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Comment by gamebak | Hacker News Reader

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gamebak·

Sorry for the odd 4g4, n i fixed it.

I've seen the series implemented in the facebook requests, i got really curios on how they are generated.

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What do you mean by "seen the series implement in the facebook requests"? What makes you think there's "a formula"?

Broadly speaking, considering the items base 36 there's a gap of 2 or 3 between most terms with the occasional leap of 12, 14, 22, or similar. Why do you think there's a simple "formula" for these?

I've seen that implemented in the facebook graph, for example if you will look for "people who likes php" and start scrolling down, for each new "batch" of people a new request will be generated with those numbers. That's why i assumed it was a formula/algorithm implemented, because it was generated at scrolldown.

I don't use FB, so I've never seen anything of that ilk, but I would assume it was just sequential, but interleaved with other results or terms that you don't see. Something, somewhere might be generating unique terms and handing them out to whomever asks for them. Your requests get some, someone else's requests get others, there's no specific and simply rule for the ones you see. That sort of thing.

Just a guess, probably completely wrong in detail, but it's the sort of thing I can imagine happening. I wouldn't expect the sequence you give to have any real "formula" underneath.

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