@NoJoke said in #17:
> I can understand the frustration of working hard to create something and struggling to get it noticed. I did my share of 0 viewer Twitch streams years ago. I also think the algorithm for Lichess blogs can be better about bringing low-follower blogs to the top if they're good enough. I like the idea of new discovery tools like a "new" section perhaps.
Thank you for your reaction. Hope to see any discussion taking place and hopefully some changes. What about the suggestion to limit one blogpost per user on the front page? So as soon as someone creates another popular blog it replaces the one before instead of you showing 4 blogs of the same person there? This way you could keep the front page simple and not overloaded, but feature more people and give others the chance too to get seen. It would discourage creators to create countless posts just to increase traffic.
As you might know the study section has the "newest" section and it is great, but in case a lot of people create something new at the same time it may immediately disappear on page 2. Hopefully you can work something out for blogs that makes sense when prefering this solution. However whatever it is, thank you for reading, reacting and considering something, whatever it may be, it would help.
> That said, the overall attitude shown in this thread is something I can't support.
Understood. Noted. Sorry. There is some frustration leading to this. Please keep reading:
> It undermines any reasonable argument you might have about improving the algorithm, as does bringing up irrelevant information like how much a blog author make coaching. Why would I care if somebody charges $300/hour for coaching? Good for them! What matters here is how good the blogs are, or more precisely, to what extent Lichess users find them interesting or useful.
I just want to say that it DOES play a role, because people doing it for a lot of money only tend to create content in a way that it is pleasing the algorithm by creating a lot, using keywords and so on. It is not irrelevant what the purpose of the blog is. Do they have something to say too or is their only objective to increase traffic by pushing the right buttons of the algorithm? Do people click on them or do they actually find it useful? And most importantly is it helpful? There can be a big difference. Look at the like/view ratio, often it is not even half of that of small creators. 12.000 views and 250 likes. Once the blog is at the front page they get pushed and all the people can only click on their blog increasing views, which doesn't mean they would if there were other topics there aswell to choose from.
The same phenomenon of bubbles and reinforcing algorithm work is known on countless social media platforms like youtube, facebook, instagram and so on where people try to use the system. One example is people posting a short video and naming it "what is your favourite color" to increase comments and engagement despite the video having nothing to do with it and them not caring about it. Because more comments = better algorithm result. Or titles like "how to win with the caro-kann" will get clicked more often and appear more often. Now only someone who is in it solely for money would ever do something like this. As I said I have nothing against people earning money. But it does influence the way they are posting. I am glad that you have space to advertise your service, but it shouldn't be the case that people do it for that reason ALONE and that is the case when they offer such expensive coaching, clearly.
@MrPushwood has said it in #4