Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. April 20, 2008 4:25 PM Subscribe
ContactPonyFilter: non-contact contacts?
Paradoxical, I know, but I was wondering whether it'd be possible/advisable/popular/etc. to have an option to add people as a contact and designate them as simply 'someone whose posts/comments I always enjoy/agree with/find funny'. (Only pithier than that.) A way to favourite the person behind the posts, as it were. I realise that's not the definition of a 'contact', but in the same way I've added people as 'friends' on LiveJournal simply because I like the way they write and the things they write about, and I want to keep track of their future output. All the options as given are either real-world-specific or non-platonic and therefore creepy. (Pope Guilty probably wouldn't be impressed if I declared I had a crush on him, for example.)
(This has sort of been discussed before, but I'm not suggesting a freeform box or a bitch-designator, just an extra option.)
Am I trying to transfer community norms onto a community that doesn't share them? Am I wanting 'contacts' to fulfil a role it shouldn't (that of combined 'first contact', 'hey, your ideas are intriguing to me' and RSS-feed)? Is this already possible through some other feature and I'm just being a div? (I know there're individual RSS feeds for a user's posts and comments, but that doesn't have the functionality or the social component I'm after.) Am I just over-contemplating a serving of legumes?
Paradoxical, I know, but I was wondering whether it'd be possible/advisable/popular/etc. to have an option to add people as a contact and designate them as simply 'someone whose posts/comments I always enjoy/agree with/find funny'. (Only pithier than that.) A way to favourite the person behind the posts, as it were. I realise that's not the definition of a 'contact', but in the same way I've added people as 'friends' on LiveJournal simply because I like the way they write and the things they write about, and I want to keep track of their future output. All the options as given are either real-world-specific or non-platonic and therefore creepy. (Pope Guilty probably wouldn't be impressed if I declared I had a crush on him, for example.)
(This has sort of been discussed before, but I'm not suggesting a freeform box or a bitch-designator, just an extra option.)
Am I trying to transfer community norms onto a community that doesn't share them? Am I wanting 'contacts' to fulfil a role it shouldn't (that of combined 'first contact', 'hey, your ideas are intriguing to me' and RSS-feed)? Is this already possible through some other feature and I'm just being a div? (I know there're individual RSS feeds for a user's posts and comments, but that doesn't have the functionality or the social component I'm after.) Am I just over-contemplating a serving of legumes?
someone whose posts/comments I always enjoy
I realise that's not the definition of a 'contact'
That's my definition. That's exactly why I add someone as a contact. Like favorites, use them however you see fit.
posted by iconomy at 4:33 PM on April 20, 2008
I realise that's not the definition of a 'contact'
That's my definition. That's exactly why I add someone as a contact. Like favorites, use them however you see fit.
posted by iconomy at 4:33 PM on April 20, 2008
I added iconomy as a contact for exactly that reason. Although I only added jessamyn as a contact because she said she'd beat me up if I didn't.
posted by OmieWise at 4:41 PM on April 20, 2008
posted by OmieWise at 4:41 PM on April 20, 2008
You see, now I can downgrade OmieWise from friend/met, to blank basically. He's a "contact" but I don't even have to call him a contact. I think this is exactly what you are looking for.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:49 PM on April 20, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:49 PM on April 20, 2008 [1 favorite]
Personally I use 'muse' (or leave it blank) for this category. Y plate of beans MV.
posted by jacalata at 5:07 PM on April 20, 2008
posted by jacalata at 5:07 PM on April 20, 2008
I usually use the 'muse' tag to identify people who have written something particularly interesting on Metafilter.
posted by onalark at 5:07 PM on April 20, 2008
posted by onalark at 5:07 PM on April 20, 2008
I also contacted jessamyn on threat of violence against OmieWise.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:19 PM on April 20, 2008
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:19 PM on April 20, 2008
Oh. Now I get it. The whole point of contacts is to keep OmieWise in a state of sheer terror.
