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The new front page claims:

Interesting posts for you
Based on your viewing history and watched tags.

And then it shows a tonne of stuff (50+ posts) I have zero interest in, with zero matches of my watched tags. Out of that I found exactly 2 posts which I had interest in which also matched some of my tags.

Possible scenarios:

  • The text on the front page lies and there is actually no matching between users and content - this is simply the same old front page as before. If this is the case, please remove the misleading text.
  • There is a matching between users and content but it is completely and utterly broken. If this is the case, please remove the misleading text along with the this supposed matching feature, until it is fixed.
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    It's just incomplete: "Loosely based on your viewing history and watched tag". Or maybe it's the same "based on" as the Hollywood "based on a true story"
    – VLAZ
    Commented Nov 1, 2024 at 9:36
  • @VLAZ I find that very hard to believe. Before the re-make the site highlighted actually interesting posts in the flood of uninteresting stuff. And now it doesn't. That appears to be the only change afaik. If it ain't broken then lets break it...
    – Lundin
    Commented Nov 1, 2024 at 9:47
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    I hope btw that for the "Based on your viewing history" part, the Posts we handle as Reviewers in the 'Staging Ground' are/will not (be) taken into account for that Algorithm... (As we come across a lot of "random" Tags in the 'SG', even encouraged to do so for the 'Variety Reviewer' Badge... I also sometimes add an Upvote for Posts I handle and approve in the 'SG', or even "follow for a while" on 'Main' once approved, to check how they go, and if I missed anything (MRE + Input Data + Log (needed or not) / correct Tags / etc) in the 'SG''. But I wouldn't be interested in those Tags.)
    – chivracq
    Commented Nov 1, 2024 at 10:06
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    "this is simply the same old front page as before" already showed content based on the user's preferences or perceived interests.
    – kaya3
    Commented Nov 1, 2024 at 15:12
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    Removing the misleading text (which presumably means replacing it with truthful text) is obviously not the right solution. Otherwise mine would say "Frustratingly irrelevant posts to annoy you." The only acceptable solution is to improve relevance.
    – Wyck
    Commented Nov 8, 2024 at 21:14
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    As another possibility: they could leave the text as is but stop displaying questions below it.
    – NoDataDumpNoContribution
    Commented Nov 30, 2024 at 18:17
  • My userscript (stackapps.com/q/10634/67095) changes that to "suggested posts for you" :)
    – M--
    Commented Dec 5, 2024 at 0:30
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    @M--: Can you tweak your script to make it: "Posts of No particular interest to you" ?
    – einpoklum
    Commented Jan 22 at 11:26
  • @einpoklum I'd rather not, but it's easy enough to tweak if you want that: github.com/MdoubleDash/SOS_Userscripts/blob/…
    – M--
    Commented Jan 22 at 16:34
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    3 months into this UX nightmare. Any reversal in view already? It simply is worse in all respects, and all users seem to agree.
    – jsbueno
    Commented Jan 23 at 12:33
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    This was fixed as described in JNat's answer. 'pologies for the delayed update. That's on me.
    – Slate StaffMod
    Commented Jan 31 at 19:38
  • @Slate It still lies though. It only displays 4 interesting posts, followed by 46 likely uninteresting posts.
    – Lundin
    Commented Feb 3 at 10:21
  • @Slate I get 1 interesting followed 1 uninteresting followed by 2 interesting and then the rest are very uninteresting/irrelevant to me
    – Peter Smith
    Commented Feb 3 at 11:39
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    @Slate Kindly remove the status-completed tag since this is once again broken for some reason and back to square one.
    – Lundin
    Commented Apr 30 at 6:20
  • @Lundin was it ever even actually completed? AFAIK, the only change was to add 4 questions from watched tags on top and that's it. Which obviously doesn't fix the whole of the feed. There was also talk about some magic that picks only interesting questions for you. But even if I doubt that is feasible, I don't think there was any change for the non-top 4 tags.
    – VLAZ
    Commented Apr 30 at 6:25

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
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The text is just a lie right now, the question selection algorithm is the exact same as before. As confirmed by Staff in this comment by Piper:

[Interesting posts for you] is actually using the same logic that the old homepage was using! No changes. [...]

And further elaborated on by SpencerG:

Correct, its not really accurate at this stage. Though, my understanding is that we are pretty close to completing that part.

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    Except it no longer visually highlights questions with my watched tags. So not the same, just worse.
    – Sebastian Redl
    Commented Nov 4, 2024 at 8:35
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    It seems to me that the staff tends to constantly argue errors away. It is not the first time. This bug makes Stack Overflow literally unusable for question askers, because why should a responder suddenly have to search for questions they would be willing to answer? That's what tags are for: to filter relevant questions. I'm surprised that, in times of AI, such a relaxed approach is being taken, especially since AI is already causing Stack Overflow to lose relevance.
    – Bevor
    Commented Nov 8, 2024 at 7:35
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    @SebastianRedl Piper was referring to the logic used to decide which question to show being the same, not the UI/UX being the same.
    – TylerH
    Commented Dec 4, 2024 at 14:59
  • if they said selection algorithm is the same as before, they are just lying too. 3 months in: things are not better - and yes it did impact my interaction with S.O. - the extra two clicks to be able to switch to see the tags I am following do make a difference in finding interesting questions to interact with.
    – jsbueno
    Commented Jan 23 at 12:30
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I'm annoyed by this "Interesting posts for you" for you stuff. Nothing I see is "Interesting posts for me".

I simply don't understand how hard it can be to do this correct. I have 3 watched tags - Is it hard to show me things with my watched tag?

But I get posts with tags that I don't even know what's about.

Had this design been open for votes, I'm sure it would be a record down vote.

Step up...

Edit

To be fair... After scrolling approx. 25 question down with tags I never visited, there was actual one question matching my watched tags. Great work :-(

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    It's no longer the site it was; I am extremely disappointed
    – Peter Smith
    Commented Nov 29, 2024 at 20:05
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    Record down vote indeed. One of the worst in the site’s history, actually.
    – Anerdw
    Commented Nov 30, 2024 at 14:35
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    "I simply don't understand how hard it can be to do this correct." Really? I think it's impossible to do this well because with all the mediocre to bad questions even the best system would maybe not show any questions at all. They can only work with what is there.
    – NoDataDumpNoContribution
    Commented Nov 30, 2024 at 18:16
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I've started just ignoring tags that aren't interesting to me. My home page now has 70/96 questions that are "relevant" (has one of my watched tags in it). Whether they are of "interest" to me is another question, but it's a step up.

Large list of ignored tags Small list of watched tags

And yes.. I'd rather add 100 tags to my ignore list than have to go through 4 clicks to filter by my watched tags.

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I really wish there would be an option to only display watched tags. That way I could see them with just a single click on the site logo. Currently it takes a whopping 5:

  1. Expand sidebar
  2. Click "questions"
  3. Click "filter"
  4. Select "my watched tags" because it is a single (!) option that is not remembered, unlike all other toggles
  5. Click "apply filter"

Algorithmic feeds you have no real control over are the bane of the modern internet.

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2

As cafce25’s answer denotes, the current behavior of the "interesting posts for you" algorithm is not different from that of the old "interesting" tab. As noted, that makes the current description in the page misleading, so we’ll be implementing an actually customized “Interesting posts for you” feed based on your explicitly watched tags. The intent is that this feed better serves the currently active users’ needs, and helps newer and less active users interact with the platform and posts more deeply.

Who is affected by the change?

All registered users who have at least one watched tag will see changes to the feed. Users with zero watched tags will not see any changes to their experience. The change will be rolled out gradually to all users, with full deployment targeted for the end of January 2025.

What will the update look like?

The update is limited to the “Interesting posts for you” feed on the homepage, and will not touch any other question views. The idea is to make sure the feed actually shows posts that are interesting for you, so it will be updated to display content with tags that you watch at the top:

  • the top 4 posts should be reserved for tags that are explicitly watched, which will be further sorted using logic that looks at age, views, number of answers, and upvotes on the question
    • if there are fewer than 4 results related to watched tags, the feed will display as many results as available, and then default to the next appropriate result defined by the current logic
    • if there are no results to show, the current logic will dictate what the feed displays
  • the view will be dynamically updated if there is new activity in the posts that feed it
  • if a question contains a watched tag but also an ignored tag, the post will not show up on the feed
  • Staging Ground posts will continue to be sprinkled throughout, being able to displace the top 4 results

I’ll update this post once the change begins to be rolled out and when it is completed.

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    Only the top 4, well that makes me cry. Say that the entire page would work like that - which is exactly what I would expect and nothing less. The chance that the list actually contains a question which is not a duplicate or off-topic is pretty slim. But if I get presented with say 25 items that are based on my tags, maybe there is something worthwhile in there every once in a while. With only the top 4 working like that there is no chance.
    – Gimby
    Commented Jan 15 at 15:34
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    Does this mean we need to scroll down to the bottom of the page and hit next page to get the next 4 watched?
    – Kevin B
    Commented Jan 15 at 19:36
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    "the current behavior of the page is not different from that on the old homepage" That doesn't match my experience. I used to use the old homepage all the time to find questions that were actually interesting to me. It did a really good job of showing me questions that the system thought were relevant to my interests, based on what tags the system thought were interesting to me. Note that these were different from the tags I'd explicitly marked/listed to watch. Now, the homepage shows me a bunch of stuff the system should know I'm not interested in, because I never vote on, ask, or answer …
    – Cody Gray Mod
    Commented Jan 16 at 0:57
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    …posts with these tags. But maybe this change happened at some point other than this homepage redesign? It used to be that I could access/download a list of the tags that the system thought were interesting to me from my SO profile, but I can no longer find that option. Was that removed at some other point? Again, I'm not talking about tags that I've added manually to my watch list, but rather tags that the system decided I was interested in based on my activity. It used to be highly accurate. It'd be a real shame if that was removed, but would explain why the homepage is now useless.
    – Cody Gray Mod
    Commented Jan 16 at 0:58
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    OK, I finally found breadcrumbs. Blog post that announced it. And the thing that used to be linked from my user profile. Dunno if it's still linked somewhere & I just can't find it. Apparently, it's called "tag future(s)". And, looking at it, I see I've falsely blamed the homepage redesign. It thinks I prefer to answer [ruby], [ruby-on-rails], [java], [spring], etc. and not interested in [c++], [c#], [windows], etc. It's like the complete opposite! Last updated in 2014, hmm.
    – Cody Gray Mod
    Commented Jan 16 at 1:18
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    "if a question contains a watched tag but also an ignored tag, the post will not show up on the feed" on that note, the site design is hostile towards ignoring tags. Sure, you can get to it but it's increasingly like being put in the cellar, where there is no light, no stairs. At the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the Leopard". If you intend users to be using ignored tags, consider not trying to hide the functionality more and more and instead expose it.
    – VLAZ
    Commented Jan 16 at 8:22
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    @CodyGray you are pretty much spot on. From what I was able to piece together: The interesting tab was introduced with what the system thought users would like (operating at a tag-level). Over time the code around the underlying ML model changed (with things like prioritisation being affected, staging ground posts introduced) plus the model itself was not updated - removing the confidence we have in it. The current version of the homepage kept the interesting tab as-is (related post). Watched tags still affect it to the same extent.
    – gcasar StaffMod
    Commented Jan 16 at 11:33
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    Thanks, @gcasar. That's rather unfortunate. The "interesting" page used to be an incredibly useful feature for me, as it solved one of the biggest problems with the firehose of SO: surfacing questions that were highly likely to be actually interesting for me to read and/or answer. Which is exactly what I (as a user) and SO as a company wants. I can completely understand how things might evolve over time, with, as you mentioned, adding SG posts and/or tweaking prioritization. But not updating a model that was already working, IME, shockingly well, seems like a mistake. Maybe I'll post a FR.
    – Cody Gray Mod
    Commented Jan 16 at 16:42
  • This seems broken and leads to duplicate items
    – Bergi
    Commented Jan 29 at 19:24
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    It should say: "Interesting posts for you based on your viewing history and watched tags.: <4 posts> Uninteresting posts for you based on randomness: <46 posts>"
    – Lundin
    Commented Feb 3 at 10:19
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    This is completely broken again for some reason. Not even 4 interesting posts, 100% uninteresting crap once again.
    – Lundin
    Commented Apr 30 at 6:19

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