Related topics gone missing?

noWhiners · July 22, 2020, 6:09am

At the bottom of a discussion, there used to be be 5 related topics. I like that - I like this feature. As of today it is gone. Is it now an option?

putItBack

Marco · July 22, 2020, 6:35am

Noticed that too. It’s gone.

the_bear · July 22, 2020, 6:36am

Good riddance

GooseEgg · July 22, 2020, 7:28am

Actually, we removed it last week to see if anyone would notice.

Did you really find it useful? This is an open discussion.

I do not think we can easily make it optional for the user. Maybe it can appear in certain themes and not in other?

noWhiners · July 22, 2020, 7:41am

Yes, I would love to see it back. The original way added a continuity feel for me. Discussions in general usually lead to other/more discussion of related things, so it feels awkward; impersonal? now.

Since you had ‘related topics’ in place, the logic is there. Wrap that code in a function call and where you used to just add the topics, stick this in front:

if ( user.likey )
call that ShowRelatedTopics function

default user.likey to true until you add the option.

I think…

lostinasia · July 22, 2020, 7:42am

Ah! I noticed things were somehow off, but I hadn’t figured out what was different.

I liked the Related Topics. I didn’t use them often, but they were sometimes a good way to dig up old topics.

GooseEgg · July 22, 2020, 8:02am

I’m curious to know how much people used the Related Topics below the threads. Note: iirc, we had limited them to topics within the same forum

Please vote in this poll. If the results of the poll significantly show interest in having them or not having them, we could be guided by that. Thank you for showing interest in this.

Please return the Related Topics section
Please do not bring the Related Topics back
I am indifferent and do not mind whether or not there are a Related Topics at the bottom of a discussion

0 voters

the_bear · July 22, 2020, 8:20am

Is there a way to limit the date range? I think I didn’t like it because it had posts from 2011 or 2007.

tempogain · July 22, 2020, 8:39am

We had it set for no more than 2 years (not sure for how long), so that shouldn’t have been happening recently at least.

noWhiners · July 22, 2020, 10:05am

I think I get the_bears complaint: the thread may have been responded to within 2 years, but the OP may have started the topic a long time ago.

tempogain · July 22, 2020, 10:07am

That’s probably how it works, yes.

noWhiners · July 24, 2020, 1:23am

I think it’s too static now. The discussions are not threads or threaded or dynamic. There is no main topic from which others branch. Just dead end and discrete.

So, I’m not whining, because… Well. But, the forum is not better this way.

Thank you!

GooseEgg · July 24, 2020, 3:21am

I plan to add a footer menu. You will have the choice to choose a theme that does not have a footer, but the default theme will change to one with a footer. You can see what is being planned now by going to the hamburger menu and choosing “Test”

noWhiners · July 24, 2020, 3:42am

Maybe you guys could add the ‘pin’ function to this footer and allow it to float. collapsed, at the bottom, at all times. (?)

You’re juggling real-estate and figure the related topics is dead-space…? Something prompted you guys to remove useful code and functionality, a mature and stable feature, and that’s your business, but as a software engineer, that adds a test cycle. Sometimes the change is effected internally (like just a good idea), but we never removed/changed anything without an official - sometimes groundswell - request until we at least went through the motions of an alpha test. And yeah, the Microsoft way of making the users the testers is why we, the smart folk I knew, never used any of their V1 stuff until the ‘early-adopters’ aka ‘free testing staff’ bled/suffered through to V2.

lostinasia · July 31, 2020, 2:13am

Further follow-up: personally I’d prefer something at the bottom of the page: “Related topics”, or something else. Reason: currently the newest post is at the bottom of the page - which means I’ll often have one or two posts that I’ve already seen at the top of the page. Of course this isn’t a big issue, but it’s mildly annoying to have to track down the page to figure out where the new post is.

tempogain · July 31, 2020, 2:18am

Try the Test theme.

lostinasia · July 31, 2020, 2:25am

Thanks! Hm. I definitely prefer the test theme to the current default, although I think the footer color may be a little too dark.

I suppose you’d want the footer to help keep people on the site. I’m not sure what would serve that purpose better: Related topics or a list of all the different forums. I definitely like having that list of the forums easily accessible like it is in the Test theme; getting to the Tech forum from the “F” icon at the top, for example, always seems a bit more difficult than it should be.