Algorithm for article recommendation
I’d like to suggest that the FWW site leverage their rich troves of articles, going back decades and featuring dozens of authors, by incorporating these articles into the featured/recommended reading panels on the site.
I don’t know if this means implementing a new algorithm, or that the team manually incorporates more “highlights from the past” articles in their suggested articles. Perhaps in addition to a “Popular articles” panel, add a panel for “Great Articles from the Archives” or something like that. (This may also promote more unlimited subs).
I do not need/want to see the same author featured in one of their many dovetail techniques every time I click on different page–blue tape, table saw, router. I enjoy that author, and I get that the style and techniques are approachable for readers. But what makes FWW different from other woodworking sites and magazines is its decades-long pedigree of offering high quality writing and ideas beyond the present cadre of seemingly ubiquitous contributors.
Sometimes I come just to see what’s in the next issue. Other times I come to learn a specific technique or find an interesting design for a piece of furniture I’m interested in building. I’d like to come more often just to do some browsing and learn something different from the past. Currently, the site is pretty much only set up for the first two.
Replies
This very morning I had the same thought.
I'm currently parsing the FWW how-to articles for PDFs to archive concerning my recent new interests in various WW domains as yet unexplored, such as veneering and some (to me) new hand tool skills. As I peruse the how-to article reference page, I look for those boxes containing other articles that should be - but aren't - chosen for display by the sort of algorithm you mention. Articles on similar subjects. But no - the same old article-boxes pop up, with only a very few exceptions.
But it's these exceptions that are intriguing. Some sort of algo is finding and displaying these very few actually-related articles. Why are not all of the other-article boxed so-chosen, then?
I fear it is just web design klunk jamming up the works. Or perhaps the authors of the oft-repeated article boxes are paying for extra publicity? :-)
Lataxe
I'm doubtful they are paying for publicity, but there is certainly strong bias in the algorithm for some authors...
Can't be we're the only one with this issue. I'd like Ben Strano to weigh in, as I think he's the one who manages the website.
Funny, I type what I'm looking for in the search box and magically articles on the subject appear.
Mikaol
Well .... the search engine does work after a fashion. But it has difficulty with more complex terms containing more than a single word; and in general produces far too many results that have nothing to do with the search term. There are often dozens and dozens of results - occasionally over 100 - that have to be waded through to find those of real interest.
Presumably the search engine employs the same data tables as the webpage painter to select associated articles when something is entered in the search box or a particular web page selected. The internal references between the thousands of FWW articles is likely somewhat ad-hoc rather than being determined in any fully-structured and comprehensive way.
Personally I've just done it the hard way - paged through hundreds of articles selected from the paged listings of the main web page headings such as "plans & projects", "how-tos" and so forth. Even then, use of a search term can reveal some article not found in those pages of "how-tos" et al.
Lataxe
Since I was asked to weigh in. The "related stories" feature never worked properly on the website redesign. That's why we've been putting links in manually at the bottom of the page article that are related by subject usually.
If anyone was getting paid to promote authors... it would be me... sadly none of them have offered. Some authors pop up a lot because we work with them a lot. Some pop up because they are popular, and I promote them a lot... it's a vicious circle.
The search is always a work in progress. I really think it has gotten a lot better in the past year. That said, I do use the magazine index search a LOT. If you're ever looking for something from the magazine, it's a great resource as there is no algorithm involved. https://www.finewoodworking.com/magazine-index
One mark of a good woodworker is being able to fix one's mistakes. Perhaps a retooling behind the scenes of the website redesign? Most likely the difficulty with searching and finding relevant articles from the past is the crossover into the difficult "reader" tool that has to be used to view and read past issues. As unlimited members, we should be able to search and pull up singular articles from all those past issues without having to dig through an index and then go pull that issue to peruse. (that's without mentioning that I can't view past issues on my iPad...). Beyond that I think the content is great, remains great. I read the first Issue back in high school and many since then, and will remain a subscriber.
I agree with all the comments above. I searched for how to cut large wood threads and could not find the article. I new it was there because some other than FWW staff said it was. After much frustration i found it on my computer arrive mag program. It was a old article i agree. But it was there it was one of the black and white mags. Old your web site could not find it no mater what i put in the search engine. I agree the search engine is junk. If things do not get dramatically better i will not renew my unlimited account. Also i think your mag dig reader is junk also.
I just used the magazine index. It's excellent and should be featured.
That said, it's quite unfortunate that the related articles feature is broken. IMO better to remove it or fix it rather than leave it there, but even removal costs $$...
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