By PAUL LEVY

I have written before about the incredible power of crowd sourcing, using the reach and scope of social networking on the Internet to solve a complex problem. Here’s a play-by-play about a difficult question. It demonstrates how the asynchronous participation of many participants inevitably converges on the right answer in less than 24 hours. You just have to be patient and let the truth emerge.

I posted the following problem on Facebook:

Query — what makes some Facebook status updates stay put on the top of your page until cleared, while others appear as one-time updates? (Yesterday at 12:22pm.)

Luba:

I think it’s an algorithm that has to do with how often you comment on other people’s posts. Facebook tries to be smart about which people you actually care about seeing. I often find it wrong and look at both top stores and most recent to get a full picture of what is going on.

I think if you go to your home page and write on your wall (as opposed to the “feed” page), it stays up as your status until you change it.

Me:

Nope, it only persists when I post it from the profile page, but then not always. It is inconsistent.

Beverly:

My daughter’s answer to these kinds of questions was always, “That’s just FB being weird.” Evidently they have their quirks.

Eileen:

Do the updates have links (i.e., to other web sites)? Those show up in the news feed but won’t get posted like a FB status update on your profile page. Your previous status will remain if a newer post has any kind of link attached to it.

Amy:

I think Beverley’s daughter has the answer. FB is both quirky and weird.

Isabel:

Like Eileen, I thought it was links v. no links…

Cal:

There are two buttons at the top center of your News Feed page – Top News and Most Recent. Click on Most Recent and the feeds will be in chrono order.

Me:

That’s not the question. Sorry if not clear. The Q is what makes a status change show up at the top of the profile page and stay there?

Beverly:

I just posted a status update with a link and it never went to the top of my profile page. I think the link people are right – link (or photo?), it doesn’t go there, no link, it goes to the top and stays. Evidence-based Facebook. (:

Rob:

It has to do with how hard you strike the keys on your computer. Gentle pushes fade much quicker. (Today at 7:48am)

Paul Levy is the President and CEO of Beth Israel Deconess Medical Center in Boston. Paul recently became the focus of much media attention when he decided to publish infection rates at his hospital, despite the fact that under Massachusetts law he is not yet required to do so. For the past three years he has blogged about his experiences in an online journal, Running a Hospital, one of the few blogs we know of maintained by a senior hospital executive.

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