Insights and suggestions for improving Matter City
The latest revamp of Matt City has caused a lot of discussion. I hope these discussions are the light at the end of the tunnel, not the last bit of light at the end of the sunset or the end of the world.
As a long-term user of Matt City, I have enjoyed the benefits of this free publishing platform for several years. I should make some contributions to this platform instead of complaining blindly. The following insights and suggestions are made in pursuit of peace of conscience.
I think that Matt City clearly wants to establish itself as a platform for free publication in the Chinese world. Like many users, I am happy to see this vision come true. However, the discussion caused by Matt City's latest redesign shows that Matt City seems to be groping in the dark, confusing and disappointing many die-hard fans and users.
I noticed that almost all loyal users who spoke out and discussed the topic were frustrated by the decreasing popularity and interaction here (for online media, lack of popularity is often a sign of impending death). In addition, many people were puzzled and even unhappy that Matt City seemed determined to go against the social function of social media and create obstacles for information exchange between users.
It should be said that these are all problems. Serious problems, fatal problems.
At the same time, I would also like to say that although Matt City is not very popular (it has never been very popular), because it is free, it did attract many good writers to write or publish articles, leaving many good articles here. However, due to the design/setting of the social platform, the exposure rate of good writers and good articles in Matt City is scarce, and good articles will soon sink to the bottom of the water, and the chance of seeing the light of day again is as thin as winning the lottery.
Of course, everyone has their own opinions on what is good, and it is difficult (and should not) to generalize. The strange thing is that users of Matt City have a broad consensus on the problem of good articles lacking exposure. This situation has led many users to feel that there are only a few people publishing the same kind of monotonous articles over and over again, so they vote with their feet and leave.
According to Red, a senior user who majored in history and was familiar with the history of Matt City, the 40 or so good writers he noticed not long ago are now only in the single digits. In other words, most of the good writers he noticed have left.
This is no wonder. How many people in this world are willing to talk to the air?
Stop complaining, stop talking nonsense, and give constructive suggestions. Here are some constructive suggestions.
I think Matt City wants to be a platform for free publication with sufficient knowledge, rather than a platform like X (the original Twitter) that encourages users to engage in dog-eat-dog quarrels in order to attract attention and traffic. Therefore, Matt City certainly hopes that good writers and good articles in its territory can get more exposure, so that writers can be encouraged and feel self-realized. Matt City, as a platform that continuously produces good content, can also grow and achieve commercial success.
However, the eye-catching homepage space is limited, and the editors' recommended space is limited. How to make good writers and good articles get more exposure while avoiding the website appearing to lack diversity (editor recommendations will always lack diversity because editors who have eyes and ears and have universal tastes are always rare or even non-existent) is a difficult problem that many people think is difficult to have both.
But in China, the social media Douban cleverly solved this problem during its heyday, allowing general users and writers to each get what they want. Users can easily see their favorite articles, especially the good articles they think, and serious writers can also promote the results of their work.
More importantly, good articles there will continue to surface (become exposed and promoted), whether they were published three days ago, three years ago, or ten years ago. As a result, it becomes like a library where people constantly introduce good books, and a community activity center and information distribution center where high-quality readers and writers like to gather.
For serious readers, it is important for good articles to stand out or keep surfacing. Here, the so-called serious readers are those who like to read and think seriously, and read online for intellectual gain rather than simply to kill time. For such readers, they often go online or to the library not just to find new things, but to find good things. They love to read good articles even if they were published three years ago, thirty years ago, or three hundred years ago. They will discard bad articles even if they were published three seconds ago.
How can we have the best of both worlds, allowing users to easily see the latest and freshest news while also ensuring that good articles and ideas will not be drowned out by the endless stream of passing smoke and clouds or the smog? Douban's main approach is:
1. There is a timeline for the entire website; all user-posted content will appear on this timeline in the order of posting time (this timeline also exists in Matt City, and its name is "Latest");
2. Each user has a personal timeline; all content published by the user and his followers will appear on this timeline; the user's likes on other people's articles will also appear on this timeline; the user's personal timeline is actually a filter/intercept of the entire network's timeline, reflecting the user's insights/perspective, and other users can use it to decide whether to follow or unfollow the user (this timeline also exists in Matt City, but its functions are not complete, because it only lists the articles published by other users that a user follows);
3. Every user can post broadcasts/dynamics, which can be used to promote themselves or others. The content of the broadcasts/dynamics can be one or several photos, or a few words, or forwarding other people's articles/photos, with or without forwarding comments; the broadcasts/dynamics will also appear in the network timeline and the user's personal timeline, and can be seen by everyone in the network and the user's followers;
4. Each user has his/her own diary/journal channel, which is usually used to publish large articles, diaries, creative writing, book reviews, film reviews, and current affairs reviews; the diaries published by users will also appear on their own timeline and be seen by their followers when they are published; users can also forward their own diaries with or without comments;
5. The email system on the website allows users to privately communicate about matters that are inconvenient to be published in public.
