Don't need no fantastic flag August 27, 2006 3:51 PM Subscribe
Suggestion: get rid of the 'fantastic post/comment' flag, and replace it wholeheartedly by the favoriting engine. In particular, recode the fantastic questions and answers page to pull the most favorited Qs and As, rather than the most flagged. For a brief interval there, that page was the best way to see the best of AskMeFi, but its usefulness is fading as people move to faving things rather than flagging them. Also, it would be super-ultra-mega-cool to have an analog of that page for the blue.
The reason I disagree with your suggestion is that people use favoriting for reasons other than saying something is fantastic.
I, for example, use it for the purpose of bookmarking something that I would like to come back to. I do not use it for the purpose of "ranking" things as high quality, but rather as marking them for future utility.
posted by twiggy at 4:05 PM on August 27, 2006
I, for example, use it for the purpose of bookmarking something that I would like to come back to. I do not use it for the purpose of "ranking" things as high quality, but rather as marking them for future utility.
posted by twiggy at 4:05 PM on August 27, 2006
I made this suggestion once. Reactions were...mixed.
posted by BackwardsCity at 4:16 PM on August 27, 2006
posted by BackwardsCity at 4:16 PM on August 27, 2006
Quick recap: The fave function serves as
Matt's said he's not going to take a position either way, so your suggestion isn't going to happen unless he changes his mind.
posted by Bugbread at 4:21 PM on August 27, 2006
- A bookmark
- A way of indicating you like something
Matt's said he's not going to take a position either way, so your suggestion isn't going to happen unless he changes his mind.
posted by Bugbread at 4:21 PM on August 27, 2006
I would side with eliminating a fantastic post flag and just going with favoriting, but in the past people still seem to want the fantastic flag around.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:02 PM on August 27, 2006
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:02 PM on August 27, 2006
I hadn't seen the all-favorites page -- thanks, that's excellent. The corresponding thing for AskMe doesn't seem to exist. Could it?
I understand that favoriting things does not mean an assertion of high quality, but I still think that the number of people who call a particular post/comment a favorite is a good measure of how likely it is to be interesting. That's all I'm going for here, is interesting.
posted by gleuschk at 5:17 PM on August 27, 2006
I understand that favoriting things does not mean an assertion of high quality, but I still think that the number of people who call a particular post/comment a favorite is a good measure of how likely it is to be interesting. That's all I'm going for here, is interesting.
posted by gleuschk at 5:17 PM on August 27, 2006
Um, that page shows favorites from the entire site. Just because the background is blue doesn't mean it's only metafilter proper.
posted by Rhomboid at 5:20 PM on August 27, 2006
posted by Rhomboid at 5:20 PM on August 27, 2006
I would side with eliminating a fantastic post flag and just going with favoriting, but in the past people still seem to want the fantastic flag around.
There are 3 uses:
- Telling you stuff is good
- Telling the community stuff is good
- Bookmarking stuff for yourself
It would be good if the site features aligned with these one way or another.
posted by cillit bang at 5:58 PM on August 27, 2006
There are 3 uses:
- Telling you stuff is good
- Telling the community stuff is good
- Bookmarking stuff for yourself
It would be good if the site features aligned with these one way or another.
posted by cillit bang at 5:58 PM on August 27, 2006
Just because the background is blue doesn't mean it's only metafilter proper.
Oh. That's too bad.
posted by gleuschk at 6:16 PM on August 27, 2006
Oh. That's too bad.
posted by gleuschk at 6:16 PM on August 27, 2006
It would be good if the site features aligned with these one way or another.
