Two new features, feeds and more feeds

June 17, 2008 1:18 PM

Two new features: resolved question sidebar (and feed) and RSS feeds for the Popular favorites page. All is explained within.

We've noticed and sort of helped push the ad-hoc use of the "resolved" tag to Ask MeFi posts where you tried out the advice and it worked or you figured out the name of the book you were looking for. Recently, we mods have taken it upon ourselves to scope out old threads that were getting updates and applying the tag wherever we could. It's always nice to know people solved their problems but there was no easy way to highlight a 7 month old thread where someone figured out the perfect solution.

So we added a sidebar on the "answered" tab of Ask MeFi, ordered by how recently the resolved tag was added to them. There's also a feed if you really like closure and want to see new ones added automatically. We hope people continue to use the tag to mark off their questions when they're done and have posted updates late in the thread.

The other new feature is a feed for popular posts (RSS) and popular comments (RSS) across all MeFi sites. Before today, you would have to glance at the page to keep up, but now you can add the feeds to your RSS reader of choice (it works great in Google Reader) and you'll see 2-3 new posts or comments in each feed per day. I've been following both feeds for about a week and they're great -- the posts feed is mostly Ask MeFi and it's definitely the best of the best, the comments feed is half jokey quips and half super useful comments from mefi or ask mefi where someone explains the hell out of something.

posted by mathowie to feature requests at 1:18 PM (62 comments total)

This is awesome and as such I approve of it.
posted by allkindsoftime at 1:28 PM on June 17, 2008

Very cool! So if I tag some of my old questions "resolved", they will go into the "answered" thinger? Is there a time limit on how old a question can be resolved?
posted by Mister_A at 1:35 PM on June 17, 2008

Yep, you can add the resolved tag to old questions and they'll show up in the recently resolved list. There's no time limit.
posted by pb at 1:42 PM on June 17, 2008

Best deal for $5 dollars EVER. Thanks ya'll.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:49 PM on June 17, 2008

I didn't see it on the AskeMe post page, but you may want to include a line about the resolved tag, so that people who don't read Metatalk are aware of it's existence and start to use it.
posted by quin at 1:53 PM on June 17, 2008

Excellent!

*fly hands*
posted by BitterOldPunk at 2:01 PM on June 17, 2008

Awesome! What with all these bug-free, useful updates going live and enhancing the user experience, MF is like the anti-Microsoft or something.
posted by porn in the woods at 2:24 PM on June 17, 2008

all these bug-free, useful updates

Full disclosure: there is a 3.76% chance that adding the Popular Comments feed to your reader will cause insects to swarm out of your CDROM drive.
posted by cortex at 2:33 PM on June 17, 2008

I like those odds.

And these features. Thanks guys!
posted by Effigy2000 at 2:38 PM on June 17, 2008

Awesomeness!

*attempts "The Wire" handshake with everyone. fails. slopes off.*
posted by Jofus at 2:44 PM on June 17, 2008

(Just glancing at the recently resolved feed leads me to believe that it's going to see some action over the next day or so.)
posted by Jofus at 2:46 PM on June 17, 2008

NO HUGS NO BUGS

[I read that on a Rainbow Gathering t-shirt; I'm not totally sure it's applicable here, but I can imagine a few ways it might be...]
posted by jessamyn at 2:46 PM on June 17, 2008

Terrorist Fist Jabs to you all!
posted by cashman at 2:46 PM on June 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

Wow, you can add tags to closed threads. Didn't know that.

Glad I don't have a CDROM drive now.
posted by SlyBevel at 2:55 PM on June 17, 2008

Oh for chrissakes. Pretty soon this place will be completely freaking perfect and I'll have nothing to mutter grumpily under my breath about.

I guess I could mutter about the lack of grumpy-making lacks around here. Sure, sounds good. Hugs!
posted by gleuschk at 3:05 PM on June 17, 2008

I spoke too soon. Bug report! The advances at MF have somehow b0rked my wireless settings, and now I feel like it's Santa Fe (but for real) here in my apartment. Energy is radiating from every surface. Shut it down, bruno - it's back to LYNX and usenet for me.
On the plus side, I can ping my cats.
posted by porn in the woods at 3:08 PM on June 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

* jazz hands *
posted by blue_beetle at 3:10 PM on June 17, 2008

"On the plus side, I can ping my cats."
posted by porn in the woods at 9:08 AM on June 18

Is that what the kids are calling it these days?
posted by Effigy2000 at 3:20 PM on June 17, 2008

* jazz hands *

*bluegrass feet*
*rock and roll knees*
*polka penis*
*easy listening gallbladder*
posted by jonmc at 3:21 PM on June 17, 2008 [7 favorites]

*hip hop scapula*
*baroque bile duct*
*crunk junk*
posted by cortex at 3:24 PM on June 17, 2008 [2 favorites]

*deathmetal toenails*
*jug band ears*
*tejano testicles*
posted by jonmc at 3:28 PM on June 17, 2008 [2 favorites]

*old-timey tippy toes*
*zydeco ascending colon*
*beatbox voicebox*
posted by cortex at 3:36 PM on June 17, 2008 [2 favorites]

*bossa nova rectum*
*soul kidneys*
*straight edge foreskin*
posted by jonmc at 3:41 PM on June 17, 2008 [2 favorites]

*soft rock liver*
*rhumba wrist*
*country 'roids*
posted by cortex at 3:47 PM on June 17, 2008 [2 favorites]

*honytonk duodenum*
*latin liver*
*disco sinus cavities*
posted by jonmc at 3:49 PM on June 17, 2008 [2 favorites]

