This is a much-needed discussion, so thanks for bringing it up - whether through an AI-assisted post or not. 😅
There have always been a lot of "Top X" articles, but I've also noticed the recent increase. What's worse, I think some are playing the DEV algorithm to their advantage.
Many of these articles have their reactions/bookmarks "maxed out", i.e. it's very visible that a few users gave all 5 reactions possible, and also bookmarked the post. On top of that, these stats grow rapidly in the first hour of the post being published. That's not a typical behavior and likely indicates a group of people trying to prop up the post (e.g. for marketing efforts). This, in turn, puts the post at the top and drives the actual engagement.
Now, asking your friends and colleagues to upvote your post isn't something bad in and of itself, but it seems to be an organized and repeated effort, that seems to feature articles of lesser and lesser quality over time.
On the other hand, I'm also not fully opposed to "Top X" articles. I found them useful many times, whether looking for a tool in a new category or doing some research.
I'm also guilty of writing a few of my own, though, in recent times, I tried to both limit it and, when writing one, focus on a few options only, in greater detail. I feel like such "Top 3s" can deliver more value and insight than "Top 50", which is not much better than a Web search.
All in all, the DEV algorithm should be changed to prevent these articles from getting to the top of the feed so often. Some possible suggestions:
Make only a single reaction per user count;
Disable upvoting posts of an organization I'm in;
Somehow better control reactions that are added in the first hour of publishing a post;
If these changes work, fewer of these posts will be getting to top, there will be less incentive to write these, and there will be a greater variety of authors and topics reaching the top of the feed.
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This is a much-needed discussion, so thanks for bringing it up - whether through an AI-assisted post or not. 😅
There have always been a lot of "Top X" articles, but I've also noticed the recent increase. What's worse, I think some are playing the DEV algorithm to their advantage.
Many of these articles have their reactions/bookmarks "maxed out", i.e. it's very visible that a few users gave all 5 reactions possible, and also bookmarked the post. On top of that, these stats grow rapidly in the first hour of the post being published. That's not a typical behavior and likely indicates a group of people trying to prop up the post (e.g. for marketing efforts). This, in turn, puts the post at the top and drives the actual engagement.
Now, asking your friends and colleagues to upvote your post isn't something bad in and of itself, but it seems to be an organized and repeated effort, that seems to feature articles of lesser and lesser quality over time.
On the other hand, I'm also not fully opposed to "Top X" articles. I found them useful many times, whether looking for a tool in a new category or doing some research.
I'm also guilty of writing a few of my own, though, in recent times, I tried to both limit it and, when writing one, focus on a few options only, in greater detail. I feel like such "Top 3s" can deliver more value and insight than "Top 50", which is not much better than a Web search.
All in all, the DEV algorithm should be changed to prevent these articles from getting to the top of the feed so often. Some possible suggestions:
If these changes work, fewer of these posts will be getting to top, there will be less incentive to write these, and there will be a greater variety of authors and topics reaching the top of the feed.