Were not for the 150 limit, then sure, just doing the flat approach is the simplest solution. But, since there is a limit -- and a rather low one too, imo -- then there's the need to balance "well, do I put this in by its alternate spellings/names, or do I free up that precious slot for something else? And if I free it up, which spelling do I go with?"
Of course, if you get rid of the limit or set it (un)reasonably high, then you start getting into categorization/diffusion issues. Considering typical interests, it'd be helpful to be able to break things out into music, food, clothes, politics, etc. That way you could scan a bit of each category to get an idea of the person without needing to read through everything to make sure you covered the bases.
But then who defines the categories? If you had a more sophisticated ontological framework than just a simple flat listing of interests then you could leave it up to the users to create and adapt for themselves. If it were really sophisticated then it could deal with aliasing problems (i.e. spelling differences for the same thing) or "discover" new categories in my interests (i.e. if I list interest A and give it no category (or give it category C), and someone else lists A and puts it in category B, then one could look at my profile with a filter so A shows up in B)
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chiming
no subject
Date: 2006-06-22 06:15 am (UTC)From:Of course, if you get rid of the limit or set it (un)reasonably high, then you start getting into categorization/diffusion issues. Considering typical interests, it'd be helpful to be able to break things out into music, food, clothes, politics, etc. That way you could scan a bit of each category to get an idea of the person without needing to read through everything to make sure you covered the bases.
But then who defines the categories? If you had a more sophisticated ontological framework than just a simple flat listing of interests then you could leave it up to the users to create and adapt for themselves. If it were really sophisticated then it could deal with aliasing problems (i.e. spelling differences for the same thing) or "discover" new categories in my interests (i.e. if I list interest A and give it no category (or give it category C), and someone else lists A and puts it in category B, then one could look at my profile with a filter so A shows up in B)