Option to completely disable the new algorithmic feed (aka "Please don't turn GitHub into Facebook")

[mrjones2014]

Please don't turn GitHub into Facebook.

Please give me an option to completely disable the algorithmic feed and only have the relevant, chronological feed, only from users I follow and repos I participate in.

[kLabz]

This. Now the information I am after is buried in a ton of "recommended for you" crap.

Edit: also, initial load is very slow, to the point I just go somewhere else before it even shows.

[mrjones2014]

Safari even did the thing where it said "This tab is using significant energy, closing it may improve performance" or whatever the wording is 😬

Come on, GitHub. Big L.

[wangrongding]

Github Old Feed

💪 Using this script you can restore the old version of the feed.
https://github.com/wangrongding/github-old-feed

Before (the shit💩 new feed)

After use (the old one)

[LunarWatcher]

Even when filtering out stuff, there's a whole bunch of useless crap included in the filters that I never asked for. Stars suddenly mean you follow releases to repos for example, and filtering that out filters out releases from watched repos where I explicitly wanted updates on releases. There's similar examples in all the other categories; tons of useless garbage in all the categories makes all parts of the feed worthless and a pain to read through for the stuff I actually care about.

See also https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/66334

[bdresser]

Hey @mrjones2014, thanks for the feedback.

only have the relevant, chronological feed, only from users I follow and repos I participate in.

The "following" tab only shows activity from users you follow and repositories you watch. This functionality is unchanged with the introduction of the new "For you" tab. Does this have what you're looking for, or am I misunderstanding your comment?

[mrjones2014]

Yeah, but when I go to the homepage, it defaults me to the algorithmic tab. So I want an option to completely disable it. It also causes significant performance issues.

[DianaOlympos]

yeah, let this be an opt-in option for people that wants it. Please. It is painful enough to deal with the tools we have when we are working on open source in our free time with limited resources. Slowing down that flow and making it one more click, and a click on a page that is slow af and a resource hog on top of that... wat

[slymax]

[mrjones2014]

Not really a solution, since I avoid Chrome/Chromium at all costs.

[jbmagination]

@mrjones2014 A solution not being for you doesn't make it any less of a solution. I'm sure this can be ported to Firefox (or Safari or whatever browser you use).

[killshot13]

Not really a solution, since I avoid Chrome/Chromium at all costs.

Even Brave Browser? 🤔

[therealbluepandabear]

@killshot13 only ungoogled chromium :)

[Jawjomnissan]

#13154 (comment)

[sntwandy]

I don't think it's a Facebook feed, for me it's very useful, it shows me interesting things about the repositories that I follow and about my colleagues in which they collaborate and others, as well as recommendations from other repositories.
Although he understands the fear behind the camera, at the moment I don't see that this is the focus, they are trying to make a feed more of global interaction than just in your circle.

[mrjones2014]

@bdresser any updates on this? I deleted my Facebook account years ago for a reason...

[mrjones2014]

Why does it default me to the algorithmic tab, even when I've manually gone back to the other tab? The algorithmic tab has horrible performance issues.

[chakravala]

Github will fade into irrelevance, just like twitter, a not serious place where big tech employees think they can manipulate what hits my eye balls for their own personal self-benefit

[lindhe]

I like the feature and think it's really useful, but I also think it is very important that it can be turned off. :)

[mrjones2014]

And also that I can opt out of having my data used for the algorithm.

[lindhe]

I fear GitHub won't the place for you then. :/ It's owned by Microsoft, we should expect too much in terms of privacy.

[alexitx]

Judging by my first impression (and expectations) I probably won't be touching such algorithm-driven feed ever. I mostly get recommended random users and organizations I have never interacted with and have nothing to do with my stars, forks and followed users. At least there could be a filter system to only show something like small and more obscure projects related to your starred repos and languages you work with.

[sirkon]

What is next? You will show "stories"?

[LinuxDragon57]

Typical Microsoft... buy a Technology. Promise not to ruin said technology. Proceed to ruin that technology anyway with useless garbage that their customers do not want: Skype, Halo (Cortana), Minecraft, Linkedin, and now Github. (There's probably more on that list). The scary part is that Microsoft owns the platform that hosts most of the world's Open-Source Software, and I think nothing speaks better to Microsoft's stance than its past: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Microsoft, specifically: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_documents.

[LasseRafn]

I like the feature, BUT should be:

• Able to pick which one is default
• NOT loaded until I click into it; performance isn't great...

[LinuxDragon57]

I saw the stupid feed thing, and I was like wtf is this. Does Microsoft think Github is a social media platform?

[karolzlot]

Fortunately it's at least possible to use uBlock to remove feed completely.

