What is this ‘You might also like’ clutter?

[PalatineHill]

Hi MNHQ. Please just take it out. Or let me opt out of it? It looks a mess.

If here’s something that I might also like to read, I’ll find it by using the search function.
These suggestions are just encouraging the posting of the same points on multiple similar threads, and that will discourage healthy normal thread death.

It’s really distracting to look at visually, I really liked the uncluttered ‘clean’ MN format compared to other forums.

I have found a positive. I have a day off and rather than scroll Mumsnet drinking tea I’ve already cleaned a bathroom, the kitchen and done 2 loads of washing. 👍

😂😂😂
I cba scrolling because everything's a zombie.

MNHQ unfortunately changing the description hasn’t fixed the problem.

On the Christmas shopping threads, posts go out of date incredibly fast.. same with Black Friday shopping.. politics… telly episodes chat.. threads asking for latest covid information.. they aren’t ‘Similar Threads’ to the current one, any more. Posters need to be able to stick to the most relevant up to date thread, if you want users to be able to find useful information about that topic.

Calling it "Similar Threads" instead of "You might also like" is like sticking a plaster over something that requires major surgery.

Please just remove it.

Or if it stays, lock threads that haven't been replied to in the past 90 days.

Exactly.

It's all based on a fundamental mismatch between what 90% of users come to the forums for and what HQ seem to want it to be for. The talk forums are not about gathering information. They are live, new conversations. Some are long-running but continuously so, so aren't ever zombies.

I've been here for years and years and it took very little time for me to spot that anyone bumping a zombie to ask a question relevant to their own situation was either ignored or politely and firmly told to start their own thread. Other forums seem to be based more on bumping being how things work. Not round here!

Some of the ‘similar threads’ are wildly off, in addition to the other issues we’ve all clearly articulate so far.

A thread about avoiding ‘the twitch’ on the Christmas forum (the urge to continue buying more presents) pulls up some others which are genuinely on the same thing, but then also one related to health, and one to a broadcasting platform. So really not much help to readers.

Why doesn't MNHQ remove the whole thing rather than just come back with "we'll remove this...oh and we'll remove this one as well.....oh and this one.....this ones going as well", eventually you'll be removing so many that you may has well removed the entire thing in the first place.

Aaaargh, have twice today fallen for joining in a good thread only to realise it’s from months ago and probably only showed up in Active because of this fucking feature.

If I want info/recommendations, I Google the topic and add “Mumsnet” and get what I need. If I want a chat bunfight and place to express stupid opinions I’m after live, fast-moving stuff, not something someone idly wondered in May and has long since forgotten about.

Or least lock those threads as a temporary interim measure to clear Active threads until the 'tweaking' is complete

Another helpful interim measure would be to re-instate the date threads were started on Active

To be honest, I'm insanely glad of this feature right now if this is what has caused so many old threads to appear lately. About a month ago, there was a long thread which appeared in trending where the poster had a large mass in her breast and was concerned about it.

I'd been brushing off a lump in my breast which was so large I could see it for a few weeks. I'm in my early thirties and cancer wasn't even on my radar. I thought it was a cyst and had no intention of wasting any time on it. It turns out that I do have a nasty form of breast cancer and I'm starting chemo in two weeks. I would never have even visited the GP if it wasn't for that old thread being bumped. There are no guarantees with cancer but there is a chance that it's actually saved my life.

I know it's annoying for everyone else but old threads can still be very relevant to people now and I am so, so grateful that I happened to read that thread and decide to see the GP after all.

Goodness, @Plingston, what a shock, but I'm glad you're now getting treatment. Every best wish for the future.

Yes. I use an Adblocker but as I spend a lot of time on Mumsnet and appreciate I'm getting it for nothing and they do have to pay the bills I've switched off my Adblocker for this site. That's as far as I can go to help Mumsnet out. If the site becomes unusable or dull because there are hardly any new interesting threads, I will spend less time here, and I won't be alone, which will hit their advertising revenue very hard.

Two whole people like the feature. Great.

If I wanted to read really out of date stuff, I'd just read the same Take A Break over and over.

I cant join in discussions on the 10 threads I've tried to today that were all months (or years) old from TRENDING.

If I wanted to read really out of date stuff, I'd just read the same Take A Break over and over.
it's the MN waiting room

Good luck 💐💐💐. I’m glad it’s helped you. That’s a positive.

Yes its like sticking bits of putty into a breaking dam. Remove it until its at least not annoying.

And for the love of Om, why do we still not lock old threads? People have been asking for this for years, even when its actual trolls resurrecting threads rather than MN trolling itself via the medium of bad configuration.

There would be nothing to stop an OP requesting a temporary reopen for an update - which is what many modern forums and platforms do.

Why is it that functions that no-one asked for or needs, or functions that don't actually function, are whacked up in no time, and yet functions that hundreds have pleaded for, and that have been available on far smaller forums for decades, like a timed edit button, are impossible to implement?

I have the feeling that what we think of as MNHQ, ie the Community Team who interact with us on threads and via reports, emails, etc., may have very little input into these decisions.

I could be wrong, of course, but whoever is driving these changes has demonstrated very little understanding of MN and its users. Looks to me like it might be a case of tail wagging the dog - I've certainly had experience of this in the world of work, when new, shiny and expensive consultants and developers have decided what is needed and got it very, very wrong (NHS IT Fiasco, anyone?)

I've just posted on the thread about queuing for Tesco Xmas delivery slots.
The title has a number in it. The related threads are 111 and 999 or 101 and (strangely) one about BFP.

I don't think not getting a Tesco delivery slot warrants a 999 call, or even (despite MN's eagerness to 'log it with the police') 101.

Tweak means "improve (a mechanism or system) by making fine adjustments to it."

But no one wants it so it needs no improvements. It just needs to be gone.
And if it stays it needs a hell of lot more than fine adjustments!

There is currently a troll thread running, it is literally the most excitement anyone has had for 2 days!

@LilyMumsnet can you not see how insensitive this new 'feature' is? There is a thread in trending about a woman stuck in hospital for 9 weeks being driven mad by the woman opposite. One of the similar thread suggestions is bya poster whose mum was in hospital for 6 weeks (elderly parents board). The mum DIED. Do you honestly think that long-standing MNer wants her very sad thread to be resurrected for everyone's entertainment?

God MNHQ you’re really coming across as totally callous now… there are real actual people behind some of those threads, you know? We’re not all just here to be your advertising cannon fodder and a way to keep the traffic flowing to your ailing site.

Really?

You've gone into threads about (let's say) how to make green alien pancakes, thought. "Oh I would like to start my own thread about how to make yellow ducky pancakes, but wait WHATS THIS? There's already a thread about yellow pancakes, and then clocked on it and gone "wow, that answers my question" i definitely don't need to start a new thread now....

multiple times??

In 2 days?

Even though your posting history indicates you don't usually start multiple threads each day.

REALLY?