[mythtv] 'recommendations' section

[Edward Wildgoose]

> As I had mentioned in the text below, I have definitely planned to
> go collaborative at some point.  We had a discussion about this
> already in the user list back in June..  

Just a thought, but if you do this right, then the tv companies will be after you to buy your data, but if you do it wrong then they may be after you to shut you down (because you are encouraging people not to watch a certain show...)

So get the licencing terms right if you go collaborative...

I'm not aware that anyone (apart from the IMDB type stuff) who offers a public like/dislike tv rating system, but I believe that the tv companies pay quite a bit of money for external companies to do this kind of research

Have a look at mydigiguide as well for some really good ideas.  There seems to be only a few ways you can do this stuff anyway (limited data basically).

1) Genre.  ie I like/hate SciFi.
2) Fav actors (and perhaps also directors....?).  Probably little call for "hated actors" though?
3) Bayes/Conditional programming.  Only likely to be offline on a big collaborative DB.  ie Given that I like Star Trek, with what probability will I like Deep Space 9?  With what probability will I like Pride and Prejudice...  The maths is fairly simple, it's basically a counting exercise.

I suggest generating a GUID + Password.  (password to stop bored nutters poisening the DB too easily).  Then everyone is only known by their GUID and it remains anonymous.  I for one would have no problem with my recommendations being sent back to your server...

Other issues would be to make sure that people are rating the series, rather than the episode for regular shows....

Also, do a little bit of research on Firefly, this was a website about 5 years ago which did something similar to with music recommendations.  If it is going to take off then you probably want to make it extendable to music and other stuff, and probably also to accept submissions other than via myth

Sounds great though.  Good luck!

Ed W