Similar threads

Started by Ben_S, December 22, 2003, 02:03:57 PM

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Ben_S

Since I'm off work for Crimbo, been surfing about and was on the vb site, when I noticed they have a similar threads feature. Would be nice if we could do something similar?

e.g. http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48175
Liverpool FC Forum with 14 million+ posts.

David

This is a pretty cool featutre.  What is the best way to determine a similar thread though?
This space for rent.

klumy

The site seems to be down now

Ben_S

Quote from: David on December 22, 2003, 02:09:41 PM
This is a pretty cool featutre.  What is the best way to determine a similar thread though?

Assume it just goes by keywords probably giving more priority to the subject?

Dunno how easy/hard it would be to make something that doesnt slow the entire board down though.

[edit]

yep the vb site seems to be down now
Liverpool FC Forum with 14 million+ posts.

David

Well I guess how do you define a keyword?  If I make a post "I love making snowmen" then what are the keywords?  Do you look if they are repeated, if in both the subject and the post, the number of replies with certain words, quoting in replies, etc?  Should a thread with the post "I love women" show up as related?
This space for rent.

Ben_S

Good point, wonder how vB do it.
Liverpool FC Forum with 14 million+ posts.

pulpitfire

Quote from: Ben_S on December 22, 2003, 02:44:22 PM
Good point, wonder how vB do it.

maybe just a simple message subject query with matching words.

Ben_S

Liverpool FC Forum with 14 million+ posts.

Anguz

I like the idea too, I saw it at www.sitepointforums.com

I don't know if it's determined by the board or the admins...

doing it automatically saves work, but may slow the board down, cause it means running a search before showing the thread, although this could be done only once a day

the admin one (gmod, mod or a group) would be more accurate and reliable though... they could have a page to edit this with, establishing relationships between threads

maybe mixing both approaches would be best... having a "find similar thread" button for those in charge of that and be presented with results, but letting them choose what to link
Cristián Lávaque http://cristianlavaque.com

Ben_S

#9
From what I can work out it works out the links when a thread is posted to and displays it that way.

Probably best off as something for a future ver anyway since it would probably be a big big change

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72914&highlight=similar+threads is how they decide whats similar.
Liverpool FC Forum with 14 million+ posts.

[Unknown]

It's slow, and imho usually it is very innaccurate.  Incidently, this has been brought up before.

-[Unknown]

Anguz

it could make a good mod...
Cristián Lávaque http://cristianlavaque.com

[Unknown]

Well, it's only really as hard as searching subjects... I don't think it does messages.  So, it splits the subject into words, and then looks for those words in the subjects of other topics.... if it finds one, it links to it. (and it limits it to three, which must save it from being too slow.)

-[Unknown]

Ben_S

It is a nice gimmick though  ;)

Maybe I'll bug you about it for a future release, well after you have set up the time travel feature.
Liverpool FC Forum with 14 million+ posts.

[Unknown]

Working on that one now.  I'm going to have to make it displace time to work properly, however.

-[Unknown]

pulpitfire

Quote from: Ben_S on December 22, 2003, 04:15:52 PM
It is a nice gimmick though  ;)

Maybe I'll bug you about it for a future release, well after you have set up the time travel feature.

that one[back in time]'s been available for a long time in search. queries.

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