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.

What all of this illustrates is just how much MN has changed and developed since its inception.

Whereas we used to be people, with the numerous and diverse issues and conversation subjects, now we're reduced to numbers and statistics.

... which I suppose is inevitable. MN is a business after all.

Just a shame that the latter can't be rather more enmeshed with the former.

The big issue, it seems to me, is that this new feature can't take into account any of the nuanced human issues that make MN unique. And the fact that MNHQ seem determined to impose it upon its members only illustrates the shift towards becoming anonymous, AI-driven site. Which is a real shame.

I found this a couple of days ago. DH is in hospital at the moment and I am not in a good place emotionally. I went on a thread about a 16yr old being put on a mixed sex ward, no problems for me and interesting and important discussion about safe guarding. But, I then clicked on a “similar thread” about hospital, then another, then another and ended up spiralling downwards fast. Now I know I could have ignored them and not clicked on them, but when you’re in a bad place you don’t make good decisions.

And that's the kind of behaviour that hellsites like Twitter feed on, @Howdoyoulikeyourtea - because it increases 'engagement' for advertisers.

I'd like to see Mumsnet publish and implement a corporate social responsibility strategy. to address issues like this.

@Howdoyoulikeyourtea

I’m sorry you and your DH are having a horrible time of it at the moment. I hope things take a better turn for you soon. Keep kicking flower. 💐

I'm sorry to hea that Howdoyoulikeyourtea hopefully things are a bit less chaotic now and your DH is OK.

I think this is one of the major flaws in the new feature along with the potential for OPs to be blindsided by an issue they had posted and moved on from suddenly and unexpectedly resurfacing.

It would be nice if MNHQ could actually acknowledge that this algorithm will hurt and affect real han beings. At the end of the day the site is meant to be a supportive place and this just feels like users actual issues are being used as click bait.

Just been over on the other thread ( www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4682399-should-mnhq-keep-the-similar-threads-feature?page=2&reply=121717884 )

and just look at what is on the suggested topics list.

absolutely no reference to this thread.

how peculiar. This is clearly the most relevant thread - so why doesn’t it show up?

This is clearly the most relevant thread - so why doesn’t it show up?

Probably for the same reason that this very active thread (with hundreds of posts) isn't showing up in...well...Active.

I don't think I can be bothered highlighting things anymore.

Justine's "factual" response to my question showed exactly what MN think of their users .

all the best to you HowDoYouLikeYourTea and thanks for contributing your experience. I think it’s really easy to get into that bad place online, I know I have done before when looking into information on illnesses that I’ve been worried about.

Only around 150 people have posted on this thread. How many people have read it and then gone to have a look and see what we mean?

I hadn’t taken it in that this thread isn’t showing in Active, that’s disappointing.is that true of all of Site Stuff? (I can’t tell without bumping a thread just for the sake of it!)

I guess that if this thread is not showing in Active, then its more likely that we’re quite long term posters on this thread, who know to go over to site stuff to talk about site stuff.

Piggy’s AIBU thread shows how posters who find this subject via Active or Aibu might feel. Seems like a big majority of the several hundred votes over there dislike the new feature too.

I think your points and suggestions have nailed it BIWI and tribpot. Insensitive (or maybe worse) new monetisation features feel uncomfortable in a site which is supposed to be about support, and not just a neutral vehicle for discussion like Twitter (though Twitter still has responsibilities for its users)

Maybe this is what makes the discussion with MNHQ a bit tense sometimes. I definitely have higher expectations of them as a private business because MN invite and deal with such sensitive personal content.

MNHQ have been advocates for posters’ views in the past and they have their own media profile based on putting forward posters’ views.

All of which is good, because MN is an accessible place for women to talk and is unusual and important for that reason. But it gets difficult when different priorities clash obviously. Is there any policy about when or how MNHQ will consult with posters about the site?

I just found this- www.mumsnet.com/voices

Ironically it looks like the one product that Mumsnet Voices doesn't do research on is .. Mumsnet.

@PalatineHill

I definitely get other "site stuff" threads appearing in Active - and they certainly don't have anything like the number of posts on this thread.

Well HQ are clearly not going to listen to their core users. Seems a Bit weird to me.

So as much as I hate doing this openly & because this is really the only place I know, any similar chat places?

tribpot I’d imagine most online service providers could benefit from a user feedback loop that covers site issues. Most businesses pay customers or the public to test their products on them.

blackpudding that seems odd. Hopefully if MNHQ come back on to this thread, someone can talk about whether it’s intentional that this specific thread isn’t showing in Active.

Thank you all for your good wishes.
I noticed earlier that this thread and also the poll thread in AIBU should have been in trending but neither were, almost as if MNHQ didn’t want people to see them 🤔

Sorry, in active not trending

If you click "load more" in active it does show up. Just need to keep posting to push it up onto the front page...

That’s interesting, it’s not showing on mine

I just saw another crappy "article" on Facebook using a thread from here from 15 years ago.

"The woman first asked if she was in the wrong on Mumsnet back in 2007, but the topic has recently resurfaced and sparked debate." 🙄

I just realised with all the bumping of Zombie threads, old threads posted before things were routinely picked up by "journalists" might now be posted elsewhere as shown above.

The problem is that MN don't really give a shit about whether we want the item removed or not, because they earn revenue from the click throughs that are made on the adverts that are on the sides of every single thread. They probably get revenue from the ads just being there whether we click through or not.

What we have to do is stop seeing ourselves as the consumer of the threads and instead see ourselves as the actual product itself. The medium that the we communicate on is the chat board but it's just that. If we stopped posting, their revenue would drop. Not sure how significantly but it would.

I'm not suggestion a riot or a flounce or anything else but I genuinely don't see a day when MN will remove something that is generating them money, whether the threads that are being bumped up are zombie threads or ones more recent.

They implemented something without a second thought as to how it would actually work in their boards. If they had given it a second thought, it wouldn't require so much tweaking and be causing so much distress and outrage.

@LookItsMeAgain

TBF, if they had actually given it a second thought it wouldn't exist in the first place.

One of the threads in active at the moment is someone from July asking how to deal with a child's room in the heatwave.

Apart from the fact that they probably no longer need tips on keeping cool in November, the thread title should have been a fairly obvious clue that it wasn't a current thread.

Yes, I know that not everyone on MN lives in the UK (I am one of them!).

I remember you from the other thread @Itwasntevenblackpudding where it really wasn't even black pudding 😄

You are right about this thing though.

Ah yes - a proper, gloriously bonkers MN thread (and not from 3 months ago either!)