Guy Who Posted That one Funny Comment has added Total Frikken Stranger as a Contact!

November 5, 2007 2:40 PM

Whoop de doo! You added a contact!

I don't think I'm alone here when I say that I am not all that fascinated by who people I've added as a contact think is worth adding as a contact. Right now, in fact, it's the only thing showing up on my activity feed, because right now everyone is adding contacts like mad. I suppose I can wait until the honeymoon is over, but maybe we can turn certain activity updates off? Thanks

posted by Deathalicious to Feature Requests at 2:40 PM (55 comments total)

We're working on that right now. In the meantime you can use the drop-down menu in the upper-righthand corner of the activity page to filter to a specific type of activity.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:42 PM on November 5, 2007

This burning issue is being discussed here. Takeaway message: if you want to hide the updates, you can. If you have further thoughts, please post them there. Thank you!
posted by languagehat at 2:43 PM on November 5, 2007

quonsar has scratched his balls. again.
posted by quonsar at 2:44 PM on November 5, 2007

I believe that that would post as "quonsar has added quonsar as a contact. again."
posted by shmegegge at 2:46 PM on November 5, 2007

It's like twitter only it isn't, I guess.
posted by 517 at 2:50 PM on November 5, 2007

The contact tracking is in there because it's often useful. I've found my good friends that have been added as contacts find a lot of my other good friends that I didn't even know had a mefi account, so I end up adding them.

pb's working on an activity page that'll let you see everything BUT contacts activity during these first few weeks of rampant contact-adding. In two months, you'll see the contacts activity will be pretty useful and contact adding will be a very minor part.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 3:01 PM on November 5, 2007

We're working on that right now. In the meantime you can use the drop-down menu in the upper-righthand corner of the activity page to filter to a specific type of activity.

I suppose filtering to "anything but" is out of the question?

Really, couldn't it just be:

Form in profile

Display in Activity Monitor:
[ ]New contacts (others)
[ ]New contacts (you)
[ ]New messages
[ ]New Posts

Gets stored in client.activities_to_view

And then:

<cfloop query="activitiesorwhatever">
<cfif NOT isDefined("client.activities_to_view") OR ListFindNoCase(client.activities_to_view,this_activity)>
...show activity...
</cfif>
</cfloop>

Not unthinkable...dude, just give me the server password and I'll put it in for ya. :-)
posted by Deathalicious at 3:07 PM on November 5, 2007

...my other good friends that I didn't even know had a mefi account...
posted by mathowie

How could you, of all people, NOT know if one of your good friends had a MeFi account?

Not snarking-- genuinely curious.
posted by dersins at 3:09 PM on November 5, 2007

Matt is pretty high most of the time.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:10 PM on November 5, 2007 [10 favorites]

Or asleep.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:14 PM on November 5, 2007

Are they REALLY your friends if they don't have a MeFi account?
posted by blue_beetle at 3:23 PM on November 5, 2007

I had no idea this was going on.

wanders off to start adding contacts.
posted by small_ruminant at 3:41 PM on November 5, 2007

This has inspired me to send a registered letter to everyone I have ever met or corresponded with every time I so much as shift in my chair.
posted by Divine_Wino at 4:00 PM on November 5, 2007

I don't think I'm alone here when I say that I am not all that fascinated by who people I've added as a contact think is worth adding as a contact.

You're not alone. Ironically, right now my whole front page activity feed, except for one entry about someone else, is taken up by updates about contacts that you've added. It is to laugh.

In the meantime you can use the drop-down menu in the upper-righthand corner of the activity page to filter to a specific type of activity.

Thanks! I like that.
posted by iconomy at 4:24 PM on November 5, 2007

robocop is bleeding added It's Raining Florence Henderson as a contact. 7 hours ago

robocop is bleeding had a comment with 12 favorites in MetaFilter. 8 hours ago

Tuwa added you as a contact. yesterday

loquacious posted High speed camera. to MetaFilter. yesterday

misha added you as a contact. yesterday

chuckdarwin added you as a contact. 2 days ago

miss lynnster posted Do you smell smoke? Yeah,... to Ask Metafilter. 2 days ago

tristeza posted Will this floor photo collage... to Ask Metafilter. 3 days ago

ThePinkSuperhero posted How Much is Too Much for... to Ask Metafilter. 3 days ago

ThePinkSuperhero added mullacc as a contact. 3 days ago
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:30 PM on November 5, 2007

I haven't added a contact, except myself, since all this craziness started. Or gotten 12+ favorites. Or made a post. You may all thank me later.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:42 PM on November 5, 2007

Why is it 12+ favorites? I'd think more than a couple makes a comment worth a look.
posted by cillit bang at 4:45 PM on November 5, 2007

Try out the new version with filtering.

