The Conundrum of the "Top X" Articles 🤔

Publish Date: Dec 8 '23

59 31

In the vast ocean of programming and technology, we all strive to stay afloat. DEV has emerged as one of the foremost platforms for developers to share knowledge, exchange ideas, and learn from one another. However, the platform's recent trend of "Top X Extensions You Must Know" or "Top Y GitHub Repositories For Junior Developers" posts may be causing more harm than good, particularly for inexperienced developers.

The FOMO Effect: The Fear of Missing Out, or FOMO, is a fairly common phenomenon in our ever-connected world. In the context of technology and programming, it manifests as the worry that you're missing out on key resources, tools, or information that could make you a more competent professional. The abundance of "must-know" posts on DEV might be unintentionally amplifying this anxiety among developers, especially those just starting in their tech journey.

The Impact: While these posts might seem helpful on the surface, they often lead to information overload and decision paralysis. Developers might find themselves spending more time agonizing over which tools or resources to focus on, rather than actually learning and applying new skills. This not only hampers their progress, but can also lead to burnout and decreased motivation.

The Algorithm Factor: The prevalence of these posts is likely influenced by the platform's algorithm, which typically favours popular and high-engagement content. This creates a vicious cycle where more of this type of content is produced and promoted, thereby exacerbating the issue.

Moving Forward: It is crucial for us, as a community, to recognize this problem and work towards a more balanced content ecosystem. We need to shift our focus from quantity to quality, and from "must-know" to "good-to-know". It's about time we start creating content that truly adds value to a developer's journey, without adding to their stress.

Conclusion: As content creators, it's our responsibility to ensure that our work aids, not hinders, the growth of our fellow developers. Let's start a conversation about how we can achieve this on DEV and other similar platforms. What are your thoughts on this issue? How can we make the DEV community more valuable and less overwhelming for every developer?

Remember, in the grand scheme of things, being a great developer is not about knowing every tool or resource out there. It's about problem-solving, creativity, and continuous learning. Let's focus on fostering these essential skills, and the rest will follow.

Comments 31 total

KeffDec 8, 2023
I totally agree, well worded! It's also infuriating for advanced developers, that struggle to find quality articles.
- Jon Randy 🎖️Dec 9, 2023
  Yup, ChatGPT words things very well sometimes!
  - KeffDec 9, 2023
    It might, but I don't really care if it is. This is something that needs to be addressed in one way or another. If AI convinces the mods and community to do something, then it's a good thing I guess.
Basti OrtizDec 8, 2023
Thanks for bringing this up. This has been an issue for DEV—and frankly every other aggregator site—since time immemorial. The frustrating part about this (evergreen) trend is the fact that it works! Now, I'm not sure which way the implication goes:
- Does the "Algorithm" inherently perpetuate these kinds of articles?
- Or are these kinds of articles just inherently rich with engagement opportunities so much so that any kind of "Algorithm" boosts them?
Personally, I subscribe to the latter implication. I do not doubt that the DEV team has been combatting this issue for years now. In fact, this is far from the first #discuss post that raises the same issue. As far as I can tell, the DEV team has been (and is still doing) their best to clean up the feed—may it be through tweaking the parameters of the "Algorithm" or simply by having its army of Trusted Members actively downvoting the overly clickbait-y content.

And thus I conclude that these kinds of articles are just inherently rich with engagement—through no fault of the platform! I believe this is because:
- Overloaded listicles invite the reader to bookmark them, lest they miss out on the 25 Must-Know X and Y for 2023.
  
  This is in addition to the numerous reactions that one can give to a post: ❤, 🦄, 🤯, 🙌, and 🔥!
  
  In the worst-case scenario, a single reader can bookmark + send five reactions in one fell swoop. Admittedly, this might be the fault of the DEV platform for enabling this kind of gamification.
- The comments section is often full of thank-you notes. This is not inherently bad, by the way! However, it does have the effect of artificially boosting engagement.
  
  As a corollary, authors will reply to those thank-you notes. Again, this is not inherently bad! But it does artificially boost engagement.
- Listicles often include links to many other projects and tools. From an SEO perspective, this is a gold mine for page rankings based on keywords. This results in even more impressions!
In conclusion, don't hate the player; hate the game! Listicles are so rampant because they really work! Now, the naïve solution is to just ban all posts whose titles start with "Top X", but that's unnecessarily hostile and heavy-handed. So what is the solution then?

