{
  "id": 5772,
  "title": "Meaning of random_bool",
  "url": "/competitions/expedia-personalized-sort/discussion/5772",
  "author_name": "",
  "post_date": "2013-09-16T11:25:43.847Z",
  "votes": null,
  "comment_count": 5,
  "views": 1878,
  "content": "<p>Can somebody explain in more details what is the meaning of random_bool parameter?</p>\n<p>All I found is &quot;+1 when the displayed sort was random, 0 when the normal sort order was displayed&quot;.</p>\n<p>Still, it is not clear how it is possible to receive nonsorted data, and when it is sorted, whic is the sort order?</p>\n<p>striki</p>",
  "messages": [
    {
      "id": "30965",
      "postDate": "09/16/2013 11:25:43",
      "content": "<p>Can somebody explain in more details what is the meaning of random_bool parameter?</p>\n<p>All I found is &quot;+1 when the displayed sort was random, 0 when the normal sort order was displayed&quot;.</p>\n<p>Still, it is not clear how it is possible to receive nonsorted data, and when it is sorted, whic is the sort order?</p>\n<p>striki</p>",
      "rawMarkdown": "",
      "votes": null
    },
    {
      "id": "30967",
      "postDate": "09/16/2013 11:48:27",
      "content": "<p>When random_bool = 1 then hotels are sorted randomly and not by the Expedia ranking algorithm.</p>\n<p>When random_bool = 0 then hotels are sorted by the Expedia ranking algorithm.</p>\n<p>We show randomly sorted hotels for a tiny fraction of traffic just to get less biased data so that it can be used to train our ranking algorithm.</p>\n<p>&nbsp;</p>\n<p>&nbsp;</p>",
      "rawMarkdown": "",
      "votes": null
    },
    {
      "id": "30978",
      "postDate": "09/16/2013 15:19:30",
      "content": "<p>But is it true that &quot;position&quot; is always the result of the Expedia ranking algorithm, regardless of the value of random_bool?</p>",
      "rawMarkdown": "",
      "votes": null
    },
    {
      "id": "30979",
      "postDate": "09/16/2013 15:22:21",
      "content": "<p>Yes, position always correspond to a position of a hotel in a ranking. What varies here is the algorithm that generated a given ranking (Expedia ranking algorithm vs. random algorithm).</p>\n<p>&nbsp;</p>",
      "rawMarkdown": "",
      "votes": null
    },
    {
      "id": "31040",
      "postDate": "09/17/2013 11:50:50",
      "content": "<p>Adam - meaning if the algorithm was random (random_bool=1) then the position of the hotel in the ranking(though mentioned) is random and does not hold any meaning. Is that correct ?&nbsp;</p>",
      "rawMarkdown": "",
      "votes": null
    },
    {
      "id": "31041",
      "postDate": "09/17/2013 12:07:33",
      "content": "<p>When random_bool=1 and position=1 then it means that a given hotel was presented to a user on the first position in a ranking. However, there is no particular reason why this hotel happened to be in the first position because positions were assigned randomly to hotels .</p>",
      "rawMarkdown": "",
      "votes": null
    }
  ],
  "comments": [
    {
      "id": 30967,
      "author_name": "adamwoz",
      "author_url": "",
      "post_date": "09/16/2013 11:48:27",
      "content": "<p>When random_bool = 1 then hotels are sorted randomly and not by the Expedia ranking algorithm.</p>\n<p>When random_bool = 0 then hotels are sorted by the Expedia ranking algorithm.</p>\n<p>We show randomly sorted hotels for a tiny fraction of traffic just to get less biased data so that it can be used to train our ranking algorithm.</p>\n<p>&nbsp;</p>\n<p>&nbsp;</p>",
      "votes": null,
      "replies": []
    },
    {
      "id": 30978,
      "author_name": "buckaroobanzai",
      "author_url": "",
      "post_date": "09/16/2013 15:19:30",
      "content": "<p>But is it true that &quot;position&quot; is always the result of the Expedia ranking algorithm, regardless of the value of random_bool?</p>",
      "votes": null,
      "replies": []
    },
    {
      "id": 30979,
      "author_name": "adamwoz",
      "author_url": "",
      "post_date": "09/16/2013 15:22:21",
      "content": "<p>Yes, position always correspond to a position of a hotel in a ranking. What varies here is the algorithm that generated a given ranking (Expedia ranking algorithm vs. random algorithm).</p>\n<p>&nbsp;</p>",
      "votes": null,
      "replies": []
    },
    {
      "id": 31040,
      "author_name": "ektagrover1",
      "author_url": "",
      "post_date": "09/17/2013 11:50:50",
      "content": "<p>Adam - meaning if the algorithm was random (random_bool=1) then the position of the hotel in the ranking(though mentioned) is random and does not hold any meaning. Is that correct ?&nbsp;</p>",
      "votes": null,
      "replies": []
    },
    {
      "id": 31041,
      "author_name": "adamwoz",
      "author_url": "",
      "post_date": "09/17/2013 12:07:33",
      "content": "<p>When random_bool=1 and position=1 then it means that a given hotel was presented to a user on the first position in a ranking. However, there is no particular reason why this hotel happened to be in the first position because positions were assigned randomly to hotels .</p>",
      "votes": null,
      "replies": []
    }
  ],
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    "30965": "",
    "30967": "",
    "30978": "",
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  "source": "meta"
}