TT member interest groups

I was chatting earlier with another TT'er who is also into motorbikes, same kinda style as mine, and he lives close-by. We only made contact because of a casual comment about the weather changing and being good for biking.

So it occured to me that it would be good to have some way of ticking a box or someway "joining" a club within TT that indicates you are interested in some area. So sub-clubs might be for example:

1. Chess
2. Snowboarding
3. Computer Games
4. Spanish
5. Parachuting
6. Badminton
7. Star Trek

They need to be a little specific - no point in having clubs for "beer" or "travel" 'cos everyone wants to do that.

Or am I being thick? Obviously searching discussions can throw up your interests but I might wanna go parachuting one day but have never posted in a relevant thread to date.

New feature. See: TT Member Interest Groups

Thanks Bob. Way to go! I love it.

Tina

I thought we all knew what we shared? A love for reading the Daily Mail and agreeing with everything that Jeremy Clarkson says.

It's a very emotional moment for me. (sniff) My suggestion has been implemented by he from above... EB.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank EB, my agent, my family, and all those that still had faith in me as a young TTer. Even through the bleak times, the dull threads, the tedious postings and the busted internet connections I knew this day would come.

You forgot the infamous "you like me, you really really like me", from the acceptance speech of Sally Field.

Happy for you dude, but realize you have now had your 15 minutes of fame and will live the rest of your life in obscurity. Ah, the pain.

Ahhh nice one! Thanks Bob!

Errrrr no F1. How can that be missed durin da season?

Bonydebbie, you are able to add new interests to the list if they aren't already there.

I was perusing the new interests list and stumbled across group sex. I clicked on the title (curious) and saw there were three people added. What a perfect number. Any news? You could make this the first meet from the interests list!

UrbanAngel, and of course they are all males, which doesn't preclude such a meet-up, of course, but may not be what they had in mind.

The member interest groups page has now been updated to accommodate members living in different parts of Germany. Currently there are only sub-groupings for those in Berlin, Munich, and Frankfurt (where our largest readerships are) but more can easily be added as need be.

And coming soon, a new facility to easily PM all members who share an interest.

While people living in Garching technically do not live in Munich, I think that they should be counted in the Munich category for the purpose of interest groups.

More girls need to sign up in the group sex category. Golems is probably getting a bit worn out by now.

WTF??? Yeti and Me have been chucked out into someplace called "Elsewhere" for motorbiking???

That's bloody charming. So next people that organise a group for Munich bikers will skip us out. Sounds even worse than living in buggering Berlin or summat. At least in Berlin you belong... but Yeti and me might as well be in frigging Romania.

Elsewhere. Now I live in buggering Elsewhere with my Nowhere Wife and Unknown Kids.

It's enough of a cross to bear living a wee bit in the sticks, but if Landsberg was good enough to lock Adolf up for a few years then it is good enough for us.

Friggin Elsewhere. Riding my friggin unbranded motorbike. Kicked out of the friggin Toytown. I am now officially sulking. Elsewhere. We are being disrespected.

Sure thing. Landsberg, Allershausen, and Augsburg are now already included in Munich. An improved system for including all nearby towns will come soon.

Thanks. Once more my futile life has some slight meaning.

given that there is group sex and polyamory, why have gay, lesbian and bisexual been missed off?

Great to see so many interested in Whisky.

Maybe some would like to come along to my whisky evening on Friday?

because no-one has suggested these groups yet. It is up to us members to suggest the interest groups. If you wish to add these interest groups, then do so!

okay, I see you can add it yourself so I have

Great Feature Ed. Bob.

Meanwhile, check out some of the associated discussions listed under "Pool"

I know I sometimes suffer from fits of not seeing things, but where do we find the link for the Member Interests page on the site?

No, not in this thread, I mean on the site.
I couldn't see it on the Home Page or under Chat Forum, or up at the top of the page ...

click on the red "xtra" link up at the top - interest groups is the second one down in the miscellaneous section

Aha, thanks I found it now.

How much is this feature actually used? I just checked out a few groups that I know would be of interest to specific TTers, but they haven't subscribed to them. Is it that people aren't aware of this feature, or that they just can't/don't want to be bothered?

Also, the "Related chat forum topics" list seems to be of limited usefulness, if it just automatically lists any topic whose title contains the name of the interest - irrelevant topics can be included, and relevant ones omitted. Would it be possible to allow interest group members to add their own links to relevant threads?

Never underestimate the apathy of the great british public. I also used to be apathetic but now I can't be arsed.

I can't remember which interest groups I signed up for

I thought it was a brand new feature only launched today? Give it time ...

It's been there a long time, BTC. Possibly just made region specific recently.

Ah yes.



So there you have it. It will be possible to use it to contact various groups. A nice little idea.

I have seen it used once or twice to contact people with a certain interest.

The visibility (and probably use) of the Interests feature could be increased a lot by including it in Toytown search results.

should have checked the date of EBs post. In my solipsistic way I read it today and assumed it had been posted today. Doh!

The interest groups feature was introduced back in March last year. But there were a number of technical problems with it so it wasn't fully promoted. In fact, it has lain hidden, unlinked, and neglected for the last six months or so. Now the feature is (finally) being brought back to life.

As for how much it is used, there are statistics on the bottom of the interest groups main page. They currently read:


As for drw's suggestion of including interest groups in the site search results, that's a good idea. They're now included. See for example: search results for "magic".

And as for the list of "related topics" not always being accurate, well, that's because the system is automated. Sometimes it works really well, sometimes it does't. For example, the related topics under the Yoga group are all highly relevant - all 15 of them. Other groups, however, are less relevant. This is just like Google search results - they are never going to be perfect. They're good enough though.

Are interests going to show on people's profiles? I notice there's a new link to the interests matrix but it would be good if registered interests showed up automatically.

No current plans for that. Maybe one day, but not anytime soon.

At the top of the "Member interests" page there's a button "Load my interests". Enter your username and password, and click that button, and the list will be displayed with your interest groups highlighted.

Is it no longer possible to view the members of an interest group? When I click on the group, the whole interests list load again.

Or am I being too dumb?

The interests pages have been screwed up for a few weeks, I'm afraid.

Too many people used it and the database tables are now overloaded. The code needs to be refactored. Dunno when this'll happen.

Is there a designated TT interest group for jerks who want to coalesce with like minded members?

Does anybody else have problems with the intereset group feature? I can't seem to get it to work. I'm using Safari on a Macbook. Everytime I click on the name of an interest group, the page just reloads. The "load interests" and "save interest" functions don't seem to do anything particular at all.

The answer is two posts above yours...