Swipe to Favorite

September 19, 2014 3:41 PM

Small pony request for "swipe to favorite" feature on mobile devices.

Could the "swipe to favorite" option for mobile devices be added to the Preferences page? Every time I log out by accident or clear cookies on my phone, I have to go looking for the thread with the link, which is kind of a pain. It's been three years since the "test" began, maybe it can be a more prominent feature of the site? Please?

posted by misozaki to Feature Requests at 3:41 PM (31 comments total)

Maybe, yeah. We'll put this on our list to discuss. It's not a slam dunk because the (admittedly long) test hasn't been a slam dunk. It works really well for probably 70% of folks, and for some folks it doesn't work at all. We haven't removed it because the people who like it seem to really like it. So it's just kind of been in limbo with people using it as they can.

For those who have no idea what we're talking about, you can see the original "we're testing something new" comment here.
posted by pb (staff) at 3:53 PM on September 19, 2014 [25 favorites]

Yeah, it only ever worked very rarely for me; I eventually gave up and just became accustomed to periodically sharpening my pointer finger.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 3:57 PM on September 19, 2014 [6 favorites]

Oh. I had no idea it didn't work for some people. That makes sense then. Thanks as always for the quick reply.
posted by misozaki at 4:00 PM on September 19, 2014

I've had intermittent success with swipe to favourite. It may be because I use the U.
posted by arcticseal at 4:04 PM on September 19, 2014 [2 favorites]

Whoa, cool.
posted by Room 641-A at 4:39 PM on September 19, 2014

Oddly, it works too well for me. Several times in each thread I accidentally trigger it. And then when I do want to fave something, I forget and use the plus sign. But in theory, I like the feature!
posted by peep at 4:57 PM on September 19, 2014 [2 favorites]

I didn't know this existed, so thank you.
posted by zinon at 5:40 PM on September 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

This is great - I just swiped two favorites from each person in this thread. I know you all think that trying to collect favorites is the most disgusting and pointless egotism possible; however, in these troubled economic times, it is always possible that mathowie may decide to downsize the userbase with some judicious layoffs. In that context, we can only protect ourselves by making sure we are as favorable to him as possible, in numerical terms. And if that means swiping a few faves from you people when you're not looking, then so be it - as Shakespeare elegantly said about workplace politics, "if snoozest thou, then might thou lose!" This should also explain why I have your stapler and who ate the muffin you put in the fridge for lunch. Also I told Brad from accounts that you are sleeping with his wife. That wasn't Shakespearian or anything - I'm just an asshole.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 5:42 PM on September 19, 2014 [33 favorites]

It was me, actually.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:57 PM on September 19, 2014 [19 favorites]

OK, but I'm still an asshole. That's the important thing here, surely.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 7:41 PM on September 19, 2014 [11 favorites]

If there was only one thing everyone took away from their time on MetaFilter, I would want it to be that.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:19 PM on September 19, 2014 [9 favorites]

I LOVED this when it first came out and I couldn't figure out why it disappeared and I couldn't find the feature again. This is a pony I would love and hug and feed caramels.
posted by pearlybob at 10:44 PM on September 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh, I'd forgotten all about this - it works very well, on an iPad at least.

Certainly better than the usual 'zoom in a bit, try to hit the fave plus sign, accidentally tap the flag exclamation mark, tap to dismiss the flag pop up, zoom in further, actually hit the plus sign' rigmarole!

(Come to think of it, making that plus sign target a bit bigger on devices with small screens might be a better solution to the problem, but hey, swiping is fun.)
posted by jack_mo at 2:30 AM on September 20, 2014 [2 favorites]

If you feed this pony caramels, won't the screen get all sticky when you try to swipe?
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:59 AM on September 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

This is the first I've heard of this, and now I'm sad missing something I never had, because it's not working on an Android LG G2.
posted by COD at 7:27 AM on September 20, 2014

Neat! Works really well on my 2013 Nexus 7.
posted by kbanas at 7:34 AM on September 20, 2014

