Who are the people in your contacts list? May 15, 2008 8:50 AM   Subscribe

We made a few changes to the contacts page.

The contacts page has a few new features. The biggest change is that your list of contacts and the list of members who have you as a contact (we're calling contacted by) are now on two different tabs. Here's an example: mathowie's contacts, mathowie's contacted by.

Also, within the contacts list you now have the option of viewing them two different ways: compact and full. You can switch views with the View link at the top right of the page. The compact (default) view is very similar to the old view, plus:

- mutual contacts are highlighted
- you can filter the page by relationship (click a relationship to filter to that type of contact)
- you can filter by new contacts that added you in the last month (click show new at the top of the page)

The full view adds everything from the compact plus:

- profile photos from your contacts
- quick links to edit/delete/mail people on mouseover of their icon
- real name and location from their profile

When you change views from full to compact (or vice versa), a cookie is set to remember your preference.

The final change is the activity tab, which is essentially the same thing you see for your contacts' activity in Recent Activity. The difference is that this is now public, so you can check out mathowie's contacts' activity (minus filtering and who's adding who among his contacts).

This is hot from the code factory so there are bound to be bugs. Please post them here as you find them, thanks!
posted by pb (staff) to Feature Requests at 8:50 AM (110 comments total)

Good stuff, but I kind of hate that the tab for contacts within profile has been swapped for the term "Social". Kind of hurts like a burning urethral fire. Or so I hear.

Also, clicking on "Activity" leads only to a long list of "ColdChef had a comment with 80-someodd favorites" and "homonculus had a post with 70-someodd favorites" through and through. Can you make my contacts more interesting? Thanks.
posted by Ufez Jones at 8:57 AM on May 15, 2008


Neat! Thanks!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:00 AM on May 15, 2008 [1 favorite]


It's always been Social on the profile page afaik. That wasn't part of this change, anyway.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:00 AM on May 15, 2008


Although I'm not crazy about the picture-less frame for users who haven't uploaded a user photo- perhaps the frame should disappear if the user doesn't have a picture?
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:01 AM on May 15, 2008 [1 favorite]


When we take out the pictureless frame, the layout goes all wonky and mis-aligned.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:03 AM on May 15, 2008


Guess you'll just have to update your profile, TPS.
posted by dersins at 9:05 AM on May 15, 2008


Plus the frame-spaces are needed for the MeFi Mail, Edit, and Remove links that appear when you hover over them.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:05 AM on May 15, 2008


Can we just write "Shy" in the frame for those users, like they used to do in the yearbook when someone wasn't there on picture day?

By "we" I mean "you".
posted by Mister_A at 9:06 AM on May 15, 2008


It always said social. Sorry about your urethra.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:07 AM on May 15, 2008 [2 favorites]


It always said social.

Really? Guess I hadn't noticed.

Sorry about your urethra.

Nah, I'm peeing fresh and clean. Thanks for the concern. The Sad Urethras would be an awesome crusty punk band name, though.
posted by Ufez Jones at 9:09 AM on May 15, 2008


I've whacked every button I can think of and nothing has broken.
posted by Kattullus at 9:09 AM on May 15, 2008


Oh! I was wrong. I'd forgotten about the new "activity" features. I added "added you" to the filter and got the "Error: File not found" page. Here's the url I was sent to:

http://www.metafilter.com/usercontacts/#cookie.user_id#/activity/
posted by Kattullus at 9:12 AM on May 15, 2008


While the empty boxes don't bother me, did you consider just using a generic avatar?
posted by Dave Faris at 9:12 AM on May 15, 2008


Awesome. Is there any way I can get a "sort by date added" option?

