Related topics

[MartinTruckenbrodt]

Hello,
+1

Should have a connection to forum search. Automatically additions will not be usefully.

Bye Martin

[bantu]

Such a feature might make sense in core. However, I would need more information about how this would be implemented before I can say whether it should be core or not.

[imkingdavid]

I wouldn't mind something like this, but as bantu said, more information about how it would be done would be nice.

Basically, as long as it doesn't greatly increase the load and provides accurate results, it wouldn't be a terrible addition. It would definitely help in those cases where people make new topics that ask the same questions. IMO, it should compare post text, not just post title, since the title could be anything, but the text is where the actual content and questions are.

[Jacob]

Don't like it, don't need it.

[*Daniel]

Well one thing that we would want to keep the load down is a cache of some sort, one that update say every 15 minute or so.

[Ger]

An extension makes more sense to me than a core feature. Let's take a support type forum like phpBB.com forums. You'll end up with many related topics since both the type of questions and the post content (due to the support template) are very similar. You'll get many "false positives" for topics that seem related but in reality are not.

Since it will increase server load, many of these forums probably don't want such kind of feature. Therefore: an extension is the logical option.

IMHO, this goes for most of extra features of this sort: they can be very useful for many forums, but don't really add anything to the base product. It's an addition to the base product, and those should remain as extensions rather than a core feature. That will keep the system fast and agile.