3 others? marked this as a favorite

July 15, 2006 5:37 PM

On favorites pages, it says "3 others marked this as a favorite," despite the fact that the user whose page you're looking at is one of those 3 people. Would it not make more sense to say "3 people marked this as a favorite"? I keep wondering where the fourth person is.
posted by heatherann to MetaFilter-Related at 5:37 PM (19 comments total)

Look behind you.
posted by exlotuseater at 6:20 PM on July 15, 2006

Also, it only shows attribution of who added something as a fave if more two or more people flagged it. I assume these will be tweaked in the fullness of time.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:36 PM on July 15, 2006

I just checked the server logs, it looks like it was marked as a favorite from INSIDE YOUR HOUSE. Get out! Get out now! I'm calling the co..p........s..................<screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek>

[dialtone]
posted by blue_beetle at 7:01 PM on July 15, 2006 [1 favorite]

Indeed, and also, if only one person marked as favorite, and you want to find out who they are, you have to click back to the thread, then click on "x users have marked as favorite." But if you want to see who the second, third, etc. people are, you just click on "x others marked this as a favorite," and you get a list.

Also, if you look at, for example, my profile page, it says that 15 of my contributions have been saved by others, but if you click on the number 15 to look at the list of those comments, then no matter how you slice it, I don't see how you can count 15 of anything.
posted by bingo at 7:10 PM on July 15, 2006

You know, I pondered posting something about this a few weeks ago, but decided that I would be cruelly mocked for it. You're a braver Canuck than I.

In all seriousness, it would be nice if it was fixed.
posted by Johnny Assay at 7:12 PM on July 15, 2006

Hm, on further reflection, my very last complaint is without merit. I was confused by the very confusing "x others marked this as favorite." The word "others" appears to imply that there is in fact someone else not included in the statement who has already marked as favorite. Apparently, "others" actually means "users who are not you," but I think there are clearer ways to put it. For example, just leave out the word "others."
posted by bingo at 7:25 PM on July 15, 2006

I also think that when you see the list of users who marked your comment as a favorite, and you click on one of their names, you should see their main profile page, not a list of other comments they marked as favorite. When someone marks my comment favorite, the main thing I want to know is basically who they are, not what else they marked favorite.
posted by bingo at 7:43 PM on July 15, 2006

Hear hear.

I just figured my head was broken, 'cause it didn't make any sense.
posted by loquacious at 7:54 PM on July 15, 2006

A slightly different issue: if only one person marks one of my posts as "favorite" there's no way for me to find out who it is. If two people do it, I can find out both of them. (Should I temporarily mark my own post as "favorite" in order to discover the otherwise hidden info?)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 8:29 PM on July 15, 2006

good point, I'll remove the word "others" where it doesn't make sense, and yes, add links to see who marked something as a favorite even if it was only once.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:43 PM on July 15, 2006

A slightly different issue: if only one person marks one of my posts as "favorite" there's no way for me to find out who it is.

Not true.

Get the comment number from the link to the comment in question (it's the part of the URL that ends with #123456). For example, the link to the question you asked ends with #328607. Just add the comment number to the end of the "favorites" URL. For example, http://metatalk.metafilter.com/favorited/328607 will show you who marked your comment as a favorite.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:59 PM on July 15, 2006

Also note: each Metafilter section has it's own "favorited" directory. To find out who marked your Ask Metafilter comment as a favorite, use http://ask.metafilter.com/favorited/xxxxxx, for regular MetaFilter comments: http://www.metafilter.com/favorited/xxxxxx, etc.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 9:03 PM on July 15, 2006

I'm probably being dense here, but it doesn't seem like you can tell who marked your comment as a favorite without following the link and viewing it from the actual post page. Is this intentional?
posted by Gamblor at 9:14 PM on July 15, 2006

How about changing it to "marked as a favorite by n user(s)" or "n user(s) marked this as a favorite"? Where n can equal one, not just greater than one.
posted by Eideteker at 10:46 PM on July 15, 2006

...or even just "marked as favorite by the following users" and you can see them right there in the list. I'm talking about within our own sub-profile pages, of course, not within the original pages to which the comments were posted.
posted by bingo at 7:03 AM on July 16, 2006

That would be a more intensive query for the database than a simple count, bingo. On pages with multiple favorites, for multiple users, that could become a substantial hit.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:07 AM on July 16, 2006

Well, maybe that logic could be taken care of in advance on the back end, and then it would just be ready (as a single response) when it was requested.
posted by bingo at 10:58 AM on July 16, 2006

* cruelly mocks Johnny Assay anyway *
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:23 AM on July 16, 2006

::: comes back in a day later, weeps :::
posted by Johnny Assay at 1:15 PM on July 17, 2006