I have no silver bullet here, but I think it starts with the Trusted Members. Just as the regular folk upvote and engage with low-quality listicles, Trusted Members are equally culpable for the degradation of the platform's health if we fail to downvote them as aggressively. Now, of course, we can automate this process of detecting and downvoting listicles with artificial intelligence, but those are just implementation details.

My overall point is: we all have a part to play in this. It is so easy to blame the DEV platform and the "Algorithm" for something that's inherently highly engaging (e.g., listicles). Such is the nature of the Internet, unfortunately. Facebook has known this fact for decades already. No amount of manual moderation can scale up to the level of curation that we desire.

The way I see it: the most practical way to combat the problem (without AI) is to bolster the presence of Trusted Members. And of course, this does not mean to arbitrarily add more Trusted Members; that would be ill-advised. It all comes down to us—the users—at the end of the day. The DEV feed is a reflection of the posts we engage (and disengage) with. If we insist on a DEV feed that's more quality than quantity, we all have a part to play into making that a reality. There is no magic silver bullet for this problem that requires zero human intervention.
Michael TharringtonDec 8, 2023
Hey Rafał! You've offered a really thoughtful breakdown — appreciate you starting up this conversation. 🙂

I just wanted to acknowledge that we are listening in and totally agree that this is an important topic and challenge for us to overcome. We really want to surface the best content we can for folks and agree that the kinds of articles you're calling out should not steal the spotlight.

Anywho, a team member brought up your post in Slack and you can bet that we'll be discussing and thinking about ways that we can improve the mechanisms and procedures we have for uplifting good content to individuals.

I'll keep tuned to the comments here as well as we're very open to feedback in this regard.
- Jon Randy 🎖️Dec 9, 2023
  You realise an AI wrote most of this article?
  - Ingo Steinke, web developerDec 11, 2023
    AI is just another tool. You probably wouldn't understand some of my English sentences if I didn't use Grammarly. If someone uses AI to generate good posts or even innovative work, let them. But those who abuse AI to create more crap, they are part of the problem.
  - Michael TharringtonDec 11, 2023
    Nope, I don't realize that. It's genuinely not obvious to me that this was written by a bot.
    
    Perhaps they used a tool to help with their writing but the conversation here feels relevant and about happenings on DEV. I think these are genuinely the author's feelings about the site and I don't think their intentions are to generate articles for personal gain, to promote a business, to deceive others, etc. There is some grey area here and if (big IF, because I still don't see evidence of it) this article was created with assistance from AI, I'd still think its pros outweigh its cons... it's a conversation worth having!
    
    I really don't think it's beneficial to stop this type of discussion from happening or to get too hyperfocused on whether or not the content in the article was created with AI assistance. The primary reasons we worry about folks using AI to write articles are when they're pushing bad information and/or talking about things that they have no idea about, flooding us with lots of low-effort content in a short amount of time, using AI-created content as a vehicle to boost themselves or a business, and/or being purposefully deceptive in an attempt to harm. In this instance, I really am not seeing a downside to this type of post and don't feel like it's worth investigating further because it's a good, helpful conversation for us to have.
    - Jon Randy 🎖️Dec 12, 2023
      I never suggested taking it down, or that it hadn't started a good conversation. I merely suggested that the poster should adhere to the guidelines for such content 👍
      - John Johnson OkahDec 12, 2023
        Well addressed.
Ben HalpernDec 8, 2023
We have some big improvements on this front rolling out.

Integrating some much smarter AI tools to explicitly favor less click-baity content and separate signal from noise. Won't be a silver bullet, but is the biggest improvement we've ever made.
- Yeom suyunDec 9, 2023
  Given the nature of the industry, a significant portion of community members is likely composed of beginners.
  It seems like "Top X" is a magic keyword that attracts them.
  How can we distinguish such posts?
  Classifying them through arbitrary judgment might introduce overly subjective opinions into the algorithm.
  - John Johnson OkahDec 12, 2023
    I am sure the algorithm would neither be arbitrary nor subjective. I think it would be great.
    And everyone appreciates quality in the long run, even beginners.
- Jon Randy 🎖️Dec 9, 2023
  Will it recognise AI written/assisted articles... like this one?!
  - tnypxlDec 9, 2023
    Generative AI has been proven it can’t recognize the patterns of its own output with any reliability. I would not count on it even if it did.
  - John Johnson OkahDec 12, 2023
    There are other AI-written/assisted articles out there you need to be bothered about. The author of this post is spilling facts.
KaamkiyaDec 9, 2023
Even though I know that they're clickbait, they always have so many emojis and awesome thumbnails that I can't help but read them. It's so annoying. (I do still read other articles, though.)
BestCodesDec 9, 2023
I could not agree more. This community needs to stop making stereotype posts and make some good, quality posts like the experts DEVs they are.

I seriously had to set my level up to “Expert” just to even see something even remotely to a fairly new DEV like me.

The worst thing about posts like those is that they WORK. People look at them, they get popular, and real content doesn't get the attention it deserves.

Thanks for making this post; in my opinion, it very clearly states the issues on this community. As you said,
Remember, in the grand scheme of things, being a great developer is not about knowing every tool or resource out there. It's about problem-solving, creativity, and continuous learning. Let's focus on fostering these essential skills, and the rest will follow.

Best Regards!
Best_codes
Jon Randy 🎖️Dec 9, 2023
Hi there. This post reads a lot like it was generated or strongly assisted by AI. If so, please consider amending it to comply with the DEV.to guidelines concerning such content...

From "The DEV Community Guidelines for AI-Assisted and -Generated Articles":
AI-assisted and -generated articles should…

Be created and published in good faith, meaning with honest, sincere, and harmless intentions.

Disclose the fact that they were generated or assisted by AI in the post, either upfront using the tag #ABotWroteThis or at any point in the article’s copy (including right at the end). - For example, a conclusion that states “Surprise, this article was generated by ChatGPT!” or the disclaimer “This article was created with the help of AI” would be appropriate.

Ideally add something to the conversation regarding AI and its capabilities. Tell us your story of using the tool to create content, and why!
- Rafał GoławskiDec 9, 2023
  I understand you're passionate about this, but the constant AI speculation in over 30 comments is getting a bit much! 😅 Let's stay positive and report any concerns to the moderators. We're all working together to make DEV awesome.
  - Jon Randy 🎖️Dec 9, 2023
    Unfortunately, the mods seem to be doing almost nothing about it... but I do understand it's tricky given the tidal wave of AI generated 'content' swamping the site.
    
    I even caught a moderator posting purely AI generated content without tagging it 😞
    
    Mostly it isn't speculation - putting the article headers through ChatGPT often turns up near identical content. This post being an example of such.
    
    Very often when I point out that a post is probably AI generated, the poster removes the post entirely rather than admit to it. To me, that seems like they're ashamed of using it.
    
    Whilst this post has generated a necessary conversation, it would be doing even more to help improve the site if it adhered to the AI guidelines.
    - John Johnson OkahDec 12, 2023
      Please can you point out what exactly makes you think this post is AI-written?
      
      Or you know what, I don't care. Let's stick to the subject of this article, and Make DEV.to great again.
      
      Also, don't forget to take off that medal beside your name, it's misleading.
  - John Johnson OkahDec 12, 2023
    Please just ignore him. You brought up a very important subject.
    He is trying to start a fire in the wrong place.
    
    It seems like he is the one trying to game the system because the medal emoji 🎖️beside his name made me think he was either the author or an admin.
  - Mike Talbot ⭐Dec 12, 2023
    I disagree with this. @jonrandy is respectfully pointing out the potential that some content is AI generated and is not following the guidelines, if he's done it 30 times, good on him. Someone has to do this, as literally nobody seems to follow the guidelines.
    
    AI generated content is a real waste of time on this site and elsewhere, it's adding very little if it's used to completely create an entire article - obviously it's fine as an assistant, but our guidelines require that we make this obvious.
    
