Are there some metafilter scripts?

February 24, 2013 4:28 PM

I find lately there have been numerous interesting threads, and comments to those threads. Is there a way to have the most favourited comments show up at the top? I don't generally partake in discussions and prefer to read.
posted by Clementines4ever to Feature Requests at 4:28 PM (24 comments total)

Give GraphFi a try. It doesn't sort the comments, but it puts a nav bar on the left that does what you're looking to do. I like it.
posted by phunniemee at 4:31 PM on February 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

Often the comments need the context of the surrounding conversation to make any sense, or to get their full value. So no, what you're asking for kind of misses the point of the whole thing.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 4:35 PM on February 24, 2013 [3 favorites]

If you hit the "Popular" button up on the main title bar you can find the most Favorited comments and posts of the most current time....... junction.
posted by The Whelk at 4:35 PM on February 24, 2013

On the one hand, carsonb is right on the money with regards to the probable negative impact on comprehension when context is removed.

I can also see cjorgensen's point though (never thought I'd say that!).
posted by ODiV at 4:37 PM on February 24, 2013 [23 favorites]

Seconding GraphFi for when you just want to check out the signal in monster threads. It also conveniently links quoted comments so you can get some context.
posted by no regrets, coyote at 4:37 PM on February 24, 2013

There is a GreaseMonkey script, Metafilter favorite posts filter, that sort of does this, though I've never used it.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:44 PM on February 24, 2013

Well, I have no idea what ODiV is talking about.
posted by crossoverman at 4:45 PM on February 24, 2013

Thank you phunniemee and Brandon Blatcher!
posted by Clementines4ever at 4:51 PM on February 24, 2013

Well, I have no idea what ODiV is talking about.

I assume it's a joke about comments removed from context.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 4:52 PM on February 24, 2013

Also, if you prefer Safari, then the NinjaKit extension lets you run Greasemonkey scripts under that browser. Just installed it and the Favorite Posts filter and it works fine. Interesting way of reading threads.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:52 PM on February 24, 2013

I assume it's a joke about comments removed from context.

Oh! *scrolls up to press [+] button*
posted by crossoverman at 4:59 PM on February 24, 2013

For something slightly more unobtrusive, you can also try a GreaseMonkey script called "Metafilter MultiFavorited Multiwidth".

It doesn't rearrange threads or hide non-favorited posts, but it does put a relatively subtle visual designator next to popular comments, with a width correlated to the number of favorites the comment has.

After a long day of reading MeFi for completeness while at work, I find it pretty easy to scroll through threads and pause for the notable comments when I'm feeling a "just the hits" kind of Metafilter evening.
posted by Hadroed at 5:07 PM on February 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

I actually wrote a JavaScript bookmarklet to sort comments by number of favorites, and have since ditched it in favor of GraphFi, which in addition to letting you pick out comment with a lot of favorites also lets you see comments that have gotten a lot of responses.

A+, would install again.
posted by benito.strauss at 5:30 PM on February 24, 2013

Another vote for GraphFi, big help especially on long threads.
posted by arcticseal at 5:36 PM on February 24, 2013

When I am skimming like this (Come on, we all do it. Well, except those of us who have favorites turned off.) I just get scrolling and keep an eye out for anything with more than about 15 favorites. I suppose I could use a script, but this system works pretty well I've found.
posted by Scientist at 8:07 PM on February 24, 2013

What if you miss reading something that's going to have 25 favorites five minutes from when you skimmed by? WHAT THEN SIR?
posted by carsonb at 8:13 PM on February 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Anyone know who did GraphFi? It would be cool if it could do a very basic linear regression of # of favorites on thread position and optionally give us the positive residuals instead of the raw counts. Since the early comments always have more favorites, it biases us towards them to give us the raw counts, but if you give us the ones that are much higher than we would expect given the gradual decline in attention as the comments go on, that would highlight the genuinely well-liked ones even better. Just an idea. (Inspired, admittedly, by my tendency to arrive and comment in nearly-dead threads long after the party's over; eg, case in point.)
posted by chortly at 10:15 PM on February 24, 2013

Mod note: Sorry, we don't allow JavaScript in links. If you want to share a bookmarklet, you might put the code on Pastebin and link to it.
posted by pb (staff) at 7:53 AM on February 25, 2013

Anyone know who did GraphFi?

It was tirl. I know this because GraphFi stopped working for me one day, so I looked at the source. Turns out it pulls in the code from http://marks.tirl.org/src/graphfi/bm.js, and tirl.org had stopped resolving for a little while.

But if you'd like to play with the code, he's put it on Github.
posted by benito.strauss at 12:14 PM on February 25, 2013

Scripts I use (and cannot use a non-greasemonkey browser to view MeFi without!):

• Mefi deleted posts
• MeFi Navigator
• Metafilter MultiFavorited Multiwidt...
• Mefiquote
• Metafilter mark scientist contribut...
• Metafilter mark librarian contribut...
• HowlsOfOutrage
• Metafilter Heavy Discussion Count
• Metafilter Next Post Timer

All can be found on userscripts.org
posted by wcfields at 5:56 PM on February 25, 2013

I'll bite: What does HowlsOfOutrage do?
posted by maryr at 5:58 PM on February 25, 2013

HowlsOfOutrage allows you to see who favorited a post by hovering over the [x favorites] counter. It's a very positive kind of outrage.
posted by beryllium at 8:06 PM on February 25, 2013

Here's a webpage with a bookmarklet that will let you sort comments by favourites.

I don't recommend using it all the time, but it's good in huge threads without much discussion. For example, the "Give me an example of X" threads on the green.

Sorry about the JavaScript pb, I didn't mean to break any rules.
posted by vasi at 11:56 PM on February 25, 2013

Sorry about the JavaScript pb, I didn't mean to break any rules.

Oh, it's no problem. The HTML filters garbled it and it wasn't working so I just removed it. Thanks for posting the link to it instead.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:12 AM on February 26, 2013