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The thing is, if AO3 did have an algorithm, it would look very different.
Users would spend far more time trying to game the algorithm, so you’d get very different posting patterns.
Algorithms are 10% convenience and 90% the illusion of convenience. I do think there’s some convenience. I get where you’re coming from, but they encourage all kinds of bad behavior.
Just to pick a rather silly example, youtubers who spend a lot of time educating that stays are not corsets have to title their videos with the word ‘corset’ even when it’s about making 17thC stays because the algorithm won’t put their content in front of people if they don’t.
Oh, Ao3 certainly has some kind of algorithm at work if you use the search function rather than listing by tag. Every site has its cryptic algorithms at work somewhere to decide which interests are more worthwhile to its users than others.
#also was reminded that ao3 really should exclude explicit fics by default#(or fics that tick off certain content warnings…)
No, it really should not. This isn’t FFN.
AO3 is built to be the place that houses everything, especially the things that are hard to house elsewhere.
If someone doesn’t want to see a given rating, whether low or high, they can exclude it themselves.
AO3 is not in the business of guessing your tastes for you.
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