Facebook will rank comments to make conversations more ‘meaningful’

Facebook will now rank comments to make conversations on public posts more ‘meaningful’

  • Facebook is making some changes to how it displays comments on public posts
  • Comments that get engagement from the original poster will be ranked higher
  • Additionally, comments that are spammy may be ranked lower on public posts
  • Move is part of Facebook’s broader effort to make time spent more ‘meaningful’ 

Facebook is changing how comments appear on its site. 

The social media giant will begin ranking comments on public posts to display ‘relevant’ content.

Facebook hopes the move will also make conversations on the site more meaningful, the firm announced in a recent blog post.

Comments will only be automatically ranked on public posts from public figures, organizations and businesses with a large following. 

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The social media giant will begin ranking comments on public posts to display ‘relevant’ content more prominently and, in turn, make conversations more meaningful

‘We’re always working to ensure that people’s time on Facebook is well spent,’ said Facebook Product Manager Justine Shen. 

‘One way we do this is through ranking, which promotes meaningful conversations by showing people the posts and comments most relevant to them.’

If a comment receives interaction from the Page or account that originally published the post, it’ll be ranked higher. 

Additionally, if the comment or reaction is from a friend of the original poster, it’ll be displayed more prominently.  

Shen also broke down some additional characteristics Facebook considers when determining whether or not a comment is relevant. 

If a comment is violates Facebook’s community standards, or appears to be ‘engagement-bait,’ it might get downranked on a public post. 

Engagement-bait is a tactic where an account attempts to attract engagement by using spammy language. For example, a post that says ‘LIKE if you’re an Aries!’ falls under the category of engagement-bait.

When determining whether or not a comment is ‘relevant,’ Facebook said it will look at things like the type of engagement it receives, whether or not it appears authentic and other details

Facebook has also been soliciting feedback from users around what comments they’d rather see via surveys, so that ‘we can rank those higher,’ Shen said.

Finally, the firm looks at how people interact with different kinds of comments, such as the number of likes or replies they get, or the types of reactions they receive, such as angry, laughing, etc.  

Facebook explained that ranking is automatically enabled for Pages and accounts where they have a lot of followers. 

Users or Pages with smaller followings can still turn on ranking in their settings. 

The move follows Facebook’s earlier efforts to make time spent on the site more meaningful. 

Last January, Facebook announced it would make posts from businesses, brands and media less prominent, so that users can see more content from family and friends. 

‘I’m changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions,’ CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the time of the change.   

Meanwhile, other social media platforms have also increasingly focused on improving the ways in which users interact on their sites. 

Twitter has focused more and more on improving the ‘health of conversations’ by considering a variety of changes, including potentially removing the ‘like’ button.       

HOW FACEBOOK PRIORITIZES FRIENDS IN YOUR NEWS FEED

Up until now, Facebook has prioritized material that its algorithms think people will engage with through comments, ‘likes’ or other ways of showing interest.

But 33-year-old founder Mark Zuckerberg says he wants to change the focus to help users have ‘more meaningful social interactions.’

The move follows his resolution in 2018 to ‘fix’ the site. 

It is also in response to criticism that Facebook and its social media competitors reinforce users’ views on social and political issues.

Critics also say sites like Facebook lead to addictive viewing habits.

Zuckerberg cited research that suggests reading ‘passively’ on social media was damaging for people’s mental health, while interacting proactively with friends was positive.

According to Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s New Feed boss, in practice the change mean

  • Posts from friends and family will get more prominence that video, news, and other content from formal Facebook pages, such as companies and celebrities
  • The number of comments on a post will count more than the number of Likes  
  • Posts where people have spend the time to write lengthy comments will be prioritized over those with only short comments
  • While, news and video will still appear in News Feed, the number of friends sharing it will matter more than its overall popularity

The shift could mean that the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement would go down in the short term.

However, Zuckerberg said it would be better for users and for the business over the long term. 

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