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New Feature: Category Recommendations
We introduced a new feature today. It's called "Category Recommendations". It essentially just tries to find the top 5 series which match the categories assigned to the series, if it can. It's still in beta. Hopefully this helps people find new manga. It also should encourage everyone to categorize more series and VOTE!
Comments (limited to first 100 replies)
» CatzCradle on February 3rd, 2011, 7:02pm
Very cool feature! 
But is it also possible to hide the feature some way? *feels a little cluttered* @_@
But is it also possible to hide the feature some way? *feels a little cluttered* @_@
» rita on February 3rd, 2011, 8:57pm
nice idea 
saves the trouble to search thru the tags lol.
saves the trouble to search thru the tags lol.
» Pikapu on February 3rd, 2011, 9:00pm
Oooh! Cool! Thanks!
» jameh on February 3rd, 2011, 9:20pm
Cool 
» lessaandflar on February 3rd, 2011, 10:53pm
Maybe I'm just thick-headed, but where is this feature located? I can't seem to find it.
» Toto on February 4th, 2011, 2:18pm
Right below the categories.
» calstine on February 3rd, 2011, 11:04pm
Well, I don't know about 'top 5 series'. None of the manga are like are in the 'top' of anything, 'cause I don't read mainstream manga.
So, while I don't think the feature will be all that useful to me, I really appreciate how hard you guys are working to make MU more useful and easier to navigate. Good luck with the beta-testing and I hope it goes well!
So, while I don't think the feature will be all that useful to me, I really appreciate how hard you guys are working to make MU more useful and easier to navigate. Good luck with the beta-testing and I hope it goes well!
» calstine on February 3rd, 2011, 11:06pm
I am so fat-fingered! I meant "None of the manga I like are in the top..."
» BaeSooky on February 4th, 2011, 1:16am
"None of the manga are like are in the 'top' of anything, 'cause I don't read mainstream manga."
By Top 5 series he meant the top 5 manga that match the same categories, not the top 5 manga out there right now.
By Top 5 series he meant the top 5 manga that match the same categories, not the top 5 manga out there right now.
» Yousuke on February 4th, 2011, 6:23am
I realize this is a beta, so it's too early to complain. However you could use this critism when you're fixing this feature.
Here's what really makes this feature useless to me. I click on Nana to Kaoru and look at the Category Recommendations. 2 out of 5 recommendations forward me to Yaoi stuff.
You should work on some limitations. So that the recommendations are at least in a similar genre. Jumping from Shonen/Seinen to Yaoi/Shonen Ai (or even Shoujo) is a no go. It's really not much of recommendation instead I feel trolled by it.
Here's what really makes this feature useless to me. I click on Nana to Kaoru and look at the Category Recommendations. 2 out of 5 recommendations forward me to Yaoi stuff.
You should work on some limitations. So that the recommendations are at least in a similar genre. Jumping from Shonen/Seinen to Yaoi/Shonen Ai (or even Shoujo) is a no go. It's really not much of recommendation instead I feel trolled by it.
» VawX on February 4th, 2011, 6:27am
well, that's one of the main problems mmm...
but it's better than nothing mmm...
but it's better than nothing mmm...
» xria on February 4th, 2011, 6:48am
I guess you can see why it recommends it though - Nana to Kaoru and Otokonoko dakara ne for example have very similar subject matter according to the categories, they are just in different genres (which aren't included in the category side of things, so are ignored)
» xria on February 4th, 2011, 6:57am
I suppose one fix would be to either exclude or downgrade category ratings for anything where one of a group of genres is involved - so Yaoi, Hentai, Lolicon, Shotacon, and so on only give category recommendations for items with the same genre tag (or maybe expand it slightly so that Yaoi/Shounen Ai, Hentai/Ecchi/Adult, and other groupings might be allowed).
