Excuse me, you're hovering.

November 19, 2012 4:07 PM

Was thinking it could be cool to have the title of posts available as hover text when you hover over the "more inside" or "X comments" links.

Sometimes posters make the title more descriptive than what they've written in the description area, so this could alleviate that a bit. I realize some browsers let you see the path of the link that you're clicking on, but this is a bit more accessible. Not even sure if this is possible but what do y'all think?

posted by pwally to Feature Requests at 4:07 PM (73 comments total)

You can already see the title of the post when you hover over [more inside], at least in firefox and chrome non-mobile browsers.
posted by elizardbits at 4:19 PM on November 19, 2012

Or do you mean like a little pop-up thingy by the cursor? Cause that would be cool.
posted by elizardbits at 4:20 PM on November 19, 2012

Yup I mean the pop-up thingy.
posted by pwally at 4:22 PM on November 19, 2012

hoverpony! I like.
posted by mannequito at 4:36 PM on November 19, 2012

I would ride this pony.
posted by grouse at 4:49 PM on November 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

I would kiss this pony on the mouth.
posted by lalex at 4:52 PM on November 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

I would disguise myself as this pony, because I like attention.

I'd also ignore the creeping dread of the discovery of my deceit, quietly, desperately trying to believe it'll be okay, if I can just pretend hard enough that I don't know they'll eventually see how I betrayed them. But I do know. I know.
posted by stebulus at 5:20 PM on November 19, 2012 [4 favorites]

I would boil this pony to make hide glue. Can never have too much hide glue.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:21 PM on November 19, 2012 [5 favorites]

I would huff the pony glue.
posted by mannequito at 5:35 PM on November 19, 2012

Sounds like a good idea.
posted by codacorolla at 5:57 PM on November 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

I am a pony in disguise.
posted by Nomyte at 5:59 PM on November 19, 2012

Can we trade lives, Nomyte?
posted by stebulus at 6:04 PM on November 19, 2012

I would ride this hover pony like Michael J Fox.
posted by arcticseal at 6:37 PM on November 19, 2012

Does this hover pony work on water?
posted by P.o.B. at 7:09 PM on November 19, 2012

Why are you riding Michael J Fox? Get off him!
posted by hippybear at 7:09 PM on November 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is kind of turning into a creepy pony, but I support it nonetheless.
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 7:12 PM on November 19, 2012 [7 favorites]

This would be kind of nice, if it wasn't too much work to create.
posted by Greg Nog at 7:31 PM on November 19, 2012

This seems a little counter-intuitive. The "more inside" and "comments" are at the end of the post and the title at the beginning. I'm not saying we should make glue, but perhaps the pony needs a leg x-ray.
posted by Jahaza at 7:36 PM on November 19, 2012

The post title doesn't show on the front page, just on the actual post page. The pony requested is a mouseover on the front page, as nothing on the front page indicates the title.

Also: posting on a pony.
posted by maudlin at 7:45 PM on November 19, 2012

I am a pony in disguise.

Can we trade lives, Nomyte?

I would, but I am actually disguised as another pony, hot on the suspect's trail in this pony noir world.
posted by Nomyte at 7:49 PM on November 19, 2012 [5 favorites]

Okay I kissed Michael J. Fox on the mouth, can we have this pony now?
posted by griphus at 7:59 PM on November 19, 2012

If you hover over a comments link or a more inside link the mouse over text shows the URL of the thread page (as normal) and the URL includes the post title as the last part of the link.

Though the hover over text would be nifty too.
posted by Mitheral at 8:21 PM on November 19, 2012

I like the lack of "tool-tips" -- they get in the way of other info. Since the post title shows up in the url while hovering, in an out of the way spot (my browser, ymmv), I can read it.

For instance, for this post in my browser and my monitor at my resolution, hovering over [more inside] would block the time stamp, number of comments and (new comments) if it appeared below [more inside].

griphus, I hope you don't consider that a wasted kiss -- but I say no pony.

I like the seldom used tool-tip thing with the dotted-line underscore, though. At least I know I'm getting a tool-tip, and usually a welcome one at that.
posted by wallabear at 8:55 PM on November 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

To be honest, I'd rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God's sake.
posted by Nomyte at 9:27 PM on November 19, 2012 [4 favorites]

I'd commit bestiality with this pony. I'm saying I'd have sex with this animal. The pony. I'd fuck that pony.
posted by cmoj at 10:02 PM on November 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

Are we still talking about a feature request?
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:10 PM on November 19, 2012 [5 favorites]

Were we ever talking about a feature request?
posted by Karmeliet at 11:23 PM on November 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

When a pony says "NO", it means NO! The same goes for Michael J. Fox.
posted by P.o.B. at 11:31 PM on November 19, 2012

Can we add the letter "s" to the end of favorite when you have only one favorite?

