Which is better "Similar" or "Related" T

jolin · Joined: 04 May 2006 Posts: 17

Hey DCZ,

I'm trying to decide which is a better mod to install, the "Extended Similar Topics Mod" or the "Related Topics Mod"

Which one do you recommend and are using on your board.

I see you supplied solutions for both of them to mod rewrite the url's to support the Advanced Mod Rewrite 0.2.4 I have installed already.

Which one do less sql queries and ultimately give better results?

Thanx Rolling Eyes

dcz

Would be easier to tell with links to the related threads, but, if I recall well, the related one is the lightest.

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HB · phpBB SEO Team Joined: 16 Oct 2006 Posts: 831

I use a modified version of the related topics mod; the accuracy of its results depends on the quality of your search table and the topic titles. Adding lots of stopwords and twiddling vague titles helps. It has the positive effect of reviving long dormant discussions and finding FAQs (though new members will sometimes fail to note they're replying to a post over a year old!).

Peter77

On my board, Similar topics MOD gave better resualts then the Related topics MOD.

HB · phpBB SEO Team Joined: 16 Oct 2006 Posts: 831

Thanks Peter for your comments. To elaborate a bit more...

The Similar Topics MOD matches the topic title against other topic titles; the Related Topics MOD uses the search table to match the keywords from the first post against other topic titles; it will be more costly in terms of SQL calls. Related Topics also tends to go "farther afield" than Similar Topics; depending on the quality of your topic titles and search index, this can be a good or bad characteristic.