Trending Threads ?

[driver67]

Hi,

Obviously your database stores all the threads people bookmark.

Could you possibly add a 'Popular / Trending Threads' option alongside the what's new link.

Would be great as the volume of posts on the forum means you sometimes miss classic threads.

Cheers,

Dougie.

[jtwaring]

Got to say that I rather like this idea. It could be extremely useful!

[saaby93]

I only spotted this new use of the word trend the other day, once it was fashionable to do something if you do the same as someone else now it's become 'trending'.
Does a certin thread become popular becasue we're interested in it or because weve become 'trenders'?
(aagh new word did I just do that )
What about lego unimogs

[Big E 118]

driver67 said:

Hi,

Obviously your database stores all the threads people bookmark.

Could you possibly add a 'Popular / Trending Threads' option alongside the what's new link.

Would be great as the volume of posts on the forum means you sometimes miss classic threads.

Cheers,

Dougie.

This is a great idea, would be a really good way of picking up latest interesting topics and would probably prompt people into other sections that they may not usually browse.

+1 from me!

[MattDell]

Maybe in the future. We spend enough time now just keeping the forum going on its current infrastructure.

[Efbe]

I like the idea.

but PLEASE do not call it trending.
trending is a twitter word devised by complete no-bodies who feel the need to post everything they have eaten in the past 5 minutes. avoid whilst PH is still semi-cool

[LordGrover]

Thankfully, I will be free to not press this button.

What a god awful notion.
How to create more sheep.

This is how society is spiralling downwards to the lowest common denominator.

[Big E 118]

LordGrover said:

Thankfully, I will be free to not press this button.

What a god awful notion.
How to create more sheep.

This is how society is spiralling downwards to the lowest common denominator.

How does it create sheep/a decline in society?

It would be a way of easily seeing what other people are responding to, you wouldn't be forced to click on those threads/trends but just have more information available to you.

IMO having access to more information isn't a bad thing.

[miniman]

Trending topics is a flawed concept because it is self perpetuating to a great extent.

[illmonkey]

Big E 118 said:

LordGrover said:

Thankfully, I will be free to not press this button.

What a god awful notion.
How to create more sheep.

This is how society is spiralling downwards to the lowest common denominator.

How does it create sheep/a decline in society?

It would be a way of easily seeing what other people are responding to, you wouldn't be forced to click on those threads/trends but just have more information available to you.

IMO having access to more information isn't a bad thing.

I've just stumbled across a build thread for some mental scaffolding car with an engine. Its only as I'm bored I was digging and found it. Now, if I'd seen a lot of people bookmark it as it was interesting, I could have followed the development of said thread/car and got into it a lot more.

Its not creating sheep, its opening peoples eyes to popular topics in different sections of the site they may not visit.

I think its a cracking idea!

[driver67]

Trending is the wrong wording but you get my drift.

Possibly 'Most Viewed' or 'Popular Topics' might be a more suitable term.

[Podie]

Big E 118 said:

LordGrover said:

Thankfully, I will be free to not press this button.

What a god awful notion.
How to create more sheep.

This is how society is spiralling downwards to the lowest common denominator.

How does it create sheep/a decline in society?

It would be a way of easily seeing what other people are responding to, you wouldn't be forced to click on those threads/trends but just have more information available to you.

IMO having access to more information isn't a bad thing.

It creates a group of people who jump on the bandwagon.

Take the O2 issue that's giving out a user's mobile number to the internet. O2s twitter feed is absolutely stacked with people complaining about it. O2 feel obliged to say they are looking into it.

People do not need to post. They KNOW O2 are dealing with it, but as it's "trending" they all have to comment.

I happen to agree with LG.

[LordGrover]

miniman said:

Trending topics is a flawed concept because it is self perpetuating to a great extent.

Very useful for the marketers and 'slebs' who want their campaigns to go 'viral' (another despicable term).

[Big E 118]

LordGrover said:

Very useful for the marketers and 'slebs' who want their campaigns to go 'viral' (another despicable term).

Agreed LG, this can be the downfall on other platforms but I wouldn't think this would be an issue on PH.

I think illmonkey is correct in pointing out that people will find interesting threads that they may not normally have spotted.

[miniman]

The concept of alerting people to interesting stuff is great, but that's an editorial task, not a technology task. Technically picking up trending threads will bring just as much, if not more, dross to the surface as it will interesting stuff.

[driver67]

miniman said:

The concept of alerting people to interesting stuff is great, but that's an editorial task, not a technology task. Technically picking up trending threads will bring just as much, if not more, dross to the surface as it will interesting stuff.

Editorial stuff goes on the main page. This is about the forum - not mainstream automotive news.

It could be accomplished quite easily with some smart SQL on the existing database.

[slinky]

Google do a zeitgeist on a yearly basis, it might be interesting to do something like that..

[rohrl]

I think a feature like this could be useful. Even perhaps an Editor's Thread of the Day or something.

There are some great build threads on Reader's Rides and marque-specific sub-forums which really deserve more attention.

[Seti]

Efbe said:

I like the idea.

but PLEASE do not call it trending.
trending is a twitter word devised by complete no-bodies who feel the need to post everything they have eaten in the past 5 minutes. avoid whilst PH is still semi-cool

Exactly what he said!

[MonkeyBusiness]

MattDell said:

Maybe in the future. We spend enough time now just keeping the forum going on its current infrastructure.

I appreciate Ted did a cracking job building the forum software from scratch but if you are spending too much time patching it up why are you not looking at an off the shelf package?