Having [1 favorites] feels so much more satisfying than [1 favorite].
posted by roboton666 at 11:34 PM on November 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

It feels like metafilter is rooting for me
posted by roboton666 at 11:36 PM on November 19, 2012

Doodle Pony!
posted by b33j at 3:19 AM on November 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

I am a pony disguised as another pony.
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:05 AM on November 20, 2012

MODS ARE ASLEEP

POST PONIES
posted by elizardbits at 5:41 AM on November 20, 2012 [3 favorites]

This doesn't feel like a good use of hover text to me. Typically, link titles are used to give more information about a link where there isn't enough space on the page. So the "more inside" link might have text that helps explain what will happen like "click to read the full post". Not every post has a "more inside" link. So the link title would go to the comments count, I guess. You'd hover over "23 comments" and expect to see something like "click to read comments on this post", but instead you'd get the post title.

If the root problem is that titles are important and need to be on the front page, we should discuss that. But this use of link titles seems like it's adding extra info in a place where it wouldn't be expected.
posted by pb (staff) at 6:36 AM on November 20, 2012 [4 favorites]

Don't you see the title if you look at where the link goes? i.e. doesn't the URL, which, in Firefox, shows in the bottom status bar, show you the title?
posted by bardophile at 6:45 AM on November 20, 2012

Sort of. You see the URL stub in the status bar which is very similar to the title. But there are cases where the title contains extended characters that won't work in a URL and they don't show up there. But most of the time, yeah, the URL stub and title are a pretty close match.
posted by pb (staff) at 6:47 AM on November 20, 2012

A title 'tool tip' in the comments link doesn't seem unnatural or counter-intuitive to me.

I think it's a good idea.
posted by mazola at 6:58 AM on November 20, 2012

When a pony says "NO", it means NO!

What if it says nay?
posted by stebulus at 7:27 AM on November 20, 2012 [4 favorites]

Feels redundant to me. Even in most mobiles can't you long-touch or hold or whatever it's called and see the resultant URL which includes a imo-darn-good-enough rendition of the post title?
posted by laconic skeuomorph at 7:41 AM on November 20, 2012

As much as I would love this hover pony, I think pb is right, it would make the site more obtuse for visitors and new users
posted by Blasdelb at 7:56 AM on November 20, 2012

And it would add more text to an already text-dense page, potentially obscuring other text, which would make me crazy, as I must be able to read all the text, all the time.
posted by EvaDestruction at 8:05 AM on November 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

Where's the glue factory ASCII art when you need it? (Seriously, anyone have a link?)
posted by grouse at 8:08 AM on November 20, 2012

Yeah, that this would be breaking an expectation about how hovers provide destination info seems like enough of a con that as much as I understand the idea I'd be against it as well.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:16 AM on November 20, 2012

This thread is like every user experience design conversation I've ever had at work.

including the pony parts
posted by davejay at 8:34 AM on November 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

My limerence for this pony is fading fast.
posted by never used baby shoes at 8:35 AM on November 20, 2012 [5 favorites]

Okay, fair enough.
posted by pwally at 8:45 AM on November 20, 2012

It's a slippery slope that leads to specifying username hover text on your profile page.
(posted by ceribus peribus [NOTSTAFF] on November 20)
posted by ceribus peribus at 8:52 AM on November 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

What if it says nay?

YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!
posted by P.o.B. at 9:52 AM on November 20, 2012

neigh
posted by P.o.B. at 9:52 AM on November 20, 2012

> ... this would be breaking an expectation about how hovers provide destination info seems like enough of a con that as much as I understand the idea I'd be against it as well.

I'm gonna go ahead and argue this one, because you can have it both ways, and browsers are designed to let you have it both ways.

The tooltip on a cursor hover is provided by the TITLE field. It doesn't interfere with displaying the HREF and TARGET values of an anchor tag, because those are displayed in the status bar (or, in Firefox, in an annoying little floaty thing on the lower left corner of the viewport).

Not a hell of a lot of help on moble UAs (like this iPad I'm currently writing on), but in that case the TITLE usually doesn't appear at all, and the user has to tap-hold and wait to read the URL in the popup dialog asking him/her to open, open in a new window, copy/save the link, or cancel.
posted by ardgedee at 11:06 AM on November 20, 2012 [4 favorites]

I think the title hover-over on [more inside] makes logical sense, though not on the comment count.
posted by maryr at 12:39 PM on November 20, 2012

I see right through this pony/horse.
posted by unliteral at 2:54 PM on November 20, 2012

It'd probably get abused as another way for people to be clever and jokey, like the tags.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 3:55 PM on November 20, 2012

People have always been clever and jokey with the titles.
posted by Mitheral at 5:28 PM on November 20, 2012

The presence of a title field that isn't displayed on the front page is goofy and counterintuitive. "Solving" that issue with baroque workarounds is not the way to go.
posted by contraption at 6:18 PM on November 20, 2012 [2 favorites]

The presence of a title field that isn't displayed on the front page is goofy and counterintuitive. "Solving" that issue with baroque workarounds is not the way to go.

posted by contraption at 6:18 PM on November 20

Hover this link to find out what I think of this comment.
posted by davejay at 8:12 PM on November 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

I dig a pony.
posted by bardic at 11:48 PM on November 20, 2012

It would be interesting, but I am really struggling to see the utility of this. Why do I need to know the title...? It's not usually very much more informative than the main text itself, if the question/post is written well.
posted by undue influence at 1:36 AM on November 21, 2012

So you can see how clever and jokey we are.
posted by mannequito at 1:49 AM on November 21, 2012

                 
posted by y2karl at 2:23 AM on November 21, 2012

IF I understand the poster's intention, couldn't this be accomplished with a Greasemonkey script? For example, insert some sort of text or icon that when hovered over will display the text of the "more inside" ?

