How do you track and curate your favorite threads for future reference?

December 23, 2014 8:10 AM

I've marked a ton of threads on the blue and green as favorites for later reference (recipe questions, fitness recs, etc). When I want to find something later I either do a Google boolean search (ugh) or poke around and scroll through my favorites list, but both these options are a drag.

So, how does everyone keep track of threads and answers you see here that you know you'll want to reference multiple times? I suppose I could just push them into Evernote for easier tagging and searching but maybe there's a better option?

posted by _Mona_ to MetaFilter-Related at 8:10 AM (24 comments total)

One option is adding your favorites to a bookmark manager. We added the export favorites option so people could easily add their favorites to a site like Pinboard. From there you could use their tools for organizing things.

You didn't mention searching through your favorites—that's another option. If you can recall a keyword or two from the post you're after it can be a way to get back to something you've favorited.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:11 AM on December 23, 2014 [3 favorites]

I add them to favourites and then do a bunch of searching within them. This involves racking my brain for a suitable keyword or three, rinse/repeat until I find what I'm looking for. Not the greatest solution. Banging my head on the desk helps with recall too.

I'm going to be watching this thread to pick up tips. Not with headbanging though, I have that down to a fine art.
posted by arcticseal at 8:35 AM on December 23, 2014

I have my favorite posts sent to Pinboard (using IFTTT) via my RSS feed. That doesn't work on comments, only posts. For comments, you have to export them from here and then import them wherever you want. The reason I like Pinboard over Evernote even for importing is that it deals with your duplicates by only adding new tags, if they exist, and not a whole new bookmark. The tags that are applied to the post are included in your bookmark.
posted by soelo at 8:39 AM on December 23, 2014

I cull my favorited posts rigorously. Every couple of months I go through them and if they're not still things I would favorite that day, I delete the favorite*.

I'm not as likely to do that with comments, because favorited comments are not bookmarks for me, mostly, but HIGH FIVES.

So that way I can favorite like a drunken sports aficionado on a post-victory high slapping comment palms with all and sundry but at the same time be able to find posts like 'winter soup: which is the most awesome?' fairly easily.

*except for things like prize bull octorok's askme 'Local cat hatter sought' because seriously that is never going to be something I would not favorite.
posted by winna at 8:49 AM on December 23, 2014 [2 favorites]

I just search for them honestly. I usually remember some key quote or fact that reduces the odds/size of haystack.

Now that I've said something on topic, here is something off topic that I don't want to forget: MetaFilter is in the AMA Manual of Style, where they show examples of how to refer to various titles. Neat!
posted by Mister_A at 10:20 AM on December 23, 2014 [3 favorites]

I cull my favorited posts rigorously. Every couple of months I go through them and if they're not still things I would favorite that day, I delete the favorite*.

I'm not as likely to do that with comments, because favorited comments are not bookmarks for me, mostly, but HIGH FIVES.

So that way I can favorite like a drunken sports aficionado on a post-victory high slapping comment palms with all and sundry but at the same time be able to find posts like 'winter soup: which is the most awesome?' fairly easily.

Pruning favorited posts, as opposed to comments, is a good idea. I've tended to leave my favorited posts alone and have instead pruned my favorited comments using the random-favorite comment feature. I actually specifically get rid of the high-fives because they tend to clutter up searches and random browsing. On the other hand, I've favorited lots of newsfilter posts to keep tabs on them in Recent Activity, and I can easily get rid of those.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 10:48 AM on December 23, 2014

I feel bad pruning comments because we've had some kerfuffles with people who get upset about it. So every time I unfavorite a comment I hear a tiny voice screaming Noooo! and the guilt is a weight.

It's funny we have the same sort of thought process toward managing the information but approach it in exactly the opposite way!
posted by winna at 11:29 AM on December 23, 2014

THERE IS A CABAL: The Sinister Conspiracy of People Un-Favoriting Each Other's Comments Years After the Thread Has Closed, When Everyone In It Has Logged Off
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 11:47 AM on December 23, 2014 [3 favorites]

I only favorite a tiny, tiny portion of posts. It has to be seriously something I'll want to look at again. I'm the same way with comments. I rarely favorite and I delete them fairly regularly if they no longer are useful to me. I'm unconcerned with hurt feelings, favorites are for my own use. So finding what I'm looking for is fairly easy.
posted by Aranquis at 11:48 AM on December 23, 2014

*except for things like prize bull octorok's askme 'Local cat hatter sought' because seriously that is never going to be something I would not favorite.

HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS WAS UPDATED WITH PHOTOS
posted by Juliet Banana at 12:12 PM on December 23, 2014 [3 favorites]

Why is the cat-hatting question preceded by his question about middle-eastern demonology?
posted by amtho at 1:06 PM on December 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

...pruned my favorited comments using the random-favorite comment feature.

