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Thread: Autosuggest possible solutions

  1. #1
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    Autosuggest possible solutions

    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!
    Regards,
    Haegin
    If all else fails curl up in bed with a good book.
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  2. #2
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    Re: Autosuggest possible solutions

    Quote Originally Posted by Human Prototype View Post
    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.
    That's an interesting idea...I'm not sure we can do it with our current resources, though. Hmm...
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  3. #3
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    Re: Autosuggest possible solutions

    IIRC, linuxquestions.org has a rudimentary form of this.

  4. #4
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    Re: Autosuggest possible solutions

    We do have the built in ability to auto-suggest threads based of search criteria, however it has been disabled to to resource issues. Now that we do have more resources we could turn this back on and see if we notice any performance issues.
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