https://www.reddit.com/r/changelog/comments/7spgg0/best_is_the_new_hotness/
created by cryptolemur on 24/01/2018 at 19:03 UTC
350 upvotes, 149 top-level comments (showing 25)
Hey Reddit -
As we started talking about in a series of recent r/changelog posts, we’ve been working to make the Reddit home feed more personal by surfacing posts from communities you’ve shown interest in recently[1] and by filtering posts you’ve already seen so there is always fresh content[2]. We started by doing tests that showed that these changes made Reddit better: users spent more time on Reddit, and they interacted more with the content they saw. So we were ready (and excited!) to roll them out … but!
2: https://www.reddit.com/r/changelog/comments/7j5w9f/keeping_the_home_feed_fresh/
Even though these changes worked better for many users, some of our users had legitimate feedback about how their Reddit experience might be affected. Mods wanted a neutral view that reflected what their communities were seeing. Other users had already built up a set of habits around how the home feed worked and wanted to keep their experience consistent. While I know all our answers on these fronts weren’t always perfectly satisfying, we genuinely were listening. So we put these launches on pause to regroup and figure out the right way to move forward for everyone.
Rather than changing the meaning of “Hot” we are introducing a new default sort type for the home feed: Best*. With its faster turnover and more responsive ranking “Best” is the right home feed experience for the majority of users. But anyone who prefers the original experience can switch their sort option to “Hot��� and return to the original Reddit ranking at any time. At first “Best” and “Hot” aren’t going to be very different from each other, but once the new sort rolls out to all users we’ll be reactivating the freshness[3] and personalization[4] improvements for the “Best” sort. By next week the difference should be pretty evident, and we’ll continue refining it over time.
3: https://www.reddit.com/r/changelog/comments/7j5w9f/keeping_the_home_feed_fresh/
Next post we’ll be talking about how we help users discover new parts of Reddit, and later this quarter we’ll be doing a wrap-up post to summarize all these efforts at a higher level for r/announcements. As always please let us know your thoughts and feedback here, or let us know if you’d like to join the mobile beta testing group if you’d like to see and offer feedback on new features even earlier!
Cheers,
Comment by ekolis at 24/01/2018 at 21:21 UTC
302 upvotes, 7 direct replies
Can you add a setting in preferences to permanently change the sort option (heck, even to new or controversial or whatever if I want, not just best or hot) so I don't need to change it manually every time I open the site? Or just have it remember my last option? I can do this with comment sort in preferences, why not with posts?
Comment by h0nest_Bender at 26/01/2018 at 13:45 UTC
108 upvotes, 1 direct replies
How do I disable the Best tab?
How do I set the Home link to default back to Hot?
Comment by philipwhiuk at 25/01/2018 at 02:40 UTC
95 upvotes, 3 direct replies
As we started talking about in a series of recent r/changelog posts, we’ve been working to make the Reddit home feed more personal by surfacing posts from communities you’ve shown interest in recently and by filtering posts you’ve already seen so there is always fresh content.
Be careful, down this path lies the Facebook News Feed algorithm.
Comment by xHaZxMaTx at 24/01/2018 at 19:10 UTC
89 upvotes, 1 direct replies
This is a fantastic compromise! Thanks for taking the negative feedback into account and acting on it! :D
Comment by ShaneH7646 at 24/01/2018 at 19:09 UTC
106 upvotes, 2 direct replies
I rather like this new sorting, been seeing a lot more turnover on my frontpage and I'm nolonger having to wait 24 hours for new things
Comment by nmork at 25/01/2018 at 00:31 UTC
30 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Can we have an option to set the default sort for our front page?
Comment by [deleted] at 02/02/2018 at 02:05 UTC*
29 upvotes, 1 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by [deleted] at 29/01/2018 at 16:32 UTC*
30 upvotes, 2 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by [deleted] at 02/02/2018 at 13:18 UTC
26 upvotes, 1 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by MajorParadox at 24/01/2018 at 19:23 UTC
70 upvotes, 2 direct replies
* Note: This is actually a different algorithm from the ‘best’ comment sort, so we are still debating the name! Suggestions welcome.
My suggestions:
Comment by skurk at 06/02/2018 at 08:12 UTC
22 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I'm sorry, but this "best" sorting is worthless to me. I'm getting articles with 0 and 1 points first, that's not what I consider "best" at all. How's the logic behind this sorting method? Select all from my_subreddits where score>0 order by date,score? Because it seems like it.
Looks like this[1]. What the hell?
1: https://i.imgur.com/x5npXL7.png
Any way for me to default to the "hot" view instead? Can't find it under preferences.
Comment by V2Blast at 24/01/2018 at 19:17 UTC
40 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Thanks for making this a separate sorting option rather than replacing the current default sort with it! I do like /u/vikinick's suggestion of "fresh" as a name, or something similar.
Comment by kemitche at 25/01/2018 at 00:23 UTC
38 upvotes, 3 direct replies
Can we call it the "spicy" sort? /u/rram plz
Comment by NotEvenJauuuwn at 02/02/2018 at 08:07 UTC
19 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Give us the option to change back to hot, it was much better than best!
Comment by [deleted] at 01/02/2018 at 21:23 UTC
14 upvotes, 0 direct replies
this should be opt in instead of opt out honestly. it's made my browsing experience a lot clunkier the past week and i had to dig a lot just to find the fact that this change was done
Comment by beepbloopbloop at 06/02/2018 at 13:41 UTC
15 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This is awful. Make it possible to change back please. I'm seeing front page posts with 0 upvotes.
Comment by parkerlreed at 24/01/2018 at 22:48 UTC*
14 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Was driving me crazy for a month or so. I appreciate highlighting the smaller subreddits based on participation, but at times it just brought up completely stupid posts hiding the decently upvoted ones a few pages below.
Comment by gus_ at 25/01/2018 at 16:49 UTC
13 upvotes, 0 direct replies
more personal
communities you’ve shown interest in recently
filtering posts you’ve already seen
personalization improvements
This is actually a different algorithm from the ‘best’ comment sort, so we are still debating the name!
Well are you trying to mask the purpose with some general name like 'best'? It's pretty clearly your take on a 'personalized' feed. This has been a contentious discussion subject over the past few years mostly regarding facebook's personalized feeds, so it might be above-board to call it what it is. Bundling personalized sorting (what one user sees as popular isn't the same as anyone else) with freshness churn and other tweaks and slapping a 'best' label on the bundle just seems a little underhanded (unless people actually respond favorably this time with the tweaks).
Comment by thecodingdude at 25/01/2018 at 17:05 UTC*
15 upvotes, 0 direct replies
[Comment removed]
Comment by MattDobson at 03/02/2018 at 08:47 UTC
13 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Please enable the option to have the front page default to "Hot" instead of "Best".
I really don't like the "Best" is the default. It's a nice option, but I want the other way as default.
Comment by i_mormon_stuff at 02/02/2018 at 17:47 UTC
11 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Please make this change optional, my front page is fundamentally worse now. Almost every post on there is not worth looking at while almost everything on the Hot tab is worth looking at. I always want Hot as my default.
Comment by falconbox at 02/02/2018 at 21:52 UTC
11 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Not a fan of this change. I was just so confused why I saw a post from a random subreddit with 100 upvotes at the #1 spot.
Just...no. #1 is supposed to be for the most popular content of my subreddits, not random stuff I haven't seen before. Looks like I'm changing my bookmark to /hot instead of just Reddit.com.
Comment by [deleted] at 25/02/2018 at 13:00 UTC*
12 upvotes, 0 direct replies
/u/cryptolemur can we PLEASE fucking get a way to change the default sort
i swear the front page gets worse with every algorithm change. maybe it's just rose coloured glasses, but i feel like you guys fix 1 problem and make 4 others worse with these things. are people actually complaining about a low refresh rate, or just the most active users? do people actually want you to guess what content they want to see, or do they want to choose it? are people complaining about seeing the same post on their front page throughout the day (and do these people know about the 'hide' function)?
are you ever going to respond to those of us offering criticism, or just the people who enjoy the change?
Comment by [deleted] at 02/02/2018 at 15:31 UTC
11 upvotes, 0 direct replies
how the fuck can i get rid of this shit being the default sort option
more new posts is good, but what's the fucking point when you refresh the page 30 minutes later and the front page is entirely different? it'd be nice to actually be able to follow ongoing discussions
Comment by blrghh at 02/02/2018 at 17:38 UTC
10 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I hate this best thing. I seriously *hate* it.
