We’ve gotten a few questions about how this works. Here’s the official description:
The Suggested Topics list will show any unread topics that you are watching or tracking that are less than 90 days old. If there are fewer than 5 unread topics in the list, random topics that are less than 365 180 days old will be appended to the list. The Suggested Topics list first tries to load topics from the same category as the topic you are currently reading. If there are less than 5 topics from the category that can be added to the list, topics from other categories will be chosen.
We can control the behavior of the Suggested Topics list with some settings (read only if you want extreme detail into how this can be configured):
the number of topics to show in the list (defaults to 5)
instead of prioritizing the current category, only show topics from the current category in the list (defaults to false)
the maximum age in days to query for unread suggested topics for a user (defaults to 90 days)
the maximum age in days to query for random suggested topics (defaults to 365 180 days)
Edit: changed default to 180 days based on mod feedback.
This is problem #1. There should not be open threads without a response for 365 days - but that’s a separate issue. Responding to a year-old thread is generally pointless - the OP already made a choice, the issue is resolved, etc.
@CC_Mike I am getting tired of seeing old threads that are locked listed as my Suggested Topics. I started to unfollow them, only to have more pop in their place. These are threads I started or commented on 3-10 years ago, or longer! How can I turn off Suggested Topics, or delete these locked topics all at once?
Generally, Suggested Topics tries to prioritize and show you things you haven’t read yet. If you’ve read everything relevant, it will show you topics it thinks you would be interested in. I agree that it doesn’t show the best results, especially for long time users.
Right now there’s no way to turn it off, but I’ll put the ability to turn off Suggested Topics on our list of improvements.
@CC_Mike I appreciate your reply. Every topic shown under my Suggested Topics at this time, are all locked topics, and topics I have either started myself, or posted on multiple times. The 5 currently showing are from 2017, as I have unfollowed the previous 20 or so that were showing.
So using myself as an example, I am only being shown old, locked topics that I participated in and followed; don’t need suggestion for topics I already follow These did not show until the mods went in and locked old topics.
These did not show until the mods went in and locked old topics.