Ui and feature request for Recent Activity page

October 14, 2009 11:18 AM

Here's a couple of requests concerning the Recent Activity page and one for errors when previewing.

1. Currently the ability to mange posts removed from Recent Activity is hidden at the bottom of the page. Can we move that link to the top, as in this mock up?

2. If a user makes a comment in a post that they have removed from Recent Activity, can that post automatically be placed back on the Recent Activity page?

3. On preview:
I forgot to select a category for this post and was confused about why I wasn't getting a "Post" button. After looking around for a few seconds, I saw the error, which hidden within the page.

So could we make that error message more noticeable? Here's the original and here's a revamp.

posted by Brandon Blatcher to feature requests at 11:18 AM (19 comments total)

Wow, I didn't even know you COULD manage posts in recent activity, so #1 is a good idea.

Can I customize the error message in #3? Mine would say "GO GET SOME MORE COFFEE, YOU'RE POSTING TOO EARLY"
posted by desjardins at 11:30 AM on October 14

[gman and I had a nice chat, let's try this again, shall we?]
posted by jessamyn at 11:52 AM on October 14 [1 favorite]

Do posts get removed from that list once they're closed? I muted most posts than what's shown in that list but the ones not shown are probably closed. Also, I had never seen that link before now, so moving it might be a good idea.
posted by GuyZero at 11:59 AM on October 14

Can I customize the error message in #3? Mine would say "GO GET SOME MORE COFFEE, YOU'RE POSTING TOO EARLY"

No, it should say "Hey, you're harshing my mellow by not (error message). Just chill a minute and lets try this again by (fix)."
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:59 AM on October 14

I was thinking about #1 recently as it always sits at the bottom and you have to scroll down to get to it which is kind of annoying, but your mockup kind of hides it. If it could be made more prominent at the top of the page somehow I would be all for it.
posted by P.o.B. at 12:28 PM on October 14

Yeah, I didn't even know removed posts could be "managed" at all.

Also, I agree with #2.
posted by muddgirl at 12:32 PM on October 14

I also had no idea you could do this, and agree it makes sense to move it to the top.

About the error message: I like that Brandon's text instructs the user to click the button instead of hit the button. If we're making the change anyway... (Yes, my personal nit.)
posted by Houstonian at 12:37 PM on October 14

Egh, when my posts get the mange, I tend to just try to keep my distance.
posted by Plutor at 12:41 PM on October 14

They're better at creating features than announcing them. I was really surprised to see that feature too. I thought the idea had been shot down as, "if you delete it, it is permanent on purpose".
posted by smackfu at 1:24 PM on October 14

I don't like the manage up so high, I know it's hard to spot down low but it's a very rarely used feature. I'm on the fence on re-adding to the recent activity if you've blocked something. Pretty sure pb fixed up the error to make them easier to spot.
posted by mathowie at 1:50 PM on October 14

'Click' the button, or PRESS the button?

Must we all use the mouse now?
posted by blue_beetle at 1:53 PM on October 14

I know it's hard to spot down low but it's a very rarely used feature.

Well, that kind of figures. FWIW, I didn't know it existed either.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 1:58 PM on October 14

If it could be made more prominent at the top of the page somehow I would be all for it.

Ok, how about this then?

but it's a very rarely used feature.

Just wondering out loud: Could that be because not many users realize it's there?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:58 PM on October 14

> I know it's hard to spot down low but it's a very rarely used feature.

I use it all the time. Probably because I noticed it existed.

I don't remove things because I want to "block" them so much as they seem to have died or I don't care anymore. I still like to check in on them, just not take up real estate on the recent activity page, which I check more frequently.

If that makes sense.
posted by cj_ at 2:09 PM on October 14 [1 favorite]

Sometimes a thread reaches that infuriating 230th or so comment when it gets really out of control, but then I want to check back in with it when it reaches its 500th or so comment and starts getting good again. Until now, I did that manually.
posted by muddgirl at 2:19 PM on October 14

Yeah, I usually remove threads from Recent Activity because they turned into a tangent or two people started having 14,000-word-comment fights and the thread is staying at the top of my Recent Activity page and it's annoying, but if the thread re-becomes interesting later it would be nice not to have it blocked permanently.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:21 PM on October 14

I also had no idea the "manage posts removed" feature existed, and it seems extremely useful.

(Although I am also the same person who had no idea that the "Popular" link was different than the "Popular Favorites" tab.)
posted by lalex at 5:42 PM on October 14

Hey, speaking of Recent Activity ponies: Could we have something to manually mark how recently we've read & shrink the relevant Recent Activity accordingly? Say, right now, that I've read activity up to yesterday, & I don't necessarily want the previous two weeks of activity loading up when I reload the page.
posted by Pronoiac at 1:20 AM on October 15

That would be nice. I probably only read the top 10% of that very long page.

At the moment, I have 30 threads in there. Paging it at 10 threads per page would be a lot more useful.
posted by smackfu at 6:47 AM on October 15