Announcing My FanFare December 22, 2014 4:04 PM   Subscribe

We just added My FanFare: a way to tell FanFare which shows, movies, or podcasts are your favorites and then limit what you see to posts about those favorites.

Look for the new "+ My FanFare" link in the Show Info box on threads at FanFare. Click that, and the show the thread is about will be added to your list of favorite shows. Repeat as necessary. Then you can visit your My FanFare page and see only posts about those shows in your list.

You can remove a show by spotting it in the list of "My FanFare Shows" in the sidebar and clicking the [x] to remove it.

Let us know about problems here and we'll get them fixed up.
posted by pb (staff) to Feature Requests at 4:04 PM (77 comments total) 31 users marked this as a favorite

yay!
posted by poffin boffin at 4:11 PM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]


Woo!
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:12 PM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]


Just when the front page of FanFare went from being a slow trudge to a growing torrent, great timing!
posted by carsonb at 4:13 PM on December 22, 2014


This is good news; thanks! Maybe it would help to have the +My FanFare text set against a darker background though, like a badge?
posted by heyho at 4:16 PM on December 22, 2014


Yeah, it looks fine in default white but in Dark Mode it really sort of blends in on a lot of them it turns out.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:18 PM on December 22, 2014


Also, I don't have an X to remove shows from my My FanFare list of shows.
posted by heyho at 4:19 PM on December 22, 2014


heyho, look in the sidebar for a box labeled "My FanFare Shows". You should see the x there.
posted by pb (staff) at 4:22 PM on December 22, 2014


Oh, my bad. It's there. I was looking for it in the wrong place!
posted by heyho at 4:22 PM on December 22, 2014


Yeah, it looks fine in default white but in Dark Mode it really sort of blends in on a lot of them it turns out.

Definitely true on show pages. We might have to do something different there. In the meantime you could always use the link in the Show Info box on thread pages.
posted by pb (staff) at 4:24 PM on December 22, 2014


ok, just gave the + My FanFare link a background color in dark mode on show pages.
posted by pb (staff) at 4:41 PM on December 22, 2014


The best!
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 4:43 PM on December 22, 2014


Yay!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:55 PM on December 22, 2014


Awesome! Thanks, mods!
posted by tautological at 5:11 PM on December 22, 2014


Wonderful!
posted by Dashy at 5:12 PM on December 22, 2014


THIS IS AWESOME
(clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)
THIS IS AWESOME
(clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)
posted by Etrigan at 5:13 PM on December 22, 2014 [4 favorites]


Super excited!
posted by Night_owl at 5:17 PM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]


Etrigan, I was misparsing those as Deep In The Heart Of Texas claps and was so confused.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:19 PM on December 22, 2014 [2 favorites]


Let's imagine an extremely lazy member of MetaFilter. The sort of person who cannot take time out of a busy commenting schedule to select or deselect or any of that, the sort of person who expects their FanFare comments to automagically generate a selection for their My FanFare, based on what they've commented on already. Would such a lazy, lazy member feel lucky or unlucky today?
posted by cgc373 at 5:23 PM on December 22, 2014


Hm, I guess there's no way to filter out rewatches from currently running episodes of a show you are subscribed to? Aside from just scrolling past them, obvsly.
posted by poffin boffin at 5:25 PM on December 22, 2014


No, there's no filtering by discussion type or automagical population of your favorite shows. Those are both things we can think about for our next round of additions. We're starting with a simple list of shows.
posted by pb (staff) at 5:29 PM on December 22, 2014


Oh, that was more of a "did i miss a thing that is already there" than a "here is my list of demands" but thanks for considering catering to my mad whims.
posted by poffin boffin at 5:31 PM on December 22, 2014 [2 favorites]


Thank you for this lovely holiday present!
posted by ocherdraco at 5:49 PM on December 22, 2014 [2 favorites]


Hooray!
posted by ChuraChura at 6:27 PM on December 22, 2014


This is a neat feature, and FanFare in general is super great. May it long thrive. An excellent expansion for the site.
posted by Miko at 7:08 PM on December 22, 2014 [3 favorites]


You are the best peoples in the world.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 8:11 PM on December 22, 2014 [2 favorites]


Bravo!
posted by homunculus at 8:35 PM on December 22, 2014


Love this!
posted by radioamy at 8:43 PM on December 22, 2014


So excited. Thank you!
posted by _Mona_ at 10:10 PM on December 22, 2014


Nice Christmas present from Metafilter, I've been waiting for this one. Thanks!
posted by Drinky Die at 10:11 PM on December 22, 2014 [2 favorites]


Huzzah! Thank you 0/
posted by Faintdreams at 12:33 AM on December 23, 2014


question, is +my Fanfare only available on tv shows right now? I can't seem to see it available for any movie.

