For people who create content on the Internet, whether their work gets seen and shared often depends on whether the sites it is posted on promotes it. Sites determine which content to promote or bury by use of automated secret algorithms. While it's sometimes possible to discern a little bit of how those algorithms work, in practice it's like praying to a faceless, mysterious, and capricious deity that it will bless you with clicks/views/likes, so that you can earn some money from your work.

So illustrate this, that's what Bob is literally doing here: praying to the big stone "algorithm" for clicks and money.

Can someone explain this one for me?

Apart from the algorithm-angle, I kind of enjoyed it as an analogue to institutions like Christianity. Think of the formula as a typical sculpture of Christ on the cross-- commonly revered by millions, but at its heart, something which doesn't add up in today's world, leading millions of slavish worshippers astray over and over again.

(haha, and yes, that was a cynical interpretation indeed)

@sundray@lemmus.org