tecznotes

From an essay on UltraGleeper, a Codecon presentation on web page recommendations, which I missed:

If you want best-sellers you can check the best-seller list. In my opinion, a good recommendation engine must have an element of anti-popularity. I implemented this in the Ultra Gleeper with something I call the Indie Rock Peter Principle, named after the comic strip character Indie Rock Pete, who has a kind of sadomasochistic relationship with popularity. The IRPP stipulates that beyond a certain point, additional recommendations (i.e. incoming links) decrease a page's score instead of increasing it. Not only does this clear the ground for real surprises, it acts as an additional, probabilistic filter for pages you've seen in casual browsing. Anything it misses will probably show up within a couple days in the weblogs you read.

Brilliant. (emphasis mine)