So this is a little unprecedented. I wrote this post and sent it on to Ben as a heads-up. I’ve included a summary of his excellent, well-reasoned reply and have to agree with all his points.
And for the eagle-eyed, you may have noticed that he’s already made a change, with the Random view moved to the top of the page, whereas before it was buried down in the footer. Ben is passionate about this project, and I can only applaud him for his response and immediate action!
Now, read on for my original post, some of which is now moot, and for the summary of Ben’s reply.
I’ve been a fan of Bubbles for a while. I think Ben has built something great and it’s popularity suggests I’m not alone in that thought.
But.
Like most sites like this, and I realise it’s by design, but it is starting to be shaped by those who use it most frequently and, as is usually the case, the wide category of Tech is starting to dominate the homepage.
Improving Discovery
As has been suggested elsewhere, the New page is a good place to start, as it features the latest posts, hot off the presses, most of which have yet to be voted on and so not yet been pushed to the home page which gets the most eyeballs which, in turn, increases the change of getting upvoted and the cycle begins.
I don’t think the current home page is massively flawed, and there are other ways you can tailor your own experience, you can mute entire topics, or hide things by keyword, there are plenty of ways to filter things.
But I still find myself wanting a little more serendipity.
I want eclectic, quirky, different world-view posts to be featured.I want to see the strange little blog you’ve never heard of. I want to read about a hobby I’ve never heard of, or read a personal essay from someone on the other side of the world.
That’s the joy of Bubbles for me: discovering these tiny corners of the internet.
A few ideas
First, perhaps a way to better balance the homepage. Not by changing the existing ranking, but gently stopping one category from taking over. If 15 of the top 20 posts are Tech, perhaps some of the most interesting posts from other categories could get a little more room?
I don’t think any artificial “one post from every category” system would work here though, I think the voting should still matter. It might just be a way to nudge the homepage towards more variety even if the votes say otherwise?
Second, an “Under the Radar” weighting, or even a new view? It could feature recent posts that have only received a low number of votes, resurfaced before they disappear completely.
I think that section could be particularly useful for newer bloggers, or simply people who happen to post at the wrong time and miss the most eyeballs. I think the paucity of votes for some posts doesn’t mean they aren’t good posts. It’s more a “These haven’t had much attention yet. Have a look” view that is a little further down the timeline that “New”.
Third, elevate Random.
Random discovery is messy, but that’s the point of it. If everything is optimised around what we already read and vote for, we inevitably get more of the same. There is already a Random view, but maybe put it up top alongside the other views.
TOP TIP: If you click the bubbles icon on the homepage (up top next to where it says Bubbles) you get a random post! LOVE these little moments of whimsy!
Answering the question
I think this more clearly positions Bubbles to answer to the question “What should I read?”
- Top: what is everyone liking?
- New: what’s just arrived?
- Hot: where is the conversation?
- Under the Radar: what might we have missed?
- Random: surprise me.
- My: the filtered view.
And, because scope creep is always real, let me choose which view is my default? I know, I can bookmark each view but that’s not quite the same…
Don’t change to much
To be clear, I really don’t think Bubbles needs to change all that much, and I certainly wouldn’t want to lose the simplicity that makes it work. Most of the things I’ve mentioned are pretty much different queries on the existing system (says the non-developer!), so could be easy to create.
But perhaps it’s just worth remembering that “most popular” and “most interesting to me” aren’t the same thing to different people. Bubbles already knows that, but the homepage is skewing us to the highest voted pieces which will, of course, get them more votes and push other posts out of the running.
And yes, the irony that this very post will be put in the Tech category is not lost on me.
I’ve been lucky enough to exchange a few emails with Ben and have already given him a heads up on this post. He’s a smart guy, and I’m sure he’ll figure it out.
But perhaps that’s the real question: how do you keep Bubbles rewarding for the people who already love it, while making sure there is still room for the weird, wonderful and unexpected things that brought us here in the first place?
Ben replied
I have summarised this (yes using AI) mostly for length, the core statements are accurate! Ben, feel free to tell me I’ve got any of this wrong.
I’ve thought a lot about this already, and I don’t think there’s a way to surface only the posts people want to see. What counts as “good” is subjective, and I don’t think voting signals or clever algorithms can solve that. That’s why I’ve focused on filters, allowing everyone to shape Bubbles to their own preferences.
I’m also wary of scope creep. Rather than continually adding features, I’d rather simplify things that aren’t being used. The Briefing feature already covers some of these ideas, including categories, fresh posts and hidden gems.
The bigger issue, I think, is how voting works. Self-voting gives some blogs an advantage, while very few users take the time to discover new posts and give them their first vote. A hidden gems feature might simply amplify those same voices. With fewer than 50 daily active users and the top 10% of voters accounting for 66% of votes, Bubbles probably isn’t large enough to support proper curation.
I’d love to see more unusual and overlooked posts get attention, but I’m not convinced more filters or views are the answer. That would require people to invest time in finding and sharing those posts.
There are other things I might explore, like adding Spanish-language blogs, or even removing comments to simplify the site. Nothing is planned yet, though. Perhaps I’ll run a user poll at some point.