The social media algorithms are getting more and more annoying. Their programmers are clearly enjoying their Room 101 power, snapping the victims back and forth at random like rats in a Skinner box.
For many years the algorithm at StatCounter and the internal stat measurement in WordPress were stable. They excluded my own reads, as they should. Now both are ‘non-sticky’. Statcounter gives me the choice of adding a filter to exclude my own IP. But the filter only works ONCE, immediately after applying it. The next time I look, it’s back to showing my reads again.
WordPress’s internal counter has been unstable for a year or so, and now the flipbacks are getting more frequent. This graph from the last few weeks shows that my reads were turned on for one week in between weeks of correctly excluding me.
Substack’s blocker is equally frustrating. You have to block each stupid message on its own, with no way to block everything including a keyword. By now I know that every post including the words Trump, RFK, Harris, Kamala, communist, fascist, democracy, or radical will be mindless partisans copying their party talking points. There are a very few writers who talk about THE REST OF THE UNIVERSE, but about 90% of all items now are mindless partisans.
Polistra's Mill 