I'm almost permanently chronologically confused.
posted by loquacious at 9:13 AM on May 15, 2008


Same thing happens, in fact, when I try to change anything about the filters.
posted by Kattullus at 9:13 AM on May 15, 2008


Thanks Kattullus, should be working now.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:19 AM on May 15, 2008


The filter buttons are all working fine for me (OS10.5.2 FF2.0.0.14), but the logo looks weird and skinny on this page:

http://www.metafilter.com/usercontacts/40584/activity/
posted by Mister_A at 9:19 AM on May 15, 2008


When we added profile pictures we had a generic avatar on profile pages if someone hadn't uploaded a picture yet. But that didn't go over well and we had to remove them. So we steered clear of them for this update.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:23 AM on May 15, 2008


This is great. Now add me, bitches.
posted by Jofus at 9:24 AM on May 15, 2008


The activity page is working fine now, pb, but it was set to all boxes unchecked. I don't know if that was just me because I was fiddling with it before or if that's now what it defaults to.
posted by Kattullus at 9:28 AM on May 15, 2008


mutual contacts are highlighted

I have totally awesome vision thanks to the coke-bottle strength contact lenses, but does anyone else using the plain theme have to squint to see the nifty highlighting?

If not, I guess I should <evil>update my graphics card drivers</evil>....
posted by romakimmy at 9:30 AM on May 15, 2008


Incidentally, this post led me to the little hideaway of understated joy that is Jessamyn's userpage. Ah! Like a limpid pool!
posted by Jofus at 9:30 AM on May 15, 2008


Kattullus, your filter preferences should be in sync with your contacts' activity page in Recent Activity. And changing them in either place should set them for both.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:31 AM on May 15, 2008


Highlighting is practically invisible when using plain theme.
posted by interrobang at 9:34 AM on May 15, 2008


I can see the highlighting okay, but I guess we could darken it up to be the same as the "best answer" color but we really wanted to make sure usernames were READBLE first with the mutualness being secondary.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:38 AM on May 15, 2008


Guess you'll just have to update your profile, TPS.

Nevah!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:39 AM on May 15, 2008 [2 favorites]


If you've got the mark contact contributions Greasemonkey script installed, and haven't upgraded in the last couple of weeks, you will now notice it no longer working. Go and update now.

Much love, pb. Great work, as usual.
posted by Plutor at 9:39 AM on May 15, 2008


Very, very nice, pb.
posted by timeistight at 9:41 AM on May 15, 2008


Hmm, what's this button do? *clicks on "Full"* AGH IT'S HIDEOUS! COMPACT! COMPACT!!!
posted by Eideteker at 9:45 AM on May 15, 2008


I particularly like the mutual contact highlight, which highlights who has NOT added me back as a contact. This will help me shame those people into adding me back. Shame! Shame!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:45 AM on May 15, 2008 [1 favorite]


I just set highlighting for the plain theme to the shade in between best answer color and sidebar color. Highlighting should be more visible now.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:52 AM on May 15, 2008


I haven't added any contacts recently, but when I click on the show new link I get the erroneous message "carsonb doesn't link to any other MetaFilter members" thrown my way.
posted by carsonb at 9:55 AM on May 15, 2008


"- mutual contacts are highlighted"

Oh, man, this is awesome.

Day 1, MeFi Mail #1
Dear [redacted], how are you? Remember me? We met at the Lower Hattiesburg meetup back in aught-six. I added you as a contact, but you never added me back. I just wanted to let you know. Hey, if you hurry, you can be contact #100 for me!

Day 3, MeFi Mail#2
Hey, did you get my message the other day? I know you were logged in, because you had that totally awesome comment in the catpants FPP. It's probably not important, but could you add me as a contact when you get around to it? Thanks.

Day 4, MeFi Mail#3
Now you're starting to piss me off. While I was waiting for you to add me, I went through my favorites and systematically removed every contribution of yours I had in there. Have a nice fucking day, shitbag.

Day 4, MeFi Mail#4
WHY? WHAT DID I DO WRONG? WHY WHY WHY DO YOU HATE ME OH GOD I'M SO WORTHLESS

I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT YOU ADD ME BACK BEFORE I DO SOMETHING WE'LL BOTH REGRET

Day 6, MeFi Mail#5
Hey there! I'm MeFi Mail-ing all my old contacts to let them know I've got a new account. The old one got disabled somehow. Anyhow, when you get around to it, could you add my new screenname as a contact? Superthanks!
posted by Eideteker at 9:57 AM on May 15, 2008 [1 favorite]


Hmm, what's this button do? *clicks on "Full"* AGH IT'S HIDEOUS! COMPACT! COMPACT!!!

