Expanded My Comments page March 28, 2007 5:43 PM   Subscribe

My Comments: could we get a longer list, or even better, some tabs in addition to the site-wide view that narrow the query down to just MeFi/Meta/Ask/Music? [more inside]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken to Feature Requests at 5:43 PM (41 comments total)

I'm finding on days when I comment all over the place, that even one day later (like today) a lot of the threads I've commented in that I want to revisit to read the continuing conversation have dropped off the My Comments page (which is limited to the last 10, I think, site-wide). I like the mixed default view, a lot, but I'd love to have tabs to be able to narrow the list to the last 10 (or so) on Ask/last 10 on Mefi/last 10 on Meta.

That'd be really cool. I tend to live on the My Comments page a lot of the time.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:44 PM on March 28, 2007


Stock Comedy Response: comment less, work more, go for a walk. Yeah, I know.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:44 PM on March 28, 2007


That'd be really cool. I tend to live on the My Comments page a lot of the time.


Huh. I tend to find the My Comments page pretty useless and instead use the comments link on my profile page to track comments.

But for you, it sounds like the longer list would work.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:05 PM on March 28, 2007


I've noticed the same thing. Even an "older comments" like "older posts/questions" would be usefull.
posted by snsranch at 6:34 PM on March 28, 2007


I use the 'My Comments' page, for what its worth. I think Stav's suggestions are good ones.
posted by Dave Faris at 6:35 PM on March 28, 2007


That would be "useful". Darn.
posted by snsranch at 6:46 PM on March 28, 2007


So the default page would stay as is?

I would enjoy tabbing this pony.
posted by and hosted from Uranus at 7:42 PM on March 28, 2007


So the default page would stay as is?

Oh, definitely, I'd hope.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:43 PM on March 28, 2007


Couldn't the same problem be addressed by letting you choose how many threads you'd like in your My Comments page? It could be another choice in the preferences.

Also, (even as I type this, I'm pretty sure it's a dumb idea, but here it comes) how about a color-coded My Comments page? What little I understand about CSS, I think it would be quite easy to make a striped My Comments page instead of a Blue one.
posted by roll truck roll at 7:50 PM on March 28, 2007


stavros, do a html/photoshop mockup of what your dream version of My Comments would look like and I promise you I'll code most of it up.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:08 PM on March 28, 2007 [2 favorites]


Yay! I use the My Comments page a lot too and I'd love it if it went back further so you'd get new comments on even old tired posts [I think you don't now, correct?] and also if we had the ability to say "don't update this anymore, thanks, I'm done with this thread" but maybe that's outside the realm of possibility. In any case, woo!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:35 PM on March 28, 2007


Currently if you post in a year old askme it'll pop up to the top of My Comments.
posted by Mitheral at 8:57 PM on March 28, 2007


Cool, Matt, thanks. Will do when I have some time.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:59 PM on March 28, 2007


Color-coding! Like on the user contacts page.
posted by smackfu at 9:39 PM on March 28, 2007


Currently if you post in a year old askme it'll pop up to the top of My Comments.

Yeah, but that's not what I'm asking for. Clearer, maybe: the current page shows the last ten threads sitewide in which you've commented, even if, as you say, the thread is a year old. I'm just saying that 10 isn't enough (for me, anyway) when I have a busy day at the 'filters. Breaking it out into tabs, say, would give (for example) the last ten sitewide by default, then each tab would have the last 10 for each the other subsites, giving you more range. Almost certainly not the last 40 in total, but more than 10, probably.

Not as useful if you spend all your time in only one place, though, I guess, so the idea of just paginating as snsranch suggested might be the easiest.

...how many threads you'd like in your My Comments page? It could be another choice in the preferences.

Matt has shown resistance to adding more options in Preferences in past, so that might not fly.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:08 PM on March 28, 2007


yeah, I'm not big on changing the prefs page, because everyone and their mother thinks of a feature they want to see there. I would be happy to do a next 10 link.

Seriously stavros, the mockup doesn't even need to look like mefi, it can be plain white, or drawn in photoshop, or even just described in text, but if I had something to design against, I'd be closer to being able to do it.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:12 PM on March 28, 2007


You know, 'next 10' would probably be the easiest thing all 'round.

But just in case, I've fired up the Patton Oswalt mp3s and am furiously at work hacking through your thickety thickety code to try and mockup something in HTML. I get a little obsessive about these things, so gimme some time.

Meantime, have you seen this?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:04 PM on March 28, 2007


OK, quick and dirty. Here's my suggestion, for what it's worth.

Basically exactly the same, but with tabs. Default remains the 'Everywhere' view. Mouseover the tabs (they don't go anywhere) to see what they'd show -- basically the last 10 from each of the subsites.

I pulled out some of the inline css and put it at the bottom of the local copy of default126.css, and fixed up the left-hand column a bit (works in IE and FF, anyway).

I was going to futz around some more, but this afternoon looks like it might be busy, so I figured I'd quit while I was ahead. If you or enough other people think it's a dumb idea, then that's cool: I'd be happy enough with the fallback, which is just a 'previous 10/next 10' kind of setup in the foot of the page or something.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:32 PM on March 28, 2007


I likey. A+
posted by peacay at 11:40 PM on March 28, 2007


stavrosthewonderchicken writes "Yeah, but that's not what I'm asking for. Clearer, maybe: the current page shows the last ten threads sitewide in which you've commented, even if, as you say, the thread is a year old."

I get that, I was responding to jessamyn.

