my recent favorite activity August 25, 2011 9:19 AM   Subscribe

I wish there was a way to remove a post from "Activity on My Favorites"...without actually removing it from my favorites.

It's awesome to be able to see recent activity on posts I marked as a favorite through the "My Favorites" tab. But I wish I could remove or otherwise hide some posts from that list without actually unfavoriting them. I often favorite posts I want to look back on later, but only want to follow every comment on some of them at any given moment, especially if I'm reading on a mobile thing.

I know it's easier to remove/hide posts in the "My Activity" tab, but that only works for posts I've actually commented in. And I'm guessing it would be a little annoying to start commenting on every post I might want to reference later with "Commenting on this because I might want to reference it later."

Any chance? Pretty please? Thanks in advance!
posted by peachfuzz to Feature Requests at 9:19 AM (25 comments total)

I think the problem with this is that it complicates things unnecessarily. It would create two ways to remove something from that page. It would create the question: "Did I remove that from my favorites, or did I remove that from favorites via 'remove from favorites activity'?" It would create yet another place that people have to manage.

I wonder if you could handle it with browser bookmarks instead of a new system here. I'm not sure enough people experience this to make it worth the complication.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:25 AM on August 25, 2011 [1 favorite]


D'awwww. Okay then!
posted by peachfuzz at 9:32 AM on August 25, 2011


Well, rather than typing "Commenting on this because I might want to reference it later." you could just leave a little "Thanks for posting this!" type thing. I generally welcome those in any post I make.

I mostly use my favorites for posts I want to come back to, and recent activity to keep up with comments/discussions/debates I'm interested in.
posted by mannequito at 10:34 AM on August 25, 2011


pb, we currently have
1) recent activity, which requires someone to have commented
2) Activity on my Favorites, which requires someone to have favorited a thread.

Would it be possible to set up a separate "threads I'm following" list, which would not require someone to either comment or favorite?

Perhaps they could click something and have the threads show up in a similar style feed?
posted by zarq at 10:38 AM on August 25, 2011 [1 favorite]


Again, I think adding yet another separate space to visit and manage is needlessly complicated. What's the functional difference between "favorite" and "follow"? It'd be like setting up a separate favorites system when we already have one.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:41 AM on August 25, 2011


pb: "Again, I think adding yet another separate space to visit and manage is needlessly complicated. What's the functional difference between "favorite" and "follow"? It'd be like setting up a separate favorites system when we already have one."

Simplicity. Clarity.

I favorite posts for many reasons. Sometimes, they're being bookmarked so I can return to and perhaps engage them later. Others I just want to read while they're happening. Or because I like/dislike something and want to remember it down the road. Or I liked a post and want to show a little support for it, and/or the person who posted it.

The other type of list would just be a plain reading list, without all that extra baggage.
posted by zarq at 10:47 AM on August 25, 2011 [1 favorite]


you could just leave a little "Thanks for posting this!" type thing. I generally welcome those in any post I make.

I mostly use my favorites for posts I want to come back to, and recent activity to keep up with comments/discussions/debates I'm interested in.


That definitely works for the blue, but what about AskMe, where stuff that isn't useful is frowned upon? I favorite a ton of AskMe posts because I'm interested in the answers to the question (and thus don't have one myself).
posted by peachfuzz at 10:51 AM on August 25, 2011 [2 favorites]


This could be done using greasemonkey and local storage....
posted by schmod at 10:53 AM on August 25, 2011


peachfuzz: " That definitely works for the blue, but what about AskMe, where stuff that isn't useful is frowned upon? I favorite a ton of AskMe posts because I'm interested in the answers to the question (and thus don't have one myself)."

Same here.
posted by zarq at 10:55 AM on August 25, 2011


schmod: "This could be done using greasemonkey and local storage...."

Or an RSS reader, which is what I use now. But it's cumbersome and less ideal.
posted by zarq at 10:55 AM on August 25, 2011


Would it be possible to set up a separate "threads I'm following" list, which would not require someone to either comment or favorite?

Why would you want to "follow" a thread but not want to favorite it?
posted by John Cohen at 10:58 AM on August 25, 2011


I think if you make a distinction yourself between "favorites" and "reading list" then having a separate system makes perfect sense. But I'm not sure that particular system is more simple or clear than having a single place for things you want to return to. Using RSS or bookmarks or a bookmarking service like pinboard might be the way to go if you want to keep some threads separate from "favorites" for some reason.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:59 AM on August 25, 2011


John Cohen writes "Why would you want to 'follow' a thread but not want to favorite it?"