Pony request: can we get a little colour-coded slider indicating the level of gibbering, pants-wetting fear to be inflicted on OmieWise every time we add a contact? I'm sure nobody's worked on a design like that before, but I'm sure it can be done.
posted by maudlin at 5:24 PM on April 20, 2008
Pony request: can we get a little colour-coded slider indicating the level of gibbering, pants-wetting fear to be inflicted on OmieWise every time we add a contact? I'm sure nobody's worked on a design like that before, but I'm sure it can be done.
posted by maudlin at 5:24 PM on April 20, 2008
I've been scared of contacts and have not used it because I don't want to seem like some overzealous new friend like The Cable Guy. What does the other person see when you add them as a contact but you don't actually know them and they don't know you? I'd like to add a few mefites to some sort of list not unlike what aihal describes, but feared alerting them to the fact that some random stranger whom they don't know from Job seems to think they have some connection to them, and the awkward expectations that come along with it ("Huh. BeerFilter added me as a contact. WhoTF is that? Does he expect me to add him back? WhyTH would this person that I don't know at all add me as a contact?") Seems kinda creepy to me.
posted by BeerFilter at 6:02 PM on April 20, 2008
posted by BeerFilter at 6:02 PM on April 20, 2008
Added BeerFilter as "crush".
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:04 PM on April 20, 2008
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:04 PM on April 20, 2008
BeerFilter, stop overplating the thinky beans and just add some contacts already. It's not creepy.
Sometimes when I add someone I memail them to say hey, but usually I just add them. Without so much as a how do you do. And none of my contacts have attempted to kill me or anything. YET.
*looks warily at OmieWise*
posted by iconomy at 6:11 PM on April 20, 2008
Sometimes when I add someone I memail them to say hey, but usually I just add them. Without so much as a how do you do. And none of my contacts have attempted to kill me or anything. YET.
*looks warily at OmieWise*
posted by iconomy at 6:11 PM on April 20, 2008
*disables account*
posted by BeerFilter at 6:12 PM on April 20, 2008
posted by BeerFilter at 6:12 PM on April 20, 2008
Damn, she did it too, and all over a joke on my part. I added her as a contact and she STILL beat me up.
(Change it back jessamyn, please?)
posted by OmieWise at 6:16 PM on April 20, 2008
(Change it back jessamyn, please?)
posted by OmieWise at 6:16 PM on April 20, 2008
*added "kin" to contact Beerfilter*
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:27 PM on April 20, 2008
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:27 PM on April 20, 2008
Change it back jessamyn, please?
Done!
heh Stockholm syndrome
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:20 PM on April 20, 2008 [1 favorite]
Done!
heh Stockholm syndrome
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:20 PM on April 20, 2008 [1 favorite]
feared alerting them to the fact that some random stranger whom they don't know from Job seems to think they have some connection to them, and the awkward expectations that come along with it
With the exception of Meatbomb -- whose... exuberant favoriting made some people a little unnerved -- usually people don't have any issue with being added as a contact esp if you do it in sort of a "really I'm not trying to get into your pants" sort of way (hint, don't go for sibling AND crush). They don't get notified and it's largely no big deal. We're hoping to beef up the contacts interface so that it's a little more manageable for people with larger or more disparate groups of contacts ahem.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:24 PM on April 20, 2008
With the exception of Meatbomb -- whose... exuberant favoriting made some people a little unnerved -- usually people don't have any issue with being added as a contact esp if you do it in sort of a "really I'm not trying to get into your pants" sort of way (hint, don't go for sibling AND crush). They don't get notified and it's largely no big deal. We're hoping to beef up the contacts interface so that it's a little more manageable for people with larger or more disparate groups of contacts ahem.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:24 PM on April 20, 2008
How ya been, cuz?