Douban's design cleverly utilizes the conventional functions of the Internet and perfectly solves the problem that social media is noisy and good writers and good articles are easily drowned out by the noise.
At this point, some people may ask: What if a user abuses the freedom of publication and publishes endlessly and repeatedly/floods the forum? Answer:
1. If you repeatedly post the same content, the website's system settings will stop it (so it's a joke that someone in Matt City repeatedly posted 300 spam replies in the comment section of the Tsugaru Strait article. This would never happen on Douban or any other social media that's on track);
2. If someone posts repetitive information with a disguised appearance, it may escape the attention of the website's computer system, but other users are not fools and will ignore (unfollow) such spam users. Therefore, reposting will bring embarrassment or even self-destruction.
Next, I can give a little further explanation based on my own experience of using Douban as a user.
Users of social media are also members of society, and so am I. Like ordinary people in society, on the one hand I always hope to keep my eyes and ears open and not miss anything, but on the other hand I also hope to have my ears as quiet as possible and not be dizzy or upset by too much noise.
The timeline of the entire website allows me to know what many users of the website are paying attention to and talking about at a certain time. My personal timeline allows me to narrow my focus and just see what the users I follow are paying attention to.
I follow those users because their comments make me feel that they have vision and the topics they follow are worth my attention. And those users follow me for the same reason.
The personal timeline plays a vital role here. The users I follow speak, comment, forward comments, and forward articles, allowing me to obtain the information that interests me.
For example, a user I follow forwards or comments on a new article he thinks is interesting, or an article published three days ago, three years ago, or ten years ago. I had not seen or noticed that article before, but the user I follow mentioned it and commented on it, so I learned about this interesting article and would not miss it.
Similarly, as a person who likes to read and comment, I can also forward an article, or forward it with comments. My followers will see my forwarding and comments in their timeline.
A little about side comments - I read an article that I think is interesting, of course I can write a comment and publish it. But many times, I lack the ability or time to write a more formal comment, but I think there are some ideas worth sharing with my followers, so I express my thoughts in the form of side comments.
For example, I recently read an interesting article on Matt City titled "The Chinese Internet is Collapsing at an Accelerated Rate," which said that Chinese Internet websites controlled by the Chinese Communist Party authorities are entering or have already entered a state of amnesia because their information has been destroyed on a large scale.
If I come across such an article on Douban, I will forward it casually, and probably add a short comment, such as,
一篇很有趣的文章。剥夺民众的记忆是维持独裁暴政的不二法门,对抗强迫遗忘则是民众必须有的自觉和行动。当然,你也可以不要这样的自觉,也可以不要这样的行动。太好了。独裁者就喜欢你这样,这样他就随意可以一次又一次地喂你吃屎,因为你记不得屎的味道,只是每次吃到口里才觉得味不对。
On Douban, if I forward the article and write a comment along with it, my followers will see it on their timelines and will read the interesting article as well.
But in Matt City, I don’t have my own timeline, so I don’t have the opportunity to repost and comment. My followers can’t see my comments under that article, and the sound effect is no better than the buzz of a mosquito. It’s almost the same as not publishing it, so I’m too lazy to publish it, and such interesting articles are difficult to promote from me. Of course, I can write a special article to recommend it. But in many cases, I lack the ability or time to write. So, I don’t write.
The above is based on my personal example.
At the same time, if a user with more followers and thus more influence reposts and comments on an article he thinks is interesting, the article will get stronger exposure and spread more widely. Even though I think highly of myself, I have to admit that there are more users who can write more interesting and explosive reposts and comments. In this way, good articles and good writers will get more promotion and exposure on Douban.
Moreover, this kind of exposure is not a one-time deal, but sustainable. Good articles from more than ten years ago that are discovered or receive interesting reposts and comments can continue to be exposed and circulated in this way.
This basic social function is a standard feature in other social media (such as X, the original Twitter), and it is also the value and significance of social media. Why doesn't Matt City have this setting? Is it because they are afraid that Matt City will become too interesting and users will become addicted to it and lose their ambition?
At this point, I might as well tell the truth. I think my reading taste and diversity are pretty good, so I have my followers, and these followers are not only my resources, but also the resources of the website. If the website provides me with convenience, so that I can easily sell the good articles in my mind to my followers, it is equivalent to me advertising for the website, adding resources and even capital to the website.
In other words, the website does not provide me with convenience, which not only makes me feel uncomfortable, but also makes me feel uncomfortable, causing myself trouble and losses in vain. Why bother making users unhappy and causing losses to myself at the same time?
I said before that Matt City seemed to be groping in the dark, but this statement is not appropriate after careful consideration. The correct statement is probably that there is a bright road that Matt City can take, and some people have already walked it smoothly, but Matt City insists on groping in the dark for some reason, testing the patience of users.
I want to say it again that I believe that the operators of Matt City want Matt City to prosper. And the users also see that the operators of Matt City have been working hard to show their good stuff to attract more readers and more users. But the problem is that the operators of Matt City obviously lack a sufficient or clear understanding of the social function and value of social media.
Matt City displays user articles in columns such as "Popular" and "Featured", which only increases the exposure of articles that users consider good. Moreover, due to its central control/planned economy setting, users have no say, which has led many users to feel skeptical, disappointed, bored, or uninterested. For example, senior user [Sogni] openly and bluntly complained that she "has little interest in Matt City's 'Essence'. Most of the posts in it are from 'connected people'. They are posted once and for all, without even the most basic interaction. It is the official business if the official wants to add it to the Essence page."
As a result, there are only two main channels for articles to be exposed in Matt City: one is "latest" and the other is "hot".
Under the "Latest" channel is a collection of articles published by Matt City, arranged in chronological order, with the latest published at the top. Although Matt City is not very popular and there are not many people who come here to publish, there are enough people to make ordinary users feel that it is a mixed bag and full of smoke and dust. Moreover, because the articles are arranged in chronological order, new articles are constantly published on top, and any article there is bound to be fleeting and will soon disappear without a sound or smell.
Under the "Popular" channel is a collection of articles recommended by the official Matt City. Users can see that someone is operating there, constantly putting the good articles selected by the official (a certain editor) and deciding the location and time of placement. Such an operation requires painstaking effort and continuous effort, which is definitely a chore.
But this kind of painstaking and repetitive work day after day is obviously ineffective, because an editor or several editors cannot have three heads, six arms, twelve eyes and eighteen ears. They will inevitably miss something, and there will inevitably be a lot of omissions. Even if Matt City is not popular, there is enough content published here to keep one or several editors busy and complaining.
Then, Matter City also has official "Weekly Selections" and "Weekly Recommendations", while privately there is [Erica]'s "Cat Spy Report: Matters Tag List" and [Newbie]'s "Matters Article Dynamics", which recommend articles to users in different ways and with different parameters (such as longest reading time, most applause, most support, etc.), and their recommendations also have certain value.
However, the effect of promoting good articles hoped by these recommendations is not so significant because: 1. They are all one-time deals; 2. There is a lack of interaction and comments, so the audience has little interest.
Let's use another specific example to illustrate the problem. [Chen Chun] recently published a very interesting article titled "Class Differences in Minorities", which talks about how children from wealthy and powerful families can not only go to the best universities to study hard, get the best education, and become elites within the system, but can also become elites outside the system and against the system. When China changes color, they can still be the leader; even if they are hit by the system because of their anti-system, their ability to withstand the hit is much greater than that of children from poor and powerless families (rich and powerful families can pay someone to get their children out of prison, at least so that they can suffer less in prison, while children from poor and powerless families will have to spend the rest of their lives in prison, or be skinned, and their family members will also suffer with them).
This is a very skillful and interesting article, which is not only an argumentative article about weird politics, but also a literary article about the truth of life. However, the article only received 59 applause in Matt City, which is not as good as my article Tsugaru Strait, which is so poor in skill that it cannot be counted. What's more sad is that [Chen Chun] has 6.9k followers/followers, while my Tsugaru Strait has only 469.
The above figures are very strange, and there are many explanations (one of which is hard to avoid is that Matt City's fans are all so-called zombie fans, and there is little difference between having them or not). But my personal preferred explanation is that the reason why [Chen Chun]'s indisputably good article has only received a little and almost negligible attention here is because the lack of comments leads to a lack of interest.
If Douban had been more free to express itself in the past, such a good article would have triggered numerous reposts and comments, and many users would have been interested, so more users would have read, reposted, and commented on it. Such a good article would have spread and become popular (in the current rogue Douban, such a good article would have been directly banned, because the CCP believes in a policy of keeping the people ignorant, and Douban, as a tool of the CCP, must implement the policy and cannot resist).
In fact, not to mention that good articles like Chen Chun's need comments to gain vitality and influence, even good articles (good novels) written by top-notch writers like Tolstoy and Flaubert also need comments, and they need constant comments and reviews. Once they lose comments/reviews, their articles will die and become zombies.
I'm getting off topic, so let's get back to the topic - I think if Matt City wants to become a truly lively content market (not a chaotic one where spoilers can defecate at will) so that users can get what they want, it must facilitate information communication between users instead of setting up obstacles. Otherwise, it will only make things difficult for itself.
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