1timspalding
I created this topic because I want to work through some specific questions I have about recommendations. I want user feedback and insofar as literally no other developers are working today, you're my only sounding board!
If possible, I'd like to stay on or near my questions, not bring up entirely unrelated suggestions or objections. Your question or point may be entirely valid, but I am actively coding and working through problems, and I have to go bird-by-bird.
FIRST QUESTION:
What is new? I want to add "Newness" in—some way of seeing newly-made recommendations. The old system does this; indeed, it's where you currently get the "Recent Automatic Recommendations" on your home page (see under "Recommendation"). The new system needs a way to see all new recommendations, or recommendations in recentness-order. And perhaps it needs a little mark within the normal recommendations system, indicating which books are newly recommended. But how should it work? The key questions are:
1. Where does the system "start"? I could make everything in the new system "old" or I could mark as "old" only those books that were already recommended in the Classic system.
2. When does "new" end? Does something move from new to old after
(A) a period of time (e.g., one week),
(B) a period of time after you log in (e.g., the day after you log in),
(C) a period of time after you hit the recommendations page (e.g., one day after),
(D) a short period of time after you see them by visiting a recommendations page with them on it, or by visiting the "new recommendations" page.
If possible, I'd like to stay on or near my questions, not bring up entirely unrelated suggestions or objections. Your question or point may be entirely valid, but I am actively coding and working through problems, and I have to go bird-by-bird.
FIRST QUESTION:
What is new? I want to add "Newness" in—some way of seeing newly-made recommendations. The old system does this; indeed, it's where you currently get the "Recent Automatic Recommendations" on your home page (see under "Recommendation"). The new system needs a way to see all new recommendations, or recommendations in recentness-order. And perhaps it needs a little mark within the normal recommendations system, indicating which books are newly recommended. But how should it work? The key questions are:
1. Where does the system "start"? I could make everything in the new system "old" or I could mark as "old" only those books that were already recommended in the Classic system.
2. When does "new" end? Does something move from new to old after
(A) a period of time (e.g., one week),
(B) a period of time after you log in (e.g., the day after you log in),
(C) a period of time after you hit the recommendations page (e.g., one day after),
(D) a short period of time after you see them by visiting a recommendations page with them on it, or by visiting the "new recommendations" page.
2norabelle414
1. Everything that was recommended in the classic system should be "old", but everything new in the new system should be "new"
2. Move from "new" to "old" after (C) visiting the new recommendations page
(I actually think the least-confusing option would be to move them from "new" to "old" immediately after visiting the new recommendations page, not after a period of time. Isn't that how it worked before?)
2. Move from "new" to "old" after (C) visiting the new recommendations page
(I actually think the least-confusing option would be to move them from "new" to "old" immediately after visiting the new recommendations page, not after a period of time. Isn't that how it worked before?)
3timspalding
>2 norabelle414:
Yeah, but then the recommendations page needs to be sorted by newness, which it is not. (It's sorted by quality.) If we don't have some way of seeing what's new after you visit the page, you'll never see that recommendations 245, 611 and 2300 are new.
Yeah, but then the recommendations page needs to be sorted by newness, which it is not. (It's sorted by quality.) If we don't have some way of seeing what's new after you visit the page, you'll never see that recommendations 245, 611 and 2300 are new.
4KeithChaffee
If I'm looking for recommendations, I'm not likely to scroll all the way down to the 2300th title (or even the 245th, really) in search of the new titles that might be scattered through the list. I'd agree with norabelle414 that the time to switch from NEW to OLD is immediately after visiting the recommendations page.
(Perhaps sorting by newness instead of quality should be one of the questions you consider as you work through this process? Seems like it would be more useful. Or maybe a "see new recommendations only" button?)
(Perhaps sorting by newness instead of quality should be one of the questions you consider as you work through this process? Seems like it would be more useful. Or maybe a "see new recommendations only" button?)
5timspalding
>4 KeithChaffee:
If you're looking for recommendations, though, you're unlikely to have carefully plowed through most of your "old" recommendations. That is, they are mostly "new to you." It would be weird to prefer new—and mostly low-quality—recommendations by default, when many much better recommendations are new to you.
If you're looking for recommendations, though, you're unlikely to have carefully plowed through most of your "old" recommendations. That is, they are mostly "new to you." It would be weird to prefer new—and mostly low-quality—recommendations by default, when many much better recommendations are new to you.
6timspalding
Thought: There are two ready-made paradigms: Notifications and Messages. Neither really fit.
7paradoxosalpha
>1 timspalding:
1. I gave up on the old recommendations system long ago, so factoring it into what is shown to me would not be helpful.
2. Maybe A, but a week sounds too fast. I'd want a month or even a quarter. B sounds way wrong, since LT is so tolerant of staying logged in. I think I log in less than once a year on average.
1. I gave up on the old recommendations system long ago, so factoring it into what is shown to me would not be helpful.
2. Maybe A, but a week sounds too fast. I'd want a month or even a quarter. B sounds way wrong, since LT is so tolerant of staying logged in. I think I log in less than once a year on average.
8AndreasJ
Since my suggestion in the other thread was dismissed as too clever, how about this brute-force approach: give us a toggle to switch from recs by quality to by date and back.
9AnnieMod
>1 timspalding: I think that the answer will be different based on where you are in your cataloging journey.
If you have most of all your books already added with just adding a few per week/month as they are coming in (or you are reading), the recommendations change in a much slower rate. When you are actively adding books (cataloging your library or only recording the books after you read them), you get new ones all the time (in the old system anyway - possibly in the new one when it gets regenerated) because the books used to find more keep getting added.
I don’t like the idea of dismissing based on login times - you may be around but not looking at recommendations. I really don’t like the term “new” for something like that - people think of that differently and very short periods make it meaningless unless you check the page daily. Instead a dated list on a separate tab for the recommendations from the last 3 months ordered per date will kinda cover all uses - if you check daily, you look just at the top; if you show up less rarely, you still know which the new ones are since last time you worked through the list (open/view is different from engaging with the list).
I also would love to see an indication that the old system also recommended the book (I actually liked the old algorithm and found it very relevant for my way of reading. I like the new one as well but when books comes from both, that tells me something).
If you have most of all your books already added with just adding a few per week/month as they are coming in (or you are reading), the recommendations change in a much slower rate. When you are actively adding books (cataloging your library or only recording the books after you read them), you get new ones all the time (in the old system anyway - possibly in the new one when it gets regenerated) because the books used to find more keep getting added.
I don’t like the idea of dismissing based on login times - you may be around but not looking at recommendations. I really don’t like the term “new” for something like that - people think of that differently and very short periods make it meaningless unless you check the page daily. Instead a dated list on a separate tab for the recommendations from the last 3 months ordered per date will kinda cover all uses - if you check daily, you look just at the top; if you show up less rarely, you still know which the new ones are since last time you worked through the list (open/view is different from engaging with the list).
I also would love to see an indication that the old system also recommended the book (I actually liked the old algorithm and found it very relevant for my way of reading. I like the new one as well but when books comes from both, that tells me something).
10jjwilson61
I'd prefer a separate page/tab for the new recommendations with a button to clear out all the old recommendations.
11kristilabrie
>1 timspalding: I'm not entirely sure what you mean by your first question, but I would like to see "new" recommendations based on the last time I viewed the Recs page... so, "new" recs being ones I haven't actually seen/loaded yet.
