⚙️ Control your Feed Preferences - Fixes & Updates Coming Soon 🛠️
Similar Worlds has now for the first time since our launch 5 years ago, upgraded our Default Feed's algorithm, from being purely 100% Chronological, to now taking into account Both Content Relevancy and Time of Post.
[i](This is something we have been letting users know, for years, is planned and being worked on.)[/i]
We understand that after 5 years of being accustomed to one specific feed format, this change will be "Drastic" to most users, and can seem confusing and uncomfortable initially. We do apologize for that, and ask that you please bear with us.
However, we do believe, and have already begun to see, that many users are beginning to understand and get more comfortable with the recent changes.
We also understand that such a major cannot have a perfect initial release, as much tweaking and improvement needs to be done, as we test the performance and results of these changes, and listen to user feedback.
[sep]
As some users may have noticed, the "Customize Feed" options are currently unavailable, but are being worked on and will be Upgraded to offer more control, and compatibility with the new Feed Structure.
Certain amount of user feedback was needed (which has been helpful) to help us finalize what customization options will be offered, and how they will function.
[i]Some of the options that will be made available very soon:[/i]
[c=004A59][big]Customize Feed[/big][/c]
[b][u]Show more of:[/u][/b]
[b][i]Friends & Following:[/i][/b] 🔲 Everyone | 🔲 Mix | 🔲 My Friends & Following
[b][i]Subscribed Groups & Categories:[/i][/b] 🔲 All Groups | 🔲 Mix | 🔲 My Groups & Categories
[b][i]Comments in Feed:[/i][/b] 🔲 Less Comments | 🔲 Mix | 🔲 More Comments
[b][i]Post Order/Sorting by:[/i][/b] 🔲 Time Posted | 🔲 Mix | 🔲 Most Relevant
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[b][u]Additional important notes:[/u][/b]
• The New/Smart Feed changes does take some time to initially "Warm Up", to sort itself out. The Stability of these new feed changes should improve with time, and with your usage of the feed, and regular interactions with other users.
• Your "Own Posts" appearing in the Home Feed, will likely be returned soon.
• The new Feed changes are not "Random", but they are also not purely Chronological, as have been for the past 5 years. The feed now takes into account, Users and Groups you Follow and interact with, as well as the recency (time) of the content (Post/Comment).
• The more often you see a particular Post/Comment in your feed, the more it will slowly begin to "Drop" lower down the list of posts in that feed to you. This helps you to see more content you may not yet have seen, and less of the same, each time you visit the home feed.
• We will be continuing to improve and adjust these changes, based on user feedback and analysis.
• [b]Customize Feed[/b] (Control your Feed Preferences), will be returning very soon, as mentioned above.
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Thanks for reading, and for your feedback. Kind regards! [i][c=005E2F]- The SW Team[/c][/i]
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[b]Dear Andrew[/b], your commitment is greatly appreciated. We all know you do everything you can, to make using the site an even more pleasant experience for us users. [b]HOWEVER[/b], I think it was a bad idea to change the feed structure BEFORE you finished the "Customize Feed" settings. At the moment, it's just chaotic, and more often than not I don't even [u]see[/u] the most recent posts, even after clicking the "New" button. This escapes me. It is double plus ungood. It makes me look at the site less often. I would strongly recommend that you FIRST DO YOUR HOMEWORK, and [u]then[/u] let us decide how to customize our individual feed settings. I believe it would be great if you just [u]went back to the old chronological order[/u], until you get the "Customize Feed" thing done. Thank you very much for your consideration. 🌷 hS
@helenS Don't deliver the car before you've put the steering wheel in.
Social media is a fickle thing. Up to two weeks to fix an issue is in "social media years" a long time and enough to turn people away from your service.
@PirateMonkeyCabinet SW has a very loyal user base, and most of us (me included) will [u]not[/u] leave just because our admins made an inconsiderate mistake.
@helenS On my way out atm so hastily writing this.
You're not wrong. It does have a seemingly unusually loyal userbase, although I'm not sure it really is loyalty. SW seems to be in this weird grayzone, occupying some niche subset of social media with little competition. I know I am far from the only one here that is mostly hanging about here while we are waiting for the release of a potential competitor in the making. When that happens chances are there will be an exodus at least of many old time users.
Also, for some of us this isn't just a single inconsiderate mistake, but the latest in a long string of bad decisions. That, and the attitude of the admins towards users who don't blindly agree with them.
@helenS Yes, that was my first thought: why on EARTH would you implement the new feed BEFORE finishing the Customize Feed page to turn it back to chronological?!
It seems so counter-intuitive that I can only assume it's deliberate, to try to nudge people into getting used to the new version, rather than us all just diving straight to the new Customize Feed page to switch it back immediately.
Question is then: what are they trying to achieve? After all, all that "relevancy" stuff can't be easy to program, can it? So why all that effort, and the push to get us using it? What's the point? What's the endgame?
Something to do with advertisers, I'm guessing, although I can't figure out how.
@TheThinker I would say it was a typical inconsiderate mistake. I am a part-time programmer myself, and sometimes changes in my program will lead to unexpected side-effects. Something like that must have happened here. And I do not know whether they can really go back to the old version.