For bug reporting reasons - I am on an ipad 2 using safari browser under ios 7 (latest version just before 8) and tried a few movie but most recent was the Go post.
posted by Faintdreams at 12:35 AM on December 23, 2014 [1 favorite]


Yay, great tool. Thanks pb & crew!

One thing though: Is it (or will it be) possible to filter out entire categories? At this point, I am not interested in discussing podcasts but enjoy the FF front page as a way to discover new, great shows (like The Affair, which I started watching because it showed up on FF). If I just add selected shows to My FF, the feature of discovering new stuff would be lost. I know I can keep browsing the FF front page as per usual, but I'd appreciate a way to get rid of entire categories. Is this something that will be implemented?
posted by travelwithcats at 12:40 AM on December 23, 2014


BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER
posted by Jacqueline at 3:07 AM on December 23, 2014


If you go to the sidebar on the front page, you can click on each category, and look at a front page with just movies, just TV, or just podcasts.
posted by ocherdraco at 3:07 AM on December 23, 2014


Thank you ocherdraco, for some reason I never tried that. Now that I did: This is exactly what I wanted. Great!
posted by travelwithcats at 3:18 AM on December 23, 2014


Ok, nobody said it yet so I will: I hate this change with the cold passion of an elaborate metaphor!

(Alright no I actually adore this change, thanks...)
posted by Mngo at 5:27 AM on December 23, 2014


I assumed this was going to be about pb getting his own entrance music.
posted by charred husk at 5:49 AM on December 23, 2014 [3 favorites]


This is great, thank you! I'm curious if there's any chance to add in movie clubs?
posted by codacorolla at 6:43 AM on December 23, 2014


Nice! Goodbye movies! (Evil laugh)
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:08 AM on December 23, 2014


It would be really cool if we could have a preference dialogue for the "myX" pages to show them as default when we are logged in. Unless I am confused it seems like if we go to the default page it defaults to the full list rather than our mymefi / our fanfare pages
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory at 7:10 AM on December 23, 2014 [1 favorite]


question, is +my Fanfare only available on tv shows right now? I can't seem to see it available for any movie.

Yes, it is available for movies. Go to the thread page for any movie and look for the box labeled "Movie Info" under the movie poster in the sidebar. + My FanFare is the 2nd link in that box.
posted by pb (staff) at 7:35 AM on December 23, 2014 [1 favorite]


Unless I am confused it seems like if we go to the default page it defaults to the full list rather than our mymefi / our fanfare pages

That's correct, you need to visit your My FanFare page to see the filtered view. The front page remains the same. We'll give it some thought, but for now you might need to do some bookmarking on your end if you never want to see the front page.
posted by pb (staff) at 7:44 AM on December 23, 2014


This makes reading FanFare so much more manageable... I am super excited. Thanks!
posted by cellar door at 8:26 AM on December 23, 2014


So much yay for this, thanks!
posted by skye.dancer at 10:20 AM on December 23, 2014


This is neat. Thank you. :)
posted by mordax at 10:40 AM on December 23, 2014


Awesome. This is indispensable.
posted by naju at 11:50 AM on December 23, 2014


This simplifies everything! Thank you, MeFi gods!
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:50 PM on December 23, 2014


Say... How did Marco Polo get that nifty display?
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 6:33 AM on December 24, 2014


That block-of-shows thing is something we built back when, I think, Orange is the New Black's second season dropped, to have a specific way to handle shows that get dumped as season-sized payloads.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:22 AM on December 24, 2014


When one of the streaming services releases all of the episodes for a series on the same day, we can designate those a 'binge series'. And instead of having the individual posts for each episode all appear one after the other, they get rolled up together into one group on the front page.
posted by pb (staff) at 7:24 AM on December 24, 2014


This is excellent. Great work!
posted by mstokes650 at 9:25 AM on December 24, 2014


Ah, OK. I missed that. It's very clever!
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 11:04 AM on December 24, 2014


Pony request: would it be possible to +My Fanfare based on post tag? That way, if I am interested in movies with a certain actor or director, they would pop up in My Fanfare automatically (assuming the posts are appropriately tagged).
posted by fings at 7:23 PM on December 24, 2014 [4 favorites]


This is great!
posted by pseudonymph at 2:03 AM on December 25, 2014


I would agree that adding based on tag would be cool. It would make an easy way for people in movie clubs to follow the content of that club.
posted by codacorolla at 7:09 AM on December 25, 2014 [1 favorite]


