Facebook To Demote Posts That Ask For 'Likes' Or Shares (recode.net) 85
Facebook is cracking down on a new type of clickbait: Posts that ask people to "Like" or share or comment to goose engagement numbers, what Facebook is calling "engagement bait." Their solution?
Demote the posts considered to be "engagement bait." Recode reports: Facebook has decided it doesn't like publishers gaming the system this way, and claims users don't like it either."People have told us that they dislike spammy posts on Facebook that goad them into interacting with likes, shares, comments, and other actions," the company wrote on its blog. So starting Monday, posts that Facebook considers to be engagement bait will be pushed down in News Feed. Beginning in a few weeks, publishers and Pages that continue to utilize this tactic will see their reach diminished for all of their posts.
Awesome!!! (Score:4, Interesting)
But that didn't stop those posts from annoying me.
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Youtube needs to follow suit and demonetize any video that asks viewers to "like and subscribe" or "smash that like button."
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The right place to ask is at the end of the video, or a text box that comes up after the video ends.
The wrong tone is to whimper "please subscribe, or kittens will die, and Pinocchio will never turn into a real boy".
The right use of the "dislike" button is any video that basically tells you how you're going to feel before you get there, e.g. "Hitchens demolishes $some_religious_faggot".
(Yes, I wrote that sentence to court some heavy dislike action.)
The right use of the "despise" button is any video that doe
Re: Awesome!!! (Score:1)
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If I like someone it kinda reminds me that I can help them make more content if I do a small part to promote them. But fuck it, it's far down the list of things that have been ruined for the rest of us by a few jerks.
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Nah let's burn it down. Sorry to the small number of people who manage to remind people to share without being obnoxious. They're well in the minority in general and there are at least 2 supreme jerks for every one of them.
Re:YouTube (Score:1)
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you mean get rid of ryan's toy reviews and all the stupid crap like adults reviewing kids toys? god i just want to beat those millionaires senseless.
FTFY.
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Will they really do it? (Score:1)
Is it only going to extend to explicit like requests?
What about "You won't believe what happened next" and "and what happened next broke the internet," etc...
^ Great Post! (Score:1)
Go to hell (Score:2)
You're going to hell for not giving jesus the amens that he needs for our troops.
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Like share and subscribe is like oral anal and three some.
You don't get it cos you asked, you get it cos I want it. Asking just means you don't think this will work out that way. And it may not most like at this point.
I never subscribe. Youtube shows me the next episode regardless.
Think of the puppies! (Score:1)
Down-vote this comment if you hate puppies and children!
Re:Think of the puppies! (Score:4, Funny)
[ ] See less of these kinds of posts.
[ ] Block this user
[ ] Set this user on fire
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Down-vote this comment if you hate puppies and children!
As a matter of fact, I do hate both: puppies are a larval form of an ugly yapping creature that might be a danger for a member of the Master Species caught away from a fence/tree -- and seeing what's happening to my brother and sister, I in no way want to get twenty years with no sleep or quiet.
But, I can't both down-mod (per your request) and up-mod ("funny") the same post.
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Oh yeah, I forgot how they really go;
Mod up this if you love puppies, Mod down if you hate puppies, ignore this if you hate yourself.
93% of people will ignore this post.
Do they know what they're doing? (Score:2)
I've already had Facebook posts where I included a link marked as Spam. One of them was Ben Thompson's excellent Stratechery article on Net Neutrality, to a thread discussing Net Neutrality. Maybe I said something offensive like "This article is worth reading."
Maybe they have some other content filters active and they're not properly tuned. Or maybe they're doing 'semantic editing' and marking stuff as Spam if it meets some other threshold, including "we at FB don't like this post's content".
Hanlon's Raz
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Hanlon's Razor -probably- apples, but I'm not 100% sure of that. Nothing Facebook or Google does surprises me any more.
Certainly apples.
