Regarding the 0.0/default/skipped -- see my other response about "cardsets", which the more I think about it, the more I am convinced will solve nearly all of your issues:
- you don't have to worry about the skipped vs neutral problem (as it is fair to expect a user to answer all cards in a cardset).
- you don't have to worry about clustering. a cardset is a "cluster".
- you can work around technical limitations by having each cardset be its own cube
- you boost retention by being able to have a library of dozens of cardsets (rather than 250 cards). limitless swiping, and swiping on things that your users will find interesting because they are selecting cardsets that are important to them.
- you can make your site viral by allowing users to send a link where the receiver can (anonymously) swipe all the cards of a cardset and see their "similarity" to the link sender. (Then you can ask them to register to be able to send links themselves).
- futures paths for revenue are endless
I think you are 100% right here. Wow, thanks so much. This really is amazing. I'm going to begin work on this soon (just need to get some sleep first!)
Also there is another aspect to cardsets that might be worth thinking about, which is that they are like "polling" done in a fun and easy way (swiping on pictures) -- the fact that you can also show people that answered similar to me doesn't need to be the focus.
Having polls like this can help you grow the site. For example, imagine I make a cardset for "Beatles albums" where I put in each Beatles album, and shoot the link out to, say, r/Beatles or whatever. Your site can let people swipe, then show the aggregate % for each of the cards, thus ranking them.
Of course... having viewed this really fun and quick poll, random pollers might wish to make their own new polls and spread your site.
Enjoy your sleep.. you have a long journey ahead of you!
Regarding the 0.0/default/skipped -- see my other response about "cardsets", which the more I think about it, the more I am convinced will solve nearly all of your issues: