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That’s a bingo. Any “trending” algorithm is designed to get you to click on it. It’s not a source of accurate information.
It’s the same with search results. You’re searching for X? Here’s something X-adjacent we’ve been paid to show you that you might click on while looking for X. We’re going to call it “what others buy” and hope you do, too.
It really bothers me because I want to buy actual good quality stuff but I have no idea how to find it because I don’t trust any reviews or anything on search engines at all really.
This is one of the big things that killed Amazon for me. They used to have a great search and filter function that was designed to make it as easy as possible to find what you were looking for. Now it’s designed to find things that are related to your search and ignore your filters when sellers pay them to promote their product. Combined with the fake reviews and the ocean of low quality trash that fills 95% of their inventory, it’s now actually easier to drive to a store and search shelves manually than it is to sit and click.
And don’t get me started on AI generated “reviews” that are just reworded marketing material with affiliate links. It used to be that google could get you some relatively reliable sources, but most of those have long since replaced real reviews with this bullshit. At this point, I just assume every review is a lie unless I see a video of a human testing the product while taking about it.
I honestly think that anyone who is making money by misleading consumers with product reviews that aren’t actually based on some interaction with the product should be in prison for fraud.
Top 7 “All” of all time on Lemmy, as seen by my instance:
None younger than 10 months old, on a platform largely only about 12 months old in total. So once again, not really representative of the lifetime of the site, or what the site is like today.
Yeah, to be clear that’s “of all time”. Like, if we listed the greatest human achievements of all time - fire, gunpowder, antibiotics, computers, vaccines, the internet, etc. - that list would not be expected to change daily or even once a century.:-)
Also, every single one is either 10 or 11 months old - with only one exception being 9 months. That is obviously some kind of spike related to the Rexodus:-P.
The Fediverse is much older than 12 months btw - your list contains posts from outside of Aussie.zone so it’s not looking at Local but rather All, so it includes those, which you can get to by sorting by Old.
TLDR: “top of all time” is not intended to be anyone’s default search - Top or Active or New would be much better choices.
They want to get recommendations just good enough to keep you hooked. If they show you just the objectively best, you would instantly know after seeing the best ones, that the rest of the catalogue is worse and worse.
This is how Netflix was in the beginning. I actually unsubscribed for a while for yhis reason. Now I’m as hooked as ever, there might still be a few good ones out there - I just need to keep scrolling for a few hours. /s
80% (being generous) of Netflix is low quality Netflix produced trash they try and get you to watch so they don’t have to pay royalties or commissions to anyone.
I believe that they have said the top 10 is based on views, but haven’t given the windoww for that count or whether the thimbs up/down ratings factor into it. That seems plausible as it is promoted as a popularity indicator and tends to have recent additons and already popular stuff listed.
Now the trending category is most likely the stuff they are trying to promote.
I just assumed the Netflix top 10 were movies/shows they were trying to push, not based on actual veiwership.
That’s a bingo. Any “trending” algorithm is designed to get you to click on it. It’s not a source of accurate information.
It’s the same with search results. You’re searching for X? Here’s something X-adjacent we’ve been paid to show you that you might click on while looking for X. We’re going to call it “what others buy” and hope you do, too.
It really bothers me because I want to buy actual good quality stuff but I have no idea how to find it because I don’t trust any reviews or anything on search engines at all really.
This is one of the big things that killed Amazon for me. They used to have a great search and filter function that was designed to make it as easy as possible to find what you were looking for. Now it’s designed to find things that are related to your search and ignore your filters when sellers pay them to promote their product. Combined with the fake reviews and the ocean of low quality trash that fills 95% of their inventory, it’s now actually easier to drive to a store and search shelves manually than it is to sit and click.
And don’t get me started on AI generated “reviews” that are just reworded marketing material with affiliate links. It used to be that google could get you some relatively reliable sources, but most of those have long since replaced real reviews with this bullshit. At this point, I just assume every review is a lie unless I see a video of a human testing the product while taking about it.
I honestly think that anyone who is making money by misleading consumers with product reviews that aren’t actually based on some interaction with the product should be in prison for fraud.
Even if they’re not making money they should be.
Nothing is real.
Lemmy All Top 6??!
Top 7 “All” of all time on Lemmy, as seen by my instance:
None younger than 10 months old, on a platform largely only about 12 months old in total. So once again, not really representative of the lifetime of the site, or what the site is like today.
5 posts about lemmy itself and 1 about musk? That sounds pretty accurate.
No posts about open source. Nothing queer. No tankies or even leftist. I wouldn’t say that the best representation of today’s Lemmy.
Maybe it’s missing some technology stuff. I don’t think leftist posts get that upvoted, even if there’s a lot of them.
On my instance, top “All” of the month is this post, which is leftist tech/science, but also a roundabout reference to Reddit. #2 is this post, entirely just leftist politics. #3 is congratulating a left-leaning politician.
Thanks - oops shoulda said “Lemmy All Top 6 Hours”
Yeah, to be clear that’s “of all time”. Like, if we listed the greatest human achievements of all time - fire, gunpowder, antibiotics, computers, vaccines, the internet, etc. - that list would not be expected to change daily or even once a century.:-)
Also, every single one is either 10 or 11 months old - with only one exception being 9 months. That is obviously some kind of spike related to the Rexodus:-P.
The Fediverse is much older than 12 months btw - your list contains posts from outside of Aussie.zone so it’s not looking at Local but rather All, so it includes those, which you can get to by sorting by Old.
TLDR: “top of all time” is not intended to be anyone’s default search - Top or Active or New would be much better choices.
You just say Bingo.
I don’t get why the streaming services would care what media people watch. Are they pushing stuff that is cheaper to license?
They want to get recommendations just good enough to keep you hooked. If they show you just the objectively best, you would instantly know after seeing the best ones, that the rest of the catalogue is worse and worse.
This is how Netflix was in the beginning. I actually unsubscribed for a while for yhis reason. Now I’m as hooked as ever, there might still be a few good ones out there - I just need to keep scrolling for a few hours. /s
Stuff that is actually there, the vast emptiness of the Netflix catalog is the real horror.
80% (being generous) of Netflix is low quality Netflix produced trash they try and get you to watch so they don’t have to pay royalties or commissions to anyone.
I gave it up years ago.
I believe that they have said the top 10 is based on views, but haven’t given the windoww for that count or whether the thimbs up/down ratings factor into it. That seems plausible as it is promoted as a popularity indicator and tends to have recent additons and already popular stuff listed.
Now the trending category is most likely the stuff they are trying to promote.
I’d agree with you, but I’ve seen Morbius up there.
This is what The Algorithms have been doing from the start.
It is only just now coming to light just how manipulative YouTube, FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram are configured.
It isn’t about increasing Ad views or Viewer engagement; it is all about controlling viewer opinions and belief systems.