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This is the exact definition of one of Taleb's long-tailed distributions: in which having avoiding finding myself in this particular pickle (by never signing up in the first place) gives me such massive glee as to outweigh the entire aggregate cost to
Re: Do they know what they're doing? (Score:2)
Cute idea, but think about it for a second. Having your friends overrule a decision by Facebook? Really? You've just given actual spammers a free pass to do what they like. Half of the spam accounts are already bots; all they have to do is friend each other and they automatically win every challenge.
"new types"? (Score:2)
This has been going on in social media for years!
They're essentially the bastard butt-babies of chain letters.
"engagement bait"=="attention whoring" (Score:2)
Also, how about you all 'downvote' Facebook and social media in general? It's nothing but cancer.
FBshould demote posts that ask you to share... (Score:4, Funny)
Share this comment if you agree!!!
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Type AMEN if you agree and support our editors!!!
Everybody says this article about downvoting clickbait won't get 10K likes. Let's prove them wrong!
Ten reasons to avoid clickbait. Number 7 will BLOW YOU AWAY.
It's a common problem (Score:1)
I'd estimate about 1/10th of the fake accounts do that right off the bat, and use such shared Likes/Follows to increase their non-bot appearance.
And while we are at it... (Score:3)
How about these: "Copy and paste this. DO NOT SHARE"
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WTF is that even about? Trying to avoid Facebook's monetization strategy by creating a 'new' post instead of a share they can track and throttle?
Also; Chrome says demonetization is a word, but suggests monetization is a spelling error. Seems about right.
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Yeah, I expect that a warning "DO NOT SHARE" would actually trigger many of the contrarians on this site.
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I doubt it.
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How about these: "Copy and paste this. DO NOT SHARE"
Defeats the purpose.
Clickbait and scammers... erm... I mean legitimate marketing companies are using shares and likes these to track their ads and the users who click on them in order to target them with more malware... erm I mean perfectly harmless advertising.
oh yea... that makes sense (Score:2)
That must be why the "like" them so much. Users "hate" them. Damn. Even their solution sounds like click bait.
I couldn't agree more (Score:2)
They don't see the irony? (Score:2)
Filled niches (Score:2)
Wait, how will Jesus know how much I want those little kids to eat or have Christmas?
Facebook is obviously a godless heathen!
Chain letters (Score:2)
are damaging to the medium in which they are promoted. That's why they're illegal in postal mail.
Granted, damaging Facebook is like damaging the titanium spork [google.com] you've stabbed yourself in the testicles with.
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Chain letters are illegal because the postal system is communist and communists hate free speech. This is why the founding fathers promoted UPS and fedex in the advertising section of the constitution.
Maybe it's just me but (Score:4, Interesting)
isn't the whole " like " thing the unwritten reason anyone even posts on Facebook ?
I'm certainly no psychologist, but it seems to me that the only reason anyone ( who isn't trolling ) would post on Facebook at all is for the positive feedback it provides via the " like " mechanism. That's kind of the reason for the " like " button to begin with. It makes folks feel good about themselves. Happy users are loyal users who will keep coming back and spilling every detail about their life for Facebook and the data vacuum it hides.
Perhaps I speak in error and the " likes " aren't the reward mechanism I think it is.
We could ask Zuckerberg, but I doubt he would be in a divulgatory mood on the matter.
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Some people post on Facebook to communicate to friends and family.
That's the only reason I'm on Facebook. I hate Facebook with a white-hot hatred, but it's the best way to keep in contact with a lot of people I want to keep in contact with, and has enabled me to get back in contact with some old friends I'd lost contact with.
I still hate Facebook.
I just want filters. FILTERS, dang it! I want to absolutely block any posting that matches patterns that I select. When I block a source of garbage, I want any mention of it BLOCKED, no matter how deeply nested in shares of s
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Most people post on facebook to keep up with family. I used to like arguing with folks there because it made me feel like a regular Einstein but now it just makes me feel dumb because I know there is a good chance they're just shills.
