I’ve noticed that the current sorting algorithms prioritize posts based on votes, which can sometimes lead to posts with high votes but few comments dominating the feed. This may not accurately reflect user engagement. On the other hand, sorting by “Most Comments” disregards votes entirely. I believe Lemmy should consider taking into account multiple user engagement metrics in their algorithms like comments, votes, time spent on a post, etc. What are your thoughts on this? Would you prefer a new sorting algorithm that combines various metrics, adjustments to existing algorithms to include more metrics, or do you like the current sorting algorithms available the way they are?
Building on this, I wonder if you could add a setting to customize your own algorithms. You could weight a variety of different metrics.
This is not possible because sorting is done in the database, so adding a new sort option requires a database migration with new indexes, columns and updated queries. Not something that can be done with a simple plugin.
@nutomic@lemmy.ml in https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/3936#issuecomment-1738847763
An alternative approach could involve utilizing an API endpoint that provides metadata for recent posts, allowing users to implement custom sorting logic on their client side using JavaScript. This API endpoint is currently accessible only to moderators and administrators
There is already such an API endpoint which is available for mods and admins.