Most favorited comments?

November 21, 2008 8:50 AM

We have a most favorites. Can we get a most favorited comments on the green, or am I just missing it?
posted by arimathea to Feature Requests at 8:50 AM (18 comments total)

I believe consensus was that we didn't want encourage more competitive favourite-mongering than we already have, and having a concrete measurement of who is "The best" is just a Bad Thing (TM) in general...
posted by Phire at 9:29 AM on November 21, 2008

I think I'd feel really sad if my comments didn't win and then I'd have to go on AskMe and ask why people don't like me.
posted by Sassyfras at 9:59 AM on November 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

On a related note, when you go to your profile page and click MeFi comments, MeTa comments, and AskMe answers, you get a blue background for all. How hard would it be to change the background colors for MeTa and AskMe to grey and green?
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:12 AM on November 21, 2008

This is not going to happen. Phire pretty much has it right. We'll add it to the FAQ.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:57 AM on November 21, 2008

I don't see why we don't just do it. Why do a most favorited page for posts and not for comments? It doesn't make sense, and that's why people keep asking for it.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:58 AM on November 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

Posts are the context. Comments are out of context. There's a big, big difference in how approachable one vs. the other is, and posts are in that respect a hell of a lot more predictably correlated to approachability. They're also less convenient to create and considerably time-limited, which provides both disincentive and constraint on anything resembling faves-whoring.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:35 AM on November 21, 2008

Ooh, ooh, can we get a least-favorited-comments list?
posted by Plutor at 11:41 AM on November 21, 2008

Ooh, ooh, can we get a least-favorited-comments list?

Write a script for it whydontcha?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:56 AM on November 21, 2008

Our favorites are secret. We loves them. You will be sorry if you tries to see them.

our precious
posted by blue_beetle at 12:06 PM on November 21, 2008

Posts are the context. Comments are out of context. There's a big, big difference in how approachable one vs. the other is, and posts are in that respect a hell of a lot more predictably correlated to approachability. They're also less convenient to create and considerably time-limited, which provides both disincentive and constraint on anything resembling faves-whoring.

See? SEE how smart this man is? I don't even know what this means!
posted by longsleeves at 1:15 PM on November 21, 2008

He just says no with more syllables.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:40 PM on November 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

Posts are the context. Comments are out of context. There's a big, big difference in how approachable one vs. the other is, and posts are in that respect a hell of a lot more predictably correlated to approachability.

...but we have a lovely popular comments feed for which the comments have no context but it's still one of my favorite feeds. Personally, I think it would be one of those things that would Make The Site Better.

On the other hand, I could see some users substituting a Favorite Comments page in the place of browsing around the rest of the posts more, but, for me at least, the favorites comment feed leads me to read posts I might have glossed over before.
posted by starman at 1:51 PM on November 21, 2008

Write a script for it whydontcha?

Ya burnt!

All kidding aside, this should be too tough. Here's my back of the napkin plan:

UPON EVERYONE VISITING METAFILTER
1. Check for FF or other GreaseMonkey capable browser. If yes, move to 2. If no, download FF, reopen metafilter in FF, then move to 2.
2. Check for GreaseMonkey. If yes, move to 3, if no, download, install, then move to 3.
3. Check for "Plutor's Least Favorite Comments Script, a SpiffyRob joint." If yes, move to 4. If no, download, then move to 4.

THAT'S RIGHT. THE SCRIPT WORKS FOR EVERYONE EVEN IF THEY DON'T HAVE IT. IT MAKES YOU HAVE IT. IT'S AN AWESOME SCRIPT. BUT WAIT IT GETS MORE AWESOME!

4. Eye-track. (Use science for this)
5. Determine which comment was looked at the least. (Use math for this)
6. Tell us.

That's six lines of code, maybe five with compression. Hell, it's such a good script, it's probably already coded itself.
posted by SpiffyRob at 1:54 PM on November 21, 2008

Um, yeah, sarcasm + typos = confusion. This SHOULDN'T be too tough.
posted by SpiffyRob at 1:55 PM on November 21, 2008

To summarize:

The short answer is no.

The long answer is noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
posted by Pronoiac at 2:46 PM on November 21, 2008 [4 favorites]

SpiffyRob: "(Use math for this)"

Yes, yes, it all seems so obvious now.
posted by Plutor at 2:51 PM on November 21, 2008

jessamyn: "Write a script for it whydontcha?"

Thanks a lot. The only thing I can't script is self-esteem.
*sob*
posted by Plutor at 2:52 PM on November 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

There was that MeFi Data Playground and I found out what the most favorite'd comments were at one point... but the alas the site's down right now.
posted by philosophistry at 9:52 PM on November 23, 2008