I'm glad you asked for this pony. I've felt we needed more included comments from day one. I think I even asked for more comments to be displayed on My Comments within a thread once and Matt indicated it would be too much of a DB hit. The "next 10" proposal addresses that perfectly. I'd never use the sub-site specific tabs but the "Next 10" I'd use all the time.
posted by Mitheral at 7:39 AM on March 29, 2007


I like the site specific tabs very much.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:55 AM on March 29, 2007


I'd also like to see some way setting a thread to no notify. It sucks when you comment in a thread that later becomes a pissing match between a couple users. It seems like I make this error about once a month so I usually have at least one Zombie post on my My Comments page.
posted by Mitheral at 7:58 AM on March 29, 2007


I like it too, being another dweller in My Comments.
posted by languagehat at 8:18 AM on March 29, 2007


I'd also like to see some way setting a thread to no notify.

Might be easier to just have an expand/collapse button beside each thread (like show/hide the comments, but the thread title stays in place). Even if you had to press it again, every time you reload the page, it would help a lot.
posted by Chuckles at 8:32 AM on March 29, 2007 [1 favorite]


That's a good idea, since there would be an obvious place to add a "show" button. Removing them entirely would make that tricky.

Seems like this would just require a new col on comments table called "show_on_my_comments", and then a bit of AJAX to toggle it on or off.
posted by smackfu at 8:39 AM on March 29, 2007


Is there any desire for something similar to this, but applied to posts you've favorited (rather than commented in)? I've been meaning to make the case for this idea for a while; in short it'd let you easily follow updates to the posts you are interested in, without having to leave a comment.

At the moment if I favorite a post, I have to remember how many comments each post had last time I checked it to see if each post has been updated. Any updates past a day or two are real hard to spot in a favorites list, and would generally pass me by, so it'd be about the awesomest thing I can imagine to get all those new comments simply pop up in 'My Favorites'.
posted by MetaMonkey at 8:51 AM on March 29, 2007


Huh, it would coincidentally also be most helpful following updates in cases like the next post down.
posted by MetaMonkey at 8:59 AM on March 29, 2007


Great suggestion.

And now I know that if I want to see something implemented I gotta bribe stavros into posting it as his suggestion.
posted by micayetoca at 8:59 AM on March 29, 2007


Maybe this is too abstract and unrealistic, but I'd hypothesize that a "no notify" button would have a negative impact on discussion. It would subtly encourage us to run in and yell "Best of the Web! LOLZ!" on threads we don't like, never to think about them again.

And even though we've all done them from time to time, I think we can agree that mixtape questions aren't really the best use of AskMe. No Notify would pretty much guarantee that those threads would be one-sided discussions.
posted by roll truck roll at 9:04 AM on March 29, 2007 [1 favorite]


I don't know if I'd use the tabs, but I like them.

I know for goddam sure I would use the "next 10" link, in either case.

Both—tabs, including default all and "next 10" links for each—would probably satisfy most people with an opinion.

I have longed for a, uh, long time for some sort of Stop Tracking button in My Comments. I think I suggested in another thread that we could have a Stop Tracking button that would set a flag, and that if one was to subsequently comment in that thread it would reset the flag. But maybe there are plausible cases of changing your mind but not having anything to add? I don't know.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:21 AM on March 29, 2007


The current situation subtly discourages me from posting in those mixtape threads. And in anything contentious in the blue.
posted by smackfu at 9:22 AM on March 29, 2007


Hi, cortex!
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 9:44 AM on March 29, 2007


What smackfu said.
posted by oneirodynia at 9:47 AM on March 29, 2007


That looks like a good addition to the functionality of the site. Thanks for proposing and mocking that up stavros.

The only other thing that I would like about that would be a way to de-track (is that a word?) a thread. What I mean is, sometimes I comment in a thread that takes on a life of its own, and then for the next 3 weeks it keeps popping up in my comments because of some people fooling around.
posted by dios at 11:00 AM on March 29, 2007


Alternatively, I could just read cortex's comment wherein he makes the same point.
posted by dios at 11:00 AM on March 29, 2007


That mock-up would be an excellent improvement - because I am often not able to visit the site for days at a time (frightening, I know), if like to see what happened to threads that have disappeared from the front page/s via my comments, so this would be perfect for me.
posted by dg at 4:51 PM on March 29, 2007


I'm not stavros, but I mocked up something I'd like to see in my comments.
posted by boo_radley at 4:56 PM on March 29, 2007


boo_radley, I have dreamed about colour coded backgrounds for years - awesome mockup :) But, a suggestion. When you click an expand/collapse link, it should take you to an anchor so that you don't jump to the top of the page.
posted by Chuckles at 5:11 PM on March 29, 2007


The only other thing that I would like about that would be a way to de-track (is that a word?) a thread. What I mean is, sometimes I comment in a thread that takes on a life of its own, and then for the next 3 weeks it keeps popping up in my comments because of some people fooling around.
posted by dios at 11:00 AM on March 29 [+] [!]
Usually, it's because you started it. You, specifically. Your driveby contrarianism tends to inflame the loins of the snarking masses, so the thread devolves into witticisms attacking your inflammatory position. You make these beds, and I am delighted that you must lie in them.
posted by blasdelf at 12:33 AM on March 30, 2007


Oh fuck, I just made this thread about dios

dick choke!

Sorry dudes.
posted by blasdelf at 12:38 AM on March 30, 2007


Oh the irony. "Usually, it's because you started it. You, specifically."
posted by smackfu at 6:18 AM on March 30, 2007


« Older Beer, rabbit food, pipe cleaner bunny ears   |   RSS Feed Issues Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments