The Web 2.0, it vibrates? March 22, 2007 7:10 PM Subscribe
This has occasionally been mentioned before, but are the tabs on the front page currently serving any purpose? The functionality of 'Recent Posts' seems duplicated by the home page, 'My Favorites' by 'Favorites', 'Popular Favorites' by 'Popular', 'My Comments' by, well, 'My Comments'. 'Recent Comments' I simply don't find useful, but that may just be me.
I don't use the tabs (don't even notice them any more thanks to the selective blindness that sets in with the familiar) because I'm painfully set in my ways, but I assume other folks do.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:27 PM on March 22, 2007
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:27 PM on March 22, 2007
recent posts is the home page, it's the default tab.
My Favorites shows just MeFi posts you've marked as a favorite. It's a filtered view you can't get anywhere else. Favorites shows any and all favorites across the entire site.
Popular Favorites is again, just MeFi posts with lots of favorites over a short period of time. The link the header is site-wide.
My Comments, same thing, it's just MeFi on MeFi, the link in the header is a site-wide view of last ten comments on anything you posted on anywhere on the server.
Lots of people like Recent Comments.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:29 PM on March 22, 2007
My Favorites shows just MeFi posts you've marked as a favorite. It's a filtered view you can't get anywhere else. Favorites shows any and all favorites across the entire site.
Popular Favorites is again, just MeFi posts with lots of favorites over a short period of time. The link the header is site-wide.
My Comments, same thing, it's just MeFi on MeFi, the link in the header is a site-wide view of last ten comments on anything you posted on anywhere on the server.
Lots of people like Recent Comments.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:29 PM on March 22, 2007
cortex' name isn't linked on the MeTa New Post page.
cortex has been an admin for all of three weeks and, unlike mathowie and I, has a day job. The contact form currently sends mail to both mathowie and me, so the text on the MeTa post page reinforces that. Each of us does something slightly different from the other, and we don't want cortex to feel pressured to fix people's busted up HTML when he's at his other job.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:37 PM on March 22, 2007
cortex has been an admin for all of three weeks and, unlike mathowie and I, has a day job. The contact form currently sends mail to both mathowie and me, so the text on the MeTa post page reinforces that. Each of us does something slightly different from the other, and we don't want cortex to feel pressured to fix people's busted up HTML when he's at his other job.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:37 PM on March 22, 2007
recent posts is the home page, it's the default tab.
But it's also the home button and the logo, etc.
My Favorites shows just MeFi posts you've marked as a favorite. It's a filtered view you can't get anywhere else. Favorites shows any and all favorites across the entire site.
But Favorites shows posts and comments, across all the subsites. 'My Favorites' is just favorite posts on the blue. Why not make it a sub-page? Or customizable from Prefs?
Popular Favorites is again, just MeFi posts with lots of favorites over a short period of time. The link the header is site-wide.
My Comments, same thing, it's just MeFi on MeFi, the link in the header is a site-wide view of last ten comments on anything you posted on anywhere on the server.
Again, I know they're just filters -- but why not put the tabs in the Favorites/Comments/Popular page itself rather than use the front-page real estate for what's essentially redundant? Or make the default landing page from the link customizable? The info in the site-wide page pretty much replicates the filtered info.
Another option would be color-coding the comments/posts in the site-wide view. In fact, this would be nice/cool independent of the tab issue.
Lots of people like Recent Comments.
I like it, too -- in fact, I think the tabs are nice in general. I just think they're largely redundant. It would be nice to be able turn them off or incorporate that functionality into the top menu bar. I do acknowledge that RC is unique, but to my mind it could just be floated up to the menubar.
posted by spiderwire at 7:37 PM on March 22, 2007
But it's also the home button and the logo, etc.
My Favorites shows just MeFi posts you've marked as a favorite. It's a filtered view you can't get anywhere else. Favorites shows any and all favorites across the entire site.
But Favorites shows posts and comments, across all the subsites. 'My Favorites' is just favorite posts on the blue. Why not make it a sub-page? Or customizable from Prefs?
Popular Favorites is again, just MeFi posts with lots of favorites over a short period of time. The link the header is site-wide.
