Understanding suggested topics logic

:bookmark: This is a guide that explains the logic Discourse uses to determine which suggested topics appear at the bottom of the topic you are currently reading.

:person_raising_hand: Required user level: Any

Suggested topics are topics shown at the bottom of the topic you are currently reading. For example:

How topics are included

The suggested topics list is populated in a few different ways:

Unread topics

The suggested topics list will show any unread topics that you are watching or tracking that are less than 90 days old.

Random topics

If there are fewer than 5 unread topics, or if you are viewing the site anonymously, random topics that are less than 365 days old will be added to the list.

Category prioritization

The suggested topics list first tries to load topics from the same category as the topic you are currently reading. If there are fewer than 5 topics from the category that can be added, topics from other categories will be chosen.

Configuration settings

Site admins can control the behavior of the suggested topics list with the following site settings:

  • suggested topics - The number of topics to show in the list (defaults to 5)
  • limit suggested to category - Instead of just prioritizing the current category, only show topics from the current category in the list (checkbox, defaults to false)
  • suggested topics unread max days old - The maximum age in days to query for unread suggested topics for a user (defaults to 90 days)
  • suggested topics max days old - The maximum age in days to query for random suggested topics (defaults to 365 days)

Related topics

To have similar or related topics in the suggested list, you can use the Discourse AI - Embeddings plugin. When configured, this module adds a “Related Topics” section at the bottom of all topic pages, showing topics similar to the current one, helping users find related discussions.

Last edited by @hugh 2024-06-19T06:17:23Z

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possible to have similar/related topics in this suggested list? thanks
as described in this topic, these suggested topics are very likely not related to the current topic…
it is much nicer to have related topics there… similar topics being discussed…

like the list of topics shown on the right panel, when add a new topic

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Yes, you can use Discourse AI - Embeddings for generating a related topics list at the bottom of a topic.

When configured, the embeddings module will add a “Related Topics” section to the bottom of all topic pages, where topics who are similar to the current page will be linked, helping users find related discussions to what they are currently reading on.

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