FeatureRequest: MeFi bookmarks.

December 29, 2005 8:09 AM

FeatureRequest: MeFi bookmarks. I would love, on AskMeFi and MeFi, to be able to click "bookmark this link", and then be able to go to a page that lists those links I have bookmarked. Ideally sortable by post date and last comment date, searchable by keyword, but the sort/search isn't totally necessary.

"Why not bookmark it in IE/Mozilla?" Well, call me picky but I really prefer to reserve browser bookmarks for main pages of sites I visit ALL the time (i.e. MeFi/AskMeFi). It'd be nice to have a local archive of the stuff I'm tracking and want to keep coming back to.
posted by twiggy to Feature Requests at 8:09 AM (21 comments total)

Have you considered del.icio.us or bloglines? I use Bloglines' "Keep as new" feature to keep track of AskMe questions I want to keep reading later. (Also note that it's been discussed easily a dozen times before.)
posted by mendel at 8:17 AM on December 29, 2005

I've only seen del.icio.us's tagging stuff, I've never really spent any time on the site. Never heard of bloglines before. I will look into them.

I'd prefer not to have to use another site to bookmark stuff here, but if I have to, so be it :-) Thanks for the suggestions!
posted by twiggy at 8:19 AM on December 29, 2005

oh and sorry for what I guess is like.. a re re re re re re re re re re post... :-\
posted by twiggy at 8:20 AM on December 29, 2005

I'm quite sure someone could whip up a greasemonkey script to add a "post to del.icio.us" link after every post.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 8:20 AM on December 29, 2005

I wrote MetaDash for bookmarking favorite Metafilter and AskMeta posts to del.icio.us, if you're using Mac OS X.
posted by Rothko at 8:24 AM on December 29, 2005

Yeah, I have a rudimentary favorites system working and am planning to deploy it site-wide in the next few weeks. It'll be a lot like the my comments page, just for threads you wanted to track, but didn't comment in.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:34 AM on December 29, 2005

monju, I proposed the add to delicious link (it is honestly like 30 seconds of work to make it happen across the site) and people seemed to think it was a dumb idea.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:35 AM on December 29, 2005

monju_bosatsu : "I'm quite sure someone could whip up a greasemonkey script to add a 'post to del.icio.us' link after every post."

It is quite probable somebody has already whipped it.

Or you can install one of the many existing Firefox delicious extensions
posted by nkyad at 8:44 AM on December 29, 2005

If you use Firefox, grab the delicious plugin. It puts a TAG button on the navigation toolbar for instant taggability. Then just slap a "mefi" tag on your favorite Metafilter threads, and voila.
posted by danb at 9:16 AM on December 29, 2005

Unfortunately, I can't use firefox at work. :(
posted by twiggy at 9:31 AM on December 29, 2005

twiggy : "Unfortunately, I can't use firefox at work."

Strange workplace - can't use Firefox but can browse Mefi.
posted by nkyad at 9:58 AM on December 29, 2005

great idea

(nkyad--most of us are not allowed to install software at work so are stuck with the default--IE--there)
posted by amberglow at 10:21 AM on December 29, 2005

I know that, amberglow. I was once one of those people who write and enforce this kind of rule so users don't mess up their machines every other afternoon (I was also once one of those people who would help co-workers going around the rules when the techs were unresponsive to real needs). But in many companies, a friendly word with your support may result in a rule or other being overlooked/bend. Remember, most of us techs are in love with Firefox since forever.
posted by nkyad at 10:40 AM on December 29, 2005

nkyad: twiggy : Strange workplace - can't use Firefox but can browse Mefi.

Not that strange. You can block specific applications pretty easily with Windows network management tools that are as old as Win2K, but it would be a real pain or a real expense, one or the other, to block websites.

And Matt - why not just do it? My experience with features is tha twhen you ask people whether they want them, they tell you what they think at that moment -- which may or may not be related to whether they'll ever use it. (Though now, you might get slammed by the "Yahoo sucks, Google rulez" lobby.)
posted by lodurr at 11:24 AM on December 29, 2005

lodurr, it's a lot of work, something that will potentially be used quite a bit (probably way more than my posts/my comments) and I want to be sure I get the backend mechanics right and can handle the load before I deploy it.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 11:31 AM on December 29, 2005

nkyad: As was said above, I can browse the 'net, I'm just stuck with the default IE, we are not allowed to install ANY software without explicit consent.

We are a huge, huge, huge company, and unfortunately our IT department has to pander to the lowest common denominator, which is mostly non tech savvy people who break stuff all the time even WITH these strict restrictions.

When I asked them if I could get Perl on my machine, the answer was first: What's that?

Then, when I told them it was a free, open source, widely used scripting language, they ACTUALLY SAID: Oh, we don't support any free software. Sorry, you can't install that.

Hence: I use IE, not firefox.

[furthermore: outside of my day job, I'm still also a web developer and must use IE to see what most of my users will see...]


Matt: Are you thinking something much more complex than I am? Because all I'm thinking is like... a table...

userid
siteid (MeFi/Ask/Projects)
commentid

Insert to it.. delete from it... I don't know how your database is structured, but I imagine the last comment date and the original post date are stored in the comments tables... Seems super simple to me... But maybe you are after doing something much cooler than my simplistic idea...
posted by twiggy at 11:44 AM on December 29, 2005

matt, I'm sorry, that's not what I meant. I meant the del.icio.us link.
posted by lodurr at 11:46 AM on December 29, 2005

twiggy, there's also the matter of counting new comments since you last visited, number of comments on your favorite thread, what to display to the user on a page. There's a lot of data to grab and I just want to make sure I do it right.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 11:56 AM on December 29, 2005

I'm really looking forward to the favorites system, but I have a couple of questions, Matt. Is it meant to act as a library of all the past threads you might want to reread some day, or will it only track current threads (like the My Comments feature)? I imagined it like the former, but your comment makes it sound like the latter.

Also, would it be possible to have some way of seeing what other users have marked as their favorite threads? I think that would be a really great way of exploring Metafilter, but I can also imagine that some people might like to keep their favorite list private. Maybe an option to publicize each link would work?
posted by painquale at 2:18 PM on December 29, 2005

Any chance of getting one of my old pony requests bundled in with this, Matt -- the ability to add our own (personal, tickbox ones you want to make public) tags to threads we bookmark?

Actually, there're a lot of delicious-like things that you could build into a favorites system, if you were so inclined, and then leverage for new features later....

I'd think it'd enrich the metadata, and you know, 2006 is gonna be the year of metadata! Er, and javascript. And you selling Metafilter to Yahoo! for 70 bajillion dollars, maybe. (but only if you implement this pony, because it's totally web 2.0, man)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:45 PM on December 29, 2005

Oh, I'd love this feature!
posted by divabat at 11:00 PM on December 29, 2005