If I click on "not interested" in a "question for you" what am I saying I'm not interested in?

I think it relates to the topics at the bottom of the question. Those would be shown on your profile as not interested. Since I don’t want to eliminate any topics, I always choose ‘remove’.

@YARNLADY is right; that’s why I always just choose remove.

I’ve never noticed my profile showing what I’m not interested in. Now I have to go and see what I’m supposedly not interested in. Thanks :)

Not Interested removes the whole class of questions (the topics) whereas Remove just removes the individual question.

I don’t see a spot in my profile where it says about not-interested topics. But I always feared that was how “not interested” worked. I wish there was more control over interested and not interested topics.

It doesn’t say anything; it just removes the topics. You control the “interested” topics and by clicking on “remove” instead of “not interested” they are not changed.

If it’s a question I don’t plan on answering, but am kind of interested I hit “Remove”.

If it’s a question I really have no interest in I hit “Not Interested”.

Otherwise, I just look at the most recent questions and if I find something I like I’ll go into it.

I know what ‘remove’ does. It’s not part of the question in any way, shape, or form.

Basically, what I don’t want to happen in this scenario is for me to click ‘not interested’ and have two topics I am interested in removed along with the one I’m not interested in. Unless those are protected if I had actively added them to my list.

Which is why I asked this question. What is actually happening when “not interested” is selected?

@janbb What doesn’t say anything? And I don’t consider that a form of control. If I’m not interested in “dream” questions, hitting ‘remove’ to not change anything isn’t the same as being able to say, “I’m interested in ‘computers’ and ‘cars’ but not ‘dreams’.” Neither is clicking on ‘not interested’ if the result is, “You are no longer interested in ‘computers,’ ‘cars,’ and ‘dreams’.” My idea of control would be, for example, hovering over the topic list in a question and getting ‘Add topic’ and something along the lines of ‘Ignore topic’. Or ‘Interested’ and ‘Not interested’.

@mrentropy “I don’t see a spot in my profile where it says about not-interested topics.” That’s what doesn’t say anything.

I see what you are saying, but it’s not anything that will be changed soon so the work-around is to not use “Not interested” and to use “Remove” and to refine your topics list as you can.

@janbb I figured that out, but @YARNLADY said it would be there. Unless she was speaking figuratively.

I’m not so much asking for workarounds; I can figure that out. I’m not asking for changes, since I’m pretty certain changes will never be made. I was just curious as to the method that was used for the behavior of the option.

I’ve forwarded this question to the guys, because I’m not entirely sure how this functions. Hopefully, one of them will pop in soon with an explanation. :)

Thanks @augustlan :) It’s probably their trade secret, though.

Sorry, I misspoke, they disappear from your profile when you mark not interested, and are not shown at all.

@mrentropy I’ve often wondered about thisand have gone with my gut and clicked removed. Thanks for the clarification :)

“Remove” removes the question, without changing the algorithm

“Not interested” tells us to lower your internal score to all the topics in the question (though if you already have a strong connection with a topic, a few “not interested“s won’t get
rid of that).

But yes, if you get a question you don’t like with topics you do, click remove.

Also, as I learned today, clicking on ‘not interested’ does not remove topics from your profile.

Thanks @ben. Although, as far as I can tell, you can’t see what topics a question has until you actually look at it, at which point ‘remove’ and ‘not interested’ are no longer applicable.

Well, now I know. And knowing is half the battle!

Thank you, too, @augustlan

@augustlan As stated above, it changes the algorithm, which I believe would eventually lead to the topic no longer applying to Questions for You. So are you saying the topic would still show up on our list, but no longer be relevant?

The algorithm gives more weight to the topics you’ve chosen for your profile, than to the topics in your ‘not interested’ questions. I guess after enough ‘not interested’s, it may overwhelm that, though.