You will not be surprised to hear that we anticipated just such a reaction. We are slowly turning into Guessing What Portions Of The Userbase Will Hate ninjas.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:59 AM on May 15, 2008 [1 favorite]


We are slowly turning into Guessing What Portions Of The Userbase Will Hate ninjas.

I am the Grandmaster of this.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:00 AM on May 15, 2008


What need is the "show new" parenthetical link at the top of Contacts and Contacted By tabs supposed to serve? I know that jessamyn has crazyloads of contacts, but is it common to have so many that you need to filter it down to the ones added in the last month?

Regardless of the audience, being the low-contact fellow that I am, when I click said show new link, Contacts says "mumkin doesn't link to any other MetaFilter members," which is untrue. Since there's no indication other than /new in the URL that I've got a filtered view here, this is a bit odd. It also doesn't include the (show all) link like Contacted By.

Contacted By, incidentally, says "mumkin doesn't link to any other MetaFilter members as new. (show all)" which strikes me as a very odd way to phrase things. Perhaps 'No MetaFilter members have added mumkin as a contact in the past month' ?

Also, when I remove a contact by using the little mouseovery icon on their image, they are removed, but I am redirected to their profile page instead of (as one might expect) to a fresh view of my own contacts sans removed contact.
posted by mumkin at 10:01 AM on May 15, 2008


wootles, I like the totals. I've met 50 mefites! (let's not talk about how many admit to having met me...)
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:04 AM on May 15, 2008


Surely none of the userbase hate ninjas. And those that do don't last long.
posted by matthewr at 10:04 AM on May 15, 2008


"You will not be surprised to hear that we anticipated just such a reaction. We are slowly turning into Guessing What Portions Of The Userbase Will Hate ninjas."

I don't know what you're talking about. I'm referring to the picture of some stinking hippie freako detaching his jaw to ingest a giant donut. I almost lost my lunch (found it again, though).
posted by Eideteker at 10:08 AM on May 15, 2008


This is really a pirate userbase, with a ninja ruling class. It takes a ruthless dictator to hold it together.
posted by Mister_A at 10:10 AM on May 15, 2008


I just set highlighting for the plain theme to the shade in between best answer color and sidebar color. Highlighting should be more visible now.

Hooray! Thanks.
posted by interrobang at 10:10 AM on May 15, 2008


"wootles, I like the totals. I've met 50 mefites! (let's not talk about how many admit to having met me...)"

It took me 5 minutes to find the one person I list as a contact who I actually haven't met.
posted by Eideteker at 10:10 AM on May 15, 2008


carsonb and mumkin, thanks, I've cleaned up the default error messages so things should be clearer. Clicking show new with no new contacts you get x "...hasn't linked to any other MetaFilter members in the last month (show all)." And there's a similar message for the same state on the contacted by page.

And removing a contact should take you back to your contacts view now.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:10 AM on May 15, 2008


I saw a guy that looked just like cortex, sans donut, and wearing a tie, on the platform at Penn Station NYC about 4 weeks ago. I was a little freaked out! I was like, where is the donut?
posted by Mister_A at 10:12 AM on May 15, 2008 [1 favorite]


This is really a pirate userbase, with a ninja ruling class. It takes a ruthless dictator to hold it together.

On account of late stage diabetes, said dictator is necessarily baby ruthless.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:15 AM on May 15, 2008 [1 favorite]


My total lack of friends has never been more clearly shown until now.
posted by tommasz at 10:19 AM on May 15, 2008 [1 favorite]


I see that I'm not on my own list of contacts, yet I am on my list of "contacted by." Why's that?

I like the rollover MeFi Mail on the profile pictures though. Neat-o!
posted by sambosambo at 10:20 AM on May 15, 2008


Please oh please can I have a sort by chronological order button? Why does it have to be all fancy and smart in the "show new" link? Why not just "show all by date added" with some nice timestamps or something?

