I’ve noticed that the digest seems to bias toward ranking the most recent posts within the week higher up. If this is indeed a feature of the digest, as opposed to a misobservation on my part, and if it’s an intentional feature, then to me this seems less good than simply picking and ranking the best posts from the week, with no bias in the rankings based on publication time within the week.
Restating the above more concretely: The digest is normally sent out on a Wednesday. Posts published right before the digest is sent out (e.g., posts published on the Tuesday) appear to be systematically ranked higher than if they had been published earlier (e.g., the previous Thursday).
If the aim of the digest is to highlight the best content from the whole week, then this bias toward the most recent posts within the week—if it indeed exists—seems out of place. This bias may also incentivize Forum users to publish on certain days of the week (e.g., Tuesday). Such an incentive strikes me as odd.
I’ve noticed that the digest seems to bias toward ranking the most recent posts within the week higher up. If this is indeed a feature of the digest, as opposed to a misobservation on my part, and if it’s an intentional feature, then to me this seems less good than simply picking and ranking the best posts from the week, with no bias in the rankings based on publication time within the week.
Restating the above more concretely: The digest is normally sent out on a Wednesday. Posts published right before the digest is sent out (e.g., posts published on the Tuesday) appear to be systematically ranked higher than if they had been published earlier (e.g., the previous Thursday).
If the aim of the digest is to highlight the best content from the whole week, then this bias toward the most recent posts within the week—if it indeed exists—seems out of place. This bias may also incentivize Forum users to publish on certain days of the week (e.g., Tuesday). Such an incentive strikes me as odd.