Similar topic suggestions when creating a new topic

They’re bad. Really bad. I created a post about little annoyances. The suggestions keyed in on “little”. The suggested topics were not at all similar.

And just now I got a suggestion for re-keying from the Building and Maintaining a Home board. I guess the key word here was key.

The real problem is that these useless suggestions cover up the preview window, so I have to actively dismiss them to preview my post, negating most of the advantages of having the preview window right there.

Can we just can the similar topic suggestions? Please?

–Peter

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It just isn’t that difficult to click the button and make these suggestions go away. I expect that over time the “AI” will get better and sometimes you will accept the suggestions.

For example, there are many topics that come up over and over and over and over… I’d really like the next person in line to simply append their message to the existing thread.

Vicki

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No, it’s not. And frankly, the preview window is pretty useless, too, unless you are posting something other than text. And with the ability to edit posts now, it’s even less useful. On the old board, preview was important, as mistakes could not be corrected. Now errors can be fixed pretty easily.

We’ll have to see. I have a dimmer view of the miraculous abilities of AI than most. My opinion is that AI will hit the “uncanny valley” - getting strangely close to human-like behavior in a very off-putting way.

Frankly, that’s not going to happen. Not a lot, anyway. These are people with enough initiative to start their own thread topic. They feel it is important enough to post. Their post will be “better” and “more interesting” that someone else’s posts. So they’re going to post anyway.

Another reason it won’t happen is that the current suggestions are pretty silly. People are being trained to ignore the suggestions because of that. So even if the AI does improve, a lot of posters will already be trained to ignore the suggestions.

Lastly, this discussion software seems to place an emphasis on currency. A new thread is going to get more visibility than an old thread with a new post.

I’m open to seeing if the suggestions will be taken up. But I have serious doubts that they will.

–Peter

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Here is a screenshot of the preview screen showing me posting a screenshot of me quoting your sentence above:

Yeah, that kind of points out the problem right there. What makes it easier for TMF employees is one of the things that users are complaining about. I remember (but now can’t find) a post where someone was complaining about having to scroll through a very long thread in order to see the new posts. But just ‘append(ing a) message to the existing thread’ will make the threads even longer and less usable. And even if people would append to previous threads, there generally is some difference between their situation and the original poster’s situation - so that makes the threads even more convoluted and harder to follow.

AJ

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I agree that the suggested topics are useless. Half of learning any new system is figuring out what to ignore. For me, that is something I have already learned to ignore. :sunglasses:

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Yep. That’s my point. What you have typed appears exactly as you typed it. And I don’t need to check the bits that the system automatically drags over when quoting. So it’s only useful in limited situations, which can be checked by posting the post and editing if needed.

–Peter

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Well done. You’ve been trained. Now sit. Stay. :service_dog:

–Peter

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When I go to youtube to look at videos, it shows me a bunch of videos it thinks I might be interested in. When I go to a few other general purpose discussion sites, they also often make suggestions.
That’s fine, I visit these sites for amusement & general misc. reading/viewing.

But that’s not why I/we visit TMF message boards topics. I come here to read & post on specific topics of my own choosing. I/we am very unlikely to want to read any other Topics that the software suggests.
I have already decided what I want to follow, and when/if I want to add another board Topic I know how to find the list of available topics.

Please get rid of Suggested Topics

Thank you
@TMFVicki (Does this work to flag this post to your attention? I think so, we’ll see.)

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Hi Rayvt,

So, I don’t see any suggested topics. Is this the everything category?

Tracked should reflect those things you had favorited in the old systems. However, some boards were renamed or combined in the transition.

I suggest clicking on the pencil in the left hand column and updating those topics you want to read, and you can mute those that you don’t want to see. Then, maybe try posting something to one of your favorite discussion topics.

I think that you will find that there are some pretty useful posting options (pictures, tables, better polls, etc.) that folks have been asking for forever…

Vicki

No. Scroll down to the bottom of the page. It looks like this:

That’s the Suggested Topics. Which is just clutter.

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Ahh yes. Right now that seems to be feeding up old posts. It is at the bottom, so it is easy enough to ignore.

I often make a quick scan through the everything category once I am done with the new tracked messages. Then I make regular use of the dismiss all option.

Vicki

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I’m on a mobile device, Galaxy S10, android.
The link occassionally shows up, mostly for “New”.
For me, its sorta like a “treasure” on one of the online games - when it shows up GRAB IT!.

That seems to ‘fix’ that batch of “new” but does NOTHING for the fourtosevenletterword “suggested topics” or whatever.

FWIW, I scrolled down to the bottome of this thread, specifically looking for a dismss button, near the “suggested topics”… or ANYWHERE really…
If it’s there, it’s well hidden.

:alien:
ralph

The Dismiss button is on the New and Unread filter lists of posts in categories and tags (or everything and tracked too) - you can scan those, decide if you want to read any of them and if not, click Dismiss and they won’t show up in the New or Unread list anymore. The only way to make a Topic read is to actually read it to the end…then the system knows you’ve read it and will gray it out for you.

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