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Sounds like IRC. Once you find a chan you like and kind of settle in, you realize that the actual convo rarely relates to the title of the chan, but is still o

Sounds like IRC. Once you find a chan you like and kind of settle in, you realize that the actual convo rarely relates to the title of the chan, but is still of interest to the people who regularly go there. IRC is pretty popular, I don't see why your idea wouldn't be among the less BitchX-inclined internet crowd. ;-P You'd have to be brutal with the 'influence' system, though, to keep the trolls out of the 'ponies and barbie dolls' group. The killer feature, to me, of an idea like this would be something like musicovery.com, where overlapping things lead you down new paths.

steffon 19y ago
Here are two large differences between IRC: 1.) One of the main problems I am trying to solve is in your second sentence: "Once you find a chan you like..." It's time consuming to find new content you like, especially in a setting as nebulous (for most people) as IRC. With the discovery engine, all a user needs to do is rate recommendations based on what they are interested in, and they are immediately connected with groups of like-minded people and what they know. Fast and easy. 2.) In addition to connecting to groups of like-minded people, the user gets recommendations from those who are most influential and most in the know. All content is not equally desirable, and users using the discovery engine will only get recommended that content which has empirically shown is wanted by people that think like them (relevant).
- oditogre 19y ago
  Of course. I only mentioned IRC because there are some similarities that seem to indicate your idea could work. >only get recommended that content which has empirically shown is wanted by people that think like them Seems like an OK idea, but I think the site might suffer if this is taken too far and the groups just become echo chambers, walled off from each other entirely. I just think a site could be more popular if it focused on finding common links in disparate groups instead of isolating them based on common differences. Think of it like radio: in my music directory, my biggest artists are The Crystal Method (41 songs), NIN (112 songs), and Sarah McLachlan (85 songs). No single radio station, AM, FM, or XM, that I am aware of covers a range like that. Wouldn't it be cool to find a place that let you keep close to your core group, but at the same time gave you tips on what other groups thought was cool, just in case you agreed?

steffon 19y ago

Here are two large differences between IRC: 1.) One of the main problems I am trying to solve is in your second sentence: "Once you find a chan you like..." It's time consuming to find new content you like, especially in a setting as nebulous (for most people) as IRC. With the discovery engine, all a user needs to do is rate recommendations based on what they are interested in, and they are immediately connected with groups of like-minded people and what they know. Fast and easy. 2.) In addition to connecting to groups of like-minded people, the user gets recommendations from those who are most influential and most in the know. All content is not equally desirable, and users using the discovery engine will only get recommended that content which has empirically shown is wanted by people that think like them (relevant).

oditogre 19y ago
Of course. I only mentioned IRC because there are some similarities that seem to indicate your idea could work. >only get recommended that content which has empirically shown is wanted by people that think like them Seems like an OK idea, but I think the site might suffer if this is taken too far and the groups just become echo chambers, walled off from each other entirely. I just think a site could be more popular if it focused on finding common links in disparate groups instead of isolating them based on common differences. Think of it like radio: in my music directory, my biggest artists are The Crystal Method (41 songs), NIN (112 songs), and Sarah McLachlan (85 songs). No single radio station, AM, FM, or XM, that I am aware of covers a range like that. Wouldn't it be cool to find a place that let you keep close to your core group, but at the same time gave you tips on what other groups thought was cool, just in case you agreed?