Add Remove from Activity to Mobile Site?

May 15, 2012 12:01 PM

Feature Request: "(Remove from activity") link on the Mobile site?

Now that I'm spending more time on the mobile version of the site, it can be annoying to still have a thread in Recent Activity when it turns fighty or boring etc. Could a "Remove From Activity" link be put in the mobile version?

posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) to Feature Requests at 12:01 PM (23 comments total)

Remove From Recent Activity is not a frequently used feature in the grand scheme of features. So while I get that it's a critical feature for you, it's not one that's easy enough to implement on the mobile site without significantly diminishing the utility for most folks.

Unlike the desktop view, we can't have small unobtrusive controls. Smaller fonts are hard to click. Misclicks are very common. So we'd need a fairly large, set apart REMOVE FROM ACTIVITY box or something along those lines. Since the feature isn't frequently used, I don't think it makes sense to highlight that activity so prominently on the page.

As with the other mobile request today, this is one of those tension points between desktop and mobile that is always going to exist. We need to be able to make choices about what we show in the mobile view and what we don't. And anywhere there are features "missing", we're going to have folks who are disappointed. There isn't a great workaround for this beyond switching to the Standard View and zooming in to click the link there. It's a few clicks and some zooming, but it's not impossible.
posted by pb (staff) at 12:09 PM on May 15, 2012

Woah, deja vu.
posted by Grither at 12:22 PM on May 15, 2012

It would be a great thing to implement in a mobile App, though: a sideways swipe that leads to options like "Remove from Activity."

mathowie mentioned once that he'd consider a Metafilter app. Here's another reason it'd be cool!
posted by anotherpanacea at 12:51 PM on May 15, 2012

Yeah, we're testing swipe right to favorite and that's gone pretty well. Maybe swipe left in RA could remove from activity. They're just arbitrary actions that you have to learn, but they're primarily for power users anyway.
posted by pb (staff) at 12:54 PM on May 15, 2012

Maybe swipe left in RA could remove from activity.

That would be cool, yes.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:56 PM on May 15, 2012

I'm remembering to use the swipe-to-favorite on my phone. It's awesome. Swipe-to-remove-from-RA would also be nifty.
posted by rtha at 1:01 PM on May 15, 2012

pb: "Yeah, we're testing swipe right to favorite and that's gone pretty well. Maybe swipe left in RA could remove from activity. They're just arbitrary actions that you have to learn, but they're primarily for power users anyway."

If you do this, could you please add in either an opt-out or opt-in mechanism? I love being able to swipe to favorite, but I assume that you wouldn't also be including a simple mechanism to restore a thread to recent activity if it was accidentally swiped away in the wrong direction. Right now, one can simply swipe again to undo a favorite.
posted by zarq at 1:02 PM on May 15, 2012

As with the desktop version, you need to restore threads to recent activity on a separate page. In our hypothetical swipe feature the same would be true. And as with swipe-favoriting there would be a confirmation step. So it would be tough to accidentally remove a thread from RA. Hypothetically.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:09 PM on May 15, 2012

When I swipe to favorite, I get a dialog box that asks if I want to favorite that comment. I'm sure they could do the same for removing from activity.
posted by Night_owl at 1:10 PM on May 15, 2012

Would it be possible to then make it a separate feature to opt in to, rather than simply, "enable all swipe gestures?" I've gotten so used to swiping to favorite then clicking automatically, without thinking, that I would think I'd probably remove a whole bunch of threads by accident.
posted by zarq at 1:11 PM on May 15, 2012

Well, you swipe right to favorite. Swiping left would do something different. It's a different gesture.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:19 PM on May 15, 2012

pb: "Well, you swipe right to favorite. Swiping left would do something different. It's a different gesture."

Until this moment, I actually had no idea that the swipe to favorite gesture required a specific direction horizontally. I would simply swipe at a comment in both directions (right, then left or left, then right) and tap the second the popup dialogue box appeared.

You're talking about adding a similar gesture to one that already exists, which will run a function that can't be easily reversed. I really do think that's a bad idea. Can't you simply add 'Remove from Recent Activity' to a contextual menu or something?
posted by zarq at 1:45 PM on May 15, 2012

I would like this feature.
posted by Artw at 1:54 PM on May 15, 2012

Can't you simply add 'Remove from Recent Activity' to a contextual menu or something?

That would just makes both operations harder for everyone. I understand that you feel like you'll constantly accidentally remove threads from Recent Activity, but this is all hypothetical. I think you'll find once you know how to efficiently swipe to add a favorite, it really will be rare that you're swiping left for anything.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:04 PM on May 15, 2012

*sigh* pb, you're channeling my great-grandmother.

"Try it, you'll like it."
posted by zarq at 2:38 PM on May 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

(which is generally a good thing)
posted by zarq at 2:38 PM on May 15, 2012

I would also like this feature. Especially since swiping on my EVO basically amounts to smearing finger grease all over the screen.
posted by Rocket Surgeon at 2:56 PM on May 15, 2012

Flagged as a double pony.
posted by desjardins at 5:36 PM on May 15, 2012

I would swipe this pony lovingly.
posted by arcticseal at 8:15 PM on May 15, 2012

Yeah, we're testing swipe right to favorite and that's gone pretty well.

I love that feature. Could it be expanded to also work in the "recent activity" view as well as in individual threads?
posted by Forktine at 9:31 PM on May 15, 2012

I think once we make the decision to move from test to feature we will make it available everywhere you can favorite now.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:55 PM on May 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

I would like this feature as I check from my iPad whenever I'm not at work (i.e. at home). I'll settle for a tiny box like this: [x] or, god forbid, some sort of small graphic.
posted by jeffamaphone at 3:27 PM on May 21, 2012

The iPad should be getting the full, non-mobile site. We already have an option to remove from Recent Activity there. Just look for the link in the left column under the thread info.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:48 PM on May 21, 2012