Recent Activity Pony Power October 28, 2011 6:27 PM Subscribe
Long, long time lurker, first time Pony... Any chance for Recent Activity to include the (# new) comment link at the top of each section?
I've found that I've often read well past my last comment, but not yet in to the last 10 comments shown. This would allow users to jump right to where they last left off as if they were on a subsection home page.
One more pony while I'm here... Could Recent Activity have a "list view" that looks just like a subsection home page only filtered to contain only those threads in which a user has been recently active? This would make for a more consistent user experience and allow for quick click action to the thread a user wants to follow up on.
I've found that I've often read well past my last comment, but not yet in to the last 10 comments shown. This would allow users to jump right to where they last left off as if they were on a subsection home page.
One more pony while I'm here... Could Recent Activity have a "list view" that looks just like a subsection home page only filtered to contain only those threads in which a user has been recently active? This would make for a more consistent user experience and allow for quick click action to the thread a user wants to follow up on.
I am playing polo on this pony and impressing these argentinean girls.
posted by villanelles at dawn at 7:39 PM on October 28, 2011
posted by villanelles at dawn at 7:39 PM on October 28, 2011
If add-ons are something you do, the Mefi Scroll Tag script for Greasemonkey looks and acts just like your pony.
posted by donnagirl at 7:41 PM on October 28, 2011
posted by donnagirl at 7:41 PM on October 28, 2011
Not true because I am currently astride this pony and talking to Victoria and using vos like it's no big deal in the very picture of sprezzatura.
posted by villanelles at dawn at 7:49 PM on October 28, 2011
posted by villanelles at dawn at 7:49 PM on October 28, 2011
Could Recent Activity have a "list view" that looks just like a subsection home page only filtered to contain only those threads in which a user has been recently active?
Pretty sure "no" on this one. We make RA a little different from the other pages for a reason and this would involve a bunch of people asking why they can't favorite from it or do the other things that they can't do from RA. I think it's destined to stay different.
RA is already a really complicated set of queries and I'm not sure if there's a useful way of making something like that work but it's an interesting idea.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:05 PM on October 28, 2011
Pretty sure "no" on this one. We make RA a little different from the other pages for a reason and this would involve a bunch of people asking why they can't favorite from it or do the other things that they can't do from RA. I think it's destined to stay different.
RA is already a really complicated set of queries and I'm not sure if there's a useful way of making something like that work but it's an interesting idea.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:05 PM on October 28, 2011
The x new are not very solid. They're sort of a best guess based on server session times. (Here's a more in-depth explanation of how they work.) They've been a long-standing complaint about the site, and we haven't come up with a way to make those counts more solid without storing massive amounts of data.
As donnagirl mentioned, there are great client-side solutions like the MeFi Scroll Tag that do provide more accurate x new counts.
I say all this because I don't think we want to extend those counts to more places. If we found a way to make them solid it might make sense to make more extensive use of them. But as they are now, people who already find them frustrating will have the frustration extended to Recent Activity. It will add more processing to an already process-intensive part of the site without much solid gain.
One option for filtering RA to those threads you're most interested in is removing threads you're not interesting in following anymore. It requires more management, but it should help.l
posted by pb (staff) at 8:20 PM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
As donnagirl mentioned, there are great client-side solutions like the MeFi Scroll Tag that do provide more accurate x new counts.
I say all this because I don't think we want to extend those counts to more places. If we found a way to make them solid it might make sense to make more extensive use of them. But as they are now, people who already find them frustrating will have the frustration extended to Recent Activity. It will add more processing to an already process-intensive part of the site without much solid gain.
One option for filtering RA to those threads you're most interested in is removing threads you're not interesting in following anymore. It requires more management, but it should help.l
posted by pb (staff) at 8:20 PM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
...this would involve a bunch of people asking why they can't favorite from it or do the other things that they can't do from RA.
I guess I was thinking that you would be able to do all of those things. Turning the pony around, it would be like being on the blue and clicking a "filter to recent" button and having everything I'd not recently been active in disappear. The difference here being that this implementation wouldn't cross subsites while the original pony would.
It will add more processing to an already process-intensive part of the site without much solid gain.
Thanks for the info!
posted by Jacob G at 8:30 PM on October 28, 2011
I guess I was thinking that you would be able to do all of those things. Turning the pony around, it would be like being on the blue and clicking a "filter to recent" button and having everything I'd not recently been active in disappear. The difference here being that this implementation wouldn't cross subsites while the original pony would.
It will add more processing to an already process-intensive part of the site without much solid gain.
Thanks for the info!
posted by Jacob G at 8:30 PM on October 28, 2011
I second both these requests, but particularly the list view one ie 'Threads you have commented in with Recent Activity'. Even if it was just a disclosure triangle next to the thread title but otherwise using the same queries and mechanics as the current RA.