    If, for some reason, an article looks like AI content and 100% isn't, perhaps don't shoot bullets at the people trying to prevent this scourge, but politely deny it. If you used AI for any part of it, then declare it, as our community requires.
- John Johnson OkahDec 12, 2023
  Hi Ron, nobody gives a shit if this post is AI-generated. This subject is too important for you to keep bringing this up.
  - Jon Randy 🎖️Dec 12, 2023
    AI generated content is as big, if not a bigger problem than listicles on the site. You can spot listicles just from their post titles, whereas AI generated 'content' requires you to waste your time opening the post, and read a couple of paragraphs before it becomes gratingly obvious - far more annoying. Dev has guidelines on posting AI stuff (you're supposed to label it) which - if followed - make it much easier for it to be filtered out.
    
    In no way is all AI generated content crap (despite the fact it often is the verbal equivalent of someone running their fingernails down a blackboard) - some of it generates a good conversation - this post being a good example of the latter.
    
    I thought it was a good idea to bring in the topic of machine generated content here (on a post about improving content quality that was getting a lot of engagement) as it is a related and - to my mind - much bigger problem that Dev has.
    
    All of this being said, I have noticed a marked improvement over the last couple of days in the overall quality of content appearing. @michaeltharrington @ben - have you switched the new functionality on? It seems like you may have
    - John Johnson OkahDec 12, 2023
      I get your point.
      
      But I believe this post has a genuine intention and no currently existing AI can write all of this. It has a human touch, and I can feel it.
      
      Also, the author's first language is probably not English. And if he used an AI as a copilot to write this article to share his opinion, I think it's fair enough and should not be considered an "AI-generated crap".
      - Jon Randy 🎖️Dec 12, 2023
        Totally agree. The author has certainly added a lot of his own personality to a post that was almost certainly assisted by AI. I just wish more people would use it this way, instead of copy pasting almost the entirety of what these models generate (which seems to be the case in most such posts).
        
        It's a difficult one to manage, and I hope the improvements that @ben mentioned have the desired outcome of returning Dev to some of its former greatness. However, if they fail to do so, I do think that the guidelines for AI generated/assisted content are an excellent idea and should be more rigorously enforced.
Arek NawoDec 9, 2023
This is a much-needed discussion, so thanks for bringing it up - whether through an AI-assisted post or not. 😅

There have always been a lot of "Top X" articles, but I've also noticed the recent increase. What's worse, I think some are playing the DEV algorithm to their advantage.

Many of these articles have their reactions/bookmarks "maxed out", i.e. it's very visible that a few users gave all 5 reactions possible, and also bookmarked the post. On top of that, these stats grow rapidly in the first hour of the post being published. That's not a typical behavior and likely indicates a group of people trying to prop up the post (e.g. for marketing efforts). This, in turn, puts the post at the top and drives the actual engagement.

Now, asking your friends and colleagues to upvote your post isn't something bad in and of itself, but it seems to be an organized and repeated effort, that seems to feature articles of lesser and lesser quality over time.

On the other hand, I'm also not fully opposed to "Top X" articles. I found them useful many times, whether looking for a tool in a new category or doing some research.

I'm also guilty of writing a few of my own, though, in recent times, I tried to both limit it and, when writing one, focus on a few options only, in greater detail. I feel like such "Top 3s" can deliver more value and insight than "Top 50", which is not much better than a Web search.

All in all, the DEV algorithm should be changed to prevent these articles from getting to the top of the feed so often. Some possible suggestions:
- Make only a single reaction per user count;
- Disable upvoting posts of an organization I'm in;
- Somehow better control reactions that are added in the first hour of publishing a post;
If these changes work, fewer of these posts will be getting to top, there will be less incentive to write these, and there will be a greater variety of authors and topics reaching the top of the feed.
John Johnson OkahDec 12, 2023
Our posts should be a documentation of the beautiful journey as a developer.
Christine Belzie Dec 13, 2023
Thanks for writing this insightful post @rgolawski! :) FOMO is a major reason why I've considered writing "Top X" style articles, but what has stopped me from doing so is they generate conversations that tend to be superficial (e.g., I think X is a better source for learning JavaScript). So, I wonder what can be an alternative to this type of article?

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Rafał Goławski @rgolawski

The Conundrum of the "Top X" Articles 🤔

Comments 31 total