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Comment by internetter

7 months ago

I’m working on a pinboard competitor (that is, essentially, just reviving development of it)

One thing I want to look into is ranking algorithms based on individual engagement. So, if you save lots of stories from a site, it ranks higher. If lots of people save stories from a site, it also ranks higher, ect

And... when the bots come and "engage", what will you do?

  • 1. Voting rings are one of the easiest types of spam to detect. Of course, the bigger the service the better the bots, but that problem specifically is a later issue

    2. Zero tolerance to bots

    3. The service is not free

    4. Individuals have very little impact on the rankings of other users, so you need to pay for a lot of bots

    I believe that the true problem with bots on, say, twitter, is that they have perverse incentives to 'boost engagement' and whatever by allowing the bots to run rampant.

    • > The service is not free

      That may fix things on its own ;)

      Now would I pay to see what other people 'engage' with? I'd probably associate it with the likes of facebook/twitter/other social networking crap and I'd just move along...