What is this ‘You might also like’ clutter?

@JustineMumsnet but why has it been introduced at all? What's the point of it? I can't see it has any redemptive function, it's just created an utter pain in the arse situation.
People will be clicking on it because they don't understand what it is, not because they actually like it or find it useful.
It's about as useful as Amazon telling me that people who bought knickers also bought toothpaste and 19th Century novels. No shit!

It's clear that it's a popular feature with some (there have been over 78,000 clicks on it by over 33,000 different users

That doesn't mean its actually popular. So many threads right now have newer posts stating they didn't realise the date on first post as it was in trending.

@JustineMumsnet how will those fixes help the mother who came here yesterday desperate for help and the end of her rope who had to encounter a list of text that went "Am I a bad mother? Am I terrible?"

Her answer would have been an emphatic yes at that point. This is emotionally harmful. I always thought the point of MN was the support and caring for parents, this seems to be prioritising clicks over people and making this a very unsafe place to come for help.

It's clear that it's a popular feature with some (there have been over 78,000 clicks on it by over 33,000 different users since release)

I'd wager at least half if not more of those have been unintentional but I suppose you can make data say anything without proper context.

It seems very odd that you're now having to introduce more controls and features to counter the new feature when you could just remove the similar threads feature altogether.

It's got vibes of when someone makes a mistake at work so they can spend the whole day correcting the mistake and not actually doing any meaningful work.

LinkedIn says MumsNet has a new Chief Data Officer as of this month, I sincerely hope this is not a sign of further "features" to come.

The repeated disingenuous thank yous and claiming the feedback is useful keep making me think about Daisy in Spaced with her performance art based on the interview she fucked up. Which is a bit niche but might amuse some others

They're tweaking my chain.

So not only are they not just removing the feature they are now not even bothering to respond on this thread to keep us updated...

They must have paid someone shit tons of money for the new feature, it's the only reason I can see why they haven't just given up on the whole idea. No one likes it, no one needs it and it's doing more harm than good!

Well, @JaneJeffer, it would appear that they are.

Comment from @HebeMumsnet:

HebeMumsnet · Today 12:46
Afternoon, everyone. We're still tweaking this as we go and are reading and making a note of the comments here, too, to feed into the tweaks we're making. Thanks for the continuing feedback. It's all useful.

... on this thread

@MNHQ are you seriously leaving this feature? It's absolutely ridiculous and annoying having these old thread in threads I'm on.

I’ve just read Dante’s inferno again

I think it could be finding myself in a new circle with the click of a button jane 👿

Arcane you'll get stuck in a never ending spiral of threads I'm on that disappear only to appear again months later. MN purgatory.

First rule of marketing is that it is alot easier to keep your current people happy than to go chasing new ones.

And cheaper.

look

Really? ☹️

That is what is commonly known up here as a scutter.

Everywhere else as a pain in the arse.

Utterly disappointing.

Unfortunately, as I have discovered, if you've posted on a thread that subsequently gets included in the "Similar Threads" feature, and it gets bumped up, it'll be bumped up on the listing on the "Threads I'm On" view too. It's a shitty system and there was absolutely not a single thought in the world that went into whether or not it should be applied before it was applied. If there had been even a single thought, it wouldn't need to be tweaked and it wouldn't be bringing up old threads that people want to forget about or have already received a solution to their issue on.

I no longer want to look in active or trending. I’m not sure I see the point if they are mostly old/er threads.

I will be stuck on threads I’m already on.

Shame that.

I'm going to post this on every old thread I open

Another flipping revived thread from months ago

Who knew there were so many people out there who wanted to read about teenage girls and young women losing their virginity, while also wanting to buy fishfingers for their DC? Goodness.

The perfect business model.

😂😂😂😂😂

Presumably trending is based on how many people are viewing it, rather that how many posts its getting.

So its probably showing up as a suggestion on another popular thread, and lots of people have ended up clicking through to it.

@AutumnCrow

That thread is now saying "closed to new messages"

Although MN are always telling us that they don't have the facility to close old threads, even though they clearly do!

'Our bot has sensed from the odd word in your thread title and OP that you're going through a tough time, or that you've added to the thread in support of someone having a tough time! Obviously you love reading about tough times! Here are some other threads about a variety of other people's tough times you might like! Enjoy!'

It's really not far off that, is it?

@mnhq PLEASE make this stupid gesture go away. Nobody wants it. Nobody is asking for it. I haven’t read a single “current” thread today, instead I’ve clicked on 5 threads which have all been at least 3 month old, no updates from op but trending because of this stupid system. I wonder how many new threads are being bumped down because of this pathetic broken algorithm? I can imagine new users wanting help or advice, the algorithm pushes it to the bottom, no one comments so they leave.

You’re biting the hand that feeds here