Similar Threads Feature (and “Let’s Roll!” plea)

[Mike McCrea]

There are a number of features I really like on the new Canoe Tripping site.

There are undoubtedly some features I haven’t discovered, and some old-dog new-tricks I have not yet mastered; to cut and paste a Quote from a message into a Word document when crafting a reply, first rub your belly in a counter-clockwise rotation with your right hand and pat the top of your head with your left hand, while chanting the magical incantation “Tuscarora, Tuscarora”

All I got was a free gumball and a lecture from Paw. (Anyone who gets that reference watched too much Andy Griffith in the ’60’s)

The “Similar Threads” links at the bottom of any post are incredibly useful. Not just to the old familiar crowd, but to anyone new looking for answers to any canoe/tripping question. That is the best, most helpful feature change I’ve noticed.

The strength of Canoe Tripping is the depth and breadth of actual, freely shared, been-there, done-that, no BS knowledge and information. For someone in search of answers to boat building, outfitting, gear, DIY, destinations, trip reports and etc, CT was (is) the finest source of information around.

Let’s pitch in and refresh that resource. Pull up a message, any message , look at the “Similar Threads” links and the bottom and get posting. We can rebuild; a reference for you seventies whippersnappers:

This is, in some ways, a rebuild, like bringing a classic canoe back to new life. Do your part; post, and spread the word that we are back. We need old blood returning, and new blood arriving before we all age out.

Plus, if you post you can win “Trophies”. I want one for my mantle depicting a fat man in a solo canoe holding a double blade.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Similar threads is a feature of Xenforo Enhanced Search (XFES), which is a separately priced add-on feature license. I bought it in addition to the base XF license because I was very impressed by its usefulness when I search for answers on Xenforo.com. Not all Xenforo sites have the XFES/similar threads feature.

To extract a "similar" thread, XFES only looks at the specific words in thread titles. Hence, the similar threads feature is only as powerful as posters are very specific when constructing thread titles.

Therefore, if someone calls a thread something like "An Idea", there's not much for XFES to grab onto. A much better title would be, "An idea for adding skid plates using Gflex epoxy". There's are multiple specifics there for XFES to grab. Similarly, the feature will work much better if a thread is named "Restoring a wood-canvas Chestnut Chum" rather than something non-specific like "My rebuild". A final example would be naming a thread "An autumn trip to Little Tupper Lake in the Adirondacks" instead of something vague like "A nice trip".