I may have had one or two successes? If we're defining successes as "I eventually got a book they recommended", not as "I purchased the item from the site that recommended it", anyway.
Mostly, though, they just keep recommending me things I already own, things have read already and not been impressed with, and things I would not touch with a ten-foot pole (Hello, John Ringo. How lamentable to see you again!
Their algorithms don't seem able to pick up on key elements of my reading preferences -- for example, I like military sci-fi, but mainly only when there's a female protagonist. (And, lately, I've given that up in favour of "only when there's a female author", but that's recent and therefore I wouldn't expect the algorithm to pick it up.) Amazon and Goodreads, unfortunately, keep recommending me horrible things from the Baen Sexist Six* that make me want to throw their recs back with bruising force.
*I say six; there may be more. Bujold once joked that she was Baen's "token liberal", and this seems to be true!
no subject
Mostly, though, they just keep recommending me things I already own, things have read already and not been impressed with, and things I would not touch with a ten-foot pole (Hello, John Ringo. How lamentable to see you again!
Their algorithms don't seem able to pick up on key elements of my reading preferences -- for example, I like military sci-fi, but mainly only when there's a female protagonist. (And, lately, I've given that up in favour of "only when there's a female author", but that's recent and therefore I wouldn't expect the algorithm to pick it up.) Amazon and Goodreads, unfortunately, keep recommending me horrible things from the Baen Sexist Six* that make me want to throw their recs back with bruising force.
*I say six; there may be more. Bujold once joked that she was Baen's "token liberal", and this seems to be true!