Because you want to observe a post without providing feedback that implies you think it's a good post. This is the basis of the lament that favourites was an unfortunate choice of name for the tracking feature.

Also it would be nice to be able to track AskMe posts anonymously.

Not sure it would be worth it though for the site to support this feature set along side favourites.
posted by Mitheral at 11:11 AM on August 25, 2011 [4 favorites]


John Cohen: " Why would you want to "follow" a thread but not want to favorite it?"

I would like to be able to follow AskMe posts about a variety of sensitive topics that interest me or affect me personally without people knowing I'm doing so. Perhaps even so that I could track my own rare, anonymous questions.

I could conceivably make a sockpuppet account for this purpose, but that's not convenient for a few reasons, among them that it would mean logging in and out.
posted by zarq at 11:21 AM on August 25, 2011


Mitheral: "Because you want to observe a post without providing feedback that implies you think it's a good post. This is the basis of the lament that favourites was an unfortunate choice of name for the tracking feature.

This too.
posted by zarq at 11:22 AM on August 25, 2011


I would like to be able to follow AskMe posts about a variety of sensitive topics that interest me or affect me personally without people knowing I'm doing so. Perhaps even so that I could track my own rare, anonymous questions.

I assure you, no one is paying attention to which AskMe posts you favorite.

Any anonymous post is going to get multiple favorites, and there's no guarantee that the real poster of an anonymous question is going to favorite the post (many people don't use favorites at all), so I don't see how that's a concern.
posted by John Cohen at 11:42 AM on August 25, 2011


Because you want to observe a post without providing feedback that implies you think it's a good post. This is the basis of the lament that favourites was an unfortunate choice of name for the tracking feature.

Yes, that's the basis of the pointless complaints we've been hearing for years about the term "favorite." Favorite just means you want to read it. If you're following it, it's one of your favorite posts to read. So in that sense, you do think it's a "good post," where "good" means "I want to follow this closely." Everyone who uses this website enough to even be thinking about the meaning of Metafilter favorites understands that many users have thousands and thousands of favorites for all sorts of reasons, so the term doesn't have one monolithic meaning. It doesn't mean this post (or comment) is one of your very favorite things in the whole world. Creating some other category of things that are really favorites but have a different name would just make the site more complex and lead to at least as much complaining about that new category.
posted by John Cohen at 11:47 AM on August 25, 2011


John Cohen: " I assure you, no one is paying attention to which AskMe posts you favorite."

I have memails which say you're wrong.

My wife also sometimes asks questions about things I've favorited.
posted by zarq at 11:57 AM on August 25, 2011


John Cohen: " So in that sense, you do think it's a "good post," where "good" means "I want to follow this closely.""

No, clearly to some people it means, "This post is going to be a total trainwreck and I'm just here for the lulz." We can see this in their subsequent posting behaviour within said threads.

Creating some other category of things that are really favorites but have a different name

I'm not asking for the favorites wheel to be reinvented here. I'm asking for the ability to tag/separate out posts (not comments) in a different manner than favorites.

would just make the site more complex and lead to at least as much complaining about that new category.

Would depend on how it was handled.

We've had multiple meta threads where people who have been here for years suddenly have a 'eureka! moment' when "Recent Activity" is mentioned and linked to, because they had no idea it was there. So no, it doesn't necessarily follow that people would freak out if this was handled carefully.

Giving people a tiny, unobtrusive way to add posts to a 'follow list' could add minimal complexity to the site while potentially adding a beneficial function for those who are interested in using it.
posted by zarq at 12:08 PM on August 25, 2011


as zarq points out, each mefi (askme, meta, etc.) thread has its own RSS feed. this might work for you?
posted by joshuaconner at 12:09 PM on August 25, 2011


yeah, I think RSS will help me out with this...I never really thought about using it for individual threads before. Hat tip!
posted by peachfuzz at 12:15 PM on August 25, 2011


There's an 'activity on my favorites'? My goodness. That'll come in handy.
posted by Anything at 1:21 PM on August 25, 2011


Oh Hai. I made a GreaseMonkey script to do this.
posted by schmod at 1:52 PM on August 25, 2011 [1 favorite]


schmod: "Oh Hai. I made a GreaseMonkey script to do this."

Neat, thanks. :)
posted by zarq at 2:36 PM on August 25, 2011


Erm. It doesn't seem to work without Tampermonkey. I'll take a peek at it tomorrow and see what's wrong.
posted by schmod at 8:39 PM on August 25, 2011


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