» Yousuke on February 4th, 2011, 8:56am
Well the point of category recommendations is to overlap genres and I get that. But it should have some minor restrictions like no jumps between shonen/seinen and shoujo/yosei/shoujo ai and yaoi/shonen ai. These are just TOO different. If you like a particular shonen manga and you're looking for similar categories, a shoujo manga (or worse) wouldn't help you.
Or how about have Genre Filtering affect the category recommendation list. For instance I have Shonen AI and Yaoi filtered out from releases. Wouldn't it be possible to also filter them from the Category Recommendation list?
Or how about have Genre Filtering affect the category recommendation list. For instance I have Shonen AI and Yaoi filtered out from releases. Wouldn't it be possible to also filter them from the Category Recommendation list?
» animefan22 on February 4th, 2011, 9:41am
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» naikan on February 4th, 2011, 11:18am
I'm same as the replier above: I read any type of genre/pairing based on the theme of the story (mystery, action, etc.), and I would hate it if recommendations were restricted based on the gender of the pairings. Applying genre filtering based on our original preferences is a good idea though.
» kami0001 on February 4th, 2011, 7:19pm
agreed!
» XiJie on February 4th, 2011, 8:53am
Thank you! I'm sure I'll find more and more manga to read with this new feature. I already discovered a new artist. This will be very helpful, since I always read the same genre but want to diversify my reading.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
» thevampirate on February 4th, 2011, 9:19am
I wonder how harem is going to work out since there's reverse harem which is mainly shojou and regular harem manga which is ecchi shounen most of the time.
» animefan22 on February 4th, 2011, 9:43am
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» ShadowSakura on February 4th, 2011, 10:07am
one of the recommendations of lovely complex was actually a hentai... i think there should be a way how to filter genres from the recommendations
» animefan22 on February 4th, 2011, 10:36am
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» Toto on February 4th, 2011, 2:26pm
"N/A (Add some categories, baka!)"
Amusing.
Amusing.
» Meira on February 4th, 2011, 4:50pm
Very useful.
Cool feature.
Cool feature.
» Manick on February 4th, 2011, 6:00pm
Thanks for all the comments folks. It's definitely a work in progress ... I'm thinking about doing some sort of genre manipulation so that we can have two sets of top 5 ... perhaps 1 of 5 set which is in the specific overall type (seinen, yaoi, shounen, shoujo, etc), and then 1 of 5 for everything in general.
I was also wondering if some categories should be excluded, like "Based on a Novel", or "Award winning work".
For anyone who is curious, I did just make a fix. Previously, categories with no votes (0,0) were not being included. They are now, so this should increase the fidelity of the recommendations.
I was also wondering if some categories should be excluded, like "Based on a Novel", or "Award winning work".
For anyone who is curious, I did just make a fix. Previously, categories with no votes (0,0) were not being included. They are now, so this should increase the fidelity of the recommendations.
» Hiyapeeps on February 4th, 2011, 7:11pm
Would it be possible to filter out series with no releases yet? I know some ppl like reading the raws but its always a letdown when u read the synopsis, think "this looks good" and then "dammit no releases -.- "
This feature could do with quite a few filters you could change yourself, like excluding certain genres/categories, authors, complete/incomplete series etc. might be a bit much though....
This feature could do with quite a few filters you could change yourself, like excluding certain genres/categories, authors, complete/incomplete series etc. might be a bit much though....
» ichigo_daisuki on February 5th, 2011, 12:22am
I always see a "I'm Looking For..." post on the home page; this may turn out good.
» stubborn blob on February 5th, 2011, 3:53am
Is it possible to limit the amount of recommendations not by quantity but by the 'weight'? And yes, viewing the results by genre would be great.
» Identity Crisis on February 5th, 2011, 10:36am
I like this feature, let's hope it works out well.
Also, I think a problem with this is that there are so many general categories. Like "Cat/s" and "Student/s" and "Misunderstandings". lol @ Misunderstandings. I guess that would be a valid one considering how many manga revolve around it.
