IsMyXFeedFucked – Analyze How Your X Feed's Impacting You

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Feedback on the tool

  • Several users like the concept and UI; call it “very cool” and useful for reflection on their feeds.
  • Others say their results feel off: feeds with only tech or art are labeled politically center-left and “pretty fucked.”
  • A bug causes “N/A” political diversity to be treated as very low, making apolitical feeds look unhealthy; author acknowledges and plans a fix.
  • Ads often dominate “top influences,” which some find misleading and mostly noise.
  • Questions raised about what “non-violence” and “vibe” scores actually mean; some feel it misses the specific “slop / rage-bait” quality of For You feeds.
  • Skeptics question methodological transparency, possible biases, and whether it’s just a thin wrapper over a general-purpose video model.

How it works & technical tradeoffs

  • Uses 1–2 minute screen recordings of scrolling feeds; chosen because APIs are locked down and browser extensions are brittle and desktop-only.
  • Some suggest this sample may be too small; others like that it avoids giving API or login access.
  • Technical curiosity about whether it uses frame sampling vs. stitching for OCR.
  • Initial upload issues (file size, progress callbacks) were reported; later claimed fixed.

Experiences with X’s algorithmic feed

  • Many describe “For You” as degraded: political extremism, culture war outrage, porn, crypto spam, clickbait, and Musk-centric content despite no explicit interest.
  • “Not interested” is widely reported as ineffective; some see repeated far-right or inflammatory content regardless.
  • Others report relatively balanced or positive feeds when they mainly follow specific niches (art, math/physics, politics across left/right).

Strategies users employ

  • Heavy use of “Following” feed, lists, muted words (often maxed out), and turning off images to tame the algorithm.
  • Some use extensions to remove bots, hide politics, or filter topics using AI.
  • Advice to aggressively block rather than rely on “not interested,” though blocking is more work and doesn’t stop similar accounts.

Broader concerns: politics, mental health, and “public square”

  • Multiple commenters quit X entirely, citing anger, toxicity, algorithmic manipulation, and worsened mental health.
  • Debate over whether posting politics on social media helps or only builds echo chambers.
  • Strong criticism of the platform’s shift to an outrage-optimized “town square” controlled by a single wealthy owner; some see this as dangerous and irreversible.

Alternatives

  • Bluesky, Mastodon, RSS, Reddit filters, and uBlock rules are mentioned as healthier or more controllable options, though some argue they replicate Twitter’s core issues.