Preference Engines Side-Effects in Online Retail

jasonla writes "The Los Angeles Times ran a Column One article about the impact preference engines have on consumer buying habits. From the article: 'In the physical world, I bump into all kinds of people by chance. But online, if recommenders were perfect, I can have the option of talking to only people who are just like me. There's a danger that if we don't have some level of shared interaction, it can be destructive to our social cohesion.'"

Comments

Moderation system

[Anonymous Coward]

In a way, Slashdot is a pioneer in this area. Posts which are unacceptable to the mainstream are moderated down, effectively "disappearing" them to most viewers.

What the preference engine does is to tailor this to the individual viewer. Thus groupthink can operate at very refined levels. Provided that there is sufficient clustering of opinions, isolated communities-of-opinion form.

Indeed, even if the clustering of opinion is slight, over the long term it may be reinforced by the effects of the preference engine, thus causing a sort of condensation of parochialism.

Of course, the same thing can happen in meatspace. But there it takes longer, and there always the uncomfortable chance that you may happen by chance to talk to someone outside your community (a homeless person, a Bush voter, an atheist, etc.), and your assumptions could be challenged.

Whereas online, it seems that these isolated communities are ever more cohesive, and venture into foreign territory only to engage in virtual pogroms. (E.g., in the context of political weblogs, the occasional 'invasions' of redstate.org by partisans from dailykos.com)

Re:Moderation system

[moviepig.com]

...online, it seems that these isolated communities are ever more cohesive...

With (ahem) a little preference-engine background myself, let me note that, except for extreme instances, /.'s moderation seems not at all "cohesion"-prone. This is because its critique is primarily positive, and usually about eloquence as much as content. I.e., an upward mod demands merely that you say something engaging and coherent. If you do, chances are fair that you'll ring someone's chimes. And, in turn, you'll read comments thus chosen, if only to see what caught someone else's fancy. It's hardly the same as a selective, self-reinforcing community... and may even have the unintended side-effect of expanding perspectives...