This new tab, with what I suspect is an icon signifying AI, has recently appeared next to the default “Suggested” tab which lists your unread threads and new threads.
What’s the deal?
(And what is the distinction between the “Site Feedback” forum and ATMB? And is this thread in the right one?)
Plus, the difference between “Suggested” and “Related” threads.
Moved to Site Feeback (from ATMB) since this is a feature of the Discourse software.
Discourse had a software update yesterday. This includes new “AI integration”. There used to be a separate AI plugin, which we did not have installed. I haven’t read through the details, but either they include that plugin as standard now or they have integrated its features into the software.
You might start to notice AI options when you do searches now. Or maybe not. Let us know if you do. I don’t know what they enabled and what they didn’t.
Suggested uses Discourse’s existing algorithm to suggest related topics. Related uses the AI algorithm suggest related topics. There is some discussion on the Discourse forums about whether they should be merged or combined somehow, since either way it’s basically a “something related to this topic that I might also want to read” option.
There is an AI helper and an AI search feature included. I don’t know if we have those enabled or not. Discobot might have some competition for being the most annoying bot (2nd only to Clippy).
ATMB is for questions and comments about the rules and moderation of the SDMB, account issues, etc. Basically, everything except the Discourse software itself.
Site Feedback is a category that was added automatically when we moved to Discourse. This is for questions and feedback about the Discourse software, and only about the software.
Site Feedback is monitored by the Discourse developers. ATMB is not.
“Suggested” seems to be more current threads, like within an hour or a couple of days, with a blue dot to show there’s been a post since I last read that thread.
“Related” can go back several years.
I wouldn’t mind the AI Related option. It does seem to actually pick out related threads, so I could use that if I’m interested.
But what I do mind is that it seems to have shortened the Suggested group to only two items. One bookmarked topic (which I’d rather not see) and one recent topic, which tends to not have much content yet.
I much preferred the 5 topics, some of which might be old, and were generally not all that related. It was how I found interesting older threads I missed.
For @codinghorror and others involved, I would note that it makes me not hang out here as often, since I run out of things to read faster.
I’m still getting 5 “suggested” topics, all showing posts within the past two hours.
Same here.
Ditto. Since people’s experiences may vary depending on their device, browser, and theme, I’ll add that I’m on a computer using Chrome, with the Straight Dope Light theme.
I’m getting (for this thread) 5 suggested at 13m, 30m, 1h, 2h, 3h ago and 5 related at 2002, 2000, 2008, 2003, 2020.
I get that now. My guess is that it won’t show older stuff. So now that there are newer threads, it shows all five.
No, it’s worse than I thought. It isn’t just showing newer threads. It’s showing threads that have new posts since my last visit.
So it very quickly loses all of them while I’m spending time in one or two threads. So it doesn’t even work as a list of threads with new content that I haven’t seen.
And I have very little desire to read a thread that is as similar as the “related” threads. They’re old, and I usually want a new topic after I finish my time in an existing one.
Maybe they should try letting the AI try to suggest things? Or just offer an option to put things back the way they were.
On further observation, it appears that the “Suggested” list is now dynamic. It used to be five threads, even sometimes dredging up some that were months old.
Now, it fluctuates between 2 and 5 suggestions, depending on whether I’ve read them. This morning it’s bounced between 2 and 5 several times, depending on what I’ve browsed.
I currently have only one, a joke thread I bookmarked a long time ago to read on occasion. It does not ever show older threads at all, and I hate that. And I find the AI “Related threads” to be useless, even though it does actually seem to pick threads that are related.
The only real enlightenment I get from that is seeing how often current threads are exactly the same as old abandoned threads.
Hmm. Today, the “suggested” tab has gone back to always showing 5 threads.
Not for me. Maybe it’s some A/B testing?
One of which, for me, is Do you all like the Suggested Topics feature?
I never use it.
Since for me, at least, it’s populated almost exclusively with unread threads, I find it extremely useful and use it constantly. It saves me having to jump back to the Unread Threads list or the main page.
When I’ve read all my unread threads, it shows new threads I usually haven’t opened, some of which are of interest, some not.
What I’m not interested in is what some AI thinks are Related.