Using favorites to mark progress in reading massive threads? March 24, 2010 7:51 AM Subscribe
RFP (Request For Pony): A way to bookmark a specific location in a thread, so that the number of comments from that point onward (rather than from my last comment) shows up in my Recent Activity.
I've found myself in this situation several times when reading epic threads like this one: I read up to a certain point in the thread, close the tab, go away, come back some time later and have no idea where it was I left off or how many comments have been added since then. I know that in my Recent Activity, I can see how many comments have been added since my last one, but statements like "1391 total comments. 694 since your most recent comment" don't really help me find my place in the thread where I stopped reading or how many comments have been added since the last time I read all the way to the end. I also know that I can make a placeholder comment to perform basically the same function (if I get to the end of a thread), but I don't want to clutter things up that way.
So what I have in mind, for example, would be a way to use favorites as a comment bookmarking system, so that in Recent Activity, it could say something like, "1391 total comments. 694 since your last comment; 11 since your last favorite," and that way I could just favorite the last comment I read, check my Recent Activity to see what if anything has been added since then and pick up where I left off (even unfavoriting that comment if I chose). Sorry if this has come up before; I couldn't find any previous discussion along these lines.
I've found myself in this situation several times when reading epic threads like this one: I read up to a certain point in the thread, close the tab, go away, come back some time later and have no idea where it was I left off or how many comments have been added since then. I know that in my Recent Activity, I can see how many comments have been added since my last one, but statements like "1391 total comments. 694 since your most recent comment" don't really help me find my place in the thread where I stopped reading or how many comments have been added since the last time I read all the way to the end. I also know that I can make a placeholder comment to perform basically the same function (if I get to the end of a thread), but I don't want to clutter things up that way.
So what I have in mind, for example, would be a way to use favorites as a comment bookmarking system, so that in Recent Activity, it could say something like, "1391 total comments. 694 since your last comment; 11 since your last favorite," and that way I could just favorite the last comment I read, check my Recent Activity to see what if anything has been added since then and pick up where I left off (even unfavoriting that comment if I chose). Sorry if this has come up before; I couldn't find any previous discussion along these lines.
The time at the end of the post acts as an anchor, so you can click it and bookmark it to return to that same spot. Not exactly what you ask for but will allow you to return to your spot in the thread.
posted by TedW at 7:57 AM on March 24, 2010
posted by TedW at 7:57 AM on March 24, 2010
MeFi Scroll Tag.
Firefox "Bookmark this Page"
Internet Explorer "Add To Favorites"
Google Chrome "Bookmark this Page"
Safari... something... something..
posted by blue_beetle at 8:07 AM on March 24, 2010
Firefox "Bookmark this Page"
Internet Explorer "Add To Favorites"
Google Chrome "Bookmark this Page"
Safari... something... something..
posted by blue_beetle at 8:07 AM on March 24, 2010
(even unfavoriting that comment if I chose)
Sacrum legere!
posted by tellurian at 8:08 AM on March 24, 2010
Sacrum legere!
posted by tellurian at 8:08 AM on March 24, 2010
(Oops -- yeah, you need the MetaFilter Scroll Tag for the thread bookmark, but MeFi Navigator does what you need in RA itself.)
posted by maudlin at 8:12 AM on March 24, 2010
posted by maudlin at 8:12 AM on March 24, 2010
48 total comments. 48 since the last comment you read. 25 since your most recent comment, last 10 shown below...
Yeah, that's the kind of thing that would be very helpful for me. Thanks for pointing me to the Greasemonkey script; maybe that already does everything I want. A slight wrinkle, though: the most common reason I close the tab I'm reading and then come back later is that I'm going from one computer to another (between home and work mostly). I'm assuming there's no way for me to reconcile or sync the two without it being handled on the server side, but I could be wrong. Am I?
posted by albrecht at 8:13 AM on March 24, 2010
Yeah, that's the kind of thing that would be very helpful for me. Thanks for pointing me to the Greasemonkey script; maybe that already does everything I want. A slight wrinkle, though: the most common reason I close the tab I'm reading and then come back later is that I'm going from one computer to another (between home and work mostly). I'm assuming there's no way for me to reconcile or sync the two without it being handled on the server side, but I could be wrong. Am I?
posted by albrecht at 8:13 AM on March 24, 2010
What we need is an offline MeFi reader application that downloads all new posts/comments since last visit in QWK format, lets you read/reply/reupload batches of replies, old school BBS style. That would be beyond badass.
posted by jbickers at 8:29 AM on March 24, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by jbickers at 8:29 AM on March 24, 2010 [4 favorites]
The greasemonkey solution is the most elegant one going at this point; if you want something that's more portable and don't mind a kluge, though, you can do this with your favorites:
Favorite your milestone comment. Close the tab, time passes, return to the thread. Search for "-]" in reverse order from the bottom of the thread. The first match is the last comment that you favorited.