Ooh! This was the perfect pruning method for my ADD brain. Now I have half a dozen new notes in Evernote, and King of Dragon Pass on my iPad. Thanks!
posted by booksherpa at 2:13 PM on December 23, 2014

arrgh! Don't un-favorite! I hate finding that my fpp is going *backwards* and losing momentum.

Will no one think of the favorites?
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 3:57 PM on December 23, 2014 [3 favorites]

When favorites were first introduced, I was pretty careful to use them just for posts I wanted to get back to...someday. And I was going to unfavorite them after I was done, to keep it all neat 'n tidy. But I weakened, and started favoriting comments, too, just as a Facebookish thumbs up. And once I did that, I was doomed.

So the problem, really, is that we need two types of favorites: a 'save this for later because I don't have time to read it right now,' and a 'Thumbs up! Good post / comment.'

(Yeah, I'm not holding my breath on this, I'll probably just go the nuclear route and export them all to Pinboard / Evernote and then go on an un-favoriting spree. Sorry folks, nothing personal.)
posted by Bron at 7:08 PM on December 23, 2014 [3 favorites]

I find sorting through my favorites quite easy actually.
posted by 724A at 9:06 PM on December 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

Bron - I also use favorites for comments/posts with which I disagree, or which I think have a clear gap in logic, or which put forth points of view with which I want to learn to argue convincingly, or which are written by people who have an interesting way of thinking even if the point itself has been made many times.

I believe it's important to understand people with whom I disagree (like reading books with which I disagree), and to be able to come back to passages (comments and posts) that help me with that.

I also use favorites for the two purposes you mention. I know the whole issue with favorites and how they are used has been discussed in detail several times, but I wanted to mention here that, for me at least, two kinds of favorites wouldn't really be enough, and would actually make things less clear.
posted by amtho at 7:50 AM on December 24, 2014

I am forgetting which user does this, but I real like how one person uses their profile to say "because I favorited a lot, here are a few of my true favorites."
posted by salvia at 8:46 AM on December 24, 2014 [2 favorites]

I swear to god, anybody that unfavorites me is NOT MY FAVORITE
posted by oceanjesse at 1:20 AM on December 25, 2014

Now I'm wondering, does the wayback machine archive "$$$ marked this as a favorite:" pages? That would be weird.
posted by oceanjesse at 1:23 AM on December 25, 2014

I actually was thinking about this recently, and wanted to throw out a feature request on this topic.

My understanding of the original intent of favorites was to create (in part) a way to save things of interest, similar to the bookmarking feature in browsers. What I find though is that as my favorites get into the thousands, it's becoming a big pile of favorites that is somewhat unwieldly. I'm starting to feel like a bit of a hoarder, where I know there is cool stuff in there, but I'll probably never find most of those things again. If I know what I'm looking for, the search feature is great. But sometimes I search in more vague ways, or I want to browse a bit based on some criteria. Or I want quick access to that one or three things that I often come back to.

So, here were a couple of ideas I would love to see. I envision them happening on the user's end under their personal favorites screen (i.e., they wouldn't be visible to anyone else):

1. It would be great to have a way to add tags to personally saved favorited items. It would allow a way sort stuff under broad or narrow organisational categories. It would also allow a way to browse along a particular topic. If this is possible, I would love a way to hit a "my tags" options, and it would list them all alphabetically.

2. It would also be cool to have quick access to gems that we keep track of because they are especially insightful, meaningful, or special for other reasons. For example, being able to "star" personally saved favorites would be great. I'm thinking of something along the lines of the "starred" feature in gmail. You hit "my starred items," and it would create a quick list of those things you keep in your Special Favorites Box.

I can't recall if these ideas have been considered before, or discounted for good reason. But I thought I'd throw those out there.
posted by SpacemanStix at 4:00 PM on December 25, 2014 [3 favorites]

I know even less about web stuff than I do about most stuff - would it be possible to hijack the new My Fanfare function for use towards a My Favourites?
posted by cotton dress sock at 9:46 PM on December 25, 2014

We have thought seriously in the past about adding tagging to favorites. We found that we'd need to recreate the features of a bookmark manager and we didn't want to go that route. So we added favorite exporting as a compromise, so folks can take their favorites to existing bookmark managers that are built for the extra layer of organization they provide.

I don't think we're likely to add a second favoriting system. Every post and comment at MetaFilter has a unique URL. And if you need to highlight or save them in a way beyond favorites, you can use external tools or browser bookmarks. Not everything needs to be built into MetaFilter—it's fairly public and accessible to the outside world.

...would it be possible to hijack the new My Fanfare function for use towards a My Favourites?

No, My FanFare is set up to filter posts there to your favorite shows, movies, or podcasts. It can't be repurposed to track general site favorites in some new way.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:27 PM on December 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

Okay, that's cool. Thanks pb.
posted by SpacemanStix at 9:24 AM on December 26, 2014

Yes, thank you for clarifying.
posted by cotton dress sock at 10:17 AM on December 26, 2014