I like the concept — especially with posts with many comments before I even see it — because I could hover to read the more inside without having to load many comments as well.

However, I mostly read the RSS feeds so I already see the "more inside" (I think), so this isn't a huge issue for me, personally, but I could see the benefit, especially to those of us with bandwidth limits.
posted by terrapin at 7:12 AM on November 21, 2012

OK, yes: "the root problem is that titles are important and need to be on the front page, we should discuss that."

Titles provide context for posts. MeFi is weird and annoying in how it structures content display.
posted by DarlingBri at 7:58 AM on November 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

The presence of a title field that isn't displayed on the front page is goofy and counterintuitive.

Exactly. Not sure I see the point of the titles they way they are used here.
posted by spaltavian at 8:33 AM on November 21, 2012

Cortex: If the root problem is that titles are important and need to be on the front page, we should discuss that.
Yes, let's discuss that. It is the root problem. A lot of people put a lot of effort into crafting excellent post titles, and then nobody notices them. Until somebody way down the thread says, "Oh, hey, I just noticed the title, very clever." Titles are listed in MeFi search results. Titles are listed in Recent Activity. Titles are listed in Favorites. Titles belong on the front page.
posted by beagle at 8:57 AM on November 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

I think the front page is fine like it is. Titles are something different for a Metafilter post than they are for, say, an essay. I think that putting in some intermediate measure, such as the alt-text, is a good idea, but putting titles directly on the front page is a bad one.
posted by codacorolla at 9:00 AM on November 21, 2012

Heh, that was pb and I just spent several seconds feeling confused and disoriented.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:00 AM on November 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Titles belong on the front page.

I think the front page is fine like it is.

How about titles on the front page becomes a user preference checkbox, just like whether links open in a new window, and whether you see the YouTube preview icon?
posted by jbickers at 9:14 AM on November 21, 2012 [3 favorites]

I'm -1 for including titles on the front page as visible text. Just looking at the front page and imagining titles, it would look pretty slick, but I think either (1) it would be confusing to have a little joke or pull-quote preceding each post, or (2) titles would start to become punchy slogans for the post, the way they are on HuffPost et al., and I'd be skimming the front page with a more superficial part of my brain than I do now.

Instead I think the clear solution is to rename the form field from "Post Title" to "Post Epigraph." Wikipedia's definition of epigraph perfectly describes how we use titles:

In literature, an epigraph is a phrase, quotation, or poem that is set at the beginning of a document or component. The epigraph may serve as a preface, as a summary, as a counter-example, or to link the work to a wider literary canon, either to invite comparison or to enlist a conventional context.

Since we don't want to look too pretentious, though, let's just agree to secretly think of the title as an epigraph, OK?
posted by jhc at 9:47 AM on November 21, 2012 [5 favorites]

Sorry about that, Cortex.
posted by beagle at 9:54 AM on November 21, 2012

You can already see the title of the post when you hover over [more inside]

The pony was inside you all along.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 4:55 PM on November 21, 2012

A lot of people put a lot of
effort into crafting excellent post
titles, and then nobody notices them.
Until somebody way down the thread
says, "Oh, hey, I just noticed the
title, very clever."

Well, 'excellent' titles in this sense means funny and clever. Is it really imperative that we change the way the site works to accommodate 'funny and clever'? As it is I see that the utility of titles is in Related Posts, to let you see (optimally) what the related post is about. So even if there is a reason we should have post titles on the front page - and I don't think we need them - it should not be because 'oh, some people put a lot of effort into titles'. It just doesn't follow.

At the same time, yeah, I like funny and clever post titles that are particularly inspired. But I don't think that that is the point of having titles, it's just an occasional thing that has become part of site culture.

And just because titles are everywhere doesn't mean they should be on the front page. The thing about having the main text of a post itself be the thing that grabs your attention is that it discourages linkbait-type titles like HuffPost. It's a particular way of presenting and obtaining information that is unique to Mefi, and I believe that is a good thing.
posted by undue influence at 11:22 PM on November 21, 2012

THis might help prevent the situation where somebody at about comment 3 makes the same joke as is already featured in the title, then posts an embarassed retraction at about comment 20, then overcome with mortification closes their account, changes their name, moves away, and eventually joins the French Foreign Legion.

I'm against it.
posted by Segundus at 7:57 AM on November 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

Why don't we just use a Javascript alert to pop up the title in its own little window whenever you load a post?
posted by 256 at 8:00 AM on November 23, 2012 [1 favorite]