Beans.
posted by loquacious at 10:20 AM on May 15, 2008 [1 favorite]


Sweet. Cheers, pb.
posted by romakimmy at 10:21 AM on May 15, 2008 [1 favorite]


sambosambo, we were filtering out self-contacts in one place but not the other. (We are now.) At one time it was possible to add yourself as a contact (I think it still is possible by playing with some URLs), but we don't officially offer adding yourself as a contact anymore.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:28 AM on May 15, 2008


Please oh please can I have a sort by chronological order button? Why does it have to be all fancy and smart in the "show new" link? Why not just "show all by date added" with some nice timestamps or something?

The "Activity" page can show this for people who have added you, if you remove all other data points. I don't know if it's date or page length defined- mine goes back 6 months. It would be interesting to be able to see the converse, people you have added, but I suppose there's no other section of contact activity where you see your own activity.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:30 AM on May 15, 2008 [1 favorite]


This is cool, thanks! I added some people who had added me but I'd missed.

And also added Jofus because I am a bitches: Being In Total Control of Herself... Eventually. Sometimes.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 10:33 AM on May 15, 2008


This is really a pirate userbase, with a ninja ruling class. It takes a ruthless dictator to hold it together.

Ruthless? Probably a complete Nancy, just Blacketting our good name.
posted by matthewr at 10:35 AM on May 15, 2008


>> We are slowly turning into Guessing What Portions Of The Userbase Will Hate ninjas.

> I am the Grandmaster of this.

Is Grandmaster Ninja something you list directly on your resume then, or is it more of an informal, ad hoc role for you?
posted by salvia at 10:52 AM on May 15, 2008


Is Grandmaster Ninja something you list directly on your resume then

Listing on your resume implies you might be open for offers form people willing to pay you to do it. Put another way "I have my finger on the pulse of what MetaFilter can't fucking stand" seems like scant qualification for anything.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:12 AM on May 15, 2008


Love the new pony! Thanks!
posted by rtha at 11:14 AM on May 15, 2008


What the..? Ok, it appears that all of my contacts are bearded. Even the women.

And there goes all hope of ever getting a date from MeFi ever again.
posted by loquacious at 11:14 AM on May 15, 2008


Is this one more step on the way to implementing Google's Open Social?
posted by blue_beetle at 11:20 AM on May 15, 2008


Also, can we PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get a profile picture for Anonymous?
posted by blue_beetle at 11:26 AM on May 15, 2008


Also, clicking on "Activity" leads only to a long list of "ColdChef had a comment with 80-someodd favorites" and "homonculus had a post with 70-someodd favorites" through and through. Can you make my contacts more interesting? Thanks.

I can take off my pants if you'd like.
posted by ColdChef at 11:28 AM on May 15, 2008


C'mon loquacious. There are many examples of attractive and intelligent bearded women. So many, in fact, that I am not going to list them here. When I am walking down the street with one of my esteemed colleagues, and I espy a comely bearded lass, I have been known to prod my walking-companion in the ribs jovially, and whisper, "Behold, Johnson! A beauteous bearded wench approacheth! Forsooth, I would smite yon lissome haunches , would not thou, O scandalizing rampallion?"
posted by Mister_A at 11:39 AM on May 15, 2008


Listing on your resume implies you might be open for offers form people willing to pay you to do it.

Good point. I was just wondering if Grandmaster Ninja was now your official title (among others, probably).
posted by salvia at 11:43 AM on May 15, 2008


'"I have my finger on the pulse of what MetaFilter can't fucking stand" seems like scant qualification for anything.'

It may be scant, but it's all I have. OMG myFavorites == Hastings.battle, so it must be working.
posted by Eideteker at 11:45 AM on May 15, 2008


I can take off my pants if you'd like.

What I want to do is filter my contact list by pants status.
posted by nebulawindphone at 11:47 AM on May 15, 2008


I would smite yon lissome haunches

FOR
FUCK'S
SAKE!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:49 AM on May 15, 2008 [4 favorites]


I just wanted to see if that counts. Next time I'll MeMail you.
posted by Mister_A at 11:50 AM on May 15, 2008


Forsooth, I would smite yon lissome haunches

Does that reset the clock?

