Suggestion: Filter New Posts for "Newbie" content

[Absalom]

I have absolutely no idea if this is even possible though I was thinking about something recently. Would there be a way to add a filter that gets activated from the "Submit New Thread" button which checks the post for phrases like "I just dinged 70", "is this item worth it", "what do you think of this spec", "First post but...", etc etc...

Perhaps the filter could then take these keywords found (though I realize it would be hell creating this list) then search for them and return links for those searches if enough tagged threads are returned.

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Example:

"Hey guys! I have a friend in a guild that is starting to run Kara but I don't know if my gear is good enough. Is kara really that hard? Here's my armory. Thanks in advance"

*clicks Submit New Thread*

Window returns:

Your post may contain questions or content that is already available. Please review the following suggestions.

Karazhan: Am I ready? - The Warlocks Den Forums
Gearing Your Warlock (2.4 Edition) - The Warlocks Den Forums

If you still have questions or comments click continue with post.

*note: if your post is found to be a duplicate it may be locked and/or removed*

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What do you think? Good idea? Completely stupid? Not even possible to implement? If anything maybe give it to the folks over at vBulletin as a suggested feature to add?

Just trying to help.

[amiddleona]

that may be a bit to much because many things have different methods of phrasing them, but you could filter simpler things like leet speak.

[Absalom]

Yeah, i figured that creating the criteria for something like this would be rough. Basically, I guess I was trying to think of a way to inform new people that some of this stuff is already here while shielding the "regulars" from yet another post they have already seen.

[Oliselia]

First one would have to take a look at the vBulleting feature set and see if that is even remotely possible. If so, it more than likely would be a custom coding job and by the sounds of it (just thinking of the submit flow etc) it might be a major PITA.

I agree that it would be a nice feature, not sure if the effort / time is worth doing.

-Oli

[Pernicious]

You might have trouble filtering phrases out, but I don't see why it isn't possible to scan the submitted text for single words and provide a list of the most common search results for those words.

Such as if I were to submit a new post with the words "Karazhan" or "gear" in it. Instead of posting the new thread, there would be a confirmation page saying something like:

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You appear to be searching for information on "Karazhan" and "gear", please check one of these threads, if your answer still isn't found then please continue.

Karazhan: Am I ready? - The Warlocks Den Forums
Gearing Your Warlock (2.4 Edition) - The Warlocks Den Forums

Continue to post your new thread [button]

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Of course, this may require a bit more coding and a lot of time to get functional if something like this doesn't already exist.

[Absalom]

I'm pretty sure this feature (or one like it) doesn't currently exist and would likely need to be a custom coding job. I think the hardest part would be building the dictionary of words to check against the threads that should be checked first.

[Majestrix]

The specific feature doesn't exist, at least not that I can find. However, there are some simliar mods out there that could be modified to provide at least most of this functionality. I don't see anything that would specifically suggest a forum based on the keywords found but if you can come up with a more generic message to cover the most obvious I think it can be done.

Maj

[Smok]

The biggest thing I see with that is it would take a lot of work. It shouldn't fall on Akasha's shoulders to do all this work because other people can't do any themselves. If the 'newbies' as you refer to learnt to look around before creating a thread, there wouldn't be as greater need for this type of thing.

I very rarely post, but I am here all day every day. Why don't I post? Because anything I ever need answered can be done by looking at the existing content. And if I don't find it with the search feature here, I google. IF I still didn't find my answers, then this would be the first place I would come to ask... but I can't even remember the last time I had to ask a question.

[Absalom]

Hmm.. I was just trying to think of something that could be added to help out with the fact that not everyone is automatically going to think "I bet this has been said before" then go spend however long (five seconds or five hours) searching for it. The fact is that people, don't search and just want answers. It's not a bad thing... it can be annoying to someone that has answered the question hundreds of times before to the point that other may take the frustration of answering it one more time as rude or whatnot.. I was trying to think of a way to make the world a better place for all parties.

This is in no way a statement saying that Akasha needs to do the massive amount of work to add said feature. Actually.. no one really needs to add anything. It was more a question of "if this could happen, what would it take and would it be a nice addition?"

I think there are a lot of really great things availible here... though new people may not know that. They are people that come from all sorts of trains of thought. Some may instinctivly think to search first... others my think to ask a common question in the form of annoyance and leet speak. My thoughts were more on how to direct people to the information without frustrating others that really don't want to say "please search" yet another time.

[Akasha]

What do you think? Good idea? Completely stupid? Not even possible to implement? If anything maybe give it to the folks over at vBulletin as a suggested feature to add?

Great Idea! Far from stupid! Hard, but not impossible to implement, nothing is impossible. vBulletin won't care however...

There is actually something I have bookmarked that I want to look into more. It's basically a way to alter the forum and make use of the 'similar threads' feature already in built into vBulletin. It runs a query based on the thread title and, if there are similar thread titles, shows existing alternatives that people might want to use.

The only problems I see are:-

1. Server Load. This is my biggest concern, how much it would work the server.
2. Range of threads produced. What happens if you type the word 'Destro' in... there's like a gazillion and 3 of those. Would it try to return all results? Would that crash the server?

I'm all for anything that 'helps the member help themselves' as that is my school of thought. I come from the side of "search first, ask second".