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You answered your own question as you asked it. It's "unwritten".
The thing is Facebook's algorithms promote things that are popular (i.e. liked by many, commented on by many, and shared by many).
This is nothing more than a battle against spam, not an attack on the fundamental reason people use Facebook.
If you disagree with this post: Comment
If you agree with this post: Share!
^^^ The kind of shit that it common in Facebook.
App Rating (Score:2)
Is it just me, or do some apps ask you how you like their software, and then only forward you to the App Store for an "official" vote if you select a high rating?
Knee-jerk reaction.. (Score:5, Insightful)
"My kid/pet/grandparent is missing, please share" [algorithm downvotes]
"Please share this link to find your local voting station" [algorithm downvotes]
"Evacuation order in place, please share and get out" [algorithm downvotes]
Etc..
Here's a better idea: an option to reduce content from people you downvote yourself, so you can more easily ignore those who do spam a million things a day, and not miss anything that's important and should be shared.
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If you think it's knee-jerk then you clearly don't use Facebook much. This spam is incredibly irritating.
While you're at it:
"My kid/pet/grandparent is missing, please share" [algorithm downvotes] - has never solved an issue ever.
"Please share this link to find your local voting station" [algorithm downvotes] - if you can't find you local voting station without a friend sharing you a link then you are probably too dumb to vote anyway.
"Evacuation order in place, please share and get out" [algorithm downvotes]
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FWIW a local lost puppy was found a couple weeks ago in part due to help searching from shared FB posts. So you're flat-out wrong there. I've seen other instances where news stations put out the word and people share posts for lost seniors and kids. It has been legitimately helpful.
Given the low voter rates in countries like the US, maybe they do need help. Not sure if your attitude is helping.
Maybe people aren't aware of their local emergency services - so shared posts help raise awareness of their existen
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BTW, love your solutions-oriented approach to things. The world is truly a better place with your contributions, thanks for being such a winner!
Yep blocking horrendous garbage spam from a news feed at the expense of a lost puppy really has made the world a truly better place. I'm glad you're on board.
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FWIW a local lost puppy was found a couple weeks ago in part due to help searching from shared FB posts.
This happens from time to time, but I think a different service like nextdoor.com is a better venue for that sort of thing. One of my friends posts a lot of lost/found puppy/kitten alerts -- but she lives 3000 miles away from me. I want to see her family/friends posts, but lost puppies on the opposite coast? Not so much.
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Okay, then maybe a 'nearby only' option for filtering? And yes, just about anything is better than FB, but the fact of the matter is that it's still the main go-to for many, and I still think this response from FB is wrong-headed. (And I'm not really a user, haven't checked my own 'timeline' in months, and haven't checked it regularly for half a decade now after they started changing the order away from chronological and making other 'selections' for me.)
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What do you mean by down vote?
I dont use facebook and even I know theres no down-vote button. Mostly because its negative and negativity cause people to visit such sites less often (psychology).which means less money for douche-face... I mean Mark Zuckerberg.
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According to the article Facebook will essentially downvote any post requesting 'shares'. It's not a literal downvote, but those posts will be effectively muted to some degree.
Yes, this is public enemy number 1 (Score:2)
Yes, this is clearly the number one demon facing the internet, once facebook has protected us from this scourge we will all be able to rest easy again. Thank you for saving the internet facebook.
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Yes, this is clearly the number one demon facing the internet, once facebook has protected us from this scourge we will all be able to rest easy again. Thank you for saving the internet facebook.
Yes, god forbid that people make improvements to non-critical things, eh? Puts me in mind of this comic [smbc-comics.com].
Well I..... (Score:1)
Suddenly dilemma: (Score:2)
New? Since when? (Score:2)
Those type of scummy posts have been around since Facebook first launched. They never did anything about them since stupid people (women mostly) would constantly click and reply to them resulting in some "engagement" with Facebook that kept their eyeballs on ads.