it would probably be intrusive...

[ratcreature]

...but sometimes I think it would be cool if journalling sites had a function to "suggest me a new journal to read" not a random one, but a suggestion based on your current subscriptions, interests, maybe on some kind of other fuzzy, internal data-mining (the aforementioned "intrusive" part). I'm not sure how these things work, but like what Amazon does when it suggests books to you (sometimes they even suggest me interesting things, though that one is hit and miss, even though I actually tried to refine it manually) or that online music thing, Pandora?, that tries to guess what your tastes music are (that wasn't bad, though I couldn't use it for long, because eventually these location blocks happened). Anyway, something more advanced than the "popular among your friends" feature that LJ offered (offers? I can never really find that on the site anymore), and you could refine its suggestions.

Comments

[takemyrevolution]

DW has this. You can search for journals with interests similar to yours.

http://www.dreamwidth.org/interests

[synecdochic]

We'll also be adding a "popular users among the people you read" feature soon!

[ratcreature]

That's great to hear. I always liked that on LJ (and wondered what happened to it, I just can't find the link to it anymore on either the sitemap or the friends tools page).

[synecdochic]

http://www.livejournal.com/friends/popwithfriends.bml :)

[ratcreature]

huh, they've just hidden it. Weird. Thanks for the link.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, that is neat, though when I long for this feature I put aside the creepiness factor and look for something that remembers past behavior, evaluates all sorts of information (like relationships, which of its suggestions I liked in the past, which interests I gave more weight etc) and presents results. Sort of like an automated friending meme offering.

Only then I remember that I'm not sure would want LJ or any blogging site evaluate the info I provide by using their site this closely, do such comprehensive tracking and storing and put it all together.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

I think the Popular Amongst Friends uses exactly the same parametres as Amazon, which after all checks which other products were bought most by people who also bought what you have bought or in basket or wishlist. And there is interest search and flistflist ... but I know exactly what you mean, because I wished for the same :)

[ratcreature]

On the one hand I just think it would be neat if something combined all this, and could maybe learn from it when I accepted or rejected some suggestion to figure out which interests are of more importance to me. On the other hand it would be a truly creepy level of social tracking, and I'm not sure would want LJ or any blogging site evaluate the info I provide by using their site this closely and put it all together.

Butthen whenever it happens that maybe a couple of people on my reading list have gone silent and I think "hmm, I wonder whom else I could add for regular reading" and you end up doing all kinds of things manually, like browsing friends-of-friends, interests, communities, friending memes, and I wish I could just click a button, have a computer do this for me and present me with a couple of suggestions I could take a look at.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Exactly.

[caiusmajor.livejournal.com]

Wasn't there an app somewhere that would calculate your closest non-friends based on shared friends? Or maybe also interests? Seems like an easy enough thing to compute.

*googles* Ah, this one: http://ciphergoth.livejournal.com/190444.html

Doesn't look like it's still up, though.

[ratcreature]

I vaguely recall that gadget.

[tartanshell.livejournal.com]

I was just suggesting to nezumiko that the two of you might enjoy reading one another's LJ's. She's also a fangirl who loves rats, and she posts photos of hers as well as stories about them.