Touch Inappropriate book suggestions on recommendations

[Andy_T]

Originally Posted by danskmacabre

I'm pretty open-minded, but the book in question was called

Spoiler:

The art of Oral sex

or something like that.

Interesting. Maybe you read some books on dentistry or a related subject?

That's what I like about Amazon, when you click on a book in the "suggestions" it will show you why it thinks you might be interested in that.

Best regards,
Andy

[danskmacabre]

Originally Posted by MikeNorrish

Haven't downloaded any of the Dresden Files books have you?

I know of the Dresden files, but not put it on my ereader.

[danskmacabre]

Originally Posted by Andy_T

Interesting. Maybe you read some books on dentistry or a related subject?

That's what I like about Amazon, when you click on a book in the "suggestions" it will show you why it thinks you might be interested in that.

Best regards,
Andy

No, but I think it was their servers acting flaky or something and throwing out weird results. I synced again 5 minutes later and it went away.
I have about 200 books on my ereader now tho, whilst none are specifically sexual in content, I suppose some of them contain mild sexual themes in parts.
Some of the authors: David Gemmell, George R.R. Martin, Peter Straub, clive barker etc..

Basically most of the books on the ereader are Scifi, Fantasy, historical fiction and some books on Astronomy and Quantum physics. That's it really.

[Ninjalawyer]

My reading suggestions include a gynecelogical picture book, books on HTML programming, a book for immigrants to American and short stories about still births. The books I've bought from Kobo have been scifi and some non-fiction (Russel Brand's book, a book on AI and general science books).

So ya...I think Kobo's recommendation algorithms could use some tweaks, maybe even a complete rethink. Oh well, Kobo's usual course is to implement a good idea that's broken, and then patch it over time so it's at a mostly acceptable level.

[Jaden]

I've written about this before somewhere - yes, I received pretty inappropriate recommendations myself, too. And I've never searched for any "adult" content and don't share my reader with anyone.

I could laugh about it, but only because I don't share the reader and don't have any kids or anyone else who could be offended by these kinds of recommendations.

Mine were about

Spoiler:

swingerclubs.

And I haven't looked up anything that even had the word club in it, either, so I don't know where they came from.

They are gone by now and nothing like that has come up again - anyway that was strange and another reason why you should officially be able to switch off the recommendations.

[Andy_T]

Well, maybe they tried to test out the old adage "Sex sells" ?

Best regards,
Andy

PS: Boy, I'd really HATE to have to explain that to my wife/SO...

[danskmacabre]

Originally Posted by Andy_T

Well, maybe they tried to test out the old adage "Sex sells" ?
Best regards,
Andy
PS: Boy, I'd really HATE to have to explain that to my wife/SO...

Heh, well now I've thought it through, maybe I ought to buy the book I was suggested and load it onto my Wife's KT!

[ltr]

Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer

So ya...I think Kobo's recommendation algorithms could use some tweaks, maybe even a complete rethink.

hehe, that's an understatement.

My email today from Kobo offers me some recommendations, stating that these are "recommended reads you might like. Your recommendations are based on your past purchases. Enjoy!".

1. Healthy Weight Loss Diet and Cookbook for Seniors.
2. God Will - Devotions Empowered by Biblical Statements of Faith.
3. No, I was not born Gay.

Seriously, a child could look at the books I have purchased and know that those recommendations are about the furthest from anything I would enjoy.

I continually click on the "Not Interested" selections of the Kobo Web site for books they recommend for me. The selections couldn't be more off base if they tried. In fact it's often downright comical.

Todays email from Kobo offered a button to click to take a survey. It boasted...
Have You Taken Our Survey?
Help us improve your eBook recommendations.
Take this 10 question survey to help us enhance your eBook selections.

Hey, that's a survey I'd like to take. But alas, when I click the button it responds with a web page that reads,
"Thank you for completing our survey!"

I think that just about sums up Kobos recommendation algorithms.

ltr

[Jaden]

Well... "These recommendations are based on your past purchase behaviour and based on other books that similar customers have bought."

I've "bought" the free 'Umberto Eco collection' we could get around Christmas, 'Stolen Away' (also free), 'Good Omens', 'The Way of Kings' and 'A Song of Ice and Fire' (1-4).

All of that is fiction, the bigger part is fantasy. Now the newest recommendations for me:

1. PHP for the Web
2. Count Down Calendars: 24 Stitched Projects...
3. Handmade Style: Stitch
4. Compassionate Knitting

Uhm... huh?

None of the recommended books are fantasy and I have no interested in PHP or sewing/cross stitching or knitting "based on a contemplative theme drawn from Shambhala Buddhism and Eastern arts or, in some cases, Western notions of the magical and mindful".

[Quelch]

How does one avoid this nonsense ?

If I'm in a bookstore and a salesman starts suggesting a book I might I might like to buy, I'd soon tell him where to stick it !

I wont go to the Kobo site anymore, will that fix it

I've changed 'suggestions' on the Kobo Touch to 'Shortlist' is that all we can do ?

Note:

Apart from this little annoyance I'm happy with the Kobo Touch and do recommend it to friends !

[TonyToews]

Thanks for the thread folks. It's been a giggle.