For the record, I am one of the people who really likes it. Whenever I accidentally log out, or when I've cleared the cache/cookies/history, I always spend the first few minutes back wondering why it doesn't work and then remembering it's a thing I have to enable. This thread prompted me to put the link to the comment with the link in my profile, so I'll be able to find it and re-enable it more easily.
posted by rtha at 8:00 AM on September 20, 2014 [7 favorites]

One advantage to adding it to user preferences is that it would provide an easy way for users who have trouble with it to deactivate it. As it is now, users have to dig through one or more a MeTa posts to find it. If they have trouble with it, they have to dig around again to find the disable link or, even worse, clear their cookies. You could add an "experimental and unsupported" caveat message to the setting to warn users that it may not work. If you already know which devices are most likely fail, you could add that, too.

This is a good pony that deserves to be fed lots of oats and hay and have its shiny coat brushed every day.
posted by double block and bleed at 8:17 AM on September 20, 2014 [9 favorites]

I've never heard of this, and now it's the best thing in my life. Thank you. From now on I will swipe right forever, on all things.
posted by naju at 1:29 PM on September 20, 2014 [3 favorites]

Huh. Works good for me.
posted by GuyZero at 1:50 PM on September 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

I just tried it. It wanted me to favorite every post in that sticky cat thread.
posted by SandiBeech at 5:57 PM on September 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

I just tried it. It wanted me to favorite every post in that sticky cat thread.

It's working perfectly then.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 6:42 PM on September 20, 2014 [4 favorites]

That is awesome!
posted by bendy at 8:24 PM on September 20, 2014

If you need more comments to test swiping, here is one, with the thoughtful addition of blank lines to heighten the vertical, which will be found especially helpful by those who hold their devices horizontally because that orientation makes for a longer line length and therefore a shorter height.






[End of pro-horizontal courtesy favoritable comment.]
[Please swipe only once.]
posted by sylvanshine at 10:28 PM on September 20, 2014 [2 favorites]

Certainly better than the usual 'zoom in a bit, try to hit the fave plus sign, accidentally tap the flag exclamation mark, tap to dismiss the flag pop up, zoom in further, actually hit the plus sign' rigmarole!

I agree wholeheartedly with this, except you missed out the "accidentally flag the comment you meant to favourite" step. I'm not sure how I manage it, but it happens fairly regularly. If there's ever a seriously out-of-place flag from me, that's probably why.

Fucking touch screens. Just a terrible system for doing anything precise. My fingers aren't see-through!
posted by Dysk at 3:40 AM on September 21, 2014 [2 favorites]

I was about to post that it wasn't working on my device, but then I stopped swiping from the edge of the screen in and started swiping from somewhere in the text of the comment and all was well.

Moto G, Chrome, stock 4.4.4, in case that is useful information
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 2:13 PM on September 21, 2014

Please do not feed the ponies caramels. Bad for the teeth. They love peppermints though and those are fine.

Also, you should eat more than a muffin for lunch.
posted by maryr at 4:43 PM on September 21, 2014 [2 favorites]

Surely feeding a pony caramels would have a result something like feeding a dog peanut butter?

Which is by way of saying that I love this feature and it works fine for me, amusing chomping or no.
posted by Lexica at 8:32 PM on September 21, 2014

As with peep, it's just a bit too sensitive for me—whenever I'm just trying to scroll down I inevitably trigger it a bunch of times. But I really like it in theory!

Maybe if you changed the gesture? Swipe right and then swipe left again without lifting your finger might work.
posted by Quilford at 12:14 AM on September 22, 2014

I didn't know this was something that might be rolled out. If/when it is rolled it, will it be default on, or default off? If it's on, will there still be an option to turn it off? Please may there be an option to disable it.

I haven't tried it on my nexus 7, but this is a pony that I don't want in my yard eating my apples. Certainly no caramels.
posted by nobeagle at 6:50 AM on September 23, 2014

the quidnunc kid: I just swiped two favorites from each person in this thread.

A thief, eh? That's it, then - I can't in good conscience vote for you ever again.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:10 AM on September 23, 2014