I cannot understand how the “Interesting” discussions are chosen

@Asylum (47893)
Manchester, England
October 8, 2015 7:27am CST
If we check below the Explore tab there are several available links, most of which are easy to understand. The Recent Posts, New User and No Responses are self explanatory. Top Rated appears to be sorted according to number of likes, while Hot is sorted according to number of responses. However, the Interesting section appears to have no logical composition whatsoever. I have tried to figure out some format behind the listing, but cannot find anything to justify the content. Many times the top of the list is a post with 3 or 4 responses and a couple of likes at the most, so how does that qualify as interesting? The only possibility that I can think of is a selection due to keywords, which would certainly be open to abuse. Does anyone have any ideas of how this category is chosen?
17 people like this
16 responses
• United States
8 Oct 15
myLot has the answer to that. They have the secret. In my mind, what is interesting to one person is rubbish to the next. And that is the size of it my friend haha
4 people like this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
8 Oct 15
This is apparently the criteria that they try to work to, although it does not seem to work.
2 people like this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
8 Oct 15
@TiarasOceanView No, according to Forever The Lamb in his response below it is geared to the tags that we have used in our own posts.
2 people like this
• United States
8 Oct 15
@Asylum Perhaps it is just random.
1 person likes this
@Rollo1 (16677)
• Boston, Massachusetts
8 Oct 15
Not only are they chosen based on the tags you use (meaning everyone sees a different Interesting list) they go by which tags you use most often it seems. And the same posts can show up in the list two or three times, because you used all those tags. The problem then becomes, do I only want to read about the things I write about?
3 people like this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
9 Oct 15
@hereandthere I cannot see any reason for tagging a discussion with your own name since that bears no relevance to the substance of the post. I am also uncertain as to whether using such a tag would result in your own posts appearing there.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
8 Oct 15
A good point and it also raises the question whether to choose tags to suit the post or to sort the Interesting list that you see.
2 people like this
• Philippines
9 Oct 15
@rollo1 @asylum so if you tag posts with your name then that's all you see? but then, even if you don't tag your own posts, you'll see it all anyway under 'Discussions' in your own profile
1 person likes this
@pahak627 (5050)
• Philippines
8 Oct 15
Same as you, I also wonder how it is chosen. Good that you open this topic, I will read other responses and comments to know. My discussions have not qualified to interesting, etc., may be to the no responses, I have several of them. I'll try to see, I have several unresponded discussions.
1 person likes this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
8 Oct 15
It was answered well by PhredWreck below and now makes sense to me. As for unresponded posts, we all tend to have those at times.
1 person likes this
@pahak627 (5050)
• Philippines
9 Oct 15
@Asylum I'll read PhredWreck's discussion later.
@LadyDuck (472496)
• Switzerland
8 Oct 15
I had no idea, but reading the reply of ForeverTheLamb, now everything seems to make sense.
2 people like this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
8 Oct 15
Yes, that was a well composed explanation and made everything totally clear.
2 people like this
@Tampa_girl7 (52185)
• United States
8 Oct 15
I really don't know.[u][/u]
2 people like this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
8 Oct 15
Fortunately for me some members did and it seems that the tags that we use in our posts generate that list for us.
2 people like this
@NeldaHoxie (1381)
• United States
8 Oct 15
I have to admit that I usually ignore that tab. usually I enjoy the most recent or read the ones with no comments.
2 people like this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
8 Oct 15
I check those 2 as well, which provide a varied assortment of posts.
2 people like this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
8 Oct 15
@RasmaSandra Time is always a factor, so we tend to develop our own routine to follow most of the time.
2 people like this
@RasmaSandra (83484)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
8 Oct 15
@Asylum haven't tried the explore yet. I mostly stick to people and discussions. As soon as I have a bit more time I will explore.
2 people like this
@buddha3 (1026)
• India
8 Oct 15
They are just not changing them and it's really irritating to find the same set of posts whenever we login. Maybe it's better to give us an option of choosing our default page when we login.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
8 Oct 15
I felt exactly the same way about the constant display of the same discussions, but at least I now know why.
1 person likes this
@buddha3 (1026)
• India
9 Oct 15
@owlwings Thanks a lot! I didn't know all this about ínteresting' discussions! And I've changed my homepage now :)
2 people like this
@scheng1 (24649)
• Singapore
8 Oct 15
No idea at all. I think if someone figures it out, he will make use of his knowledge to get his discussion threads into the Interesting category all the time. I still do not like the lack of categories in Mylot. I prefer to sort new discussion threads according to the categories instead of scrolling through the list.
1 person likes this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
8 Oct 15
Apparently it is driven by the tags that you use in your own posts, which was explained below by PhredWreck. This cannot be abused because each member will see a different list according to what tags they have used. I did prefer the categories that Mylot had in the past.
1 person likes this
@sishy7 (27166)
• Australia
9 Oct 15
So I guess Lamb would receive the BR award - if such feature still exists on this new layout...
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
9 Oct 15
Without doubt, but that feature is definitely a thing of the past.
1 person likes this
@jstory07 (142807)
• Roseburg, Oregon
9 Oct 15
I never even thought about that before. Makes sense to be the tags that people follow and are popular. But I am not sure.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
9 Oct 15
It does make sense now that it has been explained to me, but it does not seem to have a successful result.
@valmnz (17096)
• New Zealand
9 Oct 15
I tend to go to the most recent first, then those with no responses, as the others probably get plenty of responses anyway.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
9 Oct 15
This makes sense and the Hot or Top Rated are not necessarily the most interesting posts all the time.
1 person likes this
@marlina (154118)
• Canada
8 Oct 15
When I check this section "interesting" I am always puzzled how they can be classified as "interesting".
1 person likes this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
8 Oct 15
As is explained below, they are considered interesting to us due to the tags being used.
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (224851)
• Walnut Creek, California
8 Oct 15
I don't think I've tried this link, so I can't say. I know that there was a certain "randomness" to "Featured" posts on that other site people used to write on.
1 person likes this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
8 Oct 15
The "Featured" section of that site was under constant criticism due to the selection of posts involved. I have even encountered plagiarised material that has managed to find it's way into that category.
1 person likes this
@OKennedy (1130)
• United States
22 Feb 16
They might be interesting to the person who chose them to be in that category. I think its a personal choice what interests one person may not interest another person. Sometimes we don't have a real understanding of some other persons rhyme or reason.
1 person likes this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
22 Feb 16
According to one of the other respondents it is based on your own tags used and therefore will differ for each of us. The selection system makes sense, yet it produces a strange result.
1 person likes this
@dpk262006 (58673)
• Delhi, India
8 Oct 15
I was also not very clear about interesting discussions till I read response of @PhredWreck. Now it clear to me. Thanks to you too for starting this thread. Interestingly I found this discussion of yours under the category 'interesting discussions '.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
8 Oct 15
It does seem obvious once we are told, but I could not make any sense of it beforehand.
1 person likes this
@cahaya1983 (11116)
• Malaysia
9 Oct 15
I've always wondered about them. Thanks for bringing this up, now I know what they're based on. I used to think they're what the admins find interesting.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
9 Oct 15
That possibility crossed my mind as well.
1 person likes this