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.

This isn't just irritating.

It's breaking their site.

It's bumping up threads that are months old, are no longer relevant, have already had an outcome for the person starting the thread. It's possible that raking over old coals could in fact be harmful to whoever might have started the discussion as they may have wanted their post to disappear once they got the help and support they needed at the time.

This was implemented without being thoroughly tested. If it had been tested, it wouldn't require so many tweaks to get working.

But it’s a few additional links on the bottom of every page
It not just that. People are posting on the old threads which then reappear at the top of my 'I'm on' list. I don't want to see some ancient thread about tv characters thanks.

I am still concerned about the OPs of zombie threads on sensitive subjects suddenly getting notifications about new posts on them. Bringing up past events which were traumatic is hardly going to encourage people to feel MN is a safe place to come and get support when they are struggling. And lots of people post only on chat or AIBU about difficult subjects, so just taking this feature off ‘sensitive’ topics does nothing to address the problem.

That's my main issue with this. All the rest is just irritating. But getting a notification about a topic that you just want to forget ever happened? That's bleak. And those conversations were often had outside of the specialist branches.

Just scrolling through AIBU and the first 4 threads I opened were all at least 3 months old.

I'm done.

Agreed! It's all well and good saying its just a few links but these posts are made by actual people. The other day I saw and clicked on a link below a thread about hospital wards which was a women detailing her mother's stay in hospital where over the course of the thread she sadly passed away.

Imagine how horrible it would be for that women to see the thread suddenly back in active because someone clicked on the link, read just the OP and then resurrected the thread to respond!

Closing off certain sections to the algorithm won't stop sensitive and emotive posts being resurrected.

The new feature is not needed, not fit for purpose and not sympathetic to the fact these posts are not just light entertainment to be revived as anyone desires.

These algorithms don't even work when it's a relatively simple matter of trying to nudge people towards something they might consider buying. You buy a sofa say. That's that for another few years! But not as far as Google's concerned. You get lots of ads suggesting other sofas you could buy.

How anybody could think they are sophisticated enough to cope with a site like Mumsnet just by picking up on keywords in thread titles is beyond my comprehension.

@fdgdfgdfgdfg Yes, women use AIBU for traffic in urgent situations, sometimes very sensitive ones.

Completely ridiculous, annoying and unnecessary new "feature". Get rid of it MNHQ.

So glad to see this thread! @MNHQ really the worst thing you've ever done to fuck up mumsnet.

How anybody could think they are sophisticated enough to cope with a site like Mumsnet just by picking up on keywords in thread titles is beyond my comprehension.

Agreed. And I've got a feeling that one of the 'tweaks' that might have been done is that the algorithm search also scans the opening post, as now there are 'Similar posts' where the titles have absolutely nothing to do with each other (and the threads don't either), but there's a common word (or synonym) in the text of the first post.

And as we have seen, this is all extremely clumsy and blunt, so you get a cluster of 'Similar threads' that don't share title congruity and actually only have, say, the word 'fan' or 'book' or 'end' in common in the opening post.

Absolutely agree. It’s one of the worst thought out ideas from MN in a long time.

Why is a thread from early February 2021 in the trending box? It's an upsettting topic for those whose answer is "not by choice", and there it is, pointlessly revived, but not accepting new posts.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4155934-at-what-age-did-you-lose-your-virginity

This place has gone to the dogs.

@MadelineUsher I remember that thread. It contains multiple accounts by women of being raped. Jesus.

The last post on that thread is 13/2/21 so only MNHQ can have put it in Trending and 'revived' it?? I'm really not getting this.

@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

'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?

@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!

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.

😂😂😂😂😂

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.

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

Another flipping revived thread from months ago

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.

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.

look

Really? ☹️

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

Everywhere else as a pain in the arse.

Utterly disappointing.