Oh, and nice work, pb!
posted by languagehat at 11:51 AM on May 15, 2008


Sigh. Too late again.
posted by languagehat at 11:52 AM on May 15, 2008


I actually know a girl with a decent little beardlette, and not only does it work for her but she's also all kinds of kicking ass.

Also, I take that back. There's no women with beards in my contacts. There's just too many nerdy neckbeards in my contact list.

*ponders growing a long stripy beard*
posted by loquacious at 11:54 AM on May 15, 2008


stavrosthewonderchicken knocks the grid out of line. Long usernames which are broken into words get put on different lines, but is there an upper limit to the number of unbroken characters which can be a username? For that matter, is there an upper limit to the number of characters, period, which can be a username, because having too many words would knock the grid out of line the other way.
posted by yhbc at 12:12 PM on May 15, 2008


yep, yhbc, there are problems with long usersnames in the full view. We set the font smaller for long usernames, and that keeps it from breaking in an unusable way. But that's not perfect. I'm not sure there's a way around it beyond truncating the name and adding "...", so it's a trade off between an off grid or incomplete usernames in that view.

is there an upper limit to the number of characters

Yep, there's a 50-character limit on usernames. That's a lot of characters.
posted by pb (staff) at 12:24 PM on May 15, 2008


Yep, there's a 50-character limit on usernames.

We should shorten that to ten.
posted by eyeballkid at 12:41 PM on May 15, 2008


What need is the "show new" parenthetical link at the top of Contacts and Contacted By tabs supposed to serve? I know that jessamyn has crazyloads of contacts, but is it common to have so many that you need to filter it down to the ones added in the last month?

I'm glad to see this not because I have as many admiring swains as Jessamyn does, but because often I'll notice my # of contacts has gone up by one, and when just glancing at the list of contacts, I'm pretty much unable to tell who the new one was or when they added me. "Contact Activity" was a roundabout way to grab that, and this is much easier to use. So when you notice your number's ticked up one or two, you can see exactly who it was without too much trouble.

Well done, thanks!
posted by Miko at 12:45 PM on May 15, 2008


Hey, you people who I have met in real life for fucks sake add me back.
posted by desuetude at 12:50 PM on May 15, 2008 [1 favorite]


When I try to click on "linked by" or "links to" I get an error page and then get logged out. (Thanks for the login info, Matt!"

This might be a one-time thing. But if you continue to have this problem, please contact the MeFi Admins with the following information:
Element USER_ID is undefined in COOKIE.
The error occurred on line 30.
Current Page: http://www.metafilter.com/usercontacts/14493/contacted-by/
Referring Page: http://www.metafilter.com/user/14493
Date and Time: Thu May 15 12:37:04 PDT 2008
Your Browser: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727)
The information above can help us diagnose the problem, thanks.

Let me know if you need the "your location" info.

Are my contacts trying to nudge me out of Metafilter? "Oh hi guys I just --" SMASH "ow hey where am I not logged in anymore? okay let's try this again doot doo doo doo" SHINY ERROR PAGE OF DEATH LOGS YOU OUT AND TAKES YOUR LUNCH MONEY.
posted by onlyconnect at 12:53 PM on May 15, 2008


Oh, I like the new contacts thingy, though.
posted by desuetude at 12:53 PM on May 15, 2008


I'm sorry for being all shouty there. I thought it looked cute on preview, but now I just look like Bill O'Reilly. I regret this.
posted by onlyconnect at 1:01 PM on May 15, 2008


onlyconnect, I think I patched things up. You might try again. Logging out and then back in might help because the error was related to your MeFi cookies. But at least you shouldn't get the ugly error anymore if you are logged out.