When one of the streaming services releases all of the episodes for a series on the same day, we can designate those a 'binge series'. And instead of having the individual posts for each episode all appear one after the other, they get rolled up together into one group on the front page.
I just queried this using the contact form because I posted the last episode of Marco Polo and didn't see it on the front page (I left it for a day because I thought there may be a queue in place for the holidays). mathowie replied, explaining how binge-watch series works, so I made a search to see how that was announced and landed here.
If I had made the post in two more days time it would never have appeared on the front page for anyone.
The comments had really dropped off for the series and I wondered if it was because people had binge-watched it and were waiting for the finale to make a comment.
That may or may not be the case, but the problem with folding it in is that people may not see that the final episode has been posted.
In his reply mathowie mentioned that they were thinking about contacting authors to remind them to finish out the run of a series once the binge watch flag is set. It's not immediately obvious when the flag is set (my Marco Polo posts were posted normally from 1 to 9), and why would they bother if it's going to be buried pages back an be in all likelihood unseen?
posted by unliteral at 1:20 PM on December 27, 2014


I wanted to see other shows that this has happened to but can't go back further than three pages before being directed to the archives. When did that get implemented?
posted by unliteral at 1:33 PM on December 27, 2014


Sorry about the confusion unliteral. With My FanFare in place I think people will be able to find posts on series they're interested in. Marco Polo has a show page that lists all posts for that show and the poster shows up in the Recently Added TV Shows box on the front page. The front page isn't the only way people find posts about shows.

When did that get implemented?

That's how we've always had FanFare. The last binge series we had was Orange is the New Black which was posted in June.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:40 PM on December 27, 2014


My 'when did that get implemented' referred to the navigation arrows at the bottom of the page. I see I can kludge it though by putting http://fanfare.metafilter.com/?page=4 in the address bar and the navigation arrows at the bottom of the page act as normal.
posted by unliteral at 1:43 PM on December 27, 2014


Yeah, that's what I was referring to as well. When you get to page three it points you to the archive of shows. We want people to find the list of shows and we felt like if they're that far back in the history they might want to look up their favorite shows at that point.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:47 PM on December 27, 2014


Oh okay, my bad. Thanks for explaining pb.
posted by unliteral at 1:54 PM on December 27, 2014


Is there a way to get to My FanFare from the mobile view like there is for MyAsk? I've poked around a bit and don't know if I'm just missing it or if it doesn't exist.
posted by Sabby at 8:24 PM on December 27, 2014


Which theme are you using?
posted by pb (staff) at 8:27 PM on December 27, 2014


I'm using the plain theme.
posted by Sabby at 8:29 PM on December 27, 2014


ah yeah, there's no bottom-menu item for My FanFare in the Classic or Plain themes. Sorry about that—I'll add it to the to-do list.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:35 PM on December 27, 2014


Thanks! I'll be switching to modern for the time being - My FanFare makes browsing FanFare so much easier on my phone!
posted by Sabby at 8:13 AM on December 29, 2014


My FanFare should be in the mobile menu in the Classic and Plain themes now when you're at FanFare.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:51 AM on December 29, 2014 [1 favorite]


Does the new Mefi theme have a no-titles option yet?
posted by Drinky Die at 9:07 AM on December 29, 2014


No, though you can use Stylish or Greasemonkey to remove them.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:27 AM on December 29, 2014


Is it something that it is on the to-do list? I really love everything else about the new design aside from that so if it isn't planned I might just bite the bullet and switch over anyway. Long Live The Anti Titles Brigade! Never forget!
posted by Drinky Die at 9:08 AM on January 3, 2015


"no titles" as an option was a concession to a rather vociferous minority, so while I'm no authority on the matter I would think that your bullet biting time has come.
posted by carsonb at 9:57 AM on January 3, 2015


I wonder what the crossover is between the anti titles brigade and people who got verklempt and donated when the financial woes were disclosed last year? Greater titles visibility had to have been a choice made in part to try to increase page rank and search relevance again.
posted by carsonb at 10:00 AM on January 3, 2015


There was never a poll to determine if the title change was generally supported or not. IIRC, page rank was not the reason but it could have been something I just was not aware of or don't recall listed as a reason. Not worth re-fighting that battle though, just wondering if it's on the to-do list for people who do still prefer it that way.
posted by Drinky Die at 10:07 AM on January 3, 2015


No, it's not on the to do list. We kept the old designs available because we know people are used to reading MetaFilter a certain way. We knew that a lot of choices we made with the new design would be a dealbreaker for a lot of people—and that's ok. But it means that not all of the options of the old designs will be in the new and vice versa.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:25 AM on January 3, 2015


pb I applaud your diplomacy and will strive to emulate it.

Drinky Die, my apologies if I came off offensive to you, I should have made my point differently if at all.
posted by carsonb at 10:48 AM on January 3, 2015


You did not, no worries. But I am frustrated by this news. The new design seems so flexible in a lot of other ways.
posted by Drinky Die at 10:59 AM on January 3, 2015


I love and use the new design and was anti-title. Minimizing the title font size settled my bacon OK, reducing their visual importance.
posted by Miko at 9:12 AM on January 4, 2015


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