Popular Discussions Feature

[#1]

Ok, could someone explain to me exactly what determines a "popular" discussion?

[#2]

Ok, could someone explain to me exactly what determines a "popular" discussion?

[#3]

If the popular high school kids like it.

Jay

[#4]

Where are you seeing that? I have never seen the forum names listed in that box or in the "More like this" box. If those boxes must be available, I would definitely like to see the forum names, too.

Is that a feature only for employees and/or moderators?

[Edit]

Now that I think of it, perhaps you are in one of those restricted areas and the popular discussion might be related to whatever purpose that area has. Just thinkin' out loud.

[#5]

The "popular discussions" is part of your personal homepage customization.

Nah, I tested it on an non-Adobe account as well.

[#6]

The "popular discussions" is part of your personal homepage customization.

Don't think so. It's right here in FCA and I haven't personalised anything. In fact it's in all the forums I've been to. I've wondered how it's calculated - doesn't seem to be either busiest or most recent. More pointless fluff, but given the bizarre entries in 'more like this' I'm not surprised.

[#7]

Ah so.

Popular discussions appears elsewhere, too, but I haven't seen it list items outside the forum that I am in. So I just added that widget to my custom page and it still doesn't show the forum names or dates.

I was able to edit that widget to restrict it to a single forum (or a parent and its children?), but still no dates or forum names.

And I definitely cannot answer your question about the Canon thread - or the first item, either - in its default state.

Message was edited by: Mark A. Boyd

[#8]

Hmph. I could've sworn it was everywhere. It's in Dreamweaver:

Not Indesign or PS Mac, at least not now. I saw it in ID, I'm sure I did.

[#9]

Maybe hosts in different forums can suppress it ????

[#10]

Maybe hosts in different forums can suppress it ????

That's what I'm thinking. Or it may be related to which breadcrumb | Up to Discussions | Overview tab link you used. Or maybe whether there are sub forums. But I think your guess is probably more accurate.

[#11]

Mark A. Boyd wrote:

That's what I'm thinking. Or it may be related to which breadcrumb ...

You only see it if you enter a forum via the "discussions" breadcrumb.

Which I never do.

[#12]

Hmm, hadn't seen it in the other locations.

But yeah, if it's available for customization then a forum host could add or remove it per-forum. (I think, since I'm not a host)

[#13]

It's in 'Flex in a Week'

[#14]

JJ's right! I knew I'd seen it. Went to Indesign, not there. Go into a thread, hit 'Discussions' and there it is on the right. I have to say, navigation around here is weird.

I've already pointed out, there seem to be two 'overview' or introductory pages for each forum, and the differences I'd seen are that boxes on the right swap positions, and the 'Overview' tab is open or shut. Now I know that 'popular discussions' is or isn't there. But - both have a list of discussions, and it's hard to see why there are two different versions.

Also, in one of these 'introductory' pages you can see a message that you can't post here, and the list of sub-forums is on the right. Get there another way, and the sub-forums are listed in the main area.

Why?????

[#15]

Don't forget the Sticky Topics (if available) that appear only via certain navigation methods. For this example, I am using this forum.

1. From the parent Adobe General Forums, click on Forum Comments
   
2. From reading messages, click on the Forum Comments breadcrumb
   
3. If the Overview tab is visible (you probably clicked on Discussions or Up to Discussions), click Overview

Any others?

[Edit to #3. If you clicked on Discussions or Up to Discussions and the Sticky Topics are not there - and you know they exist - click Overview]

[#16]

That's kind of what I meant by the Overview tab being open or shut. And in a number of forums the last two breadcrumbs have the same name. They take you to the 2 different versions of what is essentially the same page. Bonkers.

[#17]

Jive has a formula for calculating "popularity" - it's a combination of views, activity, and number of messages. More here.

[#18]

kanguyen wrote:

Jive has a formula for calculating "popularity" - it's a combination of views, activity, and number of messages. More here.

I wonder how many U2U denizens find "popularity" relevant?

[#19]

As John noted, it is shown on discussion list pages, but not overview pages.

As far as I can tell, an admin cannot remove it from the discussion list pages (it is built-in), but may be abel to add it to the overview page.

