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Recommendations not working?
Dec 30, 2021
I logged in an hour or so ago and found all my recommendations gone. I tried recreating my preferences as in the screenshot, but for some reason, ALL the recs were only SF, with 3 exceptions that were mystery. Of those 3 one was in French, one was in Dutch, and one was in English.
I like SF, and some of the recs seem like possibilities, but given that mystery is far away my number one genre, the weighting seems a bit odd, especially since only 1 is in my L1. Has the algorithm changed? Or am I doing something wrong?
Comments
I'm updating this to add that I've tried filling out my user survey again, and the results are the same. I did try the "contact us" form, but my email inbox does not have a "received" autoreply, so I'm not sure if the submission worked. Genres I excluded (business, philosophy and childrens in the screenshot) are still being included, and over 90% of the recs are one genre, SF. There's also still one rec in a language I've never tried reading, Dutch.
The eerily accurate and insightful recommendations TSG has offered have always been one of my favourite things about TSG, and the sudden change is a bit disconcerting. Over the past 14 months, I've probably read more than a dozen books I'd never have found without TSG's recommendations. All of them grabbed my attention and made me think "wow, I gotta read that" Right now, there no books on my recs list that do that, and only 3-4 that make me think, "hmmmm, that MIGHT be interesting" The other disappointment is that the list of recommendations that had been on my homepage up until today WAS interesting, and I'd been planning to re-check it for books to add to my TBR for 2022. Having that previous list erased, and discovering that my "Preferences" selection is no longer persistent between sessions are major changes, a struggle for someone who doesn't handle change well and who loves the old truism, "if ain't broke, why fix it?"
Editing to add the other glitch I haven't noticed before: MANY multiple entries of the same book, in different editions. If an edition includes a subtitle, it's now showing up in the recs list along with an edition that does not include the subtitle. The count of languages I'm being encouraged to read keeps growing too. I wish I were the polyglot TSG's new recs engine thinks I am :D
Hello robinwalter!
We had a large influx of users today, causing the site/app to continually go down. To address this, we made some changes to how the recommendations are processed, and as a result of the change, all existing recommendations were removed.
That said, we do not expect this to have changed the actual recommendations you receive. The algorithm has not changed.
However, a few months ago we did change the algorithm, which would explain what you're seeing.
Is it possible you haven't requested new recommendations in a while, and now that your old recommendations were removed, you were forced to resubmit to the new algorithm?
~Rob
Yes, that is exactly what's happened. This is my first experience of the new algorithm, and as flattering as its (sadly mistaken) presumption of my prodigious polyglot preferences is, the actual relevance of the recommendations has plummeted. To use a percentages analogy, if the former recommendations had an 85% hit rate, the current recommendations would now be in the 15-20% range.
It's not a huge deal, of course. I used to enjoy "window shopping" my recommendations for new suggestions, but since the new recommendations engine wants to persist in recommending genres I've specifically excluded and languages I can't (or can barely) read -including the same book in multiple languages, I'll just use the Community feeds as my source of new recs instead. Pronbably the major downer is primarily aesthetic - I used to enjoy looking at the recs on the homepage above my TBR and thinking "wow, TSG knows me, I must check those out", now I look at the recs on my homepage and think "I wish I had checked out the old recs before they vanished". A lesson in tempus fugit, carpe diem I guess 😁
There are two things in play here:
The new algorithm is worse for you. I'm working on an update that can address this problem. I'll message you once it's live.
You're receiving recommendations for genres you've excluded. This should not be happening. It's important to note that the exclusions shown in your first screenshot, aren't in your Reading Preferences survey (which is meant to be long-term and persistent), it's in your "What are you in the mood for?" Search field (which is meant to be a "right now" type of search, and is not persistent).
If you add those genres to your Reading Preferences Survey, you definitely will not see them in your Recommendations list.
I'll get back to you once I have a solution for #1 available.
~Rob
Thanks for that clarification Rob, I had misunderstood. After reading your helpful reply, It turns out there there was only one book in the "What are you in the mood for?" recommendations with a genre on my Reading Preferences exclusion list (horror), which I had manually deleted from the recommendations list before taking the screenshot. I'm very grateful for your patient help with this.
One last update. The "What are you in the mood for?" recommendations always show only SF books (or SF/mystery), despite Mystery being specified, so I managed to get it to show non-SF mystery works by the somewhat drastic step of specifically EXCLUDING Science Fiction.
No problem! The Horror book still shouldn't have shown up though! If you see this again (a book in the Reading Preferences genre exclusion list showing up), don't delete it quite yet. Let me know and I'll investigate how that happened!
~Rob
I can see that happening. If the algorithm thinks it found some good hits for you, it can definitely end up recommending a lot of the same genre. It could be that the new algorithm has many more Science Fiction books that it thinks match you well compared to the old one.
You handled it exactly as I would, by excluding the genre you're not interested in at the moment.
This is how I approach it, I view the Recommendation engine not like a Netflix "thumbs up/thumbs down" machine, but as a trusted friend, local librarian, or book shop owner. I use plain English to tell them what I'm looking for, and if it's not matching my mood I say,
"Ok, maybe not THAT much space travel!" - and I remove "space travel" from the themes section of my survey.
If I'm still getting too much Science Fiction, I say, "Ok, what do you have that's not Science Fiction?" - and I add an exclusion for the Science Fiction genre.
If I want some finance themes sprinkled in, I say, "That's great! Do you have any that has to do with stock trading, or finance in general?" - and I add "stock market, stock trading, general finance, financial markets" to my survey.
...etc.
The great advantage of a Plus subscription, is being able to run these type of "What am I in the mood for?" queries as many times as it takes to find something you'd like to read in the moment. I get the feeling that you consider having to exclude Science Fiction as a failure, but I see it as a win! You gave the algorithm more information about what you're looking for today, it (presumably) showed you some interesting books that fit, and it immediately forgot so your future queries aren't tainted by today's mood.
I'm still working on an update that I suspect will improve the initial results for you, but until that's done, perhaps a change in approach can help you get the most out of the current algorithm?
Let me know what you think!
~Rob
Thanks for such a wonderfully detailed reply and explanation, Rob. FWIW, I am such a fan of TSG Plus that I am even able to cope with the exhausting extra workload imposed by having to deselect a specific genre at any given time. I'll sweat and pant my way through those 2-3 extra clicks/keystrokes by reminding myself "TSG Plus is worth it" :)
Just updating this to add that one of the genres I have in my "Are there any genres that you don't like/aren't interested in reading right now?" is "Dystopian" (because the real world is), but several of the SF books in my recommendations list all have multiple reviews that use that exact adjective to describe them. It's not a flaw in the recommendation system as such, because they do not have "Dystopian" listed as a genre, but they are clearly dystopian in nature. Is there any way to refine my recommendations by excluding such book?
Sorry about this, Robin! One option is to try and say more of what you do want in the preferences box to perhaps drown out the dystopian recommendations. Second, we're working on improving our book data. If you come across any of the books which you think should in fact have the dystopian genre tagged, please do file a book ticket. It might not get added in all cases, but it could help. Finally, we will be working on a way for users to specify things they don't want to read about!
That's good to know, thanks. The other strictly "mechanical" problem I'm having with my recommendations is a large number of duplicate entries in which the different editions of the same book have slightly different titles so don't get recognised as duplicates, as in the screenshot