<p>Me and my friend were talking and we wanted to know how facebook picks the 6 (9 or 12) friends that show up on the profile page. Every time we refresh the page, is seems as if the same people show up (most of the time, that is).</p>
<p>I have heard rumors that it is generated by the people you stalk or people that are stalking you. I have also heard that it is completely random. I don't think it is random because my friend and I always see the same people.</p>
<p>What do you guys think?</p>
<p>You mean the news feed? It should keep track of all of your friends, except for ones that you’ve turned off or the ones that have turned up their privacy. My guess is the same people just use Facebook more often.</p>
<p>No, not the newsfeed. The grid with pictures of your friends under your profile picture.</p>
<p>Yeah I’ve noticed that it’s the same-ish people too. Dunno why though.</p>
<p>I usually don’t look at my own profile, but there do seem to be a few repeats. My guess is poorly designed randomization.</p>
<p>I’ve been noticing that for a while too. I guess it’s random but not completely. Each day FB generates a few people repeatedly on your profile page, so when you refresh, (most of) the same 6 people will show up again. However open your FB the following day and you’ll see 6 other people, also showing up repeatedly. The difference is they’re not the same 6 from the day before.</p>
<p>Hmm I can’t explain it better, does that make sense? I’m pretty sure that’s how it works, don’t know the purpose of this though. </p>
<p>And no, those people are definitely not people that you stalk or are stalking you. I check my FB regularly, and sometimes in that box are some people I added long ago but we actually don’t know each other, no way they’re stalking me.</p>
<p>Oh wow, I never actually noticed it. Bad facebook.</p>
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<p>There are always 1 or 2 people that are the same regardless of the day.</p>
<p>Could just be a coincidence.</p>
<p>i thought that they did this by seeing how many friends you and that person have in common</p>
<p>Perhaps by how much activity you and your friends share, for instance the girl with whom I have lots of wall conversations seems to show up quite frequently</p>
<p>i thought it was just random</p>
<p>kinda wierd. I always thought it was random.</p>
<p>Now that im checking it, i keep refreshing and I see some people showing up way frequently. Iono whether that’s good or creepy. Since these girls that I think are cute keep showing up lol =P</p>
<p>I think it is a radom six, then they replace a few with your the ones you talk to often or interact with often, but that is just my opinion on this.</p>
<p>Thanks guys!</p>
<p>I’ve actually been wondering this. Good timing OP.</p>
<p>It’s kinda similar with groups and pages. When you see “People in this group/page” you’ll notice that your friends appear much more often than they should.</p>
<p>those harvard guys that made facebook forgot to put srand(time(NULL)); at the first line…</p>
<p>^ i highly doubt that was the case…</p>
<p>i mean, i am sure its coded to promote wall-to-wall conversations</p>