The Zuck and Mathowie should put their heads together

June 11, 2010 1:21 PM

How 'bout implementing Facebook-style notifications, whereby you're notified of subsequent activity on threads that you've participated in or marked as favourite?

The underlying mechanisms seem to be implemented already, since each thread indicates there's "x new comments" since your last visit. The notification would just show a consolidated list of threads you're active in / have favourited, that have new activity.

posted by randomstriker to Feature Requests at 1:21 PM (20 comments total)

We try to keep the notifications down to a dull roar around here, but you do know about Recent Activity, right?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:24 PM on June 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yeah, follow your favorites on Recent Activity (hit the "My Favorites" tab).
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:30 PM on June 11, 2010 [2 favorites]

Oh.

I see :-)
posted by randomstriker at 1:36 PM on June 11, 2010

I think that is a brilliant idea....despite the fact that RSS can achieve the same objective, albeit through a more manual process.
posted by Cobalt at 1:42 PM on June 11, 2010

Oh.

I see too.
posted by Cobalt at 1:42 PM on June 11, 2010 [2 favorites]

I used this site for a year before I found Recent Activity. I lurked for a year or two before joining, so think I was conditioned to use only the stuff you get access to as a non-member.
posted by cjorgensen at 1:44 PM on June 11, 2010 [2 favorites]

Also, some of those threads that get 400+ comments might be a little much to handle with a notification each time. Of course, I say that with love and acknowledgment that everyone's comments are special and worthy of note. :)
posted by cranberrymonger at 1:54 PM on June 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

I do wish there was an RSS feed for recent activity sometimes, but I think pb said that would be too taxing on the server.
posted by smackfu at 1:55 PM on June 11, 2010

I wouldn't mind notifications for late answers to my AskMes. Like, say, only on threads that are older than a week, so I could avoid being overwhelmed by the flood of responses when my thread's still new.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 2:04 PM on June 11, 2010

I'm looking for a way to add comments to this thread. Is there a way to do that?
posted by GuyZero at 2:15 PM on June 11, 2010

No.
posted by infinitywaltz at 2:36 PM on June 11, 2010

"...or marked as favourite"

Tehloki would drown in notifications!
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 2:58 PM on June 11, 2010

I do wish there was an RSS feed for recent activity sometimes, but I think pb said that would be too taxing on the server.

I would too, especially since I tend to add every thread that appears on it to my RSS reader anyway¹. But I suspect that's still easier on the server than an RSS feed for RA, because the list of threads to retrieve is stored in my reader rather than the server having to generate it every time the feed URL is hit.

1: I'm doing this somewhat less since I made a Greasemonkey thing to add a thing to the top of Recent Activity to see what's been updated without having to scroll through it all.
posted by FishBike at 3:09 PM on June 11, 2010

/puts jQuery away.
posted by Artw at 4:41 PM on June 11, 2010

On the idea though, I have a question.

Why a month for the follow up MeMails? I don't know about most other users, but I pretty much have everything I'm going to have within a week. So why not have the follow up message come sooner?
posted by theichibun at 6:41 PM on June 11, 2010

Mathowie always kind of struck me as the Anti-Zuck- and I think that's a good thing.
posted by dunkadunc at 8:22 PM on June 11, 2010

"Oh.

I see :-)"

"Oh.

I see too."

Sokath, his eyes opened!
posted by Eideteker at 9:53 PM on June 11, 2010

Yuck, please do NOT get Facebook in my Metafilter.
posted by IndigoRain at 12:25 AM on June 12, 2010 [4 favorites]

Being the Anti-Zuck is indeed a good thing. say it loud! anti-suck!
posted by dabitch at 10:28 AM on June 12, 2010

I can't stand the Zucker.
posted by lris at 10:57 AM on June 12, 2010