It seems that the team needs to step up their game and communicate changes in a more timely manner. I had asked @visnup about this change several days ago (when I noticed it for one of my own notebooks), so allow me to paraphrase his answers:
- Observable now allows private likes, i.e., likes no longer disappear when unpublishing or unsharing.
- The time limit for unpublishing is gone. You can now unpublish and republish whenever you like.
- The “trending” calculation now uses the date of the first like.
Visnu also remarked that he had wanted to include comments in the calculation. He encourages a public discussion of the algorithm, as the team is open to tweaking it.
@enjalot pointed out that Observable uses the algorithm described here. I believe @mbostock also mentioned details about the algorithm at some point, but I couldn’t find his comment anymore (might have been Tom or Jeremy).
I’ll share my thoughts regarding these changes in a separate comment.