. If you wsnna see fresh new shit all the time, you need to sort by New. Hot and Active are only going to show things that are highly upvoted (either in general or based on recent activity depending on which of those you use). New Comments will sort them like a forum so anything commented upon pushes the post to the top.
There is no complex algorithm, but community you follow, upvotes and time
Why not just sort by new if you want to see new things?
Sounds like your sort is not according to your tastes. Try top n-hour. Remember to actually subscribe to communities relevant to your interest, then you can use that feed to see things that are more relevant for you.
Lemmy doesn’t have an algorithm - it doesn’t have any particular content to force feed you in an attempt to keep you engaged. You’re not being shown what you might like, you have to select that yourself.
There’s not really an algorithm. Closest is sorting by Scaled or Top. The “algorithm” really just boils down to following communities you like and blocking communities and users you don’t like.
If you go into settings you can unset the “Show Read Posts” setting which will do what it says on the tin.
You can hide posts that you’ve already seen by turning off “Show Read Posts” in the settings.
I am using the “newest” sorting, “popularity” always shows the same posts
Try Top twelve hours or six hours.
thanks, good tip
I don’t think Lemmy tracks your views. So it can’t exclude them from your feed.
If you sort by hot or hop few hours, you should get more new posts. And stop refreshing the feed.
There is none, you just sort your feed and go
This post says a lot about how users interact with the web now. 15-20 years ago the question would have been “how do I change the feed ordering”. Now it’s “this sucks, it’s so bad”.
Welcome to what we used to have in the old internet friend, you have choice again. You can choose how you want to experience Lemmy, there is no one way being dictated to you.
