Reddit Is Working on a New Front Page Algorithm

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/reddit-admits-its-front-page-is-broken-is-working-on-an-entirely-new-algorithm?try=2

by r721 • 11 years ago

36 40 11 years ago

motherboard.vice.com

I wonder if they could have an algorithm that changes based on the user - regardless of if they're logged in.

If someone (judged by ip address or cookies) often reloaded or came back every 20 minutes or so the front page could become more variable to provide new content.

smcl• 11 years ago

From what I understand getting to The Front Page of Reddit is pretty big deal for some folks (or so I can tell from some FB friends' screenshots\comments they've posted - it's not my thing). I suspect that changing it so everyone (or some) people see a different front page would diminish the prestige of that and maybe make Reddit less special for some people.

davis_m• 11 years ago

Everyone already sees a different front page, depending on which subreddits they are subscribed to. People generally mean making it to the front page of the default list of subreddits or the front page of /r/all.

drannex• 11 years ago

As someone who has been on the front page of Reddit multiple times, it's incredibly important for the person who manage the post, and for the community.

deong4• 11 years ago

I imagine there would be a significant backlash if it came out that reddit was explicitly acting on knowledge of a persistent profile of you that persisted across logging out or logging in on a throwaway account.

r721• 11 years ago

They could just make 45 000 (in this formula: http://amix.dk/blog/post/19588) a used-defined parameter, the formula basically means tenfold increase in score should be approximately during 45 000 seconds (12.5 hours) for submission to stay. Make it 4 hours for those who want a less stale front page or even 2 hours.

yummybear• 11 years ago

There are also an advantage to everyone having the same frontpage (r/all). A lot of what makes reddit reddit is the meta discussions relating to the frontpage.

anthrophuman• 11 years ago

why does reddit get so much press coverage now? a whole article talking about their front page? or is there just a lack of real news to cover

seren• 11 years ago

Reddit is a YC company, so it is discussed frequently on HN.

Someone1234• 11 years ago

There's also significant user overlap (or refugees from there).

Phlarp• 11 years ago

It's possible this is just a submarine after a few months of negative press. I have to imagine they hired a serious PR firm after all the drama over Ellen Pao and random firings.

jkoebler2• 11 years ago

Hey, I wrote this article. We cover the internet and internet culture—Reddit is a massive, massive website that has very real impacts on the media and on what the average internet user sees on a day to day basis. As a reddit user, I saw dozens of threads complaining about the front page algorithm, so I decided to look into it. I emailed Reddit and asked what the deal was, and their CEO wanted to talk about it. We write about Reddit maybe 2-3 times a month and this took me only a couple hours to write. Felt it was important.

Reddit has major problems with its community and racism and sexism and the like, but it's still a hugely influential website so changes to how it works is important

mahranch4• 11 years ago

Reddit has major problems with its community and racism and sexism and the like

Do they though? Reddit's getting 200 million unique views every single month. That's approaching youtube/facebook levels of traffic. Reddit isn't a small community anymore. It's a massive website that represents everyone from all walks of life.

For example, you don't hear people claiming that facebook or youtube has a problem with "racism and sexism". Why is that the case, even though it does have a problem with those things? Because people expect it there due the sheer size of those sites. Well, reddit isn't some small community website any more. It's nearly the size of google/youtube and is about to overtake twitter in traffic. I think it's time we stop treating it like some small time website and start treating it like the behemoth it has become.

billybilly19203• 11 years ago

"massive website that has very real impacts on the media "

Top stories as of now that have real impacts on the media: * This Lamborghini is hot * Funny Face book picture * My manager and I when the new intern showed up not wearing a bra * cat picture

pwython• 11 years ago

Its the 11th most popular website in the US (according to Alexa) that many people rely on for information and entertainment. When you're that big and make a mistake, the backlash becomes the entertainment.

thornofmight• 11 years ago

It's also a Vice article.

mahranch4• 11 years ago

why does reddit get so much press coverage now?

They're the 10th largest website in the U.S. I think the question should be; "Why does reddit see so little press coverage?"

billybilly19203• 11 years ago

If they would have converted the school shooting story to a funny gif or an image demeaning to women, I'm sure it would have trended to the top of reddit within seconds.

on_3• 11 years ago

Bit distasteful, no?

billybilly19203• 11 years ago

Go check the front page of reddit and get back to me.

ble• 11 years ago

The discussion in the article makes it seem like they are considering an adjustment for the fact that many users only view the front page, creating a somewhat artifactual disparity in votes received between front page and non-front page submissions.

Sounds like a plausible explanation, good intuition, and a good idea.

rip7472• 11 years ago

I imagine the main part of the algorithm will be:

weight = title.toLowerCase().indexOf("cat") < 0 ? 0 : 1000;

lfowles• 11 years ago

Isn't it written in python?

weight = 1000 if "cat" in title.lower() else 0

rip7472• 11 years ago

touche my friend :)

gipp• 11 years ago

Too many false positives. More like if re.search('\bcat\b')

Reddit Is Working on a New Front Page Algorithm

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