ProfileClickWeight is 0.0: profile clicks add nothing to For You ranking

Author: aunysillymeCreated Sep 15, 2026Updated Sep 15, 2026

Problem Phoenix predicts the probability that a viewer clicks the author's profile (README "Scoring and Ranking", Clicks: post · profile · ...), but RankingScorer multiplies that prediction by ProfileClickWeight = 0.0, so it adds nothing to the final score.

The default ValueModelMode is "weighted", so this is the live scoring path. The value has been 0.0 in every commit touching param.rs since 2026-08-17 (15 commits checked).

Why it matters

  • A profile click is the step between seeing a post and following its author. The follow is weighted 4.0; the step that leads to it is weighted 0.
  • An impression says someone saw a post. A profile click says they stopped and wanted to know more about the person behind it.
  • Posts that make strangers curious about the author are the ones most worth showing to more non-followers.

Proposal

  1. Evaluate a small positive ProfileClickWeight in an experiment (somewhere between ClickWeight = 0.4 and FollowAuthorWeight = 4.0).
  2. Alternatively, apply it to out-of-network candidates only, where a profile click is a direct discovery signal (related: #200).

Open questions

  • Was 0.0 chosen because the profile-click head is poorly calibrated, or to avoid rewarding curiosity-bait? If the latter, pairing it with dwell on the profile could guard against that.