(FWIW I don't use any browser-side enhancements and am not likely to)
posted by unSane at 5:56 AM on October 29, 2011
(FWIW I don't use any browser-side enhancements and am not likely to)
posted by unSane at 5:56 AM on October 29, 2011
Maybe I'm not clear on the request. How does "Threads you have commented in with Recent Activity" differ from what we have at Recent Activity?
posted by pb (staff) at 7:23 AM on October 29, 2011
posted by pb (staff) at 7:23 AM on October 29, 2011
You'd like [recent activity] without comments?
Kind of. The simplest way to describe would be, if I'm on the Blue, give me a way to filter the list of posts displayed to only those in which I have recent activity. This would then provide all of the functionality that you get when interacting with the Blue normally, but simply distill the list of posts to those in which you've been recently active. My hitching of this pony to Recent Activity was because that page houses the logic now and spans subsites. Does that help clarify?
posted by Jacob G at 8:36 AM on October 29, 2011
Kind of. The simplest way to describe would be, if I'm on the Blue, give me a way to filter the list of posts displayed to only those in which I have recent activity. This would then provide all of the functionality that you get when interacting with the Blue normally, but simply distill the list of posts to those in which you've been recently active. My hitching of this pony to Recent Activity was because that page houses the logic now and spans subsites. Does that help clarify?
posted by Jacob G at 8:36 AM on October 29, 2011
We have this for MetaFilter already. If you go to the home page and click the My Comments tab, you'll get just posts that you have commented in. This page pre-dated Recent Activity, and it's not used much since we added RA. But that would give you this view for MetaFilter, at least.
We haven't felt the need to add for other sites because Recent Activity provides a more detailed view of that information.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:03 AM on October 29, 2011
We haven't felt the need to add for other sites because Recent Activity provides a more detailed view of that information.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:03 AM on October 29, 2011
"My Comments" is definitely along what I was thinking. Didn't even realize it was there. Now if we could just get (# new) support on that view... ;-)
posted by Jacob G at 1:45 PM on October 29, 2011
posted by Jacob G at 1:45 PM on October 29, 2011
Yeah, My Comments is super close. What is the sort order? I was thinking basically that page but the sort order being by the most recent comments.
(And a disclosure triangle to expand the comments but I'm not pushing my luck here).
posted by unSane at 7:19 PM on October 29, 2011
(And a disclosure triangle to expand the comments but I'm not pushing my luck here).
posted by unSane at 7:19 PM on October 29, 2011
It's ordered by the latest comments. So the thread with the newest comment will be first on the page. x new counts do work on that page. (As well as they work anywhere.)
And a disclosure triangle to expand the comments but I'm not pushing my luck here.
Yeah, sorry, we're not going to put any more development into that page. You can click to read the comments in the thread fairly easily.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:00 PM on October 29, 2011
And a disclosure triangle to expand the comments but I'm not pushing my luck here.
Yeah, sorry, we're not going to put any more development into that page. You can click to read the comments in the thread fairly easily.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:00 PM on October 29, 2011
Thanks, PB, I hadn't realized what a useful page that is. Does just what I want.
posted by unSane at 8:08 PM on October 29, 2011
posted by unSane at 8:08 PM on October 29, 2011
x new counts do work on that page
[sheepish]Yeah, my fault on that one... I didn't have any threads with new comments.[/sheepish]
Thanks for humoring my pony, pb. I attribute this oversight to lurking for 12 years rather than signing up for an account and familiarizing myself with how members interact with the site.
posted by Jacob G at 8:49 PM on October 29, 2011
[sheepish]Yeah, my fault on that one... I didn't have any threads with new comments.[/sheepish]
Thanks for humoring my pony, pb. I attribute this oversight to lurking for 12 years rather than signing up for an account and familiarizing myself with how members interact with the site.
posted by Jacob G at 8:49 PM on October 29, 2011
Welcome to MetaFilter! We hope you enjoy your stay.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:51 PM on October 29, 2011
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:51 PM on October 29, 2011
pb: "
As donnagirl mentioned, there are great client-side solutions like the MeFi Scroll Tag that do provide more accurate x new counts."
I don't think the MeFi Scroll Tag script is actually any more accurate when you follow along from the RA page - it doesn't seem to count properly when you only view the thread from that page - the last comment you read only resets when you actually visit the page so, if you manage to keep up-to-date from the RA page (ie when you refresh it, there are always 10 or less new comments in each thread) without visiting the thread page itself, the count falls behind. Still very awesome despite that non-bug.
posted by dg at 4:36 PM on October 30, 2011
As donnagirl mentioned, there are great client-side solutions like the MeFi Scroll Tag that do provide more accurate x new counts."
I don't think the MeFi Scroll Tag script is actually any more accurate when you follow along from the RA page - it doesn't seem to count properly when you only view the thread from that page - the last comment you read only resets when you actually visit the page so, if you manage to keep up-to-date from the RA page (ie when you refresh it, there are always 10 or less new comments in each thread) without visiting the thread page itself, the count falls behind. Still very awesome despite that non-bug.
posted by dg at 4:36 PM on October 30, 2011
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posted by elizardbits at 7:23 PM on October 28, 2011 [1 favorite]