May
This month is filled with new features - Ratings, Dashboard Filters, AI-driven Similar Series and more have shipped!
This month has been huge for updates -> we've got a ton added, from the Rating system to the new version of Similar Series, which utilises the latest advances in AI. Of course, there are plenty of quality-of-life improvements, such as new Dashboard Filters and Unified Add & Edit Screen.
Check out the Changelog for the full list of changes ->
📊 Ratings
One of the most crucial features has finally been completed: you can now rate your own series, which will feed into our database and set average scores for each series.
With this feature, you can sort series by score—either your own or global scores—on the Dashboard, and by global score in Advanced Search.
Moreover, you can now see these scores in Series Details, with a full breakdown available in Statistics. Discovery also has its own row for the Highest Rated Series, right above the Most Popular series.
Profiles now display this information as well, so you can check out your friends' scores or any other user's scores on Kenmei, provided their profile is public.
I've implemented a complex algorithm to smooth out ratings by incorporating a prior distribution, preventing items with only a few extreme ratings from appearing disproportionately high or low. However, it may be a bit rough initially.
As more people rate, the system will become more accurate. I encourage everyone to rate as many of their series as possible to help improve our database as quickly as possible!
🔎 Dashboard Filters
If you had a chance to use the Profile Library section, you would have noticed the new filters allowing you to filter your or friends' lists. It made it easy to find exactly what others are reading, but you couldn't do it in your own Dashboard—until now!
The same filters you can use across the app are now directly in your Dashboard.
It's never been easier to find what you are going to read next by filtering your Plan to Read list or perhaps finding a specific series to read from all your unread series.
➕Unified Add & Edit Screens
Another huge improvement has been the unification of the new Add Entry Screen with the Edit Screen.
Apart from making it a nicer UI to use on both desktop and mobile, it also allowed the release of a long-requested feature: editing existing entries on both the Series Details page and from Quick Search results.
🤖 AI-Driven Similar Series
The first version of the new Recommendation Engine is now officially running on Kenmei! As outlined in my 2024 goals, I aimed to release this engine to enable unique features that no other tracking service offers. I'm thrilled to announce that this effort is finally paying off.
Here’s an example of it in action: Previously, recommendations for similar series to this baseball manhwa were inconsistent, displaying different suggestions each time. Now, the engine accurately prioritizes baseball series based on the description, followed by other sports series.
The first version of the Similar Series system relied on available tags to find related series. However, the new engine leverages the latest advances in AI to truly understand the series based on its description, tags, type (manga, manhwa, etc.), and even whether it contains adult content.
Here’s another example: previously, a soccer series only showed two loosely related sports series without any specific soccer connection. Now, the new engine's suggestions are almost entirely soccer-related, even in the absence of a specific tag! Additionally, since it recognizes the series as manga, it prioritizes suggesting manga series first.
There's a lot more in store, building on this work. In the coming months, I'll be announcing new features that will make Kenmei even more addictive and the best place to discover new series to read, tailored to your preferences with minimal effort on your part. I can't wait to share more details with you!
As promised, I went full throttle in May and successfully achieved all the goals I set for myself. In fact, I even began working on features planned for June. I am very happy with the progress this month!
In June, I plan to return to Discovery and Advanced Search. This includes implementing features such as the ability to hide erotica series, adding Featured Collections™️, and starting a long-anticipated project that I am particularly excited about. While I'm unsure how much I'll accomplish, I expect June to be as exciting as May turned out to be.
Here's the updated list of priorities:
Data Moderation SystemDashboard ImprovementsRating SystemErotica Moderation Improvements
Featured Collections
Project X
Last updated