My Comments, same thing, it's just MeFi on MeFi, the link in the header is a site-wide view of last ten comments on anything you posted on anywhere on the server.
Again, I know they're just filters -- but why not put the tabs in the Favorites/Comments/Popular page itself rather than use the front-page real estate for what's essentially redundant? Or make the default landing page from the link customizable? The info in the site-wide page pretty much replicates the filtered info.
Another option would be color-coding the comments/posts in the site-wide view. In fact, this would be nice/cool independent of the tab issue.
Lots of people like Recent Comments.
I like it, too -- in fact, I think the tabs are nice in general. I just think they're largely redundant. It would be nice to be able turn them off or incorporate that functionality into the top menu bar. I do acknowledge that RC is unique, but to my mind it could just be floated up to the menubar.
posted by spiderwire at 7:37 PM on March 22, 2007
cortex has been an admin for all of three weeks and, unlike mathowie and I, has a day job.
sorry, retracted. :)
posted by spiderwire at 7:39 PM on March 22, 2007
sorry, retracted. :)
posted by spiderwire at 7:39 PM on March 22, 2007
Here's another way of putting it. The top bar is all local, site-specific stuff. The second bar is all global stuff, except 'New Post', which is local (i.e. for the subsite you're on).
It's confusing to have the global bar between the two local bars, with no indication of which one is supposed to be global/local, even though there's similar/identical options on each. Also, the "New Post" button is out of place no matter how you slice it.
As long as I'm bitching about ponies, it would make more sense to have the tag search box on the tags page.
posted by spiderwire at 7:55 PM on March 22, 2007
It's confusing to have the global bar between the two local bars, with no indication of which one is supposed to be global/local, even though there's similar/identical options on each. Also, the "New Post" button is out of place no matter how you slice it.
As long as I'm bitching about ponies, it would make more sense to have the tag search box on the tags page.
posted by spiderwire at 7:55 PM on March 22, 2007
Oh, and the formatting on the global 'popular' page should take a cue from the user-specific popular page, which is awesome.
posted by spiderwire at 8:03 PM on March 22, 2007
posted by spiderwire at 8:03 PM on March 22, 2007
Popular Favorites tab is much better than Favorites link. The Favorite link doesn't show the whole post. OTOH, it shows comments, so it's not the same content.
Recent comments replaced a "sort posts by" dropdown that is years old, so that can't be removed. There even used to be complaints because you couldn't do the same thing on AskMe.
posted by smackfu at 8:22 PM on March 22, 2007
Recent comments replaced a "sort posts by" dropdown that is years old, so that can't be removed. There even used to be complaints because you couldn't do the same thing on AskMe.
posted by smackfu at 8:22 PM on March 22, 2007
spiderwire, the nav bars aren't separated by "local" and "global". It wasn't the intention.
The top line is for "seldom used" resources, the bottom line is for "often used" resources. Stuff like posting something new and checking up on comments that followed yours is something people use a lot. The about section for a site is something they rarely use but it is good to be there. That's why the top line isn't bold and the bottom one is, to emphasize the often used links for people and put them in the same place across subsites.
People have asked for and wanted a way to track just 4 or 5 questions they liked from say, today, and a way to view those on Ask MeFi. The My Favorites tab lets them mark off the few they were really interested in and presents them with their own filtered custom view of the front page. Your own all favorites page is a history of everything you've ever marked on the site as a favorite and is a different view for that reason.
If you don't use the tabs, that's fine, but I haven't heard much of an outcry since they were added. Most people seem to get something out of them, I know I use the popular favorites tab often when returning to ask mefi for the first time in a day or two, so I can see what's good and people like right now (I read ask mefi in RSS and only click through on a few here and there).
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:25 PM on March 22, 2007
The top line is for "seldom used" resources, the bottom line is for "often used" resources. Stuff like posting something new and checking up on comments that followed yours is something people use a lot. The about section for a site is something they rarely use but it is good to be there. That's why the top line isn't bold and the bottom one is, to emphasize the often used links for people and put them in the same place across subsites.
People have asked for and wanted a way to track just 4 or 5 questions they liked from say, today, and a way to view those on Ask MeFi. The My Favorites tab lets them mark off the few they were really interested in and presents them with their own filtered custom view of the front page. Your own all favorites page is a history of everything you've ever marked on the site as a favorite and is a different view for that reason.
If you don't use the tabs, that's fine, but I haven't heard much of an outcry since they were added. Most people seem to get something out of them, I know I use the popular favorites tab often when returning to ask mefi for the first time in a day or two, so I can see what's good and people like right now (I read ask mefi in RSS and only click through on a few here and there).
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:25 PM on March 22, 2007
Oh, but how I dream of one day not having a day job. I need to invent the next Post-It note or something.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:05 PM on March 22, 2007
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:05 PM on March 22, 2007
Fair enough. I still find it jarring as a design element but I'll take a while to try and think of a new option rather than just expressing general dislike.
Things that would nevertheless be nice ponies:
1. The global favorites page the Popular page in the top navbar, not the MeFi Favorites page in the tabbed bar) should match the beautiful specific-user-favorites page in formatting. There's no substantive difference between the two, and as smackfu says, the post preview is nice.
2. The global favorites page would look nicer if it differentiated by color between AskMe, MeTa, etc. As it is the global favorites page looks the same as the MeFi favorites page, and it's confusing.
3. A tab on the 'Favorites' 'Comments' etc. pages that let you switch the filter between MeFi/AskMe/Personal/etc. would be very helpful. It would also help keep the design consistent and maybe solve the problem in (2) of distinguishing between the MeFi page and the global, cross-site page.
4. Duplicating the options on the second navbar and the tabbed bar is still problematic. One way to fix this would be to replace 'Recent Posts' with 'MetaFilter' or 'AskMetaFilter' etc on the respective subsites.
OK, done now.
posted by spiderwire at 9:12 PM on March 22, 2007
Things that would nevertheless be nice ponies:
1. The global favorites page the Popular page in the top navbar, not the MeFi Favorites page in the tabbed bar) should match the beautiful specific-user-favorites page in formatting. There's no substantive difference between the two, and as smackfu says, the post preview is nice.
2. The global favorites page would look nicer if it differentiated by color between AskMe, MeTa, etc. As it is the global favorites page looks the same as the MeFi favorites page, and it's confusing.
3. A tab on the 'Favorites' 'Comments' etc. pages that let you switch the filter between MeFi/AskMe/Personal/etc. would be very helpful. It would also help keep the design consistent and maybe solve the problem in (2) of distinguishing between the MeFi page and the global, cross-site page.
4. Duplicating the options on the second navbar and the tabbed bar is still problematic. One way to fix this would be to replace 'Recent Posts' with 'MetaFilter' or 'AskMetaFilter' etc on the respective subsites.
OK, done now.
posted by spiderwire at 9:12 PM on March 22, 2007
Oops, missed a paren in that first subpoint.
posted by spiderwire at 9:12 PM on March 22, 2007
posted by spiderwire at 9:12 PM on March 22, 2007
spiderwire, your general theme here is to collapse a lot of visible features into single, multi-purpose pages that would offer different views of the data. So instead of the four tabs on the front page of a subsite, there would be four or five different ways to look at the general "favorites" page.
I've gone down that road for the past 7 years, hiding tons of functionality in out of the way places. There used to be drop-down sorting on the home page. Your contacts page contains a ton of functionality barely anyone uses (or knows exists). The tabs make the alternate views of the front page of the sites more apparent and they get used more. It's a slight addition to the UI to have them there, but if they weren't there, few people would find them or use them. On this point I think we'll have to agree to disagree because I believe some features are worth surfacing for everyone and not hiding them behind nav links and options within those links.
I'll revisit the formating on the popular favorites page, I believe there was a reason at the start for not showing the rest of a post, but I might as well add those back in because it doesn't have to be any different than your own favorites page.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:30 PM on March 22, 2007 [1 favorite]
I've gone down that road for the past 7 years, hiding tons of functionality in out of the way places. There used to be drop-down sorting on the home page. Your contacts page contains a ton of functionality barely anyone uses (or knows exists). The tabs make the alternate views of the front page of the sites more apparent and they get used more. It's a slight addition to the UI to have them there, but if they weren't there, few people would find them or use them. On this point I think we'll have to agree to disagree because I believe some features are worth surfacing for everyone and not hiding them behind nav links and options within those links.
