Is there something to record where I've been?

February 12, 2013 8:31 AM

I often read threads without commenting and thus they don't show up in recent activity. Is there a greasemonkey/firefox plugin that can show me which threads I have read and record my place in them - other than opening history up every time?
posted by marienbad to MetaFilter-Related at 8:31 AM (33 comments total)

I believe MetaFilter Scroll Tag does this. I'm not sure it generates a list of the threads you've been in, but it does record every thread you've visited and your last marked place in those threads.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:34 AM on February 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

Metafilter Scroll Tag. It doesn't show you which threads you've read, but it will show you the last comment read from within a thread.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 8:34 AM on February 12, 2013

There is also the "favorites as bookmarks" theory.
posted by maryr at 8:39 AM on February 12, 2013 [2 favorites]

Yeah! Thanks mefites, that's exactly what I wanted. Mods - feel free to close this up.
posted by marienbad at 8:50 AM on February 12, 2013

You could also struggle for minutes to come up with a tangentially related comment.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 9:06 AM on February 12, 2013

Tangents! Ha! Funny thing about tangents:
posted by Rory Marinich at 9:08 AM on February 12, 2013 [2 favorites]

They spend a lot of time in the sun?
posted by arto at 9:11 AM on February 12, 2013 [2 favorites]

Ha! I'll cosine that.
posted by dersins at 9:28 AM on February 12, 2013

You could also struggle for minutes to come up with a tangentially related comment.

"This too shall pass" always works, although it can be a bit awkward in food threads.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:34 AM on February 12, 2013 [5 favorites]

I often read threads without commenting

Thank you. Much better than the other way around.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:36 AM on February 12, 2013 [5 favorites]

hmm I wonder. Tangerines and Tangents must be etymology connected somehow..
posted by royalsong at 9:40 AM on February 12, 2013

as long as they're not entymologically connected...shudder
posted by dabug at 10:11 AM on February 12, 2013

then there's always the scarlet tanager.
posted by sciencegeek at 10:22 AM on February 12, 2013

This very much needs to be standard and not an addon.
posted by Drinky Die at 10:33 AM on February 12, 2013

"This too shall pass" always works

Obligatory XKCD
posted by TwoWordReview at 11:08 AM on February 12, 2013

I always comment in these threads.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:49 AM on February 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

I only comment when iamkimiam does.
posted by gingerbeer at 11:57 AM on February 12, 2013

I only comment when it rains /mid90snostgaliafactor10
posted by The Whelk at 11:59 AM on February 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

I’m only happy when The Whelk comments.
posted by bongo_x at 12:10 PM on February 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

I usually comment out of the rain.
posted by Cranberry at 12:20 PM on February 12, 2013

Drinky Die: "This very much needs to be standard and not an addon."

Making this standard would involve a database hit every time a logged in user opened a thread and one when they closed a thread or otherwise navigated away.
posted by Mitheral at 12:32 PM on February 12, 2013

I don't know anything about the technical stuff, I just know Something Awful and most other modern forums I read don't have any problem keeping track of where I've been and the last read comment.
posted by Drinky Die at 12:57 PM on February 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

Metafilter does that just fine - threads that you've visited have a (X new comments) marker on them. This pony is of a different color (a way to stick threads into some sort of reading list). It comes up fairly often.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:59 PM on February 12, 2013

You could also struggle for minutes to come up with a tangentially related comment.

I would approach the problem from another angle.
posted by Devils Rancher at 1:05 PM on February 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

I don't know anything about the technical stuff, I just know Something Awful and most other modern forums I read don't have any problem keeping track of where I've been and the last read comment.

It's certainly not a question of whether it's strictly technically achievable, but it's also not costless in terms of added load or complexity, setting aside entirely implementation and maintenance.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:13 PM on February 12, 2013

If we're down to haggling on price...
posted by seanmpuckett at 3:42 PM on February 12, 2013

If you have to ask, you can't afford it.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:48 PM on February 12, 2013

Remember this one?
posted by laconic skeuomorph at 4:21 PM on February 12, 2013

Not sure if metafilterhistory is a great tag for this thread (not that it matters much in the greater scheme of things, but that tag has generally been used for Threads of Historical Import).
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:28 PM on February 12, 2013

I really like this idea.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 5:01 PM on February 12, 2013

Metafilter does that just fine - threads that you've visited have a (X new comments) marker on them.

That thing doesn't really work right.
posted by Drinky Die at 6:17 PM on February 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

I like to post one line throwaway comments in threads i'm interested in.
posted by chunking express at 11:34 AM on February 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

It just goes to show, you can't be too careful!
posted by SpiffyRob at 10:26 AM on February 14, 2013