Discussion 2.0: Personalization
metaoptimize.com
metaoptimize.com
Regardless, I think it is undeniable that some clever filtering is necessary to keep like people together in an environment they can both agree to enjoy and respect, however that is. Personalization can do that without a priori fixating on things like highbrow-versus-lowbrow, etc, which can easily kill a community.
This is an interesting technical objection. I am not sure that it is necessarily true, though. If I properly weigh exploration (vs. exploitation), and I present related users with stochastic feeds, then the system can explore things it didn't realize that I might like.
Not that I think genetic algorithms are useful in general, but a genetic algorithm would be useful in this specific circumstance. If I engage in K discussions when the feed is driven by exploitation, but I engage in 2K discussions when the feed is driven by more exploration, then I will prefer explorative feeds. So I believe it would be possible to escape local minima.
While a personalization approach could work, I believe that a better solution is changing the way the discussion forum works, not hiding and censoring certain content from certain people.