*spoken word pancreas*
*gypsy orbits*
*lounge tongue*
posted by cortex at 3:51 PM on June 17, 2008 [2 favorites]

*thrash adrenals*
*punk patella*
*opera tonsils*
posted by jonmc at 3:53 PM on June 17, 2008 [2 favorites]

*tango tibula*
*chamber music ear canal*
*emo veins*
posted by cortex at 3:57 PM on June 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

*tango clavicle*
*americana elbow*
*hairmetal dandruff*
posted by jonmc at 3:58 PM on June 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

*flamenco clavicle*, dammit!
posted by jonmc at 3:58 PM on June 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

*new wave hair*
*rockabilly hip*
*funky butt*
posted by ardgedee at 3:58 PM on June 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

*hymn hyman*
*shuffle muscle*
*organ music organ*
posted by cortex at 3:59 PM on June 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

*blues gums*
*bebop vertebra*
*brass band buttocks*
posted by jonmc at 4:01 PM on June 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

8 Bar Hymen Solo
posted by Jofus at 4:21 PM on June 17, 2008

*12-bar blues balls*
posted by jonmc at 4:24 PM on June 17, 2008 [3 favorites]

*a capella solar plexus*
posted by cortex at 4:24 PM on June 17, 2008 [2 favorites]

*folk face*
posted by jonmc at 4:26 PM on June 17, 2008 [3 favorites]

*adult contemporary clavicles*
*mashup mandible*
*folk face*
posted by pb at 4:27 PM on June 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

damn, beaten to *folk face*
posted by pb at 4:28 PM on June 17, 2008

*fusion toes*
*gangsta ganglia*
*grunge membrane*
posted by jonmc at 4:29 PM on June 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

*power pop eyes*
posted by jonmc at 4:32 PM on June 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

I think Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie should get together and do a prank-based show where they pull tricks on people and then when they're done with whatever the trick is they jump out with a banjo and a guitar respectively and yell YOU JUST GOT FOLK FACED and then they play some stirring American folk music.
posted by cortex at 4:32 PM on June 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

YOU JUST GOT FOLK FACED

I thought that folk-faced was what you call it when Holly Near and Arlo got drunk together.
posted by jonmc at 4:35 PM on June 17, 2008

*R&B DNA*
posted by jonmc at 4:51 PM on June 17, 2008

Well, this went plaid awful fast. Thanks for the features! *shoegaze toejam*
posted by carsonb at 4:57 PM on June 17, 2008

*klezmer tuchus*
posted by jonmc at 4:59 PM on June 17, 2008

And the Musical Anatomy Excellence Award jointly goes to... jonmc and cortex! Smile for the cams, please. *singer-songwriter smiles* or whatever you call them.
posted by ersatz at 5:05 PM on June 17, 2008

I suggested this about two years ago. Ask Metafilter, as an archive, is a bunch of pretty useless conjecture without some sort of follow up function from the OP.
posted by fire&wings at 5:15 PM on June 17, 2008

cortex, I added popular comments to my RSS reader 100 times and not once did insects swarm from my CD-ROM drive. I am prepared to say with 90% confidence that your estimated probability is not correct!
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 5:51 PM on June 17, 2008

I'm gonna need some quartiles or something.
posted by cortex at 5:54 PM on June 17, 2008

So using jazz hands at the next meetup somehow.
posted by wheelieman at 6:08 PM on June 17, 2008

I'm doing jazz hands as I typ
posted by Dizzy at 7:02 PM on June 17, 2008

What about adding a "Mark Question Resolved" button when we look at our old ask-mes?
posted by shothotbot at 7:36 PM on June 17, 2008

I subscribed to the popular posts and comments feeds and it's great. I was worried that there would be too many posts to read through, but the threshold for favorited posts is pretty high, so it works out really well. Way to go team!
posted by sambosambo at 1:58 AM on June 18, 2008

I know this is a little more complicated, but what about allowing the original asker to submit text at the end of closed resolved questions that clarifies what solution worked? For example, I asked a question about sourcing herbal cigarettes for use on stage in NYC and nobody was able to provide an answer. Since then I've located two sources on my own. In cases like this, and also in cases where more than one option was marked as "best", wouldn't it be helpful for the final solution to be made explicit?
Regardless, this new tag is awesome. Thanks!
posted by stagewhisper at 10:14 AM on June 18, 2008

You can do that right now, and people do. Just leave a follow-up comment in your own thread. The only catch there is the eventual closure of the thread, but at a year out at this point it's not something that's likely to catch too many people.
posted by cortex at 10:23 AM on June 18, 2008

ahh, yes. Was it a year then? It was. Sorry! I should have updated the question with what I eventually found. Time flies.
posted by stagewhisper at 10:49 AM on June 18, 2008

*sass foot*
*humpity-knee*
*hobbledy-leg*
posted by whir at 12:15 PM on June 18, 2008

I added popular comments to my RSS reader 100 times
posted by fantabulous timewaster

Eponys...

Aw, screw it. There oughta be a rule against one that easy.
posted by eritain at 12:21 PM on June 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

Can we add a filter for 'resolved' to the profile pages? As of right now, my most commonly used tag is 'resolved', which doesn't strike me as a particularly useful data point.
posted by chrisamiller at 12:53 PM on June 18, 2008

Good point, resolved won't show up on the list of frequently used tags anymore.
posted by pb at 1:10 PM on June 18, 2008

All you need to do now is provide a mechanism to visually remove the posts from a user's AskMe page when it has been tagged as resolved--less noise for those looking to help out. Only took Matt two years to see the light of reason on this one.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:37 AM on June 19, 2008