No Stupid Questions @lemmy.world Rannoch @lemm.ee 12 mo. ago

What is the difference between "Active", "Hot", and "Top Hour/Day/etc" when browsing Lemmy posts?

I suspect the meaning is obvious and I'm just being a silly goose, but I've just been sort of bouncing around among them, since I'm not quite sure of the difference.

22 comments

Active: popular recent posts that people still engage in by posting comments

Hot: popular recent posts but cares more about rating than comments

Top X: Top rated posts in the last X hours/days
- 🏅
- Thank you!!!! That makes sense - so just checking, Top X is like "Hot", but over a certain time period instead of "recent"? (In that it cares about rating instead of how many comments are being posted?)
  
  Seems like bouncing between Active and Hot is still a good thing to do then maybe. To see whatever people are discussing as well as whatever the most upvoted stuff is.
  
  Hot uses an algorithm that cares a little about comment count, but top doesn't care about comments at all. Top just shows you the highest rated posts in order that have been posted within that time frame and that's it.
Related question: is "Hot" super buggy? I am on 0.18.0, but I still often see really really really old posts (1 year old, 2 years old) sprinkled in with new stuff, and I often see clusters of 5-10 posts of a single community grouped together.

I have to pay extra attention to the post age because of this.
- this happens to me as well.
- Yeah I’m not sure what the algorithm is taking into account in deciding “hot.” Seems it is “recent views but only because the formula fed this old stuff to the last few rounds, too.”
Active: Ranks on votes and comment activity, with the time of the last comment being an important factor.

Hot: Ranks on votes and comments, but just uses the timestamp of the post without the comments time affecting it.

Top: Just the highest score of the selected time period.

New Comments: (my favorite) is like an old forum, where the top post is the one that received the newest comment.
Hot seems to be the way to go for me, unless I'm in a single community and sorting by new.
- I read your comment and all I can see is you are a Hot New Single.
  
  In your area
This helped me too. Thanks silly goose.
- <3
  
  Glad I wasn't the only silly one!
Thanks for asking so I didn't have to
Hot rates by sex appeal

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