Also, I think a problem with this is that there are so many general categories. Like "Cat/s" and "Student/s" and "Misunderstandings". lol @ Misunderstandings. I guess that would be a valid one considering how many manga revolve around it.
» Toto on February 5th, 2011, 5:19pm
I figure the category "Misunderstandings" came about because whoever added it didn't want to spoil others too much by giving anymore info. Nonetheless, it is a bit frivolous.
As for "Student/s", we have that as a partial. So, if someone uses the advanced search method, they can combine "Student/s" with either "High School", "Elementary School", "Middle School", or "University". Or Teacher (Professor might need to be combined, but I'll leave it for now) with the later categories... instead of having 15 categories... we have 7.
As for "Student/s", we have that as a partial. So, if someone uses the advanced search method, they can combine "Student/s" with either "High School", "Elementary School", "Middle School", or "University". Or Teacher (Professor might need to be combined, but I'll leave it for now) with the later categories... instead of having 15 categories... we have 7.
» Identity Crisis on February 5th, 2011, 8:30pm
Huh. I didn't know you could do all that. I've only voted for categories, not much else with it.
Thanks for the information.
Thanks for the information.
» Toto on February 6th, 2011, 12:18am
Yeah, categories are a great thing and are only limited by one's imagination/initiative.
Some might need to be set with it's partner, yet many are combined needlessly. It would be easier to fix, if it was possible to split the category into multiple ones (duplicate the category; then, rename/mass combine the duplicates into the appropriate partials); however, we can only re-name/combine a category once.
Just yesterday I pruned all the student categories into student + whatever school it was paired with; however, I could only chose one to go with. So, most went into Student/s; then, I manually added the appropriate education level category to each series.
Ideally, we could alter alcoholic, workaholic, Sex Addict, and Substance Abuse into (what the addiction is) + addiction.
Child Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Animal Cruelty, Abusive Authority Figure, Abusive Lover, Abusive Parent/s into (what is abused) + Abuse and/or (the abuser) + abusive.
But... it's a lot of work to do, and most don't think about it or are unaware of the advance search option; so, they keep combining the partials/re-adding the combinations.
We are also limited by how many series we have actually read. Like... I want to change the Strong character category into... Mentally strong and physically strong ... but I don't know most of the series in all of the strong categories. So, I just left it alone.
Some might need to be set with it's partner, yet many are combined needlessly. It would be easier to fix, if it was possible to split the category into multiple ones (duplicate the category; then, rename/mass combine the duplicates into the appropriate partials); however, we can only re-name/combine a category once.
Just yesterday I pruned all the student categories into student + whatever school it was paired with; however, I could only chose one to go with. So, most went into Student/s; then, I manually added the appropriate education level category to each series.
Ideally, we could alter alcoholic, workaholic, Sex Addict, and Substance Abuse into (what the addiction is) + addiction.
Child Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Animal Cruelty, Abusive Authority Figure, Abusive Lover, Abusive Parent/s into (what is abused) + Abuse and/or (the abuser) + abusive.
But... it's a lot of work to do, and most don't think about it or are unaware of the advance search option; so, they keep combining the partials/re-adding the combinations.
We are also limited by how many series we have actually read. Like... I want to change the Strong character category into... Mentally strong and physically strong ... but I don't know most of the series in all of the strong categories. So, I just left it alone.
» animefan22 on February 16th, 2011, 2:36pm
deleted
» krytorii on February 5th, 2011, 3:30pm
.
» Toto on February 5th, 2011, 5:20pm
We do... it's called the advanced genre search.
» Yenoh on February 6th, 2011, 6:39pm
This is probably a stupid question, but on the side of the possible matches, what does it mean by the "weight"? Like when I searched up Floating Garden, Sea Tiger showed up as a potential category recommendation with (Weight 68.56), just wondering what that was?
