Related links above threads

Former_MSE_Andrea

Hi everyone

We’ve been tweaking behind the scenes to make the links to main site guides, deals, and news stories that appear above discussion threads more relevant to the subject of the thread.


What’s changed?

You won’t notice any real difference – everything will still look the same. But behind the scenes our clever techies have built some special code which means the related articles that appear at the top of the forum will change depending on what you’ve posted.

So if you’ve asked about the cheapest home phone provider, the Cheap Home Phones article should appear.

It’s a work in progress, so some things may not be quite spot on yet.

Please help us test it

It would be great if you could spend 5 mins in your favourite boards and let us know what you think.

Can you spot any glitches?
Are any articles missing you would expect to see?

Thanks!

Andrea

If you're unsure what we're talking about here's an example:

meher

that's clever :snow_grin
on dt these overheads should look entertaining; I wonder what related articles would prop up over wikileaks and assange :xmassmile

With that being said, I still continue to feel the layout isn't quite right. The title of the thread also appears to be an mse announcement, specially because it's the official green color, merged with these guides, articles, deals etc. Some dt and arms thread titles don't sound or look nice when it's highlighted and sat on top of these official articles and guides; but then it could be just me being sensitive to details.

Old_Wrinkly

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

techies have built some special code which means the related articles that appear at the top of the forum will change depending on what you’ve posted.
...
It would be great if you could spend 5 mins in your favourite boards and let us know what you think.

Sorry, but I dislike this idea in principle, no matter what the implementation is like.

Former_MSE_Andrea

Thanks for the feedback, it's always good to know.

Could you be a bit more precise about what you don't like Old Wrinkly?

We've had links to related articles at the top of most boards for quite a few years now, the difference being that now, when someone starts a thread asking where they can find information about a particular subject, it's even more likely they'll see a link to a fully researched article we already have on the site about it.

Old_Wrinkly

As I said, I dislike the idea in principle.

Loulou2010

i think its a good idea... quite amazed that you managed to find appropriate links to some of the threads it DT :T

d-seven

It seems ok...not too intrusive. I've noticed that not all the links are relavent to the post, especially on DT and the arms. On the phones/broadband etc forums, they do tend to be fairly relevent. I'm guessing that the words used in the title are matched with the titles of the articles, or maybe keywords used in the article itself, in order to find relevent article to link?

Kered

Good to see that there are no related links for me.

PhylPho

Thanks to MSEr Fermi for directing me to this thread, 'cos I wasn't previously aware of it. I wasn't even aware of these "related" links, either, so that's my fault. Sorry. As a result, I inadvertently posted a query about an "attack" on MSE in this thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/40947454#Comment_40947454

The irony being, of course, that the "attack" situation I queried in my post then came to life as an "attack" situation attached to that thread.

I really don't see the point of the "Related Links" facility at all if the links simply hot-foot it back to archived stuff that's neither topical nor relevant.

Worse: in the example of the link I quoted, the darn thing actually gave cause for alarm -- yes, I appreciate, not everyone would fall for the link, but some, like me, will.

That "related link" flagging up a situation involving MSE and dating back to October 26th last year -- plus another "related link" I encountered on a DT thread about your "favourite website", which takes you back to June 17th 2009 -- are but two examples of indiscriminate archival sampling.

And as long as that sort of thing is happening, there's not much point in having 'Related Links' at all, because no-one knows if clicking on 'em will enhance their user experience of MSE or frustrate it.

Please: if "related links" cannot be implemented by time-limiting their archival draw-down so as to ensure topicality and relevance, then can we be rid of 'em?

Thanks!:)

meher

Actually Phil is right. It does take you to news and deals from past years; only the other day over a thread a newslink appeared about smi for those on benefits when it was actually ended soon after the budget. Something probably needs to be done about filtering only current news and deals.

Mobeer

There are some odd suggestions in the Techie Stuff forum. When someone posts a problem, they tend to get links related to free items rather than help with their problem.

Also, there are many links that appear that don't seem to relate to the topic of the forum. For example a user wants help with Microsoft Word after their text is formatted as all capital letters, and the related links are in full:

• Capped Tariff Ending?: Beat hikes; Compare, ditch & switch
• The 50 word moneyfesto - 2010: Little changes to make a difference
• Minimum Repayments: DANGER! Don't get locked into debt.
• Fixed Rate Savings: Lock-in at 4.75% with no access
• Free Office Software: Equivalents of Word, Excel, Powerpoint & more

I can see how some of these seemed relevant; for example, did "access" above get related to Microsoft Access, and Microsoft Access to Microsoft Word? Or perhaps the link relates to the "Caps Lock" key? The worst link is actually the last one, as changing the font is an easy task, but the inclusion of this link is suggesting the user may have to replace Microsoft Word!

Would be it possible to identify a context for each link, so if a post is in a particular forum, then that link is less more or likely to appear depending upon a relevance weighting given to the forum and link pair?



My favourite link is either a user posting "Cant connect new PC to the net" and getting the deeply sarcastic and almost cruel suggested link "Voip: Completely free calls", or the inexplicable suggestion when the user posts "Sata newbie unable to install Sata drive", which gets a first link "Rent your parking space:".