Similar Content Widgets (for any content type)

[Alpha1]

Content Discovery is a major issue with XenForo when you have addons. When a user is browsing a forum or thread about a specific content, then the user is most likely interested in the very same topic in other content types. But this related content is often hidden in a category of an addon. Accessible only through many clicks or searches for users that consider to look for it and know where to look for it.

What is much needed IMHO is widgets that display related/similar content from a specific content type.

For example a related resources widget.
A related resources widget would display X number of resources and resource categories that match with the content of the page. If you have a forum about 'Pink Floyd' then the widget would display resources about 'Pink Floyd' based on title, page content, tags. If you have a thread about 'David Gilmore' then the widget would display resources and resource categories about 'David Gilmore' based on title, page content, tags.

Same for a related threads widget.
If you have a resource category about 'Pink Floyd' then the widget would display related threads and forums about 'Pink Floyd' based on title, page content, tags. If you have a resource about 'David Gilmore' then the widget would display threads and forums about 'David Gilmore' based on title, page content, tags.

And same for any content type from profile posts, media, media comments, pages, and any addon content type.

Important with such widgets is not only to display X number of related content, but also a link to an extended search for related content. Because a widget can only display a limited amount of items.

This would allow us to present a much more integrated experience to our users and bring content deeply hidden to the attention of our readers.
For me this suggestion is in the top 10 of most important features to have.

 

[Max]

Good idea. but it's better if you can show related content from other content types.

Ex.. You read a thread about a new book. Then related content appears from Resource manager showing ebook downloads of that book or with the same topic,
Gallery widget shows images related to the book like the author, book cover, launch event etc..

 

[Alpha1]

Thats what this suggestion proposes.

 

[nrep]

This would be a fantastic feature to add to XenForo - a similar threads feature is such an important part of content discovery. A huge number of my users used this feature in the old vBulletin forums, and subsequently in XF1 with an addon. Hopefully we'll see this native to XF2 soon, to help us grow our communities.

 

[blue007]

Has this been done by anyone? Strongly looking for a "Related content" section on a thread page....

 

[Alpha1]

Now that XFES has a Similar Threads widget, it would make sense to extend this to work on other content types. So we could have a similar threads widgets visible on a resource page.

And conversely, it would be immensely helpful to have a similar resources widget on a thread page.

 

[Lucas]

Sounds like something that should be easier to implement now that it can be done for threads. Definitely an interesting suggestion that might end up having more people give Enhanced Search a try.

 

[imno007]

Not sure I see why it should require people to use Enhanced Search, since there are extra costs associated with it that aren't worth it for most people who aren't running large sites that bring in money. No reason we couldn't have similar content options with the core software - except of course that it would cut in to profits for the addon.

 

[Alpha1]

Similar Threads is a feature of the Enhanced Search addon. Which makes sense because the feature makes use of ElasticSearch. I'm happy to see that Enhanced Search is getting new features, because tbh the addon was providing Basic Search features only. So with the similar threads feature the addon is become a little more enhanced. There is so much more that can be Enhanced when it comes to search. Similar Content would be a really valuable addition. Since it would do cross content type search and could be used to display unique search results on every page of a website, ElasticSearch seems the optimal way to go.

 

[mazzly]

This is something that we would also like to see

We are running Vaultwiki (shoutout to @pegasus ) on our forum, and it would be awesome if we could use the XFES similar threads widget at the bottom / sidebar of the wiki pages to link to relevant threads discussing what the wiki page is about

I'm also sure that it would be relevant for anyone running most of e.g. @Bob's addons if the widget would also work for those, as well as XFMG/XFRM

 

[Masetrix]

Sounds like something that should be easier to implement now that it can be done for threads. Definitely an interesting suggestion that might end up having more people give Enhanced Search a try.

(XF)Enhanced Search is too much overhead just to display similar topics.
My SQL Server is configured well enough and has enough memory available to be just as fast as ES, but with less resource consumption.
Therefore, I also support this suggestion of similar threads in the normal core, without installing ES.