Best Of v. Sidebar

July 10, 2012 1:00 PM

Given the existence of the BestOf blog (which is lovely) what is the current role of the (also lovely, of course!) Sidebar? Is the Sidebar now like the Best Of BestOf? Or are they for featuring different sorts of things?
posted by davidjmcgee to MetaFilter-Related at 1:00 PM (49 comments total)

Best Of gets basically everything on the sidebar plus the larger often-with-photos new sort of highlight posts, basically, though now and then there's stuff that's more inside baseball mefite stuff that might only get mentioned on the sidebar and not Best Of.

Venn diagram stuff, basically. The sidebar is still basically what it's always been; Best Of is just an additional way to present most of that stuff and also some newer kinds of things as well.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:07 PM on July 10, 2012 [2 favorites]

A couple for-examples:

- a great standalone comment would likely get posted to both

- a mefi-related survey or metatalk type event would be likely to hit only the sidebar and not Best Of since it's less for public consumption

- a neat front page post might make good Best Of fodder for non-regular readers but isn't the sort of thing we tend to sidebar
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:12 PM on July 10, 2012 [1 favorite]

Cool. Thanks!
posted by davidjmcgee at 1:17 PM on July 10, 2012

Yeah it's funny we were just talking about this today. I often don't think about it too much but sidebar stuff used to be purely cool comments and/or inside baseball things. The BestOf is often highlighting bigger deal stuff that might make sense to the non-inside baseball crowd.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:38 PM on July 10, 2012

BestOf makes Flipboard delicious.
posted by Iteki at 1:51 PM on July 10, 2012 [3 favorites]

HUGE *snaps* for best of. It's already a awesome part of the site.
posted by JimmyJames at 2:09 PM on July 10, 2012 [1 favorite]

Hey! I have a question about the Best Of blog: why doesn't it have a mobile stylesheet like the rest of Metafilter? I'm primarily reading MeFi on my phone these days, and looking at the Best Of blog is tricky.
posted by ocherdraco at 2:29 PM on July 10, 2012

Oh hey, while we're all here, pony request for the best of site...

I end up accidentally clicking it a lot because it's so close to recent activity. It would be awesome if it had navigation links up top like the rest of MeFi so that I can get where I want with out hitting my back button first. (Or perhaps I could be more careful/less lazy.)
posted by phunniemee at 2:46 PM on July 10, 2012

Those two comments by cortex sure explained the heck outta the concept concisely. Someone that actually does that stuff should stick that on the wiki.
posted by lazaruslong at 2:47 PM on July 10, 2012

I end up accidentally clicking it a lot because it's so close to recent activity

I did this at least twelve times over the weekend so I totally feel you.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 2:57 PM on July 10, 2012

Ie the sidebar is MetaFilterFilter and the bestof blog is MetaFilterFilterFilter.
posted by fleacircus at 3:05 PM on July 10, 2012

why doesn't it have a mobile stylesheet like the rest of Metafilter?

It does if your phone's browser supports modern CSS. If you're looking at Best Of on a small screen you should see a version of the site without the sidebar. Here's a screenshot on the iPhone.
posted by pb (staff) at 3:10 PM on July 10, 2012

Ie the sidebar is MetaFilterFilter and the bestof blog is MetaFilterFilterFilter.

Nah, the sidebar is MetaFilterFilter and the bestof blog is MetaFilterFilter the 12" dance mix.
posted by pompomtom at 4:10 PM on July 10, 2012

I got the DJ Earwirm Mix, off the fucking hook.
posted by The Whelk at 4:17 PM on July 10, 2012

Hmmmm... That's not what it looks like for me (I'm on an Android phone). I'll see if I can get a screenshot somehow.
posted by ocherdraco at 5:17 PM on July 10, 2012

What version of Android do you have? And are you using the default browser? It's testing ok for me in the default browser in Android 2.2.
posted by pb (staff) at 5:25 PM on July 10, 2012

Here's a screenshot of that on Android 4.1 mobile, but that's kind of an outlier at the moment. Looks like it's displaying the full site?
posted by Burhanistan at 5:25 PM on July 10, 2012

That's with the default browser. Same thing with Chrome.
posted by Burhanistan at 5:26 PM on July 10, 2012

The sidebar should disappear if the width of the browser is less than 950 pixels. You can try it out in a desktop browser by resizing the window. Not sure why the Android browser isn't picking that up in some cases. It's working ok in the emulator, but I haven't tried out 4.1 specifically.
posted by pb (staff) at 5:34 PM on July 10, 2012

Hell, it's all so fragmented and probably will change with the next rev. Just make it available through Google Currents and we can call it even!
posted by Burhanistan at 5:36 PM on July 10, 2012

Actually, it looks pretty good on Google Currents. Well, the individual pages do, the list view only so-so, but that's what it will do for any RSS feed.
posted by Burhanistan at 5:44 PM on July 10, 2012

Here's what I see. Android 2.3.6. Threes no sidebar, but the page loads super zoomed in, unlike the rest of Metafilter, which doesn't seem to have that issue.
posted by ocherdraco at 6:22 PM on July 10, 2012

Threes = There's
posted by ocherdraco at 6:22 PM on July 10, 2012

get an iphone
posted by desjardins at 6:36 PM on July 10, 2012

posted from my pc
posted by desjardins at 6:36 PM on July 10, 2012

I always hit the "popular" link when I'm aiming for recent activity on my iPad, and man, what a rabbit hole that is. It's a wonder I've got time to eat.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:51 PM on July 10, 2012 [3 favorites]

