Pony request: unread items on the recent favourites page

April 29, 2014 3:40 AM

Ello. Under 'http://www.metafilter.com/​home/​myfavorites' the last 30 things I favourited are shown. This is lovely, but I was wondering is it possible to have 'x comments since you last looked' show up in brackets on the recent favourites page as well? Basically the same view as the current main Mefi pages presents?

Example: (hypothetical)
"posted by Faintdreams at 3:30 PM - 20 comments (5 new) "

I don't know how hard this might be to implement, or even if I'm the only person who might want it, hence me asking here in metatalk.

posted by Faintdreams to Feature Requests at 3:40 AM (20 comments total)

Recent Activity on My Favorite Posts shows recent comments on posts you've favorited.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane (staff) at 3:44 AM on April 29, 2014

Beyond that: is it mostly the "placeholder/bookmark"-like function of the new comments count that you're looking for?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane (staff) at 3:47 AM on April 29, 2014

Goodnewsforthe insane - thanks but that is a huge scrollable list of every new comment under favourite posts. I was just talking about a small indicator under the recent favourites that shows there had been new activity without necessarily showing me all of the new stuff.

Hope that makes sense.
posted by Faintdreams at 3:48 AM on April 29, 2014

Yeah, I see. That makes sense. I'll ask pb to chime in.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane (staff) at 3:51 AM on April 29, 2014

Well I'll be damned, this is the first time I've realized that the recent activity page is tabbed.
posted by Think_Long at 6:21 AM on April 29, 2014 [2 favorites]

Faintdreams, I would be a bit cautious here, because the first mod that answered your question seems to have given you a helpful reply - i.e. some "good news" - about your request. And you know what that means. It means that you should vote #1 quidnunc kid, who will always give you bad news, thereby casting no aspersions on your mental health. I mean, you could be as nutty as a fruitcake for all I care, I will give you bad news anyway. That is my promise to you.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 6:31 AM on April 29, 2014 [5 favorites]

Yeah, I think this is something we could probably add. It adds quite a bit of processing to that page but it should still be reasonable. We'll take a look at that and discuss it a bit. Thanks for the suggestion.

I think we haven't added it before because posts close in 30 days on MetaFilter. And unless you're adding many favorite posts each day, the new comment count isn't going to be that useful there. But if you happen to be someone who has a Recent Favorites page full of very recent posts, then yeah, this would be helpful.
posted by pb (staff) at 7:53 AM on April 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

Think_Long: "Well I'll be damned, this is the first time I've realized that the recent activity page is tabbed."

Me too.

Oh, cooool.
posted by zarq at 7:57 AM on April 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

Maybe the lists of recent comment could be collapsible?

Well I'll be damned, this is the first time I've realized that the recent activity page is tabbed.

As a recent convert to Recent Activity, my mind is blown. Thanks!
posted by Room 641-A at 8:11 AM on April 29, 2014

And unless you're adding many favorite posts each day, the new comment count isn't going to be that useful there.

Thanks for the reminder that 'power users' are still a vanishingly small minority here.
posted by carsonb at 10:56 AM on April 29, 2014

Thanks for the reminder that 'power users' are still a vanishingly small minority here

We have limited resources in both processing and programming time, so we have to pick the battles to fight and this specific request feels like a really edge-case behavior and use of the site that might not be worth the work to build.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 11:02 AM on April 29, 2014

Oh sure, naturally, and I'm not angling hard for implementation here. Didn't mean to come off extra snarky (this time), I'm just genuinely piqued at the reminder that the vast majority of MeFi users don't click the little plusses much.
posted by carsonb at 11:06 AM on April 29, 2014

This may be the first time I've ever qualified as a power user of anything.
posted by arcticseal at 11:44 AM on April 29, 2014

Think_Long: "Well I'll be damned, this is the first time I've realized that the recent activity page is tabbed."

Then how do you obsessively check to see whether or not you've accumulated any new favorites since the last time you looked? How do you know if you're winning MetaFilter or not?
posted by Scientist at 12:39 PM on April 29, 2014

(The above is not a dig at the OP, by the way. I was making fun of myself because checking my recent favorites is something that I do far more often than is probably good for me. It's an easy way to procrastinate for 30 seconds, OK?)
posted by Scientist at 12:43 PM on April 29, 2014

Just added new comment counts to the My Favorites tab. Let me know if you have any trouble with it.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:50 PM on April 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

Pb the new comment counts work exactly as requested. Tahnkyouthankyouthankyouthankyoooooooooou !
posted by Faintdreams at 4:19 PM on April 29, 2014

Just added new comment counts to the My Favorites tab. Let me know if you have any trouble with it.

I'm not seeing this. Are we talking about the My Favorites tab in Recent Activity?
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 5:02 PM on May 1, 2014

No, this is the "My Favorites" tab on the front page.
posted by pb (staff) at 6:40 PM on May 1, 2014

Ah, rightio.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 6:46 PM on May 1, 2014