purplerabbits

Ahh, that's because they've created this in an information theory context. They take the number of lj users and divide by the number of users (total) with a particular interest to get the number of bits of information the interest is worth. Then your bit totals are added up. This provides rewards in the system for users who share uncommon interests and rated them higher.

So as an example, sharing the interest 'lemurs in the rain' with someone is worth far more than sharing 'music'

This means that you share more with people local to you and people you know. This is generally caused when people put specific places, clubs or events in interests. So for instance in Edinburgh, we might have Holyrood Tavern and the Mission which would have high values. People you already know are commonly through a shared interest and it's usually not something like a vague interest such as 'reading' whereas it could be a like of a particular author. Hence higher values again.

So it looks like it's the people we already know who we share the most with in an information theory context......

Funny. I've got most in common with Morph as well. The first stranger is a student who lives in the same town as Ximena.

This thing is totally flawed. My so-called 'soul mate' is an married Air Force Officer who volunteers for the police force in her free time. The only two things we have in common are a chronic disease and a sci-fi show.