I would like to have a way to hide some of the AskMe questions

January 9, 2007 11:23 AM

I would like to have a way to hide some of the AskMe questions -- a button that would leave the title, but make the front-page part of the question invisible. I'm not talking about filtering out a user; I just want remove some questions from sight. If this is do-able, is there a downside to it? I swear this has nothing to do with the survey about scary things.
posted by wryly to Feature Requests at 11:23 AM (16 comments total)

I've wondered if collapsing threads you have no interest in, and having the system remember which ones you've collapsed , could be the way to deal with the flood of threads. As you look at the page, you click on a minus sign, and the thread collapses to some sort of visual indicator. Then the front page of askme would show 40 threads, not counting the ones you collapsed. Soon, your page is filled with only threads you're interested in, like weeding in the garden, you'd weed out the threads you're not interested in.

I don't know how this would work out for infrequent visitors, but it'd be no worse than it is now. I also don't know what kind of overhead would be needed to keep track of all the threads you don't want to see anymore. Probably too much to make it work.
posted by Dave Faris at 11:35 AM on January 9, 2007

So this would be for the front page only, right? You'd see the first part of their question as normal, then click a tiny link to make it collapse and be replaced with just the title? I just want to be sure we're talking about the same thing.

Marking stuff as read and hiding stuff has been mentioned before and I hesitate to do it since I wouldn't want the front page of ask mefi to feel like an email application that I had to keep at zero unread. It'd make something fun feel more like work.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:24 PM on January 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

Dave, I sort of did things in the reverse... as much as you collapse everything on the front page in your scenario, there will be ten new questions every hour to fill up your perfect page. You'll never have just those you're interested in without tons of work.

Instead, that's what favorites are for, and why there's a tab marked My Favorites on the front page, so you can just track the 40 things you like that way and hide everything else automatically.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:26 PM on January 9, 2007

Sounds like a task for an RSS reader.
posted by mendel at 12:31 PM on January 9, 2007

#wryly: a button that would leave the title, but make the front-page part of the question invisible.

You do know that the "title" does not appear on the front page.

This functionality is easy to do Greasemonkey (and puts the responsibility of remembering what is collapsed on the client, not the MeFi server).

To get all the funtionality you want, Matt would have to include the title on the front page but put it in say a <div display: none>. He would also need to accept a parameter to the front page, eg. http://ask.metafilter.com/?number=60 so you could say how many questions you want to receive (say you want to show 20 non collapsed items, but you have collapsed 33 then you would ask for ?number=55.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 12:36 PM on January 9, 2007

Maybe you could browse by category.
posted by boo_radley at 12:37 PM on January 9, 2007

With 40-some new questions per day I don't see how you could possibly keep up with this. I mean, you collapse a question. Okay. Fine. But it will be gone from the page in 24 - 48 hours anyway so why bother. And where is the bookkeeping to store these preferences going to be kept, in a cookie? That cookie is going to grow very large, very fast.

Oh and obligatory 'this is the realm of greasemonkey'
posted by Rhomboid at 12:37 PM on January 9, 2007

Also, how about http://ask.metafilter.com/spy# , ala Digg?
posted by boo_radley at 12:38 PM on January 9, 2007

I second the RSS reader idea. Also then there is no front page or second page or whatever, just a long list of messages waiting to be read or deleted. Deleting gets rid of a message from the queue more effectively than this collapse idea anyway, particuly given that many questions only put a sentance or two on the front page anyway (which I think is crap but that's a whle 'nother thread).

RSS is the only way I manage to read everything in there, but it works pretty well.
posted by shelleycat at 12:45 PM on January 9, 2007

use the favorites, luke.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:14 PM on January 9, 2007

Manageability sounds like the main drawback -- plus the not insignificant change in the feel of the place. And thanks for pointing out other solutions that are already in existence.

My fantasy was sort of a flick function -- as in, "I shall flick this unwished-for particle from the otherwise pure, velvety green expanse" -- for when some people I get irritated about AskMe clutter and overcrowding, not enough time to read everything, and not wanting to see any more of "help me name my..." and "should I break up with..." It was fun to think about, but duh, favorites. Better idea.
posted by wryly at 1:34 PM on January 9, 2007

I have entertained thoughts about creating a Greasemonkey script/Firefox extension that would let you dynamically flick posts and comments off (or back on) the main page, but other than being an amusing toy to play with for ten minutes, seriously, how useful would it be for most people? RSS readers already let people dynamically filter messages six ways to Sunday, all without the carpal tunnel.
posted by mdevore at 1:49 PM on January 9, 2007

If it's not going to be integrated into MeFi's functionality, could someone please write a GM script that wipes my ass for me?

Also, I hate reading, pictures only from now on.

Also, I'm not lazy—I've just found that getting someone else to turn the page/exercise my judgement/cater to my tastes enhances my enjoyment of this site.

I didn't read this thread. Thanks.
posted by carsonb at 4:02 PM on January 9, 2007

The number of people who have trouble with the volume of posts is curious. I have ADD and even I can handle it without too much trouble. I try to remember to favourite things when I want to be sure to check in on it later, and I use the "my comments" page to follow threads that I posted in.

I dunno. The most customised filter is your own brain -- you just don't read stuff that doesn't interest you. Unless I'm missing something?
posted by loiseau at 4:24 PM on January 9, 2007

What survey about scary things?
posted by dreamsign at 6:34 AM on January 10, 2007

Marking stuff as read and hiding stuff has been mentioned before and I hesitate to do it since I wouldn't want the front page of ask mefi to feel like an email application that I had to keep at zero unread. It'd make something fun feel more like work.

That is exactly why I don't read AskMe in my RSS reader.
posted by IndigoRain at 11:46 PM on January 10, 2007