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Ol' Markie Zuckerberg seems to think that, despite me having never shown any interest, I really want to see loads of stuff about:
1) Golf
2) Football
3) Only Fools and Horses
My feed is full of the stuff, it's bonkers.
I am surprised that facebook is still used by so many. Over-commercialisation of the feed killed the usability as a tool to keep up with friends and family lives, which was its main selling point, a long time ago.
Mine feed seems to think I'm interested in sexy ladies. I mean... 🤷♂️
My feed is full of weird historical facts, which to be fair, I find interesting.
I have it mainly for groups I'm in/interested in, some news pages, and some cafes and places I go. I cleaned my page of personal stuff a couple of years ago.
Most people I know seem to use it for similar reasons now rather than posting personal stuff.
The bloody Royals! Lots of weird looking profiles (often in an odd font) with adorable pictures of privileged sprigs or 'graceful' Kate. Never Harry or Meghan of course. Think I'm winning the fight having gone on a cull and blocked them all.
Lots of D&D and board game-y stuff at the moment which I don't mind too much, I sometimes get some of the jokes 🙄
Several Simpsons based meme pages which I get and are often funny, they can stay.
Varying degrees of sexy lady posts, they seem to multiply if you don't block/cull every so often, which I have to do as at times my profile starts to look plain indecent and I worry what might appear when I'm scrolling in public 😆
Some red wall tory ****er (not my mp) popped up on mine doing his ‘man of the people chip shop visit’ so I clicked to check the abuse in the comments which was regrettably low (I inhabit the echo chamber on here).
Now Facebook tells me when he’s in the pub, the newsagents, the green grocers. He’s such a ****ing tool.
Hopefully he’ll be posting from the job centre soon 😁
Rover 800 owners/fan club this morning. I’m neither.
I don't see anything that I don't want to.
I do only use the desktop version, I don't carry it around in my pocket anymore.
I have it mainly for groups I’m in/interested in, some news pages, and some cafes and places I go. I cleaned my page of personal stuff a couple of years ago.
Most people I know seem to use it for similar reasons now rather than posting personal stuff.
I think that's partly the problem. If you have an active Friends list (and Facebook sees you interacting with them) then you get to see their stuff. If not, Facebook throws lots of random crap at you. I'm not seeing much of the sort of spam being discussed here. So far, my biggest random content seems to be various "scenery around the world" pages.
I seem to get a constant parade of old photos of Ann Margret and Pam Grier. It’s bloody brilliant!
I don’t see anything that I don’t want to.
I do only use the desktop version, I don’t carry it around in my pocket anymore.
God, I wish the did a mobile version of that
I dont get load of irrelevant stuff nor do i get adverts.often. i report evry advert as misleading or acam and it seems to confuse the algorithm. I go weeks without any ads and then a few appear and the cycle goes round again
Last few days I've been getting posh wigs.
How do they know I might need one?! 😳
Reported for hate speech.
I expect this is one of two things. Either it's tying back to what your friends are interested in, or you've enabled every "do not track" option you can so it's guessing. Assuming (sorry if this is incorrect) you're a middle-aged white bloke, thinking you're into football and 1980s TV comedies isn't a wild leap.
(Ie, what scotroutes said. Sorry, I missed that.)
Boxing and UFC news.
Local news from the south coast (I live in NW England).
Clickbait internet guff like "this driver did a thing and everyone says they're bad".
Although I must commend FB for yesterday suggesting an article about steel bike frames being overrated, just after I was debating the issue on a thread on here.
Makes you think, eh?
Although I must commend FB for yesterday suggesting an article about steel bike frames being overrated, just after I was debating the issue on a thread on here.
Makes you think, eh?
Well, although Cougar will tell me differently, it also listens to conversations. I've had two examples recently when I've been talking to people about a really random topic (specifically, the Berkeley marathon and then Snoopy/Peanuts comic strips), and with 12 hours something's popped up on my FB feed about it.
The algorithm has no idea what to make of me as I rarely post anything and definitely not enough to build up a decent picture. It knows about my Mini so fills half the feed with classic car stuff (mainly Ford groups, I hate Fords!), knows I ride a bike occasionally so tried and suggest I become a roadie, endless suggestions of ladies that are obvious scam pages and bizarrely loads of football stuff. Can't stand anything to do with the game!
The thing lost its purpose years ago now, it's just too big to die off so we're stuck with it.
I have it mainly for groups I’m in/interested in, some news pages, and some cafes and places I go. I cleaned my page of personal stuff a couple of years ago.
Most people I know seem to use it for similar reasons now rather than posting personal stuff.
Pretty much the same here. Have left family 'friended' though as it's the only way to keep in touch with them. If it wasn't for two groups I follow on there and messenger I'd have binned it off years ago. Still annoys me it's permanently installed on the phone!
"80s BMX" ; "Broadstone and Corfe Mullen Community Group" ; "Drawing Cocks on Newspapers".
2/3, not bad.
I'm having my own wee battle with Facebook - every advert or sponsored thing or You might like, I hide and block the ad in an attempt to mess with Facebook's algorithm.
It seems to work after 2 days of blocking and lasts about a day and then I get a new round of surprises...
A lot of American football, Christianity stuff, golf and a bit of cricket along with historical interest stuff, make up and when marketplace appears it seems to be old bangers of cars, young ladies in very tight fitting dresses or a collection of wood offcuts being offered to me.
So I keep blocking in the hope the algorithm will eventually give up as it can't serve stuff I like (I also block ads for stuff I do like or follow).
