# kaal:claim:3782217-025

**Claim.** Popularity based ranking cannot substitute for editorial control, because people end up relying on unconscious algorithms to determine what is authoritative and the Folk Theorems establish that such algorithms can always be gamed.

**Type.** failure  **Support.** argued

**Holds when.**

- user generated content platforms without editorial control

**Source quote.**

> People rely on unconscious algorithms which use popularity to determine what is authoritative content. But the lessons of the Folk Theorems again arise, to remind us that such algorithms can always be gamed.

**From.** Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, *The Importance of History In Decentralization* (2021), News and education, page 10

**Cite as.** Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of History In Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782217

**Verify.** sha256 of source PDF `358779557d8e7dcd101720ca0fad90b9146d24f1c7c03909eb431fcf1fb7e103` at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wulfkaal/Academic-Papers/main/papers/pdf/Calcaterra%20and%20Kaal%20-%202021%20-%20The%20Importance%20of%20History%20In%20Decentralization.pdf

**Failure mode.** gameable-popularity-algorithms  (family: reputation-system-gaming)

**Topics.** regulatory-failure

**Keywords.** folk-theorems, gaming, popularity-ranking, content-moderation, platforms

**Related claims.**

- generalizes: https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/6269518-005

**Canonical form.** This markdown file is the canonical hashed representation of the claim. Its sha256 is the content hash used for attestation.