Haegin
February 13th, 2007, 04:44 PM
With the new tagging system (that isn't that new now I guess) would it be possible to automatically suggest a few threads that seem to match what the user is looking for (based on what they tagged their thread with and what other threads are tagged with).
The basic way I can see this working is as soon as somebody posts a new thread asking for help with several tags the forum software looks up the tags and finds any matching threads, gets the top 5 (judging by the number of replies and the number of visits would make sense) and auto posts a reply with links to those threads.
This could be marked as an automatic post so users don't think it is a human and wonder why they suggested some possibly unrelated thread. If you only link to 5 threads it may help the original poster and will create links through the forum to popular posts on certain issues (assuming you judge a thread by the replies and visits). Also if threads are sticky they could have a much higher weighting as these often contain frequently asked questions.
### For this next section see the edit at the end! ###
If you could also mark threads as "Solved" or tag them likewise then you could use that to boost the weighting as you know there is a better chance of a solution for the problem being in that thread.
These are just a few ideas of mine that may help improve an already great forum. I don't have much of an idea about the feasibility but I do realise this may need more power than is available (due to all the extra searches and stuff).
EDIT: Oh - I just noticed you can mark stuff as resolved - that rocks! parts of the above is null and void then!
The basic way I can see this working is as soon as somebody posts a new thread asking for help with several tags the forum software looks up the tags and finds any matching threads, gets the top 5 (judging by the number of replies and the number of visits would make sense) and auto posts a reply with links to those threads.
This could be marked as an automatic post so users don't think it is a human and wonder why they suggested some possibly unrelated thread. If you only link to 5 threads it may help the original poster and will create links through the forum to popular posts on certain issues (assuming you judge a thread by the replies and visits). Also if threads are sticky they could have a much higher weighting as these often contain frequently asked questions.
### For this next section see the edit at the end! ###
If you could also mark threads as "Solved" or tag them likewise then you could use that to boost the weighting as you know there is a better chance of a solution for the problem being in that thread.
These are just a few ideas of mine that may help improve an already great forum. I don't have much of an idea about the feasibility but I do realise this may need more power than is available (due to all the extra searches and stuff).
EDIT: Oh - I just noticed you can mark stuff as resolved - that rocks! parts of the above is null and void then!