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'Similar Topics' section of WP.

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JustFoundHere
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12 Sep 2020, 3:11 pm

Any consideration for listing newer discussion threads in 'Similar Topics?' This might help curb 'necrobumping.'



naturalplastic
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12 Sep 2020, 3:40 pm

First: I hope that you are aware that "similar topics" thing at the bottom of the page is generated by computer. Humans arent involved.

Second: you're asking the question the wrong way around.


Its not that the computer ignores newer threads, it's that it doesnt have an age cutoff for retrieving old threads. So when the computer does its thing of seeking out threads with similar key words in the title it has nothing to stop it from going back ten and more years. This thread has one from three years ago, one from four years ago, and the other two from 2010. If there were say, a three year age cutoff, then that 2017 thread would be the only one listed. And maybe thats the way it should be.

It can be annoying when someone necros a thread, and starts giving advice to someone from ten years ago. On the other hand some topics just keep recurring and stay relevant, so why not necro some vintage threads?



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12 Sep 2020, 3:47 pm

Why can't the site owner just get rid of the feature altogether? I get so wound up when certain threads get necrobumped. One of my old threads got necrobumped once, and it was a resolved problem that I didn't want to be reminded of. So I wrote a post to tell people that this is an old thread and that the problem in the OP was resolved about 8 years ago. But an argument had started up between two members that went slightly off-topic and so my post got swallowed up. I had to get a mod to lock the thread because it was annoying me.


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The_Walrus
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12 Sep 2020, 4:10 pm

Yes, it's not a feature I'm a fan of. I think Alex views it as good for discoverability, he has a more positive view of how these things turn out.



JustFoundHere
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13 Sep 2020, 3:23 pm

Thank-your for the feedback.

Any consideration for augmenting newer disc. threads with older disc. threads?



Pieplup
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15 Sep 2020, 5:58 am

Joe90 wrote:
Why can't the site owner just get rid of the feature altogether? I get so wound up when certain threads get necrobumped. One of my old threads got necrobumped once, and it was a resolved problem that I didn't want to be reminded of. So I wrote a post to tell people that this is an old thread and that the problem in the OP was resolved about 8 years ago. But an argument had started up between two members that went slightly off-topic and so my post got swallowed up. I had to get a mod to lock the thread because it was annoying me.

I appreciate the feature


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15 Sep 2020, 6:17 am

JustFoundHere wrote:
Thank-your for the feedback.

Any consideration for augmenting newer disc. threads with older disc. threads?

I think the algorithm comes packaged with the feature. It will always select the threads it considers “most similar” without regard for age.



Fnord
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15 Sep 2020, 8:24 am

The better effort would be to (1) get rid of the "Similar Topics" feature, and (2) improve the "Search" function, which currently seems to have all the usefulness of a crap-shoot.

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naturalplastic
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15 Sep 2020, 3:52 pm

So...

What do you Trekkies think of Section 31?



naturalplastic
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15 Sep 2020, 3:59 pm

JustFoundHere wrote:
Thank-your for the feedback.

Any consideration for augmenting newer disc. threads with older disc. threads?


I just told you how that wouldnt work.

I just said that it just picks what it picks ...for supposed similarity in content based upon similar words in the title without regard for age.

You might be able to do the opposite, and tweak the program so it didnt retrieve older threads, but you cant make it find more younger threads unless you tweaked it to find even less perfect matches than it already produces.



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15 Sep 2020, 8:58 pm

There’s no rule against “necroing” here.


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JustFoundHere
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16 Sep 2020, 1:14 pm

alex wrote:
There’s no rule against “necroing” here.


Thank-you.