No problem on shouty, but I was getting ready to cut your mic.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:09 PM on May 15, 2008


"Logging out and then back in might help because the error was related to your MeFi cookies." pb advised onlyconnect. Hope onlyconnect recorded his/her password somewhere.
posted by Cranberry at 1:28 PM on May 15, 2008


Ooh, I like the expanded and sortable Activity page. That's going to cut my stalking time in half.

Excellent work! Thanks.
posted by quin at 1:41 PM on May 15, 2008


quin, the other way to look at it is, you can now stalk twice as many people.
posted by Mister_A at 1:48 PM on May 15, 2008


Is there a way to delete a contact?
posted by fixedgear at 1:55 PM on May 15, 2008


Sometimes if you snark someone enough, they'll close their own account.

You snotbucket.
posted by Plutor at 1:58 PM on May 15, 2008


Is there a way to delete a contact?

In the compact view, click a username and then on their profile page, click "remove" under their username. In the full view, if you have JavaScript enabled, click the red circle (-) icon as you hover over their profile picture (or empty frame).
posted by pb (staff) at 2:00 PM on May 15, 2008


Bug?

On my profile page, it says:

Links to: 87 users
Linked by: 51 users

But then in the tabbed view (compact), it says:

You link to 86 MetaFilter users ...
50 MetaFilter users link to you ...

What's happening with that?
posted by rtha at 2:20 PM on May 15, 2008


rtha, you link to yourself as a contact, and we don't show (or count) self-links on the new contacts pages. I'll update the counts on profile pages to reflect that.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:23 PM on May 15, 2008


Thanks, pb. Now the glitch on the contacts page seems to be fixed, but when I tried to move from my user page back to this thread it logged me out again. On the upside, this is making me type in my password alot more so maybe I'll remember it now!
posted by onlyconnect at 2:25 PM on May 15, 2008


We are slowly turning into Guessing What Portions Of The Userbase Will Hate ninjas.

This could be solved by simply designing things to be aggressively hideous. Electric pink, purple, nauseous blue-greeny shades, etc.

I've always been partial to admins that actively hate their users and take steps to make that clear (all their users, not just me. That already happens a lot and thus isn't quite so entertaining).
posted by aramaic at 2:30 PM on May 15, 2008


One of the rationales for linking to yourself as a contact was to be able to see on the front page under "contact activity" if any of your comments or posts had received twelve or more favorites. Without the ability to link to yourself as a contact, how will any future insecure egostrokers get their instant gratification fix?
posted by yhbc at 2:33 PM on May 15, 2008


...when I tried to move from my user page back to this thread it logged me out again.

There's nothing on the new contacts page that could log you out, so I'm guessing there's a problem somewhere else. Try removing all of your Metafilter cookies, and logging in again. (Sorry about all the password practice.) Sounds like there's something preventing the site from identifying you properly, and that usually indicates a bad cookie somewhere in the mix.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:33 PM on May 15, 2008


Thanks, pb - makes total sense.
posted by rtha at 2:35 PM on May 15, 2008


good point on the favorites-watching, yhbc, we might want to add that as an option for the front page sidebar. Though there are a couple pages on the site already that can show you favorites on your posts and comments.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:38 PM on May 15, 2008


Thanks, pb.
posted by fixedgear at 2:45 PM on May 15, 2008


So when you notice your number's ticked up one or two, you can see exactly who it was without too much trouble.

That's nice- now I want a feature that will show me who has UNcontacted me. You know who you are ::casts evil glares in all directions::
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 2:48 PM on May 15, 2008 [1 favorite]


The thing you can't tell anywhere other than the sidebar, as far as I can see, is which of your answers have been marked best.
posted by grouse at 2:52 PM on May 15, 2008


Here. But I agree that I miss having my best answers and heavily-favorited comments show up on the sidebar. Of course, that's because I'm both insecure and deeply self-centered, but I don't see why that should bother anyone but me...
posted by dersins at 2:59 PM on May 15, 2008


BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT
posted by dersins at 3:01 PM on May 15, 2008


Thanks, dersins. But that is nowhere near as convenient, as you say.
posted by grouse at 3:03 PM on May 15, 2008


Is Grandmaster Ninja something you list directly on your resume then

Don't push me, cause I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to snark that thread
It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:29 PM on May 15, 2008


*clicks*

My God, it's full of stars!