I'll revisit the formating on the popular favorites page, I believe there was a reason at the start for not showing the rest of a post, but I might as well add those back in because it doesn't have to be any different than your own favorites page.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:30 PM on March 22, 2007 [1 favorite]
Your contacts page contains a ton of functionality barely anyone uses (or knows exists).
I love that stuff, mathowie. I wasted hours following links the other night.
posted by eustacescrubb at 3:40 AM on March 23, 2007 [1 favorite]
I love that stuff, mathowie. I wasted hours following links the other night.
posted by eustacescrubb at 3:40 AM on March 23, 2007 [1 favorite]
jessamyn writes "unlike mathowie and I, has a day job"
I'm confusulated. I thought you were a librarian. Are you retired? Are you a housewife? Are you actually doing the modding here as your primary source of income?
mathowie writes "Your contacts page contains a ton of functionality barely anyone uses (or knows exists)."
Appropos of nothing, the whole of MeFi is that way for me. "Favorites" vs. "My Favorites" vs. "Favorite Favorites" vs. "Popular Favorites" vs. "Favorited of Me by Others" vs. "My Favorited Other Favorites". I don't understand any of it, really, and I can never find any of it, so I have given up entirely, and just use "www.metafilter.com", "ask.metafilter.com", "metatalk.metafilter.com" and read whatever shows up on the screen. And "Comments Of Mine Which Other People Have Marked As Favorites" (or whatever cryptic abbreviation is used for it), because I'm vain. Past that, the terminology just completely confuses me, and makes me feel like I'm trying to figure out tax terminology.
posted by Bugbread at 6:05 AM on March 23, 2007
I'm confusulated. I thought you were a librarian. Are you retired? Are you a housewife? Are you actually doing the modding here as your primary source of income?
mathowie writes "Your contacts page contains a ton of functionality barely anyone uses (or knows exists)."
Appropos of nothing, the whole of MeFi is that way for me. "Favorites" vs. "My Favorites" vs. "Favorite Favorites" vs. "Popular Favorites" vs. "Favorited of Me by Others" vs. "My Favorited Other Favorites". I don't understand any of it, really, and I can never find any of it, so I have given up entirely, and just use "www.metafilter.com", "ask.metafilter.com", "metatalk.metafilter.com" and read whatever shows up on the screen. And "Comments Of Mine Which Other People Have Marked As Favorites" (or whatever cryptic abbreviation is used for it), because I'm vain. Past that, the terminology just completely confuses me, and makes me feel like I'm trying to figure out tax terminology.
posted by Bugbread at 6:05 AM on March 23, 2007
I'm confusulated. I thought you were a librarian. Are you retired? Are you a housewife? Are you actually doing the modding here as your primary source of income?
I'm a librarian by training and I have a part-time job in Vermont where I live doing community technology work [teaching email to old people, fixing library computers and teaching adult education classes on technology topics] and I travel giving talks on library technology and digital divide topics, and I work here. It's about 30:30:40 timewise, sometimes 20:20:60 and I'm not sure what the split is incomewise.
Other than the My Comments link, I don't use the rest of them much at all.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:44 AM on March 23, 2007
I'm a librarian by training and I have a part-time job in Vermont where I live doing community technology work [teaching email to old people, fixing library computers and teaching adult education classes on technology topics] and I travel giving talks on library technology and digital divide topics, and I work here. It's about 30:30:40 timewise, sometimes 20:20:60 and I'm not sure what the split is incomewise.
Other than the My Comments link, I don't use the rest of them much at all.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:44 AM on March 23, 2007
how come jessamyn gets paid but cortex doesnt? not that i really like cortex.. but doesnt seem fair
posted by petsounds at 11:06 AM on March 23, 2007
posted by petsounds at 11:06 AM on March 23, 2007
how come you think it's your business?
posted by and hosted from Uranus at 11:20 AM on March 23, 2007
posted by and hosted from Uranus at 11:20 AM on March 23, 2007
because cortex is still working off the cost of his passage from the homeland.
posted by spiderwire at 12:05 PM on March 23, 2007
posted by spiderwire at 12:05 PM on March 23, 2007
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posted by spiderwire at 7:11 PM on March 22, 2007