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BookWyrm: Fediverse for book readers (joinbookwyrm.com)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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"BookWyrm is a social network for tracking your reading, talking about books, writing reviews, and discovering what to read next."

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 10 months ago (9 children)

Recommendations from people, not algorithms

I mean, if an algorithm can recommend me books I might enjoy based on things I've previously read, that's not a bad thing?

Algorithms aren't always bad.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Plus people apparently don’t know what „algorithm“ means. Sorting by average rating is an algorithm. Filtering by genre is an algorithm. Anything that takes an input (a database of books), performs a discrete set of steps and produces an output (an ordered list of books) is an algorithm. Even if it’s not performed by a computer but yourself standing in front of your bookshelf.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

This is true, but colloquially when people say "I dislike algorithms," we are referring to any system that automatically sorts or elicits information, apart from responding to user input. I like having the ability to sort and filter things manually, but I dislike unsolicited recommendations and things of that nature. I think most people know the technical meaning of the word.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I do not think most people know about the computer science definition of algorithm involving discrete steps. For average people I feel like your definiton of "any system that automatically sorts or elecits information, apart from responding to user input" is the only one known.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

You may be right, I'm not really sure. And in this case, this is still what people are referring to colloquially.

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