Wish there was a follow-up on this one ...

March 28, 2007 2:15 PM

Wish we had a follow-up on this thread — guy sounded like a psycho (as you might imagine from my response). The user apparently hasn't posted since then.
posted by WCityMike to MetaFilter-related at 2:15 PM (51 comments total)

Wish in one hand…
posted by ijoshua at 2:31 PM on March 28, 2007

Before anyone jumps on you for being cruel to the poster, I think you should clarify that by "guy", you mean the guy the poster was talking about, not the poster himself. Am I right?
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 2:32 PM on March 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

Wow, that's a crazy situation.
posted by boo_radley at 2:34 PM on March 28, 2007

Yes: guy the poster was talking about.
posted by WCityMike at 2:45 PM on March 28, 2007

Yeah, I wish there was some way we could encourage people to follow up. I lay awake at nights wondering if ????? ate the sandwich/got therapy/dumped the asshole/unlocked the mysterious code/broke into the apartment/got their stuff back/found the perfect recipe/obtained the mystery song.

Well, not really. But it's nice to hear about happy endings from time to time.

And just so you can all sleep soundly: I bought the chair, and I love it. The end.
posted by iamkimiam at 3:19 PM on March 28, 2007 [3 favorites]

I should do a "nudge" feature where when the person logs in again, they see a message like the one at the top of mefi music, only it'd say "user foo wants you to update _this_ thread" or something.
posted by mathowie at 3:31 PM on March 28, 2007 [16 favorites]

You could apply it sitewide, and do it with a plaintext string or tag syntax. User foo types mathowie: and it'd alert you with a link to the comment.

Make it real simple and small, like:

Replies requested: 1 2 3 4

with a hover tag describing the thread. Click the link and it goes away ajax style. (offer a history page for comment requests.)
posted by loquacious at 3:39 PM on March 28, 2007

I would use it.
posted by snsranch at 3:42 PM on March 28, 2007

Said system would also need anti-gaming/spamming safeguards like anything would. Some of the antispam rules from the existing tag system should probably suffice.

It'd be a great feature, and one that would save many of us lots of time by allowing us to easily refind the threads where we have activity and participation.

An unintended upshot will probably be that threads stay active much longer after they roll off the front page.
posted by loquacious at 3:45 PM on March 28, 2007

Ooh I like this idea! A kind of "I want this cliffhanger resolved please" button.
posted by Lotto at 3:56 PM on March 28, 2007

when the person logs in again

Last week was the first time I've logged in since 2005 or so (due to a laptop reformat), thanks to the preservative-loaded MeFi cookie. If something such as this were seen on the "My Comments" page, it'd probably have more visibility for jerks like me.
posted by fishfucker at 3:59 PM on March 28, 2007

Whatever happened to chalupa the chihuahua?
Also, this nudge thing sounds nice. Limit it like it was an askme post to keep people from getting super annoying.
posted by boo_radley at 4:03 PM on March 28, 2007

The Shaquanda Cotton story has a major update, but I bet lots of people haven't seen it. I just happened to see it over on the blue.

I have an update to a dramatic AskMe, but I posted as anonymous, so I can't. :)

(We could have anonymous updates, but how to prevent the alternate endings?)
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 4:09 PM on March 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

If you did that, mathowie, I promise I would restrain myself, although it would be hard.
posted by jamjam at 4:21 PM on March 28, 2007

can we have the reverse feature, for telling people that this_user wishes you would please shut the hell up?
posted by spiderwire at 4:35 PM on March 28, 2007 [5 favorites]

Having written an askme post and then posting an update a while later, I have been wishing that there were a way to alert people that there *has* been a followup post. At least, say, to those X users who favorited the post, or to those Y users who replied.

Though, my followup post was particularly lengthy with not a particular volume of substance, so I haven't lost sleep over it. :)
posted by jane0009 at 4:43 PM on March 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

I got the degree, but not the mixtape. You win some, you lose some.

And I hear that this had a happy ending.
posted by roll truck roll at 4:46 PM on March 28, 2007

Jane, isn't that kind of what this is for?

I'm curious about how many people use My Comments as their default page. Their does seem to be a disjunct between those who do and those who don't.
posted by roll truck roll at 4:47 PM on March 28, 2007

roll truck roll: Huh. I guess so. I didn't really know that existed.

So I guess I need to go back to that other post from another day that was detailing the user's problem with having both the set of tabs at the top, and the other nav menu on the top left, as there's some redundancy that causes the slower of us some confusion. ;)
posted by jane0009 at 4:58 PM on March 28, 2007

Damn, I like the idea of a nudge. I hope something like that can be worked out.

Though many of the really interesting questions are Anonymous (a point ClaudiaCenter raises), and I can't think of a good/ simple way that something like that could be worked. Perhaps some kind of unique hash created at the time of the original post that the user could provide to an admin to verify that they were the actual poster?

Either way, the nudge idea is a good one!
posted by quin at 5:01 PM on March 28, 2007

The problem with devising a way to allow anonymous users to follow up on their own posts is that that would really just be a creative way for people to get around paying $5 for a new user account. I'd hate to see that feature taken advantage of. :)
posted by jane0009 at 5:09 PM on March 28, 2007

fishfucker!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:20 PM on March 28, 2007

welcome back, el pescado pr0nstar...

now THAT'S a follow-up!
posted by wendell at 5:26 PM on March 28, 2007

I really, really want to know whether Telf drank the milk.
posted by escabeche at 5:41 PM on March 28, 2007

Something is needed.