Everything you've favorited in a thread will read either "[1 favorite -]" if you're the only favoriter or "[n favorites -]" if others have faved it as well, assuming you're not by some other means altering how favorites are displayed on your computer. That "-]" is your anchor.
As far as doing a "...since you last read" thing on mefi itself, we don't have any plans to. We've talked about reasons for not doing this server-side a few time in the past when this sort of request has come up, and the short answer is that it doesn't scale—an individual managing this stuff client-side with the greasemonkey script only has to keep track of their person placeholder info, which the average computer is far more than capable of. The server would have to keep track of everyone's, which is a much, much bigger task and not something we want to introduce to our already sometimes punishing load.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:34 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
Favorite your milestone comment. Close the tab, time passes, return to the thread. Search for "-]" in reverse order from the bottom of the thread. The first match is the last comment that you favorited.
Everything you've favorited in a thread will read either "[1 favorite -]" if you're the only favoriter or "[n favorites -]" if others have faved it as well, assuming you're not by some other means altering how favorites are displayed on your computer. That "-]" is your anchor.
As far as doing a "...since you last read" thing on mefi itself, we don't have any plans to. We've talked about reasons for not doing this server-side a few time in the past when this sort of request has come up, and the short answer is that it doesn't scale—an individual managing this stuff client-side with the greasemonkey script only has to keep track of their person placeholder info, which the average computer is far more than capable of. The server would have to keep track of everyone's, which is a much, much bigger task and not something we want to introduce to our already sometimes punishing load.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:34 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
Favorite your milestone comment. Close the tab, time passes, return to the thread. Search for "-]" in reverse order from the bottom of the thread. The first match is the last comment that you favorited.
Thanks, I'll try that! (Thanks also for introducing me to the word "kluge.") Now if only there were a greasemonkey script that did that search automatically... Hint hint, people smarter than me.
Anyway, I'm content if you want to close this up. Generally speaking, though, I'd like to make the comment that Mefi doesn't do a great job of making very long threads readable (which I'm sure you're aware of), and maybe that's just an impossible task. But that's why I was hoping that the same "since your last post" logic in Recent Activity could maybe be painlessly applied to "since your last favorite," since these are already things that you're keeping track of, and presumably the actual computation is not that intensive.
posted by albrecht at 9:11 AM on March 24, 2010
Thanks, I'll try that! (Thanks also for introducing me to the word "kluge.") Now if only there were a greasemonkey script that did that search automatically... Hint hint, people smarter than me.
Anyway, I'm content if you want to close this up. Generally speaking, though, I'd like to make the comment that Mefi doesn't do a great job of making very long threads readable (which I'm sure you're aware of), and maybe that's just an impossible task. But that's why I was hoping that the same "since your last post" logic in Recent Activity could maybe be painlessly applied to "since your last favorite," since these are already things that you're keeping track of, and presumably the actual computation is not that intensive.
posted by albrecht at 9:11 AM on March 24, 2010
(Thanks also for introducing me to the word "kluge.")
Well, I did not know that - /kloo'gee/ not /kluhj/.
posted by tellurian at 5:18 PM on March 24, 2010
Well, I did not know that - /kloo'gee/ not /kluhj/.
posted by tellurian at 5:18 PM on March 24, 2010
All RFP's, especially for CRA's, are to be submitted on TP to your FMT.
posted by not_on_display at 9:54 PM on March 24, 2010
posted by not_on_display at 9:54 PM on March 24, 2010
What about using Dropbox to keep your greasemonkey scripts synchronised? Like here.
The only problem is that I don't know for sure where greasemonkey actually stores persistent data. Also, this would only work if you always close your browser after using it.
posted by atrazine at 4:11 AM on March 25, 2010
The only problem is that I don't know for sure where greasemonkey actually stores persistent data. Also, this would only work if you always close your browser after using it.
posted by atrazine at 4:11 AM on March 25, 2010
No, actually that won't work. GM saves data in the about:config database. You need some way to keep that synchronised between machines.
posted by atrazine at 4:17 AM on March 25, 2010
posted by atrazine at 4:17 AM on March 25, 2010
Firefox Weave syncs the about:config database on my computers.
posted by crysflame at 6:10 PM on March 27, 2010
posted by crysflame at 6:10 PM on March 27, 2010
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48 total comments. 48 since the last comment you read. 25 since your most recent comment, last 10 shown below...
You don't need to favourite; you can use Greasemonkey. The MeFi Navigator script gives you a visual bookmark at the last comment you read in the thread itself (plus several other nifty features), but it also modifies Recent Activity as shown above.
posted by maudlin at 7:56 AM on March 24, 2010