Counting user comments by FPP tag type?

January 17, 2008 8:00 AM

Feature request: a way to count, by tag, by user how many comments you posted to threads of a certain type?

For example, it'd be interesting to see to why types of threads users most often comment. Probably a lot of effort would be involved in executing this, but it would be call to be able to mine all this great data, for all us analytics nerds out here.

posted by psmealey to Feature Requests at 8:00 AM (16 comments total)

Train wrecks would be high on the list, but they're never tagged as such.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 8:24 AM on January 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

The idea came up in convseration recently of replacing the current frequently-used tags on user profiles—which just tallies the tags they've added to FPPs/questions/etc that they've personally posted—with a tally of tags for posts a user has commented in, which might be a long way towards achieving what you're asking here.

When you say "type of thread", are you talking about some explicit (existing? To-be-created?) taxonomy (w-g p's "train wrecks", for example; or askme/metatalk categories...) or do you just mean the general notion of threads-about-subjects-xy&z?
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:37 AM on January 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

Feature request: a way to count, by tag, by user how many comments you posted to threads of a certain type?

Just to be clear, do you want to be able to count your own comments or to be able to count anyone's?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:46 AM on January 17, 2008

And did you mention that you want tags on MeTa posts? Because I agree!
posted by blue_beetle at 8:51 AM on January 17, 2008

cortex: The idea came up in convseration recently of replacing the current frequently-used tags on user profiles—which just tallies the tags they've added to FPPs/questions/etc that they've personally posted—with a tally of tags for posts a user has commented in, which might be a long way towards achieving what you're asking here.

That's a great idea!
posted by Kattullus at 9:30 AM on January 17, 2008

I'm going to go ahead and take credit for this.
posted by Eideteker at 9:49 AM on January 17, 2008

Ah, that's it! I was having trouble coalescing into a positive ID the vague sense I had that some sexy New England snarkmonster was involved in that bit of ideation.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:52 AM on January 17, 2008

When you say "type of thread", are you talking about some explicit (existing? To-be-created?)

Mostly, I was thinking of the user-supplied tags. This could get messy, but I have actually noticed some high level taxonomies starting to take shape when I drill into user tags. Maybe just start with the top 20 or so most common user tags and start associating that way?
posted by psmealey at 10:16 AM on January 17, 2008

Just to be clear, do you want to be able to count your own comments or to be able to count anyone's?

Yes! Both. Something in the profile page maybe... lists of numbers of comments per tag (psmealey has 2555 comments posted in threads tagged with "music"... that kind of thing).
posted by psmealey at 10:18 AM on January 17, 2008

I have a feeling that the "batshitinsane" tag will rule the Mefi world.
posted by misha at 10:59 AM on January 17, 2008

As well it should, misha.
posted by scrump at 12:24 PM on January 17, 2008

*cries at the implication he's from New England*

I'm only visiting til I can save up enough money to move back to NY. =\
posted by Eideteker at 3:20 PM on January 17, 2008

Speaking of tags, the thing that I'd still really like to see, that I mentioned a few times when tags were first introduced, is the ability to privately tag threads (even comments, maybe) as we like, for our own purposes (maybe with an option to toggle our tags collectively viewable publically, if not necessarily on the thread itself, at in our profiles). I figure this would go a very long way to making favorites actually useful for users, allowing us to organize them as we liked, provided we got a few other tools for organizing them, too (like making them viewable by subsite, for example). The amount of mineable metadata would explode, too.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:12 PM on January 17, 2008

*cries at the implication he's from New England*

Hey... some of us like it here!

... well, to be clear. Some of us have wives who like it here, and are desperately trying to convince them that it would be much better if we were to move back into NYC.
posted by psmealey at 8:05 AM on January 18, 2008

"Some of us have wives who like it here, and are desperately trying to convince them that it would be much better if we were to move back into NYC."

Oh, so you too?
posted by Eideteker at 6:33 AM on January 23, 2008

I sense a wacky comedy synopsis.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:41 AM on January 23, 2008