I got the DJ Earwirm Mix

CHOON!
posted by octobersurprise at 6:53 PM on July 10, 2012

I did some tweaking for Android. You might take another look and see if it looks better.
posted by pb (staff) at 7:36 PM on July 10, 2012

Thanks, pb! Here's what it looks like for me now.
posted by ocherdraco at 8:00 PM on July 10, 2012

Oh hey, there's a best of page. I totally knew that and today was absolutely, positively, definitely *not* the first day I ever visited it. I swear.
posted by item at 6:28 AM on July 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Because we'll be receiving a participation grade here, right?
posted by item at 6:29 AM on July 11, 2012

The REAL question here is: why doesn't the best-of blog have a sidebar, to highlight the best of the best-of blog? Side-blogging the blog-best of the best-of blog would be the best. I hope the mods log this blessed suggestion that I've pressed, and when the side-blog's been addressed, they live-pod the side-blog of the best-of-blog, as a test. I'll never rest unless this suggestion clogs the chest of every mod-blogger - or, if they're unimpressed, let's wrest the pod-blog from those mod-clods (just a jest! - don't flog me, Ms West) and clog that pod-blog of the best-of blog with a sidelog, in a fog of protest.

But maybe you all have a different opinion.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 6:52 AM on July 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

Sounds like you just want a homeopathic "Best Of". Here you go:

Lick [[[[here]]]] for homeopathic site highlights.
posted by Burhanistan at 6:59 AM on July 11, 2012

I'm glad this got asked; I had just assumed Best Of was pretty much the same posts as the sidebar and had been wondering why the sidebar hadn't been updated recently. I was especially glad to see physicsmatt's posts on the Higgs Boson featured there.

Guess where I will be spending my spare time today!
posted by TedW at 8:27 AM on July 11, 2012

Another question regarding the side bar and Best Of blog: do y'all look at everything that's been flagged fantastic, regardless of number of flags, or does it take a critical mass of flagging before you take a look?
posted by ocherdraco at 9:38 AM on July 11, 2012

I can't speak to Matt and Jess's habits, but I tend to glance through everything that's got a couple flags or more on it when I have a quiet moment. Not everything ends up feeling like it'd work super well taken out of context as a post, but it's not a "must have x fantastics to get considered" thing or anything.

But I'm also way, way slower on the draw than Matt and Jess so there's been very little of my byline on the blog so far in any case. I need to get back to posting Music stuff up there.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:48 AM on July 11, 2012

I think the display list on our admin panel shows us everything flagged more than twice? So if there's something random that you think ONLY YOU may have seen for some nutty reason feel free to email it to us. I look at everything in the list and I'm pretty sure mathowie does also.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:49 AM on July 11, 2012

More questions! Does your display separate out whether something was flagged as fantastic vs. flagged for any other reason?
posted by davidjmcgee at 10:43 AM on July 11, 2012

Yes! There's a little special place for only fantastic flags on our interface, called "good spots", underneath the normal flag queue which is called "hotspots". Here's a peek at what we can see.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:46 AM on July 11, 2012

Rad, thanks.
posted by davidjmcgee at 11:04 AM on July 11, 2012

Since it looks like the two venues have mostly overlapping content, but with the plan being for some sorts of posts to only show up on one or the other, any chance for a single RSS feed that would display both but with the duplicates removed?
posted by nobody at 11:07 AM on July 11, 2012

Right now we have it set up so all posts show up on the Best Of blog. So if you want everything, that's the feed to subscribe to.
posted by pb (staff) at 11:17 AM on July 11, 2012

Ah, got it. Thanks. (Cortex's first comment above suggested otherwise.)
posted by nobody at 11:19 AM on July 11, 2012

Cortex's first comment above suggested otherwise.

Yeah. Now I'm confuzzled again. I think for me it comes down to "subscribe to Best Of, check Sidebar monthly."
posted by davidjmcgee at 11:24 AM on July 11, 2012

I can see the case for having stuff on the sidebar only—and I believe we talked about that—but we're not set up for it behind-the-scenes. If we end up rearranging things so that happens we'll announce it in MetaTalk.
posted by pb (staff) at 11:27 AM on July 11, 2012

Yeah, I may just be wrong about the actual state of things. In which case, okay! What he said.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:34 AM on July 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Here's a peek at what we can see.

I love the behind-the-scenes stuff.

Next April Fool's, you guys should set everyone's view to mod view. Just don't give anyone power. Just kidding...you should totally give me power. I promise I'll be nice. Gold stars for everyone!
posted by phunniemee at 11:45 AM on July 11, 2012

What he said.

Yeah, I just double-checked the code to make sure. It's confusing because on the admin side there's a form to make a new post. And that form has two spots: one for sideblog text and one for Best Of text. They can be slightly different. We have more space on the blog, so we can post longer excerpts and pictures and inline music players, and all that.

So it looks like you can just post something to the sideblog if you leave the Best Of spot blank. But the code for the Best Of blog says, "No specific Best Of text? Use the sideblog text."
posted by pb (staff) at 11:51 AM on July 11, 2012

Here's a peek at what we can see.

I don't even see the flags anymore, I see blond, brunette, redhead...
posted by radwolf76 at 2:12 PM on July 11, 2012