Clearly I'm easily amused as I'm under no illusion that what I'm doing it breaking anything.
Well, although Cougar will tell me differently, it also listens to conversations.
Yes I will and no it doesn't.
All other things aside, there are very clever people actively looking for this sort of behaviour. If [insert large corporation here] was listening to you, they'd have been caught doing it by now.
Why would they need to anyway? The amount of processing power required to listen to everyone's conversations and understand them would be astronomical, and pointless because most people give away information freely.
I’ve had two examples recently when I’ve been talking to people about a really random topic
And of course it's wildly implausible that those people then hit the Internet to read about those topics in the intermediate 12 hours.
So I keep blocking in the hope the algorithm will eventually give up as it can’t serve stuff I like (I also block ads for stuff I do like or follow).
Clearly I’m easily amused as I’m under no illusion that what I’m doing it breaking anything.
Sounds like a lot of effort for zero gain. Computers don't get bored. If it bothers you that much, install Purity.
And of course it’s wildly implausible that those people then hit the Internet to read about those topics in the intermediate 12 hours.
The Berkley marathon thing, maybe, although very, very unlikely. The Snoopy thing, not a chance.
All I know is, if I turn 'Allow access to my microphone' off for the app, these conversation-based suggestions stop.
All I know is, if I turn ‘Allow access to my microphone’ off for the app, these conversation-based suggestions stop.
Confirmation bias...
I used to get a recurring advert, "welcome back to the voodoo lounge"
first off, to go back to something you need to have been before. I hadn’t.
secondly, anyone who knows me even vaguely would know i’m not interested in anything like that. At all.
so I’m guessing their algorithms are a bit crap.
not that it matters to me, I stopped using it a few months ago.
i feel happier now.
The Berkley marathon thing, maybe, although very, very unlikely. The Snoopy thing, not a chance.
Coincidences are also a thing. A couple of months back I had something appear on the radio that I happened to be thinking about at the time. Conclusion: DAB radio reads your mind? Pass the tinfoil.
You have to understand also, the 'algorithms' used by Facebook et al are highly sophisticated. Famously, there have been reports of sites like FB showing pregnancy-related adverts to women who didn't know they were pregnant.
But, y'know, test it. Pick a random subject every day for a week. Something truly random like kayaks or Massey-Ferguson tractors or the export trade from Malta or MIG welders or South African tree frogs or something (only none of those specific things because I've just biased them all). Talk out loud about it when no-one else is around. If they subsequently reliably pop up on your social media then we'll talk.
It listens to conversations or has some sort of link to alexa. Boy#1 asked alexa what the largest mountain on mars was.
I get stuff about the largest mountain on mars on my facebook feed.
Did the same with something my stepfather was randomly talking to the kids about. Appeared on both wife and my feeds.
Mostly I get archaeology stuff, animals doing funny things, MMA and the odd wargaming / bike advert. All of which is ok as it is what I'm interested in!
Not Facebook, but Bing is convinced I need to know methods of opening times without a tin opener
It listens to conversations or has some sort of link to alexa. Boy#1 asked alexa what the largest mountain on mars was.
I get stuff about the largest mountain on mars on my facebook feed.
That's tracking activity on the same network. iOS lets you block this behaviour, I presume Android does something similar.
when I’ve been talking to people about a really random topic (specifically, the Berkeley marathon and then Snoopy/Peanuts comic strips), and with 12 hours something’s popped up on my FB feed about it.
Just thinking about this, what generated those conversations in the first place? Did you instigate them completely randomly, or the people you were in conversation with - ie had THEY seen it first on Facebook and it eventually found it's way to you.
My FB algorithm has gone absolutely mad in the past couple of weeks. Completely random topics, pages or ads for things that have zero connection to my interests or browsing history. Just did a quick check and I'm seeing posts about
Viet cong jungle traps
A deer headbutting a car
Rugby
Bradley Walsh hosting a reboot of Gladiators
Men putting scaffolding up on a skyscraper
etc
All on pages i don't follow. I suspect these pages are paying to get promoted on people's feeds
The Berkeley one I don't remember, but the Snoopy one started with a discussion about how old people were, and someone mentioned that they'd been asked if they're old enough to remember Snoopy. A short discussion about Snoopy/Peanuts followed (basically that the comic strips are not particularly funny)
I barely use Facebook but I do use Instagram
The ads are pretty well targeted for me and rarely do I find it annoying or obtrusive unlike Facebook
However I'm not really one for impulse buying so they don't really work on me
What would actually be a useful feature is if it showed me ads targeted for someone else who I need to buy a gift for (i.e. my wife!)
That might save me some stress at Christmas time!
A friend uses a script to unfollow everything in his feed. The algorithm hates it and jsut keeps getting more and more desperate.
Viet cong jungle traps
I got this one yesterday. To be fair it was quite interesting. I s'pose I'll now be seeing many more warfare related posts
I am surprised that facebook is still used by so many.
There was a great comment on this weeks Ted Lasso...
"You need to update all your social media... apart from Facebook, because that only used by grandparents and racists nowadays"
🤣
There was a great comment on this weeks Ted Lasso…
“You need to update all your social media… apart from Facebook, because that only used by grandparents and racists nowadays”
Well I'm not a grand parent, so does that mean....?
It would explain the golliwogs on my mantelpiece
the golliwogs on my mantelpiece
Strangest euphemism ever.
Over 70's men's cycling group.
None of these things am I!
Ladies in my neighborhood.
I'm not saying they're wrong, or right, I think we're past judging, but it is spooky.