Smart Feeds v2 Now Released Secondary Custom Feed Coming Soon
We are happy to announce that our Version 2 of SW Smart Feeds has now been released and is available to all users!
We believe that these recent improvements made, should allow users better control of their Default Home Feed. In addition, each user should be able to accomplish their preferences more easily.
The variety of customizable options should benefit our user-base as a whole, where each user can have some greater control over what is shown in their feeds, rather than all users being subjected to one or two feed formats only (as it used to be - which may benefit some, but also inconvenience many).
Secondary Customizable Feed Coming Soon
We also intend to have a Secondary / Alternate Customizable Smart Feed, located next to the default Home Feed.
This will allow users to specify up to TWO highly customized Feed Layouts/Profiles, per their liking, where they can easily switch between these two, Custom-defined Feeds, in just One Click!
We hope that these improvements to SW will provide a better experience to everyone.
Thanks for the feedback and support. Kind regards! - The SW Team
It could also help to slide the settings of "Users you Follow" and "Groups you Subscribe to", to at least the level of "2". By moving them to "Minimum" (as you have in your snapshot), you almost entirely exclude those sources from your feed results.
If you feel that your feed is still "too slow", it can benefit to move some of the other sliders, like the first 2-3 sliders, to "Level 2".
Having those content sources at "Minimum", can actually almost entirely exclude those sources from appearing in your feed results.
So if "Faster Speed/Recency of incoming posts" is your priority, it may help to use this setup:
Also moving "Comments & Replies" to Maximum, can further push more recent content into your feeds, however, that depends on if you wish to show Comments in your Feed, or prefer it to remain Posts-Only.
@Andrew I appreciate your help each time. But unfortunately your suggested settings don't work either. I set them the exact same way and only see posts from 1+ hours ago now (except for the very first post). Changing the first 3 sliders doesn't change this either.
@Andrew Andrew – thank you for your help. I've changed my settings accordingly. It's difficult to compare before and after though, because it can't be done individually for each devise that I have, as the settings are stored remotely. Anyway – let's see what will happen!
I just want a button on the homepage that allows me to view the posts of the people I follow, in chronological order, and another button which allows me to see posts from all users, in chronological order.
I don't wanna see "more" from the people I follow, I wanna see only them and then have the option of seeing everyone when I want to with the click of a button.
Coming to SW when we had the feed set to the people we're following was like entering a room full of friends, without having that option it's like entering a room full of strangers and trying to spot the odd friend here and there. It's not the same vibe.
@Nadie So far it doesn't seem like it is possible to do that. I tried asking them about it, Nuno suggested a specific combination of sliders, it didn't work.
For reference, Nuno's reply is in this comment chain.
@Nadie Yep, it makes no sense at all. That combo doesn't matter though, as said it still doesn't work. Things not in chronological order, still missing stuff. Worst lock ever.
If these are smart feeds I'd rather have dumb feeds Unless the SW population has become far smaller or I've been blocked by many, the number of posts seems much lower than it did previously (even when you change sliders)
Why do you seem to be compelled to keep messing with the site to no benefit of the average user.
SW-User
@Dlrannie Many people believe perfectionism is a positive. But researchers are finding that it is nothing short of dangerous, leading to everybody getting what no one wants but i will always love you
I’m sorry, but like your previous “improvements,” it just seems like more work for the subscribers. Kind of like how EP started messing around with features in its last two years. Just my opinion, but others may like it. I don’t.
I tried going into this with an open mind, but ended up with a feed that is more confusing and further broken in exciting new ways. Please help me understand how to get this right. Here are my settings:
The end result is that the top 10 or so entries in my feed are all comments from friends over the last hour or so, in a non-chronological order, followed by seemingly only posts after that. Posts are once again not chronological. There are also still posts that just aren't present in my feed.
Since the explanation of the various sliders are very vague, here's my reasoning for why I chose what I did:
Users You Follow: Middle of the line because I want to show posts regardless of whether they come from followers or not. I figured middle of the line would mean it'd be weighted equally no matter the source of the post. Groups you Subscribe to: Same as above, I aimed for middle because I wanted posts to be shown regardless of whether I follow the groups or not. Relevant Content: I figured putting it to less would mean it would avoid doing relevance sorting, and just put it all out there without evaluating if I'd be interested or not. Other Users: Not sure about the difference here between the first option and this option. Would kinda think putting it to "More" on the first option ("Users You Follow") would imply "Less" on this option (and the other way around). Comments & Replies: Put this to more as I want to show all comments from friends I follow that have enabled the showing of their comments. I don't want any of their replies hidden (unless they themselves have disabled it), so would have thought having it fully to the right would ensure that. Post Order / Sorted By: I just wanted my feed chronological. Simple as that. Yet entirely to the left still has some posts out of order.
@Andrew, @Nuno: How do I fix this? I just want the following: Feed to be entirely chronological, all posts shown from all users (assuming blocking/muting isn't involved), all comments from friends to be shown (if their options are set to show comments in friends feeds).
@Really I do believe I get what you mean now. While I think I mostly do well enough in making myself understood and understanding others, English isn't my native language and sometimes my comprehension fails me a bit.
But yeah, this is one of those cases where those descriptions may make a lot of sense to someone who has full access to the inner workings of this algorithm they are using, but where for the average Joe who doesn't have the insight they do it's just a bunch of cryptic vagueness.
I'll be more than willing to admit that I have done such mistakes in some of the stuff I have worked on myself, but there comes a point where you have to look at what you are making and ask "how easy would this be to understand for an average user who isn't a developer and who might not be that computer savvy?"
@PirateMonkeyCabinet Hah, your English is excellent and you surely must know it!
From the very beginnings of computing there's been a lamentable lack of understanding between those who write the software and those who have to use it. Things seem to be even worse now, in the world of web page design, where 'cool' features and fancy graphics overrule user friendliness & convenience. More of a 'Look at what we can do' than 'How can I help you?'
Hmm. I'd still prefer an option to keep it all algorithm free, and have all posts with exceptions of those being blocked/muted or having me blocked. Additionally all comments by friends and those I interact with on the boards more frequently. I'd then be adjusting my own feed making use of the previous methods of muting and blocking if necessary. Thank you.
Not trying to be a negative Nellie here but my feed has the same sad posts as it did last night. Not sure what to do. I tried all the slides in all the positions and got the same results. I had to search 'and' to know that people are still posting.
@hippyjoe1955 Consider trying the setup configuration shown in the image below, and see if that helps.
You appear to only have 2 Friends, and I suspect that content from your "Groups" is overriding your sort priority to some degree, you can try placing "Groups" to Minimum.
Also, moving the slider of "Relevant Content" higher, away from Minimum (Middle, level 3 should be fine), should help in your case, to get you to see a lot more content.
Can anyone tell me what the sliders do or are supposed to do? Honest question. Maybe they turn the lights on at the white house because they certainly don't seem to change the feed I am getting. I try a different setting every time I am on here and all I get is week old posts and not many of them. Maybe no one is posting? Not sure. It is not making for a pleasant visit to SW.
idk andrew... thanks ig....anyways what do i do w all these coins
SW-User
Here is how I set mine. What changes do I need to make in order to start seeing more current content from the majority of users? I’ve been playing with this and I still only see about six people’s posts, and they don’t tend to be new ones either.
@SW-User You can try sliding "Relevant Content" to the Middle, and that may help to provide you with a bit more recent content.
It could also help to slide the settings of "Users you Follow" and "Groups you Subscribe to", to at least the level of "2". By moving them to "Minimum" (as you have in your snapshot), you almost entirely exclude those sources from your feed results.
@MagnifiqueGirl Fair enough. But I personally wouldn't consider one extra button on the "Posts, Top, New" bar cluttering the main page, so I don't see the need to remove one of them in favor of another configurable feed if that can also be added without removing anything.
Andrew I would like to filter out anyone that has more than one user, okay maybe 2 user profiles I think it’s okay to have an anon to an anon if you’ve been here more than 10 years
Ive customized the feed to most relevant content but why do i still keep seeing irrelevant posts by irrelevant people on my feed? kindly explain (b4 i throw these hands). Thnks
Is there an explanation what each slider is supposed to do? I have some idea, but it having both a 'Users you follow' and an 'Other users' slider suggests that I can completely mute the users I follow and only see the other users, if I wish to.
but it having both a 'Users you follow' and an 'Other users' slider suggests that I can completely mute the users I follow and only see the other users, if I wish to.
For the most part, yes.
You won't "100% Mute" your Followers, however, they may be almost invisible to your feed, or at least not prioritized over others (if you customize your settings to give that effect).
Could you explain more what setup you would like to achieve? Or which of the options you do not understand?
Basically I want chronological order, friends' comments only and switching between only friends' posts and all posts. Relevance and groups are not important.
@Nuno @Nuno yes that notification you get when you click the bell on the blue bar at the top. they used to go all the way back to when I started. now I'm only getting one page of notifications only going back 2 weeks. It's better t hen it was a couple of days ago when there were only a few notifications showing there.
@trackboy they used to go all the way back to when I started
If this was ever the case, the Notifications page would take several seconds/minutes to load, especially on members who get hundreds notifications a day
Our notifications always expired after 3 weeks, since SW started.
There is also a max limit of number of notifications that we show on the page.
@Nuno oh, I thought it was like messages, you click the next page to see each page of messages as you go back through your older messages. guess my memory is confusing the two in memory making me think I went through older notifications the same way as I went through older messages.
Smart Feeds v2 Now Released 
Secondary Custom Feed 
Coming Soon 
This is confusing.
Unless the SW population has become far smaller or I've been blocked by many, the number of posts seems much lower than it did previously (even when you change sliders)
recent improvements. Sure they are