[REQUEST] User matching

[Vayshti]

Apologies if this has already been suggested/dealt with/knocked back - I've searched the FAQ and posts for key words, and it implies that it hasn't, so...

I often look at people's profiles when they pop up randomly on the Users page - it's a nice touch and can throw up some interesting recommendations.

But - what I'd really like is for a profile matching feature to find out which users appear to think along the same lines and have similar taste to me.

A quick match-up based on either Top 5, or even better, a 'best fit' of anime seen and rated, would make connections to favourite peeps very fast. Also would be good just for making new friends, too!

Yay? Nay?

[sloggerK]

I think this is a cool idea. Probably a complex thing to implement depending on how you do the matching.

[wolfangel87]

I always thought a matching of favorites idea would be cool, I just do not know how much work there is involved coding something like that.

[VivisQueen]

As long as we don't have to marry them as well, I wouldn't mind such a feature.

[Sheex]

I agree it would be nice, but I've found workarounds using existing features - ie. looking at recs for your favorite series and looking for people that agree with your opinions. Coupled with a bit of profile hopping and it works fairly well for finding users who share your tastes. Personally, I think other site features would be best implimented first (of which Sothis has many) before adding in something that is alright semi-existent, even if not in a solid form.

Originally Posted by Vivi's Queen

As long as we don't have to marry them as well, I wouldn't mind such a feature.

Oh come on Vivi, do you hate me that much? =/

[shortlex]

Originally Posted by Sheex

I agree it would be nice, but I've found workarounds using existing features - ie. looking at recs for your favorite series and looking for people that agree with your opinions. Coupled with a bit of profile hopping and it works fairly well for finding users who share your tastes. Personally, I think other site features would be best implimented first (of which Sothis has many) before adding in something that is alright semi-existent, even if not in a solid form.



Oh come on Vivi, do you hate me that much? =/

LOL, i think vivi is taken, but in anycase i have to point two things out

-too young to get marrried
and
-oh what criteria are you looking for the matching process, the only think i can think of is the top 5 anime on the user profile, that's it. Unless we get a dedicated person to read every single user profile and match them up with other people. it meh to me.

[VivisQueen]

Lol @ Sheex and short_lex.

Actually, I am certain there was a similar suggestion in another thread. I think the problem boiled down to complications involved in creating such a system.

EDIT: Yup, found the threads.
Someone suggested using the Top 5 to find partners here: [feature suggestion] See other users with similar top 5's as you

And MechaTama suggested using anime lists to find partners here. This one has more of a discussion going on: [REQUEST] Comparing anime lists

[shortlex]

Originally Posted by Vivi's Queen

Lol @ Sheex and short_lex.

Actually, I am certain there was a similar suggestion in another thread. I think the problem boiled down to complications involved in creating such a system.

So flawed, I knew from the very start. thanks vivi. hmm.

[Pipian]

This'd be possible, but it'd probably have to be run as a cron job, because you're looking at a process that scales as the square of the number of users (if I recall correctly). I'd be more than happy to implement it since I've had experience with data mining. I'd even do it in PHP, I suppose, but that's a bit inefficient. Faster to just compile it.

EDIT: Also in response to concerns about circumventing the 'written' recommendation system, seeing how such is NOT terribly useful to find other PEOPLE (it's roundabout at best, compared to straightforward for the anime/anime recommendations), I think it could be automated (as opposed to manually done, which makes it more cliqueish).

Plus you can work around the anime/anime relations by doing what last.fm does. Instead of calling it a recommendation, play down the list (e.g. just make a small 8pt text list of links) and call it "People who watched this anime also watched this." As a general rule, these automated lists are of lower quality anyway, because you often have people who watch globally popular anime (e.g. Pokemon, Naruto, Bleach, DBZ, etc.) and these may be 'strongly correlated' with more niche stuff like Kino's Journey, Gunslinger Girl, Gunbuster, and Shugo Chara even though they are not anything alike, simply because the smaller subset of people who watched Shugo Chara are more likely to share a more popular anime in common as well.

Heck, you could even play with Web 2.0 lingo and completely mess with peoples' heads by calling it "Anime Nearby"

[sloggerK]

This kinda makes me think of those dating websites where you get matched by personality quizzes and such.