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).
ProfileClickWeight= 0.0: https://github.com/xai-org/x-algorithm/blob/6bb4594/home-mixer/params/param.rs#L344- Applied here: https://github.com/xai-org/x-algorithm/blob/6bb4594/home-mixer/scorers/ranking_scorer.rs#L490
ValueModelModedefault"weighted": https://github.com/xai-org/x-algorithm/blob/6bb4594/home-mixer/params/param.rs#L483- For comparison,
FollowAuthorWeight= 4.0: https://github.com/xai-org/x-algorithm/blob/6bb4594/home-mixer/params/param.rs#L378
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
- Evaluate a small positive
ProfileClickWeightin an experiment (somewhere betweenClickWeight= 0.4 andFollowAuthorWeight= 4.0). - 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.
Source: xai-org/x-algorithm