Show HN: A credibility-based social platform (no Likes) to fight misinformation

4 pointsposted 3 days ago
by whatsyoursource
(noblenews.io)

15 Comments

whatsyoursource

3 days ago

One thing I’m especially interested in feedback on: bias and clustering.

If higher-credibility users end up concentrated in one ideological group, and lower-credibility in another, how should a system like this handle it?

Right now the design doesn’t attempt to enforce “balance.” Instead, it exposes the credibility scores transparently, lets users set their own filters, and tracks credibility at multiple levels (user, post, and domain). But I’d love thoughts from this community on whether that’s enough — or if more guardrails are needed.

robwwilliams

3 days ago

HN is a good model. There is philosophically no credible way to enforce balance—-no common reference points of truth with capital T. But accepting a plurality of views that are shared dispassionately may be achieved. Hacker News usually succeeds.

whatsyoursource

3 days ago

Yeah, I agree. And I'm not sure balance is the desired goal. It may turn out that way, but I am more interested in lots of various viewpoints and reasoned discourse.

I am also interested to see how behaviour changes once your cred is online. I always think about how people behave behind the wheel of their car versus in-person.

jaggs

3 days ago

This is really nice. Love the interface, although I would suggest a super compact mode for those who scan feeds fast. I've applied for waitlist.

whatsyoursource

3 days ago

Thanks! This is still beta, so had to do a "pretty" interface first. I do like the idea of choosing your interface. Personally, I'd choose something like HN.

You are now approved for the beta. Enjoy, and let me know what you think.

jaggs

3 days ago

Thanks, I'll take a look. For me, the best interface is old.reddit.com, precisely because it's possible to scan a huge amount of news in a very short space of time. I don't need fancy white space, large images and other stuff. Just gimme the meat and a small thumbnail. This is maybe because I hail from the RSS generation? :)

whatsyoursource

3 days ago

This one is definitely tucked away for later. I spend a lot of time in my terminal and also look for a terminal-based app or tui first. And there are some things I can do with RSS, just not in this first version.

jaggs

3 days ago

OK, so I've been browsing around and bookmarked it for when I'm off the phone.

First thoughts

1. Gorgeous interface. Bad... Really clunky to navigate around, especially on mobile. Each post takes multiple seconds to parse and access, where it should be MUCH shorter IMO.

2. Too much functionality scattered around the interface drowns out the key items.

For example, you've buried the Follow (Subscriptions?) function in amongst a bunch of other less important things like Cred Desk and Notifications.

It makes things confusing.

3. I'm not sure what the purpose of the Article Cred slider is at the top of the Front page. That's the most important space on your app, and you've given it over to something confusing and probably not so valuable?

Why not use that to section to highlight the top 3 functions people will want to use? Maybe News Stream, Subscriptions and Favorites or something?

Just my first impressions. Gorgeous app, but I probably won't just it until it comes with a super condensed mode so I can scan rapidly like I do HN and Reddit old.

whatsyoursource

3 days ago

Awesome. Thanks for the feedback.

1. I understand the frustration. I haven't really done anything for speed and performance yet. It's really an MVP.

2. Good feedback. I'll see what others think as well. There is a bug currently. Each post should have a meatball menu where you can follow another contributor or publisher. It is missing on some cards. The Subscription button in the nav bar is to see a feed of only those you follow.

3. The CRED slider at the top of the Front Page, Bullpen and Cred Desk gives you the ability to filter out content not meeting a minimum cred percentile (different on each feed).

Again, appreciate the feedback.

whatsyoursource

2 days ago

BTW, I have fixed the bug, so now the meatball menu properly shows on all cards in the feeds.

Thanks again for the feedback. Let me know if you have any other issues or suggestions. All feedback is welcome!

user

3 days ago

[deleted]

al_borland

3 days ago

I like the idea.

Have you thought of how you might handle people using the +/- options as an agree/disagree ranking? I’d the site is small, it may be self-policing, but as it grows it can be a problem. Reddit ran into this. The upvote/downvote was supposed to be about if something contributed to the conversation, regardless of your opinion on it, but that eventually broke down. While giving the next on the button itself may help, there is still the possibility of abuse there.

Will votes +/- be weighted by the credibility score of the voter?

Another issue Reddit ran into was selling of accounts. Someone could build an account with a high credibility score and sell it to someone looking to spread misinformation.

whatsyoursource

3 days ago

Your beta access was approved. Confirmation email might have gone to spam.

whatsyoursource

3 days ago

There are currently 2 types of +/-:

Support/Refute - this allows you to assess the credibility of a post, and you must provide a citation. This affects the credibility score of the post.

Trust/Doubt - this allows you to "predict" the credibility of a post, and if it turns out you predicted correctly, your credibility increases. And vice versa.

The +/- actions are designed to have some friction. You are either required to find a supporting/refuting citation, or you are putting your cred on the line.

The "contributed to the conversation" isn't something I am directly addressing, but am hopeful that good actors will stay on topic, and that credibility scores will sort out the good actors from the bad.

Yes, actions are weighted by the cred of the voter.

The selling of accounts is an interesting one. Haven't thought about that. Of course, once misinformation is posted, their cred will go down. One thought is to monitor the cred trend of accounts, and abrupt changes could be looked into.

Thanks for your great feedback.