What I mean is someone sets up a new community, blasts it with a bunch of content to get things started, or sets up a new community bot that makes 20 posts and every other post in my feed is that community. Usually with 1 or 2 votes each and no comments. No matter what way I sort I see this.

I have zero issues with people getting things going within their space, and it’s not a knock against new communities that don’t want to be empty when people stumble across them.

It’s a complaint about the algorithm flooding my feed with so much content from one place that I’ve unfortunately blocked communities over this that I otherwise would have continued to run across and maybe engaged with in the future.

I’m not sure if your first X results should all be unique communities or putting some sort of engagement threshold in place before they show up in the top X posts or something. I don’t really have a perfect answer but to me this is a flaw in the system.

  • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.worldEnglish
    121·
    2 years ago

    It’s a complaint about the algorithm flooding my feed

    Or rather, the absence of one.

    I guess in a way you’re showcasing where algorithmic sorting/grouping, when not used just to promote ads and increase profitability, can have a positive impact. Because they could for example be used to temporarily suppress exactly what you mean, and require a community to stay “active” for longer than a brief flare-up to start spreading wider and wider.

    That being said, I find the lack of such stuff refreshing. You after all select whether you want to see “All” content, and even the sort mechanism.

  • TAG@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    2 years ago

    I have found sorting by “active” to be the best sort order. It seems to be mostly immune to concentrated clumps, though it is very slow changing.

  • The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    2 years ago

    I remember when reddit had to implement something similar leading up to the 2016 election, because the entire front page was spam from "the donald* or a few vocal left-wing subs, and it was putting everyone off.

    The solution was pretty much what you described.

    • WontonSoup@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      8·
      2 years ago

      Even a limit of posts per community would be great. 2-3 from each community max in the first 100 would even be awesome. It would also force a lot of lesser known communities into peoples top posts and help growth in them.

      • The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 years ago

        I agree. The turnover of the front page already seems configured to be rapid, so during the less active times of the day, this problem with flooding happens more.