How customizable is the hint that appears when creating a new post?

When you start typing the title for a new topic, sometimes the “your topic is similar to” message appears. Is it possible to have other messages show up there? For example, if the title (or body for that matter) included specific keywords, would it be possible to show a custom message with explanations / links to FAQs and stuff like that?

We get a lot of the same question from new users, and while the FAQ explains it, of course no one reads it… So it would be nice if the answer could be given to them directly before they post the same question for the hundredth time. You’d think all these similar topics would appear in the regular “your topic is similar to” message, but that doesn’t seem to work well with Japanese characters (which may be its own issue). Any recommendations would be appreciated.

2 Likes

Perhaps, but they won’t read that, either. Not that it is not worth doing, but realize the type of user you are referring to will read almost nothing displayed on the screen. So keep your expectations in check.

2 Likes

That’s true. I’m hoping some of them just didn’t know about the FAQ or Discourse search feature, but many users would surely ignore the suggestions too, as you said.

1 Like

Hi @seanblue

We are just considering changing that message and perhaps the setting that controls the logic.

To change the message text

Go to Admin, Customise, Text and search for
“Your topic is similar to…”:


Click on Edit and change the text of the message to be displayed - do not forget to click on Save Changes.

Settings for the frequency of the message

The frequency of this message is controlled with following settings.

Admin, Settings, Posting and search for " min title similar length".

Default value is 10, if that is reduced to 1, the message will be displayed all the time, BUT the topics shown will not be related - this can be very confusing to the user.

Hope this helps…

1 Like