Understanding Topic Ratings on Matters.com

Ratings are the core of how Matters works. They let you decide what’s important to you right now and keep everything else out of the way.

When you rate a topic as Matters, you’re saying it’s something you actively care about right now. Matters topics appear in your profile and help shape what you see and how others understand your priorities.

Over time, Matters automatically manages your list so it doesn’t grow endlessly. Any topic rated asMatters will move to Matters (Hold) if you haven’t interacted with it in the past week. This happens every Sunday. In practice, this means you usually get a full 7 days of inactivity before a topic moves, and depending on when you last interacted with it, a topic may stay in Matters for close to two weeks.

Topics marked with ❗ Top do not move to Hold. Top topics stay pinned until you change them.

Not Matters is used for topics that aren’t important to you right now. This doesn’t mean you dislike the topic or think it’s unimportant in general—only that it’s not something you want to focus on at the moment.

Matters (Hold) is a holding area for topics that were important before but aren’t currently active. Topics can move into Hold automatically, or you can place them there yourself. You can move a topic out of Hold at any time.

AI suggestions. are topics surfaced for you to review and rate, based on activity across Matters or things you’ve engaged with. AI suggestions are not ratings—they are simply topics waiting for you to decide whether they Matter, Not Matter, or should be left alone.

Subscribers can mark up to seven topics as ❗ Top. These are your highest-priority topics. ❗ topics always stay at the top of your profile, do not expire to Hold, and are the only topics that are searchable.

For each topic you rate, Matters tracks why it matters (or doesn't matter) to you. A third person summary is generated automatically from your notes or from podcasts you record on Matters. You can add or edit notes at any time, but writing is optional.

You do not need to rate every topic you see. Ratings are meant to reflect your current focus, not everything you’ve ever cared about. You can change ratings at any time.