Fanfare: Previous/Next Episode Link? July 20, 2015 1:55 PM   Subscribe

I've really been enjoying Fanfare posts and the ensuing discussions with serialized shows like True Detective and Fringe. I'd like to have a link that goes back to the last episode's discussion thread.

Not sure how much work it would be for the mods, but being able to click through them (previous episode / next episode) would be pretty slick. (Threading all of them for display on the page would be cool, too, but that seems like an awful lot of work I guess.)

Just wondering. Anyone else like this idea?
posted by Thistledown to Feature Requests at 1:55 PM (16 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

Sure, we already have this! Look for the Show Info box on any thread. It's in the sidebar below the show poster. You'll see Previous Episode and Next Episode links if they're available.

And you can click on Show Page to get a page dedicated to that show. There's a little menu at the top right of show pages if a show has multiple seasons. You can use that menu to switch to a particular season and see all posts from that season.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:57 PM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


Ugh. Color me bonehead. I never even LOOKED over to the sidebar...

Feel free to delete my request as totally not-needed for obvious reasons.
posted by Thistledown at 2:11 PM on July 20, 2015


That's ok, it's no problem at all and I'm guessing you're not alone in not knowing about Previous/Next episode links. This thread could help spread the word a bit.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:14 PM on July 20, 2015


I've been meaning to make a thread about this -- I know about the previous/next episode links in the box at the top of the page, but adding them to the end of the thread makes a lot more sense. More so than the existing links down there to the previous/next FanFare threads, which are only really useful if you're intending to read every single FanFare thread in sequence. It makes sense on AskMe or the blue but not so much when most people are only going to be interested in following a handful of shows.
posted by Rhaomi at 3:03 PM on July 20, 2015 [3 favorites]


What Rhaomi said. Any series that has had a good conversation going requires you to scroll back up to the top of each thread so as to keep reading the episodes in order.
posted by Roger Dodger at 3:32 PM on July 20, 2015


We'll consider. We need to choose which MetaFilter conventions to break very carefully. Every subsite has back/next links that go to the next chronological post.

I know many people would find it handy to switch those on FanFare. I also know many people would find similar links that do something altogether different very confusing.
posted by pb (staff) at 3:34 PM on July 20, 2015


I would love for there to be per-show navigation links at the bottom of the thread. I often end up wanting to read the FanFare threads for several episodes of a show in a row, either because I'm catching up on the show or because I just started following that show on FanFare once other people had been discussing it for a while. Personally, I get slightly confused when I get to the bottom and the navigation links are to unrelated threads, and find it to be a mild hassle to have to scroll back to the top to keep reading. Since I only watch a small fraction of the shows discussed, I usually get to threads from My Fanfare, so the Older and Newer links don't even take me to the previous or next item in the feed I came from, and usually to a thread on a show I haven't seen and have no interest in.

Sure, the links at the bottom of threads on the other subsites just take you to the unrelated next or previous thread, but there's also no other sequence or continuity for those threads—on FanFare it would make sense. If, just below the links labeled "« Older" and "Newer »" was a line with links labeled "« Previous Episode" and "Next Episode »", I suspect that most people wouldn't be too confused as to the difference.
posted by JiBB at 8:21 PM on July 20, 2015 [3 favorites]


Do both! Older/Newer and Previous Episode/Next Episode.
posted by Green With You at 8:28 PM on July 20, 2015


Everything JiBB said, I heartily agree. Now I don't even have to type anything!
posted by Weeping_angel at 8:44 PM on July 20, 2015


Do both!

Let's try that! We just added Previous/Next episode links to the bottom of TV and podcast episode pages just above the standard Older/Newer thread links.
posted by pb (staff) at 3:46 PM on July 21, 2015 [6 favorites]


New buttons! I love them! They're the best thing since "add to activity"!
posted by Weeping_angel at 8:34 PM on July 21, 2015


Hooray! Thank you.
posted by JiBB at 9:36 PM on July 21, 2015


Sweet! I feel less like a bonehead now!
posted by Thistledown at 4:41 AM on July 22, 2015


I did not know I wanted this pony, but is it ever awesome! Thanks so much for this!
posted by jillithd at 1:06 PM on July 22, 2015


I sometimes find myself wishing there were a "Next Movie/Previous Movie" link on movie posts that are either part of a long running franchise (Bond, MCU...) or movies that were watched as a set through the impromptu Film Clubs proposed on FanFare talk (Robin Williams Film club...) but I suppose that's what tags are for. I just never remember to use them.
posted by radwolf76 at 5:24 PM on July 25, 2015


We'll give that some thought, radwolf76. Now that clubs are an official feature we might be able to add some club features like this to threads that are tagged as part of a club.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:17 AM on July 26, 2015 [1 favorite]


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