web2web3

This Friday at 3pm ET, I’m hosting an AMA with @eugene in this channel! 

He’s an incisive student of tech, authoring classics like Status as a Service and Seeing like an Algorithm.

Ask him about social networks, consumer product, and insights from his years as a product exec at Oculus, Hulu, and Flipboard!

investing & writing about consumer tech since 2016. FID #30. hosting /web2web3 

https://www.lisnewsletter.com/

Q: What are the best strategies a social network can utilize to combat engagement farming techniques?

Coder, collector, cat dad.
Minted CryptoKitties in 2017.
Posting daily art appreciation casts of art from my collection.

One of the biggest things you learn studying the history of evolutionary systems is that you get what you select for. If your algo selects for engagement, then engagement farming is what you'll get.

One way to counter pure engagement bait is to include some negative feedback mechanism. One reason TikTok works so well is it's interface really captures negative sentiment accurately. But Reddit/HackerNews style networks have downvoting at the top level which works too.

In some ways, social networks select for engagement because it's the easiest thing to measure (likes, replies, retweets, etc.). How would you select for things that make people feel better, that educate them, etc.?