Easy link to favorites

November 13, 2006 2:29 PM

I'm hoping this is a tiny pony request. Size of the cuddlier guide horses, p'raps. It is this: a [+] tag on the dateline of mefi front page posts. Clicking the [+] would add a link to one's Favourites tab.
posted by five fresh fish to Feature Requests at 2:29 PM (20 comments total)

And come to think of it, it'd be sweet if you were to add [-] to the Favourites datelines, to remove a thread from one's Favourites list.

and then, probably getting into the rather larger ponies, perhaps [-] on the My Comments datelines would block it from the list. This would be dead handy on, say, the Haggard thread, which may never die.
posted by five fresh fish at 2:38 PM on November 13, 2006

I actually came to MeTa to ask if we could get [!] on the same line. Why do we have to click on a link to flag it as noise?
posted by dobbs at 2:58 PM on November 13, 2006

Greasemonkey script for both in 3... 2...
posted by Eideteker at 3:05 PM on November 13, 2006

dobbs: I'd been thinking the same thing. Maybe I'll wang up some JS for it.
posted by boo_radley at 3:14 PM on November 13, 2006

Yeah, it makes no sense that you can't flag 'n' fave on the front page. Especially the latter, since I'd guess most folk use favourites to bookmark posts for later reading (?).
posted by jack_mo at 3:27 PM on November 13, 2006

I'll add favorites on the front page, but I think flagging works best when people have to really be worked up about something.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 4:00 PM on November 13, 2006

Yah, I should think so.

Thx, Matt.
posted by five fresh fish at 5:44 PM on November 13, 2006

Shouldn't you have to actually look at a post before you complain about it or favorite it?
posted by Pollomacho at 5:45 PM on November 13, 2006

Seconding Pollomacho.
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 6:12 PM on November 13, 2006

Complain, yes. Favourite it, no. There are a good number of posts that I know I'll want to keep an eye on as they grow, even if I don't participate in the discussion.

Today, f'rinstance:

* the Leonid Shower thread will inevitably contain good links that I'll want to follow when I've time. That needs to be in my Favourites, so I don't miss it.

* the stamp thread, not so much because I care about the discussion, but because I'll want to know what happens in the end, and that'll probably get told in the thread

* the Rummy thread, simply because I know I'll enjoy the Rummy-bashing that goes on in there. There'll be at least one belly laugh at Rummy's expense, a few interesting links (probably from ericb, a god among men), a few amusing anecdotes, and there's potential for an amusing flame or flame-out.

I don't need to preview any of those to know that I'll want to read them in the future.

Also, the way I usually approach web browsing (ie. opening links in background pages) would be directly emulated by this functionality (ie. listing fpps in a background tab).
posted by five fresh fish at 6:58 PM on November 13, 2006

Is it really that difficult to open a thread one time before you tag it though? I mean, you are going to open it anyway right, so why not just tag it then?
posted by Pollomacho at 9:15 PM on November 13, 2006

Shouldn't you have to actually look at a post before you complain about it or favorite it?

You can't look at a post from the front page? Some folks here like the links but the discussions, not so much. Why shouldn't they be able to favorite from the front page? I think that's a great idea.
posted by mediareport at 9:23 PM on November 13, 2006

Now that I can understand, mediareport, but that just didn't seem to be what 5FF was talking about.
posted by Pollomacho at 9:32 PM on November 13, 2006

Speaking of favorites, on the Saved Favorites page (my posts/comments saved by others), next page>> (at the bottom) doesn't go anywhere, so you can only see the first page of the list. I've mentioned this to you before, Matt.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:38 PM on November 13, 2006

I'll add favorites on the front page, but I think flagging works best when people have to really be worked up about something.

Then surely it makes more sense to have the flagging mechanism on the front page, so that worked up people are nudged into flagging and moving on, rather than forcing them to click through to the thread where they'll be tempted to leave shouty comments about the awfulness of the post?
posted by jack_mo at 2:18 AM on November 14, 2006

I can read enough from the front page to tell if I need to flag a bullshit polifilter agenda post. Going inside will only make me angrier. (Why should you need to read the comments to flag the FPP?)
posted by Eideteker at 6:09 AM on November 14, 2006

Because, as I imagine, there are already too many flags to sort through. We don't need to swamp matt with hundreds more reported flags that will probably have even less relation to reality than they already to just to save us wankers a single click. That would be one step closer to destroying the whole point of flags, anyhow.
posted by koeselitz at 7:53 AM on November 14, 2006

Is it really that difficult to open a thread one time before you tag it though? I mean, you are going to open it anyway right, so why not just tag it then?

Yes, it really is that difficult. It requires several clicks and a blood sacrifice.
posted by five fresh fish at 6:40 PM on November 14, 2006

We don't need to swamp matt with hundreds more reported flags

Good point. Maybe a flagging button on the front page that doesn't actually do anything is the best solution.
posted by jack_mo at 6:45 PM on November 14, 2006

As opposed to the one inside the thread that doesn't actually do anything?
posted by Eideteker at 9:58 PM on November 14, 2006