Build an algorithm to predict friendships, then actually use it to meet people • Hacker News Board

Re: Build an algorithm to predict friendships, then actually use it to meet people

#11

Post by glimcat » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 4:40 PM UTC

mjmahone17 wrote: post #4

This is interesting, but given your parameters (predict the most friendships), all you're technically asking for is recall. I'll write an algorithm that has 100% recall: predict that all people become friends with each other. If this is really a competition (and not just "Here, have fun with our dataset!"), you need to define the rules a little bit more clearly. How are you weighing recall vs. precision? Or are you j…

They're also looking for whether people become friends on Facebook.

The dominant factor here is going to be the rate at which the participants send and accept connection requests on Facebook. Some people send them to everyone they meet, some people never use Facebook.

KPI overfitting, yay!

(The best second-order effect is probably a multi-feature similarity measure between the participants and the person's current Facebook Friends, including graph distance to current Friends. In case anyone is taking a run at this.)

Re: Build an algorithm to predict friendships, then actually use it to meet people

#12

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 4:40 PM UTC

thebiglebrewski wrote: post #2

This would be a little more fun if there was a cash prize. No offense meant, groupers look cool, but you'd probably get some more participation that way.

[deleted]

Re: Build an algorithm to predict friendships, then actually use it to meet people

#13

Post by ddod » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 4:48 PM UTC

nottombrown wrote: post #3

Hey HN, Grouper founder here. Let me know if you have any questions about the contest.

This is the sort of thing I'm personally very interested in, and I have some pretty novel ideas for how I'd approach it. That said, I wouldn't participate in this because it clearly devalues the industry. You should really rethink your approach.

Developers who are considering participation in this, I'd suggest you build something for yourself with data acquired elsewhere.

Re: Build an algorithm to predict friendships, then actually use it to meet people

#14

Post by jameszhang » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 4:52 PM UTC

nottombrown wrote: post #3

Hey HN, Grouper founder here. Let me know if you have any questions about the contest.

Honestly, I think this is a very cool challenge. As someone who just went on a Grouper last night in Boston and had a great time, I think I just might participate and submit something. Do you have any limitations on how many people can form a team? Personally, I would pair on this with my roommate. He's the big data guy, and I'm the coder.

Re: Build an algorithm to predict friendships, then actually use it to meet people

#15

Post by yankoff » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 5:00 PM UTC

nottombrown wrote: post #3

Hey HN, Grouper founder here. Let me know if you have any questions about the contest.

Why you guys didn't want to run this competition on Kaggle? That could get it more attention from data scientists.

Re: Build an algorithm to predict friendships, then actually use it to meet people

#16

Post by nottombrown » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 5:01 PM UTC

jameszhang wrote: post #14

nottombrown wrote: post #3

Hey HN, Grouper founder here. Let me know if you have any questions about the contest.

Honestly, I think this is a very cool challenge. As someone who just went on a Grouper last night in Boston and had a great time, I think I just might participate and submit something. Do you have any limitations on how many people can form a team? Personally, I would pair on this with my roommate. He's the big data guy, and I'm the coder.

Feel free to work together as a team. Glad that you guys had fun last night :D

Re: Build an algorithm to predict friendships, then actually use it to meet people

#17

Post by angersock » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 5:08 PM UTC

mariusz79 wrote: post #5

So basically they are asking people to build them an algorithm that will be a critical part of their business, in exchange for a free service that will be based on this algorithm. Right...

Yep, basically.

EDIT: ah fuck it might hack on this dataset anyways--if i get a beer and a date out of it ill help fiddle while rome burns

Re: Build an algorithm to predict friendships, then actually use it to meet people

#18

Post by nottombrown » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 5:16 PM UTC

mariusz79 wrote: post #5

So basically they are asking people to build them an algorithm that will be a critical part of their business, in exchange for a free service that will be based on this algorithm. Right...

Sorry if this was unclear. You own any code that you write for this competition.

The prize is that we'll use your algorithm to validate any matches that you go on. If that doesn't seem worthwhile to you, feel free to pass on this contest.

Re: Build an algorithm to predict friendships, then actually use it to meet people

#19

Post by JFoss117 » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 5:22 PM UTC

nottombrown wrote: post #3

Hey HN, Grouper founder here. Let me know if you have any questions about the contest.

A few questions about the data:

1. How is it collected? From a survey, or grabbed from user FB profiles?

2. What is the platinum albums variable? Maybe the number of platinum albums that the user likes on FB??

3. Why are there some "male" entries in the f_gender column, and some "female" entries in the m_gender column?

Re: Build an algorithm to predict friendships, then actually use it to meet people

#20

Post by Aloisius » Thu, Dec 05, 2013, 5:25 PM UTC

nottombrown wrote: post #18

mariusz79 wrote: post #5

So basically they are asking people to build them an algorithm that will be a critical part of their business, in exchange for a free service that will be based on this algorithm. Right...

Sorry if this was unclear. You own any code that you write for this competition. The prize is that we'll use your algorithm to validate any matches that you go on. If that doesn't seem worthwhile to you, feel free to pass on this contest.

Do you allow closed source entries? Rewriting an algorithm implemented in someone else's code to avoid copyright infringement is trivial not to mention inevitable given the performance requirement differences between a contest and a production site.