Bluesk, is testing a dislike button on its platform to enhance feed personalization. The feature allows users to thumbs-down posts, directly influencing the content displayed in their feeds, particularly in the Discover tab.
The dislike button functions as a feedback signal designed to refine personalization across the Discover tab and other feeds. By selecting dislikes, users indicate content they prefer to encounter less frequently. This input assists the system in adjusting recommendations based on user preferences. Bluesky detailed this mechanism in a blog post, stating that the option provides insight into types of posts to deprioritize.
Beyond general feed adjustments, dislikes contribute to reply ranking. The system uses this signal to slightly diminish the prominence of low-quality replies, ensuring higher-quality interactions rise in visibility. This targeted application helps maintain a cleaner conversation flow within threads.
Privacy remains a core aspect of the feature. Dislikes remain entirely private, with no indication to the public of what users have disliked or the total number of dislikes any post receives. The signal operates on a localized level, primarily shaping the individual user’s experience. To a limited degree, it extends influence to others within the user’s social neighborhood, fostering subtle communal improvements without broad dissemination.
Bluesky anticipates that this addition will enhance the overall daily scrolling experience by curating more relevant content. The blog post emphasizes that such personalization aims to create a more tailored interaction with the platform.
The Discover tab has faced criticism from power users for featuring an abundance of corny posts that garner numerous likes, often overshadowing more substantive material. This dominance has led to dissatisfaction among frequent visitors to the section.
Writer Mike Pearl, commenting at Gizmodo, observed that effective implementation of the dislike button could significantly alter the Discover tab. He noted that if it successfully filters out disliked posts and subjects, the tab could become something useful and maybe even dangerously addictive.