Favorites can do more than one thing, and mean different things for different users. Just like your bookmarks in your browser can be set for multiple reasons and just like how stuff at del.icio.us can be stuff you like, reference, and/or both. It's a flexible tool that does all three things pretty well.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 6:38 PM on August 27, 2006
Favorites can do more than one thing, and mean different things for different users. Just like your bookmarks in your browser can be set for multiple reasons and just like how stuff at del.icio.us can be stuff you like, reference, and/or both. It's a flexible tool that does all three things pretty well.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 6:38 PM on August 27, 2006
There are posts I'd flag as fantastic which I'd never mark as a favorite.
posted by D.C. at 12:33 AM on August 28, 2006
posted by D.C. at 12:33 AM on August 28, 2006
Favorites and bookmarks can do only one thing: keep an item around for future reference.
That function is wholly independent of wanting to give positive feedback for an item.
Flagging as fantastic serves the function of giving positive feedback for an item.
That's why it would make more sense (to me) to show a count of fantastic flags beside an item, rather than a count of favorites. Frequently I'd like to give a little indication of positive feedback but I don't want to keep the item hanging around in my bookmarks forever; if I unfavorite it, then the positive feedback goes away. So favorites aren't the way to give positive feedback, but flagging as fantastic has zero visible effect.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:43 AM on August 28, 2006
That function is wholly independent of wanting to give positive feedback for an item.
Flagging as fantastic serves the function of giving positive feedback for an item.
That's why it would make more sense (to me) to show a count of fantastic flags beside an item, rather than a count of favorites. Frequently I'd like to give a little indication of positive feedback but I don't want to keep the item hanging around in my bookmarks forever; if I unfavorite it, then the positive feedback goes away. So favorites aren't the way to give positive feedback, but flagging as fantastic has zero visible effect.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:43 AM on August 28, 2006
I would side with eliminating a fantastic post flag and just going with favoriting
No. No. No.
I know you know this, but I just want to reinforce it to counteract the demons in your head: favoriting is not the same as fantastic flags. Bad! Bad!
posted by languagehat at 6:13 AM on August 28, 2006
No. No. No.
I know you know this, but I just want to reinforce it to counteract the demons in your head: favoriting is not the same as fantastic flags. Bad! Bad!
posted by languagehat at 6:13 AM on August 28, 2006
Could you add a favourites confirmation page (which you should anyway) with a check box for whether to flag as fantastic? Then have all the statistics based purely on fantastic flags, not bookmarks.
posted by cillit bang at 7:09 AM on August 28, 2006
posted by cillit bang at 7:09 AM on August 28, 2006
I favorite all the stuff I hate just to counter-act all the people that favorite stuff they like.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:46 AM on August 28, 2006
posted by blue_beetle at 9:46 AM on August 28, 2006
That's why it would make more sense (to me) to show a count of fantastic flags beside an item, rather than a count of favorites. Frequently I'd like to give a little indication of positive feedback but I don't want to keep the item hanging around in my bookmarks forever; if I unfavorite it, then the positive feedback goes away. So favorites aren't the way to give positive feedback, but flagging as fantastic has zero visible effect.
This is exactly right. I knew there was something off about the system, but now I know. This is it. Can we please realign the visible/invisible parts of the site to line up with their functions?
posted by anotherpanacea at 12:25 PM on August 28, 2006
This is exactly right. I knew there was something off about the system, but now I know. This is it. Can we please realign the visible/invisible parts of the site to line up with their functions?
posted by anotherpanacea at 12:25 PM on August 28, 2006
Flagging-as-fantastic is paying a compliment to a girl. Favoriting is taking that girl home for the night.
posted by mattbucher at 2:36 PM on August 28, 2006
posted by mattbucher at 2:36 PM on August 28, 2006
No, favouriting is dreaming about taking that girl home for the night. In both cases, there is no need for actual participation by the girl involved.
posted by dg at 3:03 PM on August 28, 2006
posted by dg at 3:03 PM on August 28, 2006
All of the confusion would be removed if the "favourite" option was renamed to be "bookmarking", no?
posted by Jon Mitchell at 5:56 PM on August 28, 2006
posted by Jon Mitchell at 5:56 PM on August 28, 2006
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http://www.metafilter.com/favorites/all
posted by mathowie (staff) at 3:58 PM on August 27, 2006