I feel like I should've asked this in the random questions thread. D:
Anywho, the category recommendations are awesome! I've been able to find some similar series much faster. +__+~
I feel like I should've asked this in the random questions thread. D:
Anywho, the category recommendations are awesome! I've been able to find some similar series much faster. +__+~
» Manick on February 7th, 2011, 5:18pm
It just does a basic distance formula, with votes scaled such that the cat with max net votes is 100. It's a very dumb algorithm.. and i'm sure it could be done much better ...
» Hiyapeeps on February 8th, 2011, 7:44pm
tht doesnt help much.... so does it mean tht categories/manga with more votes have higher weighting?
the algorithm may be basic but its still confusing.
the algorithm may be basic but its still confusing.
» Manick on February 9th, 2011, 5:05pm
No, the most popular category (votes) in each series is assigned 100, and all the other ones are somewhere between 1-100...
» philip72 on February 10th, 2011, 6:36pm
I was on the "Kono Oneesan wa Fiction desu!?" page today and I noticed it had 3 Category Recommendations all with a weight over 90, so I clicked on them to see what they were about.
Now before I go any further, I should say that KOwFd!? is an ecchi tale about an upright young lad who constantly finds himself in naughty situations with his mangaka mothers big-breasted assistant. It's primarily aimed at titillating young heterosexual male readers via older voluptuous cougar service.
Now two of the recommendations were Anata no Jinsei Hikiukemasu! weighted at 90.28, and Hatarakimasen! weighted at 93.81. Likewise KOwFd!? is also a category recommendation for both of them.
In case you didn't know, both these series are pure yaoi. The only thing they have remotely in common with KOwFd! is they all feature mangaka in their write-ups.
I can think of at least 15 ecchi series off the top of my head that would be more suitable matches for KOwFd!?, and I'm sure many dedicated fujoshi and fudanshi wouldn't find page after page of "whoops, I'm accidentally fondling your humongous juggs" to be to their tastes either.
But that said, I know the system's still in beta and will improve (hopefully) with time.
Now before I go any further, I should say that KOwFd!? is an ecchi tale about an upright young lad who constantly finds himself in naughty situations with his mangaka mothers big-breasted assistant. It's primarily aimed at titillating young heterosexual male readers via older voluptuous cougar service.
Now two of the recommendations were Anata no Jinsei Hikiukemasu! weighted at 90.28, and Hatarakimasen! weighted at 93.81. Likewise KOwFd!? is also a category recommendation for both of them.
In case you didn't know, both these series are pure yaoi. The only thing they have remotely in common with KOwFd! is they all feature mangaka in their write-ups.
I can think of at least 15 ecchi series off the top of my head that would be more suitable matches for KOwFd!?, and I'm sure many dedicated fujoshi and fudanshi wouldn't find page after page of "whoops, I'm accidentally fondling your humongous juggs" to be to their tastes either.
But that said, I know the system's still in beta and will improve (hopefully) with time.
» Manick on February 10th, 2011, 9:29pm
90 is a fairly low weight. Usually the better matches are 130+
» MoJo on August 7th, 2013, 10:44am
A small problem I have found with the Category Recommendations, I was reading a Shounen that was light reading age appropriate 10-13 years of age and wanted to read something similar. Using your Category Recommendations there was 5 manga listed, two were hentai, two were ecchi and final one was the only one I'd consider PG-13. Now, I filter my releases so I don't have to see hentai manga so it's kind of annoying/worrying that this category recommendations is not only a loophole to that but recommends adult manga to someone reading a child's manga. I realized the internet is very much a user beware place. Children occasionally yet an eye-full of content that they shouldn't be exposed to, but since this is still in beta testing I thought I'd voice my concern in hopes of a solution.
P.S. I have come across this problem more than once while trying out the Category Recommendations but never to the extent that 4 out of 5 usually just 1 or 2 of the recommendations are ecchi or hentai.
P.S. I have come across this problem more than once while trying out the Category Recommendations but never to the extent that 4 out of 5 usually just 1 or 2 of the recommendations are ecchi or hentai.