That's the spirit. it's not big deal and only as awkward as you want to make it.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:28 PM on April 20, 2008
That's the spirit. it's not big deal and only as awkward as you want to make it.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:28 PM on April 20, 2008
*adds jessamyn as sibling and crush*
posted by gingerbeer at 7:43 PM on April 20, 2008
posted by gingerbeer at 7:43 PM on April 20, 2008
"(hint, don't go for sibling AND crush)"
Sorry, dejah420 and dong_resin occupy a special place in my contacts list.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:44 PM on April 20, 2008
Sorry, dejah420 and dong_resin occupy a special place in my contacts list.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:44 PM on April 20, 2008
And THAT, kids, is why I use one, and only one, tag in my contacts.
posted by yhbc at 8:00 PM on April 20, 2008
posted by yhbc at 8:00 PM on April 20, 2008
Errum, not the dejah420 and dong_resin thing, but the general "what do all these tags mean? Are some contacts more contact-y than others?" thing.
posted by yhbc at 8:01 PM on April 20, 2008
posted by yhbc at 8:01 PM on April 20, 2008
The only person to ever add me as a contact disabled their account minutes later.
I hope this is not a trend.
Although, having your contacts list be a harbinger of doom would be pretty cool, in a morbid sort of way...
posted by Rhaomi at 8:46 PM on April 20, 2008
I hope this is not a trend.
Although, having your contacts list be a harbinger of doom would be pretty cool, in a morbid sort of way...
posted by Rhaomi at 8:46 PM on April 20, 2008
people don't have any issue with being added as a contact esp if you do it in sort of a "really I'm not trying to get into your pants"
Actually, all of my contacts not only want to get in my pants, they actually all are in my pants. It makes it really difficult to walk, especially when they get all liquored up and swing from my scrotum.
posted by jonmc at 11:32 PM on April 20, 2008
Actually, all of my contacts not only want to get in my pants, they actually all are in my pants. It makes it really difficult to walk, especially when they get all liquored up and swing from my scrotum.
posted by jonmc at 11:32 PM on April 20, 2008
I knew there was a reason I didn't go to meetups.
posted by nebulawindphone at 12:44 AM on April 21, 2008
posted by nebulawindphone at 12:44 AM on April 21, 2008
I added 99% of my contacts without ticking any boxes. Nevertheless, you should all feel the love.
posted by Jofus at 12:52 AM on April 21, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by Jofus at 12:52 AM on April 21, 2008 [1 favorite]
What does the other person see when you add them as a contact but you don't actually know them and they don't know you?
I think "I guess that person enjoys some of my posts/comments." That's why I add people to my list.
Plate. Beans. Let it go. Feel the freedom!
posted by languagehat at 5:37 AM on April 21, 2008
I think "I guess that person enjoys some of my posts/comments." That's why I add people to my list.
Plate. Beans. Let it go. Feel the freedom!
posted by languagehat at 5:37 AM on April 21, 2008
I'd like to add a few mefites to some sort of list not unlike what aihal describes, but feared alerting them to the fact that some random stranger whom they don't know from Job seems to think they have some connection to them,
Many of the people who have added me as a contact are complete strangers to me, some are people that I've never even corresponded directly with.
I take this as a compliment, either they like my writing or thinking process and they want to know when I say something interesting, or they fear me and want to be able to track my movement and mental state.
Either way, I view it as flattery.
posted by quin at 8:17 AM on April 21, 2008
Many of the people who have added me as a contact are complete strangers to me, some are people that I've never even corresponded directly with.
I take this as a compliment, either they like my writing or thinking process and they want to know when I say something interesting, or they fear me and want to be able to track my movement and mental state.
Either way, I view it as flattery.
posted by quin at 8:17 AM on April 21, 2008
So what do you list them as if you want in their pants?
You send them a MeMail like normal people.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:57 PM on April 21, 2008
You send them a MeMail like normal people.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:57 PM on April 21, 2008
What if you're not normal people?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:47 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:47 PM on April 21, 2008
I think AskMe suggests "fake it til you make it"
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:05 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:05 PM on April 21, 2008
Although jessamyn clearly suggests adding them as sibling and as crush. Which, you know, is totally working for me.
posted by gingerbeer at 9:58 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by gingerbeer at 9:58 PM on April 21, 2008
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posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:29 PM on April 20, 2008 [2 favorites]