[panglott]

Why not just give users more power over their newsfeed, instead of assuming that the site engineers can get the balance right.

A user could be able to specify "I want 50% of my newsfeed to be from immediate family, 35% from close friends, 15% from acqaintances." Use a pie chart slider bar to make it clear. Then let the algorithm figure out how to interpret that chart.

[bdhess]

Because your preferred allocation might not produce updates at Facebook's desired frequency. FB's revenue is directly related to manufactured urgency and FOMO.