For those who were following the Jack and Jill thread, which was started by Jack, Jill has chimed in. I only saw this because I went browsing back.

There should be nudge for the original poster, where they see a request for updates when they log in. and there should be a subscription feature for the reader, something that alerts you when the original poster has replied.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:24 PM on March 28, 2007

is the kitten still in the python?
posted by quonsar at 7:21 PM on March 28, 2007 [3 favorites]

The cool thing about the Shaquanda Cotton is that by doing nothing but reading about it on the Internet I get to feel like I did something important.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 7:23 PM on March 28, 2007

I don't know about adding functional features, but a "Metafilter >> Followup to Post" category for MeTa posts would be nifty.
posted by ardgedee at 7:28 PM on March 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

I bought the bike, I finally picked out a bed, and my nose ring fell out and grew over in a matter of hours. I have plans to repierce it this summer.

Whew, that felt good.

I really like the nudge feature.
posted by sugarfish at 7:41 PM on March 28, 2007

I really, really want to know whether Telf drank the milk.

Having only discovered that thread thanks to you, and having only read about a third of it, so do I.
posted by CKmtl at 7:45 PM on March 28, 2007

Um, guys, I think fishfucker has been around the whole time (as his posting history shows), he just means he hasn't had to log in since 2005, because he never logged out. I imagine that's the case for a lot of us, which means that a message that only pops up when you do happen to log in wouldn't have much impact.
posted by yhbc at 7:49 PM on March 28, 2007

Come to think of it, you're right. I haven't seen him much, but I seem to recall seeing him.

I withdraw my joyful ejaculation.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:55 PM on March 28, 2007

I withdraw my joyful ejaculation.

Boy, wouldn't that be a wonderful thing to be able to do sometimes!
posted by yhbc at 8:14 PM on March 28, 2007

Ewww.
posted by Brittanie at 8:21 PM on March 28, 2007

I never sold my domain. Damn it.
posted by maxwelton at 10:55 PM on March 28, 2007

"Joyful Ejaculation" should be the stage name for a Christian Rock band.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:32 PM on March 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

Talk about needing a nudge, I've been waiting for this dude to get back to me for months now.
posted by The Straightener at 4:57 AM on March 29, 2007

I'm pretty much the same.
posted by OmieWise at 8:13 AM on March 29, 2007

I third the "Did Telf drink the milk?" question.
posted by Greg Nog at 8:24 AM on March 29, 2007

yeah, i've been here. i've just been real sneaky.

i'm planning something.

and it's ... posting sporadically for months to come!!! DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN


peace out! smell you later!

posted by fishfucker at 8:27 AM on March 29, 2007

Seems like there's two distinct features that could get a lot of use:

1. The nudge—a quick "hey, check this out" sort of alert for nudged posters of questions/whatever, perhaps displayed-and-dismissible in the way that flickr messages are: a small box with an x. This could be supplemented maybe with a more permanent (and easily clean-up-able) nudge queue displayed only to the user on their own user profile page.

2. A long-tail My Comments-esque feature to display late followup posts to old threads. It could actually be integrated into My Comments itself, perhaps. As I understand it, Matt only checks a week or two back in time, to reduce the server load required to do a live refresh of Every Thread You've Ever Commented In; he could add, say, a daily static update of threads that are older than that two weeks, so if someone updates a six-month-old ask thread you'd be able to see without having to have explicitly subscribed.

The problem with devising a way to allow anonymous users to follow up on their own posts is that that would really just be a creative way for people to get around paying $5 for a new user account.

Fortunately, people as it turns out are pretty bad at being thorough with their cleverness. I'd guess that for every person who manages to pull of that sort of stealthy coup you'd have ten people getting angry emails from Jess telling them to cut that shit out, etc.
posted by cortex at 9:13 AM on March 29, 2007

I like the nudge idea!
posted by drezdn at 11:03 AM on March 29, 2007

I like the idea, but let's not call it "nudge." Giving something a nudge sounds like relief from constipation.
posted by fandango_matt at 11:32 AM on March 29, 2007

Giving something a nudge sounds like relief from constipation.

Let's unpack that.
posted by drezdn at 11:34 AM on March 29, 2007 [1 favorite]

Giving something a nudge sounds like relief from constipation.

That's not what I got from that Monty Python sketch, but to each their own.
posted by InfidelZombie at 11:46 AM on March 29, 2007

Well, for the AskMe newbies, it would probably need to have a page of instructions that, if the AskMe thread is 30 days old or more (say they don't login and see it before the 30-day thread closing), to post their follow-up in MeTalk.
posted by IndigoRain at 12:11 PM on March 29, 2007

AskMe threads stay open for a year (I believe).
posted by languagehat at 12:12 PM on March 29, 2007

Thanks Indigo for thinking of us newbies!
posted by JujuB at 7:16 PM on March 29, 2007

This sounds like (another) great idea.

Last week was the first time I've logged in since 2005 or so (due to a laptop reformat)
Me too, for the same reason - I broke out in a cold sweat for the five seconds or so that I couldn't remember my password.

Giving something a nudge sounds like relief from constipation
This may put things into perspective for you.
posted by dg at 9:07 PM on March 29, 2007

I like the nudge idea, too.

And I can't be the only one who wants to know who commander_cool's exes are (assuming amber_dale is his current girlfriend).
posted by deborah at 11:37 AM on March 30, 2007

You are definitely not the only one. In fact, I saved that comment of his in my favorites, because it cracks me up every time I read it. That, and I fear that one day I'll be able to relate.
posted by iamkimiam at 12:19 PM on March 30, 2007