Uncheck the contacts checkboxes and hit the Filter button to reload it all. It's great because you can see the real activity that's interesting then (and turn contacts back on later when the whole contact swarm dies down).
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:19 PM on November 5, 2007

Thanks Matt! A Metafilterfilter!
(Also I think the correct term is a 'plague of contacts'.)
posted by typewriter at 5:32 PM on November 5, 2007

icons so shiny, must. not. stare.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:51 PM on November 5, 2007

Now where's the button for turning off the vampires and werewolves?
posted by msittig at 6:08 PM on November 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

We're working on that right now.

Great, thanks. For now, I'd love to just see the new Music and Projects posts from my contacts in my frontpage sidebar.
posted by mediareport at 6:12 PM on November 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

mediareport, try out the link above I posted, and yeah, we'll be wiring that to the front-page view. So when you filter, it'll "stick" on that filter (via cookie) and only show you those parts of the site on the front sidebar.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 6:20 PM on November 5, 2007

Where's the button for getting people to like you enough to add you as a contact?
posted by backseatpilot at 6:30 PM on November 5, 2007

I've never had any contacts, but never before have I felt so iconoclastic!

I feel that I must share that with you all.
posted by delmoi at 6:32 PM on November 5, 2007

I'm with you, delmoi. I daren't add anyone as a contact because I always forget birthdays and holiday cards.
posted by maxwelton at 6:39 PM on November 5, 2007

See, I never send people cards because I'm afraid they'll contact me.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:13 PM on November 5, 2007

I never really understood contacts. I have coldchef as a contact for some reason, which is cool because he's pretty much my favorite mefite ever. But I really see this as a useless feature.
posted by puke & cry at 8:22 PM on November 5, 2007

A couple people have added me as a contact, and I know it's just because they want to see me flame out, so maybe you should add "has flamed out" to the activity list.
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 8:24 PM on November 5, 2007

mediareport, try out the link above I posted

I saw that, it's nice, but yeah, it'd be more useful on the front page, which right now is giving me more info than I want or need (and I only have like 5 contacts). I'm kinda with puke & cry; I tend to gravitate to topics, not people, here. But I recently realized I would like to track music and projects from folks whose stuff I've liked before.

we'll be wiring that to the front-page view

Great, thanks!
posted by mediareport at 8:55 PM on November 5, 2007

But I really see this as a useless feature.

Add ten people you like that write great posts and make funny comments. Then go to the contact activity page and uncheck the contacts for now.

You'll see something like this, which is pure gold. Lots of great info on what your favorite members have written and contributed in the past few days that you normally might have missed.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:00 PM on November 5, 2007

I want to be able to see who's added me as a contact. Because I know I've gained like 10 contacts over the past week, but I'll be damned if when I click through to the list I can tell who's new and who isn't.
posted by Eideteker at 9:38 PM on November 5, 2007

mathowie, you keep telling us how much we're going to appreciate and like this stuff. You know, if folks don't like it, don't care about it, they just don't, and no amount of you telling them that they should is going to make a difference. People (like yers truly) who are unconvinced of its utility may warm to it eventually, but you're just making that less likely by repeatedly assuring everybody it's the greatest thing EVAR.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:39 PM on November 5, 2007

Eideteker, go to the super secret version (we'll make live for everyone tomorrow), uncheck everything except "Added You", and click Filter. You should see a list of everyone who added you since the Great Contact Add began last week.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:45 PM on November 5, 2007

stavros: I reckon Metafilter and its subsites have become so big that there is a need for something like this. A filtered view of Metafilter, so to speak.
posted by dhruva at 9:45 PM on November 5, 2007

But, you know, it is cool that you're so enthusiastic about it and all and most folks seem to like it.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:46 PM on November 5, 2007

I want to be able to see who's added me as a contact.

Eideteker, go to the new page, uncheck everything except for "Added You", and hit Filter. Bam! Log of the last few dozen people to contact you (though I don't know if there's a limit—time or count or recent implementation—that would cut it off, so caveat filtor).

mathowie, you keep telling us how much we're going to appreciate and like this stuff.

stavros, I hear what you're saying, but I'm pretty sure that what Matt means is that he believe that you may warm to it eventually. Clash of personal rhetorical styles, basically; by the same token that you don't mean any harm or attack in stating strongly the things you don't like about where you see Metafilter now vs. then or this or that feature, neh?
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:48 PM on November 5, 2007

That's fine. I've got to take these cranky pants off and give them a good wash soon, anyway.

I just hate being told what I ought to think about something (particularly when it's got my cranky pants doing the cranky dance already), and I was pretty sure I read an identical ain't-this-great comment in another thread yesterday.

I withdraw, with apologies. But I'm still a bit cranky.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:52 PM on November 5, 2007

Bizarre. I could've sworn half the people on that list were mutual contacts of mine already. Guess not! All I know is that since this whole mess started, my total number of favorites (and hence my self-esteem) has gone down. At least now I have a new page to refresh by which I can judge my MeFiworth.
posted by Eideteker at 9:58 PM on November 5, 2007

I just hate being told what I ought to think about something

I'm not trying to stuff my opinion down anyone's throat. I'm just trying to show other members that might not be using contacts what my view looks like. If you look at my screenshot, it surfaces stuff we never have before like when your contacts gave a best answer somewhere (languagehat gets like one a day and it's fascinating stuff I would have otherwise missed).

My hope is that someone that hasn't added any (or many) contacts that wants to see what it's like when you're more of a power user gets to see a glimpse of why we built it. MeFi is getting pretty big and I know a lot of people here personally and I can't be everywhere at once, so this little contact tool helps immensely with keeping track of good stuff by my favorite contributors.

It's based on the main facebook timeline feature and though I generally don't find anything remotely useful about 99% of facebook, that update stream is the only useful (and original) aspect of their interface.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:32 PM on November 5, 2007

I still don't see any usefulness to it. I don't have any interest in messing with adding contacts or caring about tracking people or anything to do with it. Obviously there's a big audience that likes it, which is good for them. They can continue to use it and I can continue to not use it.

Now watch this drive.
posted by puke & cry at 10:38 PM on November 5, 2007

My recent activity page doesn't have a "contacts" box. What gives?

And you are wrong stavros. I didn't like the contacts activity either, but then mathowie told me I would, and by golly, I do.
posted by vronsky at 11:14 PM on November 5, 2007

Everybody wins!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:20 PM on November 5, 2007

So when will you be adding the piece that tells me what songs my contacts are currently listening to?
posted by davejay at 11:20 PM on November 5, 2007

My only caveat is that it does feel a bit exclusionary and discriminative. So if I haven't added you as a contact, it doesn't mean I don't love you. I love everybody here... except for matteo.

*clenches fist, looks around the room for matteo*
posted by vronsky at 11:28 PM on November 5, 2007

I never got into contacts, but I reciprocated when Dag Maggot listed me. So now I have a stalker's eye view of everything he posts but nobody else.
Not having stalked before, I like it ;-0
posted by bystander at 2:03 AM on November 6, 2007

While we're calling out new features, I'm not that into the "welcome back roofus" at the top of the page. It seems artificially "matesy" in contrast to the usual mefi diet of flame-outs and pedantic pile-ons.
posted by roofus at 4:05 AM on November 6, 2007

Now, see... this was the sort of thing that was bound to happen with all of this contact adding activity. I'm hoping the robocop is bleeding does not now go supernova on us and erase all existence.
posted by psmealey at 8:04 AM on November 6, 2007

I wrote a greasemonkey script that replaces 'welcome back' with GYOFB to get that snarky feeling back. Message is easily switched in the script.
I don't know what I'm doing so it might cause your computer to develop self-awareness and eat your cat. Any feedback appreciated.
posted by jacalata at 8:23 AM on November 6, 2007 [5 favorites]

I wrote a greasemonkey script that replaces 'welcome back' with GYOFB

I like it, a lot.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:46 AM on November 6, 2007

There are several MeFites whose comments I look forward to reading. I think once the adding of contacts has died down, this will make it easier for me to track their activity on MetaTalk, Music and AskMeFi.

For that same reason, I don't expect anyone to add me just because I've added them.
posted by itchylick at 8:49 AM on November 6, 2007

The new contacts activity filter is live, wired to the front page, and ready to take your contacts adding contacts activity out of view. Just hit the Contacts Activity page, uncheck "Added Others" and "Added You", click Filter and you'll be set.
posted by pb (staff) at 11:06 AM on November 6, 2007

If this thing tracked when people favourited a comment, than we could all finally watch tehloki favourite crap in real time. That would be awesome.
posted by chunking express at 11:45 AM on November 6, 2007

Fuck that comment is barely in English.
posted by chunking express at 11:48 AM on November 6, 2007

That would be awesome.

It would be. Kind of like a favorites ticker.
posted by psmealey at 12:22 PM on November 6, 2007