How Exactly Do Suggestions Work?
@Jackalyn (7558)
Oxford, England
August 20, 2015 12:11pm CST
I am still finding my way around the site. Gradually I am piecing it together and getting used to things. I don't really understand how suggestions is meant to work though. I write my post and then tell all my followers it is there? Is that right? Or is it more for suggesting other people's posts? If so, how?
7 people like this
6 responses
@Marcyaz (35316)
• United States
27 Aug 15
Anja, I thought that the suggestion was for people promoting their own posts. I don't know anything about bubblews why don't you tell us what they do with their suggestions there so we have more of an idea of what we are doing if we can't share our suggestions. 
2 people like this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
27 Aug 15
@Marcyaz I don't know what it's for, only what I see it used for. If that's what they want, then fine. On Bubblews, there is a share feature where people share the post of someone they follow to all their other followers. Usually it is when they really like a post and think it deserves a bigger readership. I never said no one should share their suggestions or share their own posts. But usually, because I am already checking the posts from my lists of followers, I have already read the posts being suggested to me.
2 people like this
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
21 Aug 15
It works very much like a 'Share' on Facebook or Bubblews. It can be used for your own posts or for those which you feel other people might be interested in.
As others have said, it was a function introduced to this version in 2013, so there is no official guidance (as yet) on how it should be used. My suggestions would be that it should be used thoughtfully and intelligently and sparingly to recommend discussions to people whom you feel would be interested in and should be able to respond usefully to a topic.
If it is used too much, especially by sending multiple 'random' suggestions to particular people, it may soon become annoying to some (though they can, of course, ignore suggestions) and certain people might choose to ignore, unfollow or even block the offender. These are actions and tools which we all hope others won't use against us, so, as it says in the Guidelines, follow the Golden Rule ("Do as you would be done by", as I recall from "The Water Babies", or "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you", from a more famous source.)
3 people like this
@Jackalyn (7558)
• Oxford, England
27 Aug 15
Yeah, makes sense. Personally, I find it a bit intrusive if a stranger sends me their suggestion as I tend to read the site from the top anyway as it were. I guess I feel the same on facebook where a zillion pastors want to share their conferences on my facebook. I don't mind the odd one I know. Then there are the prophets who want to prophecy and the preachers who want to preach...for that reason very few people get shared on my facebook.
1 person likes this
on this site.
@yukimori (10192)
• United States
20 Aug 15
I think we're all still figuring out how to use some of the features here. I have friends who suggest their posts to me, and occasionally a few others have suggested interesting posts they've read and think I might enjoy, or posts where the user is having an issue I might be able to help them with.
What I like about the suggestion feature is that it seems to only allow a person to receive one suggestion for a given discussion. I sent out a couple this week, but many of my followers had "Sent!" next to their names in the list. Someone else had to have sent the suggestion, because I hadn't done it.
Personally, I feel that it's appropriate to use the feature sparingly. The posts I shared were ones that dealt with issues with the site, so I felt I should share them with some people who might have been affected by the problem. Other than that, I'd probably only use it to highlight some discussions that a friend who's been absent from the site for a while would enjoy reading to catch up on what's been happening while they were gone. 
2 people like this
@yukimori (10192)
• United States
20 Aug 15
@Jackalyn I'm one of the oldest members here. 
The suggestion feature is actually pretty new. They introduced it when they switched to this layout in 2013. A lot of us left the site when the spammers descended on it, so I don't believe there's an established etiquette regarding how to use it. In general, though, a good rule of thumb here is to remember the "golden rule" and treat other users the way you'd like to be treated.
The suggestion feature is actually pretty new. They introduced it when they switched to this layout in 2013. A lot of us left the site when the spammers descended on it, so I don't believe there's an established etiquette regarding how to use it. In general, though, a good rule of thumb here is to remember the "golden rule" and treat other users the way you'd like to be treated.2 people like this
