The X Algorithm: What the Open-Source Code Actually Proves About Your Thread
Thank you for this raw, detailed and widely shared thread,
@ianmiles. You're articulating what thousands of creators are feeling right now: the algorithm isn't just broken, it has fundamentally replaced the Social Graph, the explicit choice people made when they hit "Follow", with a Prediction Graph that decides reach before anyone even sees your post.
Further results are in my new blog post:
"The Prediction Feed"🔗
coresecret.eu/2026/04/24/the…
1. What the Code Directly Confirms
- Follower count is now mostly a display number. author_followers_count is still hydrated via Gizmoduck, but it does not appear in the WeightedScorer or any of the 19 Phoenix prediction heads. It has zero direct influence on ranking.
- The "Prediction Trap" / Candidate Isolation is real and built-in. The Grok-based Transformer (PhoenixScorer) calculates 19 separate engagement probabilities (favorite_score, reply_score, dwell_score, not_interested_score, report_score etc.) before any impression is served. Poor embeddings = immediate exclusion from the TopK selector. This is exactly the pre-emptive devaluation you describe.
- Author Diversity = exponential decay. The AuthorDiversityScorer multiplies every additional post from the same author with decay_factor^position floor. Post too much → each new tweet is heavily downweighted in the same feed session.
- Thunder (In-Network) has hard 48h retention. Old posts from accounts you actually follow simply disappear from the candidate pool.
- Retweets are strictly deduplicated (no magical 90 % penalty, but effectively removed after first appearance).
The code proves the structural shift you're complaining about: the system no longer treats your earned followers as primary distribution capital. It treats them as one signal among many and often the weakest one.
2. Why This Explains the Creator Collapse You're Seeing
- Small accounts can't grow organically anymore because there is no reliable social-proof boost in scoring.
- Large accounts watch reach collapse because decay and negative feedback loops and prediction failures kick in.
- Posting across multiple interests gets punished because embeddings reward narrow topical consistency.
- The Following feed is systematically overridden by Phoenix Retrieval and WeightedScorer.
This isn't speculation. It's directly visible in weighted_scorer.rs, author_diversity_scorer.rs, phoenix_candidate_pipeline.rs and the Thunder PostStore.
3. The Fix Is Straightforward (and Technical)
Give the explicit social graph real weight again especially in the "Following" tab.
Let "For You" stay discovery-only. Publish the actual weights (
params.rs) for transparency. A small configuration change could restore trust for millions of creators who built this platform.
@elonmusk @xai @Engineering the repo is public precisely so the community can help.
The pain points are now verifiable in the code. Creators aren't asking for special treatment. We're asking for the platform to respect the relationships we spent years building.
@ianmiles have you dug into the repo yourself? Would love to hear your take on the PhoenixScorer specifically.
#XAlgorithm #PredictionFeed #FixTheAlgo #ForYouFeed #AlgorithmTransparency