15 replies to this topic

[IPB Bob]

I wanted to suggest a related topics feature for IPBoard, so when your done viewing a topic, you can see a list of related topics. According to Googles Matt Cutts, a related content feature is a great SEO tool, and he mentioned that youtube gets more views from the youtubes related content than it does from those who show up on youtube to watch a single video. In other words, users end up viewing a bunch of related videos after they watch the video they originally came to watch. Any chance IPB could implement a related content feature?

[Lojo]

I wanted to suggest a related topics feature for IPBoard, so when your done viewing a topic, you can see a list of related topics. According to Googles Matt Cutts, a related content feature is a great SEO tool, and he mentioned that youtube gets more views from the youtubes related content than it does from those who show up on youtube to watch a single video. In other words, users end up viewing a bunch of related videos after they watch the video they originally came to watch. Any chance IPB could implement a related content feature?

Someone actually made a mod for this. Take a look here.

[Jυra]

That modification has never worked.

[bfarber]

I like the feature suggestion, however we have to balance it with resource efficiency at the same time. To pull related topics effectively means you're running a search on the posts table on every single topic view - that can get a bit resource hungry.

[IPB Bob]

I like the feature suggestion, however we have to balance it with resource efficiency at the same time. To pull related topics effectively means you're running a search on the posts table on every single topic view - that can get a bit resource hungry.

Maybe it's something that could be considered in the future with the ability to turn it off?

[ikillbill]

we suggested same function "similar topics" years ago

never happen, so ....

[blair]

I like the feature suggestion, however we have to balance it with resource efficiency at the same time. To pull related topics effectively means you're running a search on the posts table on every single topic view - that can get a bit resource hungry.

Shouldn't be an issue for small sites, and now with Sphinx search built-in, it shouldn't be much of an issue for large sites. CSEO successfully added them with little load effect. vB has had them available as a mod for years. Make at an option that can be toggled on/off.

Quoting from another topic:

1) Similar topics will increase pageviews per visit. When a visitor gets to the bottom of a topic and decides it doesn't have the info they want, similar topics offer them other relevant results without having to go back to a search engine, or use forum search.
2) Similar topics will encourage search engines to index your site deeper. More long-tail results in the index.
3) Similar topics will likely improve your search engine result positioning (SERP) by offering more keywords in the topic view.

[Glumbo]

Bump, this is very important

[estan]

Tags will make the related topics to work. Hopefully this will be implemented in one of the coming versions.

In best case, tags will be implemented in all IPS products (including IP.Content custom databases) and we can have a tag cloud for all the site.

[shaks]

Tags will make the related topics to work. Hopefully this will be implemented in one of the coming versions.

In best case, tags will be implemented in all IPS products (including IP.Content custom databases) and we can have a tag cloud for all the site.

I'm coming from SMF 1.1.15 and we already have a free mod Related Topics which works extremely well. For those who don't know or might never have experienced it on your forums, the Related Topics feature is incredibly useful, as it enables you to dab your eyes on a similar topic, which almost always has my community going from one topic to another, and this keeps everyone busy and makes sure that nobody missed anything even remotely connected to the current topic that they were viewing in the first place. I have to say that i'm disappointed that IPB 3.2.3 doesn't have this, as i thought it would have been a standard feature by now. I just bought my first full license IPB yesterday, so i can only hope that before i convert my SMF board permanently, i'm not losing important functions in the process. Like has been said in the previous replies, the Related Topics feature should be available within IPB itself, and should obviously be optional, meaning the admin should be able to review its settings to fine-tune it according to the size of the individual forum.

Also, i greatly appreciate the idea quoted in this post. Using the tags system as a means of enabling the Related Topics feature could very useful, although not as accurate as it would have been if it were database-driven, like the one at SMF, where the FullText database search method is used by the mod, so it minimizes the load on the server, as it's not doing live searches to display the Related Topics block at the bottom of every topic when it's loaded (that's how it works with SMF anyway). I know the devs at IPB are very talented, so they might be able to pull this off for the next release 3.3. Crossing fingers here.

[Rimi]

Hello.

In 3.3 they will be using tags to do similar topics.

[pking100]

Can we have a pop up CHAT window (like FB) so that we can chat with whoever is online in our Forums/IP Boards in the next version?

[Dmacleo]

the smf setup for that was excellent.

[shaks]

Hello.

In 3.3 they will be using tags to do similar topics.

Is that confirmed? Can you please provide a link where this is added in the devs official to-do list for 3.3?

If this feature is really implemented, it will make the load on the server even less than if they used the database itself, however, IPB will need to have a very robust and efficient tag management panel in the ACP, so the admin can configure and improve the number of tags associated with all topics across the entire forum. Currently, there is a paid mod that does this: http://community.inv...-tags-prefixes/
which is going to become essential for any forum admin who wants to get the most out of the upcoming IPB related topics feature, since the latter will depend explicitly on the number and accuracy of tags on all topics to churn out conclusive results.

I've been going around looking at the features of IPB and upcoming ones, and having many years of experience with various forum software (especially SMF), i have to say, honestly, that the IPB dev team are holding back on a lot of important features so as to market their future releases. It's a business strategy, but unfortunately, it makes customers wait a long time to have new features that have existed on other forum software since years!

[Rimi]

Is that confirmed? Can you please provide a link where this is added in the devs official to-do list for 3.3?

If this feature is really implemented, it will make the load on the server even less than if they used the database itself, however, IPB will need to have a very robust and efficient tag management panel in the ACP, so the admin can configure and improve the number of tags associated with all topics across the entire forum. Currently, there is a paid mod that does this: http://community.inv...-tags-prefixes/
which is going to become essential for any forum admin who wants to get the most out of the upcoming IPB related topics feature, since the latter will depend explicitly on the number and accuracy of tags on all topics to churn out conclusive results.

I've been going around looking at the features of IPB and upcoming ones, and having many years of experience with various forum software, i have to say, honestly, that the IPB dev team are holding back on a lot of important features so as to market their future releases. It's a business strategy, but unfortunately, it makes customers wait a long time to have new features that have existed on other forum software since years!

Hello.

Please read this blog entry in it's entirety.

http://community.inv...o-improvements/

[Jυra]

I must have missed that or something. Hopefully some of the similar topics display can be removed or hidden easily.