Pony request: Highlight best answers and original questioner

May 10, 2006 10:17 AM

I would love to see a feature on AskMeFi that similar to the way best answers become highlighted, so does the person who asked the questions subsequent comments. Maybe highlighted in a different color? This would be helpful because I often find myself looking for the posters subsequent comments on whether they want to refine what their question was and so on.
posted by pwally to Feature Requests at 10:17 AM (20 comments total)

You can do this yourself, if you use Firefox.

The MefiNavigator user script for greasemonkey puts a bright yellow "POSTER" beside the user name of whoever started the thread, and "ADMIN" beside Matt and Jess's user names.
posted by tiamat at 10:34 AM on May 10, 2006

I like and respect that people are posting all sorts of cool things you can do with firefox, greasemonkey etc.

However, some of us do not have the ability to use firefox (work restrictions, or if we do web development on the side and we must develop for the more commonly used platform, etc)...

So, let me just second pwally's suggestion and say that seeing this happen without the use of firefox/greasemonkey would be nice.
posted by twiggy at 11:21 AM on May 10, 2006

The MefiNavigator script is hosted on userscripts.org, which is down at the moment. So I've put a copy up elsewhere, with the explanatory picture here. Enjoy. You'll need recent versions of Firefox and GreaseMonkey.
posted by matthewr at 11:33 AM on May 10, 2006

I too would love to see the OP's answers/comments flagged in some way. It does not need to be a huge, highlighted area. Maybe just a tiny, unobtrusive icon next to the posters name. Or maybe simply highlight their username. Something minimal would not affect the overall appearance of the page, but it would make scanning the page easier when browsing for follow-up comments.
posted by evoo at 11:43 AM on May 10, 2006

control + f + poster name + enter = problem solved. No need to busy up the screen when there is a perfectly easy way to accomplish your goal. Or scroll down through the thread looking for the relevant name. Most AskMes aren't extremely long.
posted by Falconetti at 11:48 AM on May 10, 2006

The opposition to this feature is stupid.
posted by cillit bang at 12:01 PM on May 10, 2006

I think MeFi should just be a text file on a gopher server, then we could use GreaseMonkey to add any kind of functionality we wanted.
posted by blue_beetle at 12:09 PM on May 10, 2006

I think MeFi should be a shoebox at Matt's house filled with postcards mailed by members, then we could use Scotch tape, paper clips, and ballpoint pens to add any kind of functionality we wanted.
posted by TimeFactor at 12:25 PM on May 10, 2006

builds a nuclear reactor out of Scotch tape, paper clips, and ballpoint pens
posted by nebulawindphone at 12:45 PM on May 10, 2006

The opposition to this feature is stupid.

maybe there's some folks that don't want to look at a bunch of additional highlighting. I can see how it might be somewhat distracting. Therefore, if the people that want this feature are a small percentage of the folks who frequent askme, then the change should be made on their side, instead of foisting upon a bunch of other users.

now, it may be the case that MANY people want this feature, but from the comments in this thread that doesn't appear to be the case.

me? I just want this website to make pies.
posted by fishfucker at 1:40 PM on May 10, 2006

What fishfucker said. I'm opposed to this idea, too. Not passionately—it won't break my heart—but it's a change, toward a more complex interface, to address a very, very minor difficulty, and I don't see the value to the site as being there.

I do not believe I am stupid, or stupid for feeling this way, but I'm open to explanations to the contrary.
posted by cortex at 3:36 PM on May 10, 2006

The thing about askmefi threads is they're essentially a conversation between two parties - the asker and everyone else. Not highlighting the asker's follow ups puts them on the wrong side of the conversation. This also suggests a solution, which is that follow ups should be formatted consistently with the way the question is - ie with a narrower left margin.
posted by cillit bang at 5:24 PM on May 10, 2006

What fishfucker and cortex said.
posted by dg at 5:51 PM on May 10, 2006

I'd find this useful too. I'm not so interested in looking for the poster's further comments (so ctrl F won't work) but there are times when I'm not sure if answers are by the original poster or not. This particularly happens when there are conflicting opinions and discussions amongst the people posting answers, I'm not always sure if the extra information is clarifying the question or someone's interpretation of the question. Also there are times I miss the orignal poster's extra clarification and it would have been somehwat useful to be highlighted.

This isn't a big issue, it's rare that it bothers me. In these situations I generally just try to remmeber the username of the questioner or scroll back up to see what it was. But a small discreet flag would be welcomed too.

I run firefox btw and am not in the slightest bit interested in downloading and setting up stuff to modify it. I don't use any extensions or whatever. I could, I'm technologically literate, but I'm also lazy *shrug*.
posted by shelleycat at 6:08 PM on May 10, 2006

What fishfucker, cortex and dg said.

I would like to see the user answer count not apply to comments made in a question by the asker. If that makes sense. If you ask a question any comments you make in the ensuing discussion should not count as answers on your user page.
posted by geekyguy at 7:02 PM on May 10, 2006

Oh, a different margin would be nice! I find myself looking for follow ups a lot too. This might also help avoid responses from people who aren't up to speed on clarifications. You know, the original poster says "I don't live in the US" and a few answers down someone says "If you live in Maryland..." Changing the margin might help them stick out if people are just scrolling down to the bottom to answer and skipping the other answers (which is very tempting, especially on long threads).
posted by MadamM at 8:04 PM on May 10, 2006

Another vote for it.

When I'm away from home (and my gussied-up Firefox), I find myself often scrolling up because I forgot who asked the question. And contrary to what's been said above, some AskMe threads are very long.

We don't have to use a blink tag or anything, but I think something unobtrusive would be very nice.
posted by joshuaconner at 8:33 PM on May 10, 2006

I don't see the value to the site as being there.

Given the visual clutter involved, I agree. Highlights are for best answers, that's established as convention now.

Although, say, a 10px indent or something might be less jarring and achieve the same effect, as MadamM suggests.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:52 PM on May 10, 2006

I just read the original post again for the first time? and I would like to clarify: I am firmly in favor of doing something to distinguish the poster in an AskMe thread from everyone else. As long as that something isn't highlighting!

The indent isn't a bad idea. The way it's implemented on MeFi Navigator isn't bad either. Shoot, I'd be happy if there were a little yellow star to the left of the "posted by" part of each comment.

But let's leave the highlighting to best answers.
posted by joshuaconner at 11:57 PM on May 10, 2006

I find myself agreeing with this indented margin argument. Same benefit, less the added color noise.
posted by cortex at 6:31 AM on May 11, 2006