John

[#20]

adobe-admin wrote:

As John noted, it is shown on discussion list pages, but not overview pages.

As far as I can tell, an admin cannot remove it from the discussion list pages (it is built-in), but may be abel to add it to the overview page.

John

Methinks... we have:

1/ Far to many 'Johns' here

2/ We have 'Johns' who have not posted

3/ We have, therefore, gobbledykook.

Signed,

J

Who is not a John

[#21]

jhabrix wrote:

1/ Far to many 'Johns' here

Far too many JJs too! 

[#22]

John Joslin wrote:

Far too many JJs too! 

Nah! The JJs we can live with

[#23]

If the formula for popularity raises a topic last posted to over 8 months ago to the top of the list... something is not quite right with the formula or it's implementation.

[#24]

Mr Cox...

May we suggest you stick to mauling Photoshop? The Jive ACE forums have enough problems on their hands without your arrogant interventions, interludes and interjections. OK?

Given your attitude (in various threads) you are part of the problem. Not part of the solution.

[#25]

<noise>

He is reporting a genuine apparent quirk with the Jive forum here.

If feel you must flame him with your own arrogant interventions, interludes and interjections, why not save them for posts where you think he is being arrogant instead of where he is obviously contributing feedback about the forum?

Or why not resist that temptation since another part of the problem is the amount of noise we users are submitting - making it harder for people to find the genuine forum comments.

</noise>

[#26]

I don't know if it is a quirk. I looked up the thread and it has 1708 page views. Pageviews is one of the criteria for "popularity."

Most threads don't come close to that many page views.

John

[#27]

How has a thread 8 months obsolete gotten that many page views?

External links wouldn't work because of the forum change.

And there's no current activity.

Hmmm......

[#28]

adobe-admin wrote:

I don't know if it is a quirk. I looked up the thread and it has 1708 page views. Pageviews is one of the criteria for "popularity."

Most threads don't come close to that many page views.

John

maybe seventeen hundered and eight people have clicked the link to see why it's so popular...

......... 😕

[#29]

I don't know if it is a quirk. I looked up the thread and it has 1708 page views. Pageviews is one of the criteria for "popularity."

Most threads don't come close to that many page views.

Using the formula mentioned in the thread kanguyen linked us to (assuming I understand it)...

((thread views) * (number of messages in thread + 2)) * 1/(1 + number of days since modification date)

Popular

Canon Thread (Thread views increased by 47 within the minute it took me to double check!)

( 1755 * (46 + 2)) * 1 / (1 + 252) = 332

Beware of using Adobe Web Galleries
( 2605 * (81 + 2)) * 1 / (1 + 232) = 927

Not Popular

Report Spam (here)

( 2605 * (78 + 2)) * 1 / (1 + 0) = 208,400

Where were you (photography)
( 1663 * (2582 + 2)) * 1 / (1 + 33) = 126,388

Hmmm. Again, assuming I've done it correctly, my guess from this tiny sampling is that a thread grows more popular with age and views - with number of messages tossed in somewhere. If one were to post a new reply in a popular thread, would that then make it unpopular? (I know. I could try it, but I'm [not] that curous.)

What I would like, though, is the date and forum names displayed in the box. Is that a preference setting I'm missing somewhere? Do those fields appear in your "More Like This" boxes, too? "More Like This" is actually beginning to make sense in several threads in the Dreamweaver/Dreamweaver forum.

[Edit]  Oh. And obviously, the lower the result the more popular.

[Edit2] Added not as in "not that curious."

[#30]

((thread views) * (number of messages in thread + 2)) * 1/(1 + number of days since modification date)

Not Popular

Where were you (photography)
( 1663 * (2582 + 2)) * 1 / (1 + 33) = 126,388

I just noticed that that particular thread illustrates another quirk. Since the number of message outnumbers the number of views by more than 900, and it is very unlikely anybody replied without viewing what they were replying to, I will assume that many of the messages arrived by email (or NNTP if it includes messages from that era). Thus the thread views count is skewed. Thus the formula is inaccurate. Thus the Popular Discussions is even less useful than ... than...what is its purpose again?