Related Articles

[Dani]

Finally brought back an old feature that's been on DaniWeb for years upon years ... related articles. What do you think of their relevancy?

[pritaeas]

Looks pretty good. Would be nice to have a little list, instead of just one ;)

[Dani]

I think if it was more than one, it would take up too much room and overshadow the posts within the article being read. Unless it was just the titles without descriptions.

[TrustyTony]

It was nice to have back even based on it, even I have not much chance of being appreciated of my prime code snippet given the 4 year old newbie post it compares it to!

[pritaeas]

Now I've seen this a bit longer, personally I think the description is distracting (especially because it is between the last post and the reply box). In most cases you get an introductory text which adds nothing to the title.

[Dani]

The system is constantly working to find more relevant articles than the one it currently has. Tony, the article that your code snippet is linking to is a mistake, I can rerun it through the system.

The positioning and size is just about the same as one of the Google AdSense ads when you are on page 2+ of an article. It was simply replaced by the related article when on the first page. I assume you have ads disabled?

Also, the description is the first few sentences of the post, the same way the hover blurb when you're visiting the navigation pages is. Everyone seems to like the hover blurb! :-P

[pritaeas]

Also, the description is the first few sentences of the post, the same way the hover blurb when you're visiting the navigation pages is. Everyone seems to like the hover blurb! :-P

Me too, why not make it a blurb then ;)

[hericles]

I've found the related article, while it maybe sometimes relevant (but not always), is hardly ever very timely. Often they are articles from months or sometimes years ago. This maybe relevant to the poster, to find other articles related to their question, but as I am in the process of reading and replying to the thread I happen to be on I find the related article distracting, a little pointless and a waste of space.

[ndeniche]

Perhaps the related article could be relocated? For some time (I can't remember if it was only for non-registered viewers), the OP's first post had a reduced width to make space for ads. Why not make that space for related articles? That way, there can be a list of related articles, IMO non intrusive to the reader and at the same time only appealing to anyone interested in viewing that space.

[Dani]

Nichito, there is an ad in that placement. Do you have an ad blocker enabled? If you want to use the full space for the posts, go into your member profile and select the option to Disable Ads.

[ndeniche]

Heh, yes I have the adblocker enabled... I KNEW something used to be there and was now missing xD

Ok, nevermind then. What about some AJAX? Perhaps locating the "Related Articles" spot below the reply spot, and after a reply has been made, move it below the latest post (the reply you just made).

[Dani]

Perhaps locating the "Related Articles" spot below the reply spot, and after a reply has been made, move it below the latest post (the reply you just made).

DOM manipulation is expensive so should really only be done if there's a need for it. The related article is right above the quick reply, so anyone who replies most likely sees it. There's no advantage to moving it around the page after hitting submit. It can actually be a little confusing if random page elements start moving around upon clicking an unrelated button.

[ndeniche]

Agreed. I, for one, don't see a problem with the actual layout regarding Related Articles. I was just suggesting for other people's convenience :)