Example rules:

! 2022-05-06 https://github.com
github.com###feed-next
github.com##.border-bottom.mt-3.col-lg-8.col-md-12
github.com##.border-bottom.hide-sm.hide-md.hide-lg.mt-5.col-lg-4.col-md-3.team-left-column

If you need to get some notifications it may make sense to create some program to get feed in RSS format and then e.g. notify when specific rules are met or just store this feed somewhere for later analysis.

[karolzlot]

@eladkarako Ok I removed them. Can you share what was broken by those rules?

[karolzlot]

Thank you, it is really helpful!

[kmk3]

Related thread:

• https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/53712#discussioncomment-5732926

[alanxone]

Stop turning Github into Facebook, it's obviously a new product strategy after Microsoft acquired Github, but it's annoying.

GitHub SHOULD provide an option to disable such thing to give user the freedom of choice, and to let the organizations to decide if they want to enroll in this social feeds.

Rather than investing in these social algorithms, Github should consider improving team work experiences, especially for paying customers, such as bringing private team discussion into mobile app to make it useful, and enhancing the markdown wiki product to let the team publish changelog or knowledgebase in a more intuitive way.

[Ky6uk]

It might be good to have an option for "collaborators" in the feed filters. Sometime in the feed, I see a lot of unrelated crap with the reason You're seeing this because you collaborated with $userName.

I have worked with such users ages ago and my priorities/stack/etc. have been changed many times during this period of time. But for some reason, I'm just receiving noise about their activities.

[infinitytec]

Everything relevant that I am interested in is in the Following feed. I don't need an algorithmic feed.

I don't need to doomscroll on Github.

[aelgn]

Who are all these people? and what is all this noise?

[gpakosz]

I have no idea who these people are 🤷‍♂️

GitHub are you drunk?

[glinders]

I don't need the feed at all. If I want to know something I search for it.

How can I turn it off completely?

[mpaperno]

What happened... how did this become the default only view after hundreds of upvotes about how useless it is?

Let me just add in case upvoting isn't enough --- it's totally useless now! I want my old feed back, please.

[PedroHLC]

If someone writes an userscript to make this new merged thing chronological and hide the stuff from people I don't follow, please let me know. I don't mind whether it has to fill my local-storage or do tons of requests in the background.

[fdwr]

And if anyone ever goes to the lengths of writing a script to improve user experience, that's strong evidence that the original design was flawed.

[vszakats]

Looks like the enlinkedinification of GitHub finally started after all.

[mryechkin]

I hate this new feed 🤮

[pschichtel]

"hate" doesn't even begin to describe what I think of it...

[cu]

This is what happens when Microsoft buys nice things.

[LinuxDragon57]

Absolutely what I've been thinking. Gosh I hate that company.

[LinuxDragon57]

Every time Microsoft buys something, they ruin it. It's a wonder how they still retain dominant market share in the desktop space given how shite their software is.

[wangrongding]

Github Old Feed

💪 Using this script you can restore the old version of the feed.
https://github.com/wangrongding/github-old-feed

Before	After use

[mrjones2014]

They now force For You onto everyone...

[mohkale]

For anyone now considering moving off GitHub I just found out about https://forgefed.org/ and https://forgejo.org/ which is a federated git instance. Make your own forge and avoid the centralization on GitHub which clearly no longer stands by what we originally hoped for.

[FMCalisto]

👋 Hello GitHub Community,

I've been actively using GitHub for my work in medical imaging and computer-assisted surgery. While I appreciate the platform's continuous efforts to enhance user experience, I share the concerns expressed by many here regarding the new algorithmic feed.

1. Feedback

1.1. Relevance: In my field, it's crucial to stay updated with the latest advancements and discussions. An algorithmic feed might not always capture the nuances of what's relevant to specialized domains like mine.

1.2. Performance: I've noticed a slowdown with the new feed, which can be a hindrance, especially when I'm trying to quickly navigate and catch up on updates.

1.3. User Choice: While innovations are always welcome, providing users the choice to opt-out or customize their feed would be beneficial. This ensures that the platform caters to both those who find the feature useful and those who prefer the traditional way.

2. Suggestions

2.1. Customization: Allow users to set preferences for their feed, choosing between algorithmic and chronological views.

2.2. Performance Optimization: Address the reported performance issues to ensure a smooth user experience.

2.3. Feedback Loop: Regularly gather feedback on new features to understand user preferences and make necessary adjustments.

Thank you for considering our feedback. GitHub has always been a cornerstone for developers, and I believe that with open communication and collaboration, we can continue to make it better for everyone.

Best regards,

@FMCalisto

[therealbluepandabear]

ChatGPT lol

[shailshouryya]

See https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/66226 for a current (growing) list of related discussions

[mipmip]

I'm so sad. I hope a new GitHub will arise.

[mrjones2014]

GitLab or SourceHut