[thanks]
posted by trip and a half at 8:43 PM on May 15, 2008


stav, dude, how could you leave out the most important part of that quote?

Ah-huh-huh-huh-HUH!

I mean, c'mon, it's like "she loves you" without the "yeah yeah yeah"...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:00 PM on May 15, 2008


Hey, many thanks, pb. I've always wished there was better filtering for contacts, and now my prayers have been answered!

Now, let's move on to that request for a little villa in Italy.
posted by scody at 10:58 PM on May 15, 2008


I went to check out the new contacts page and I was bummed when I saw that my contact count went down by 1. And I was thinking to myself, "aw shucks! What did I do? Was it my profile? My scary picture of demonic cats? Why did somebody decide they didn't like me today? WHY GOD, WHYYYYYY!?!?!"

Then I realized it was me. I was no longer my own acquaintance, friend, co-worker, colleague, co-resident, muse, crush, date, sweetheart. Sometimes the feeling of rejection really *is* all in your head.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:31 PM on May 15, 2008


Minor query: shouldn't these contacts pages, and all profile sub-pages, link back to the user's main profile?

Take mathowie's favorited activity page. His username at the top is a hyperlink to his main profile. I'd apply this also on the contacts pages (and anywhere else).

This ship has sailed, but I don't understand the logic behind the urls for a lot of these features. I'd have given everything a subfolder of the user's profile page, so if mathowie's profile is here:

http://www.metafilter.com/user/1

I'd have put contacts here:

http://www.metafilter.com/user/1/contacts/usercontacts

And contacted by here:

http://www.metafilter.com/user/1/contacts/contactedby

Likewise I'd have put activity here:

http://www.metafilter.com/user/1/activity/

I think this would have been a more navigable, intuitive hierarchy.
posted by nthdegx at 3:37 AM on May 16, 2008 [1 favorite]


...shouldn't these contacts pages, and all profile sub-pages, link back to the user's main profile?

Yep, just made the page title a link back to the user's profile.

And I agree on the aesthetics of the URLs. The ship has sailed, but it's the sort of thing we could change someday if we feel like renovating. There isn't a lot of manual URL hacking going on to find things here—and not a lot of external links pointing deep into user activity—so I think the change could work out ok. We could run into URLs on the long side for some things like searching a user's activity, but a unified name space for all user information would feel more solid to me too.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:00 AM on May 16, 2008


The changes to the contacts page somehow make my contacts seem more like actual people and less like the imaginary internet friends that I'd prefer. I find this unsettling. Fix, plz.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 11:26 AM on May 16, 2008 [2 favorites]


If an uploaded profile picture makes the server barf, re-uploading a corrected picture with the same name turns the profile pic into a black square. Worked around by uploading a different picture, then the corrected one (if you have activity logs for debugging, check my sock puppet's recent update).
posted by flabdablet at 8:14 PM on May 16, 2008


I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this thread, and this seems to be a problem only I am having, but I'm still getting logged out of metafilter regularly. I emptied my cookies but it's still happening. It doesn't appear to be necessarily linked with visiting the contacts page; I am generally getting logged out on the 3d or 4th link I click through on metafilter. I can log in and visit metafilter and ask me, but then get logged out when I go to Meta. Or I can go to Meta and MeFi, but get logged out when I try AskMe. Something like that. This doesn't happen when I use firefox at home; only on when I'm on Explorer during the day.
posted by onlyconnect at 1:31 PM on May 27, 2008


Just sent you a MeFi Mail onlyconnect, hopefully we can get this issue solved for you.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:48 PM on May 27, 2008


I don't know if onlyconnect's problem has been resolved or not, but I sometimes use an old computer at work which has IE6 on it and the same thing happens to me. Using other, less out-dated work computers with newer versions of IE on it doesn't result in the same issue.
posted by Kattullus at 6:31 PM on May 30, 2008


« Older AskMe sidebar, please   |   It's not you, it's me. Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments