You might have missed

[potentiality_26]

Does anyone who's been here all this while know the logic behind the "you might have missed" emails LJ has started sending out?  The posts aren't from people I'm friends with as far as I can tell, and I have no idea what about them makes LJ think I'm interested.
 

Comments

[daria234.livejournal.com]

I think it's imitating twitter or other social media that suggest posts you might like according to some stupid algorithm? I think it's a poor fit for how most ppl use lj, though maybe for the non-fan community in Russia etc. it makes more sense.

[potentiality-26.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's probably it. And you're right- it's really not a great idea in terms of how people actually use LJ, but obviously that hasn't stopped the staff making silly changes before.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I was assuming that they were the most widely-read users of the day or something, but I have no idea really. It’s odd because it’s often fairly personal or mundane entries that I’m being emailed, and really why would I be interested in them when they’re from people that I don’t even know...

[potentiality-26.livejournal.com]

Yeah, exactly! I thought they might have been the most popular entries of day/week or something, but it would be so weird if they were.

[ariss-tenoh.livejournal.com]

I haven't received any. Sorry.

[potentiality-26.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I wonder what you've done differently?

[ariss-tenoh.livejournal.com]

No idea^_^ Maybe I'm not in the category they are targeting.

[potentiality-26.livejournal.com]

LOL I'm amused by the idea that they have some algorithm deciding who would be vulnerable to this kind of campaign or whatever.

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

I went and shut that off. I received one a couple of weeks ago and it freaked me out a bit. :)

*HUGS*

[potentiality-26.livejournal.com]

It's so weird, isn't it?

:)

[kitty_fic]

Hi, not to be creepy, but I totally found your post via one of those emails! (LOL) XD

I'm pretty sure it's based on your friends of friends. That's what it seems to be to me at least.

It is really weird. I didn't even think about looking for a way to turn it off in settings, so it's good to know that's an option at least.

Sorry again to jump in here, but I thought it was humorous when I saw your post in my email asking about it.

[potentiality-26.livejournal.com]

Hi :)

That's so funny that this post was in one of those emails!

Friends of friends seems likely. I just wondered about it because I started getting the emails when I was still posting fics on a few comms but otherwise not using LJ, saying I might have missed these relatively mundane posts from people I'd never heard of.

I'd say emails like those make the most sense on websites like tumblr or twitter, where it's less friend/community based, but when has that stopped LJ before, right?

[kitty_fic]

I remember friends of friends used to be a much bigger deal on LJ. There used to be a page you could go to see a feed of your friend's friends posts... Not sure if that's still a thing at all or not?

Because of that, I guess I didn't think it was that out of place for them to implement this new thing. Except that fell off quite a few years ago... so it was still kind of strange they seemed to be pushing that idea again.

I think you're right they try to follow the trends of tumblr and twitter etc... which really isn't what most people use LJ for. But LJ seems to have a problem understanding it's user base anyway XD

[potentiality-26.livejournal.com]

You can still look at someone else's F-list and see all the entries that aren't locked, but if LJ used to encourage looking through them it must have passed me by.

But yeah, it's definitely not what people really use LJ for. The main reason to stay is that it is different from those sites.