News plays an important role at Plek. Important, popular and recent news items can be displayed visually at the top of the home page. How this works is explained in this article.
Which posts are displayed?
By default, the following message streams are shown in the main news overview:
- Channel posts
- Posts from groups you are a member of
- Popular posts from groups you are not a member of
The default settings on your Plek environment can be changed. At least one message stream must always be selected by a user. Each user then has the option to expand this.
Users can always adjust their own view, while respecting the default settings. A personal selection can be made via the cogwheel on the right.
How is the order of these posts determined?
The order of the messages displayed depends on the configuration of the algorithm underlying the important news. This configuration can be done by admins in the admin panel. This way, we make sure that every user sees news that is interesting and relevant. For frequent users, something new is shown regularly. For less frequent users, mainly the most important and unread messages are shown. The algorithm assigns points to posts based on the following criteria:
- Per channel you can indicate whether messages - placed in that channel - should get extra value in the algorithm. So with this, you largely determine the important news yourself. To do this, go to admin panel > channels > pencil of the desired channel > post priority.
- Featured posts will have extra value and will be prominently visible to all users. Important posts will appear in the top left of the overview. They will be marked as important
. - Posts that receive many views, likes and/or comments are ranked higher and marked as popular
. - Recent posts have more value in the algorithm than older posts and are ranked higher, so there is regularly something new to read. They are marked by
. If older posts are popular, they may remain visible for a while. However, views, likes, and reactions are taken into account so that popular posts from the past do not remain visible indefinitely. - The algorithm takes into account whether or not a user has read a message. The order of the messages will therefore be different for each visit to the start page.
How is the popularity of posts from open groups measured?
The algorithm weighs posts from open groups of which you are not a member less than posts from groups of which you are a member. This ensures that only relevant and interesting messages are shown. Should there still be many non-relevant messages shown, then these can be filtered out.
Send a message to support@plek.co if you want to change the default settings of your important news.