Add Favorite fat-thumbism/ Mobile MeFi reading April 6, 2013 9:06 PM Subscribe
When readin MeFi on my iPhone browser, the hardest part is adding favorites by pressing on the + sign. Fat-thumbism leads me 4 times out of 5 incorrectly to the "who favorited this post" page instead. I was just wondering if there could be a way of making just the + button bigger ( from preferences) or (easier?) perhaps an add favorites button could be added to the "who favorited this post page"?
Thanks for listening to my random request/query!
This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- frimble
You can enable swipe to favorite here.
I'm not sure if this was ever made a permanent feature, as was discussed around this time last year.
posted by k8lin at 9:27 PM on April 6, 2013 [17 favorites]
I'm not sure if this was ever made a permanent feature, as was discussed around this time last year.
posted by k8lin at 9:27 PM on April 6, 2013 [17 favorites]
We've been testing out "swipe to favorite" for quite a while. You can enable the test here:
Enable swipe to Favorite
Once you click that link on your phone you'll need to reload any open pages and then swipe right over the text of the entire comment to add it as a favorite. We haven't been thrilled with this option so we haven't made it standard everywhere. Generally we don't like hidden options like this, so we're always thinking about better ways to help out on the mobile side.
...perhaps an add favorites button could be added to the "who favorited this post page"?
Yeah, I think that has potential, so that at least if you end up there by mistake you can do what you intended to do. But in a perfect world you wouldn't be making that mistake a lot.
We played around with adding a big FAVORITE THIS button under every comment, but that disrupted reading the site too much. It's definitely a difficult balancing act for mobile. We want to have a very similar reading experience to the Web version—and it's close at first glance—but as you live with the mobile version for a while you start to see all the ways it pales in comparison. And unfortunately, a lot of that is the limitation of the screen size itself.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:31 PM on April 6, 2013 [16 favorites]
Enable swipe to Favorite
Once you click that link on your phone you'll need to reload any open pages and then swipe right over the text of the entire comment to add it as a favorite. We haven't been thrilled with this option so we haven't made it standard everywhere. Generally we don't like hidden options like this, so we're always thinking about better ways to help out on the mobile side.
...perhaps an add favorites button could be added to the "who favorited this post page"?
Yeah, I think that has potential, so that at least if you end up there by mistake you can do what you intended to do. But in a perfect world you wouldn't be making that mistake a lot.
We played around with adding a big FAVORITE THIS button under every comment, but that disrupted reading the site too much. It's definitely a difficult balancing act for mobile. We want to have a very similar reading experience to the Web version—and it's close at first glance—but as you live with the mobile version for a while you start to see all the ways it pales in comparison. And unfortunately, a lot of that is the limitation of the screen size itself.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:31 PM on April 6, 2013 [16 favorites]
Ah, I was wondering why 'swipe to favorite' wasn't working anymore. Didn't realise it was a cookie based feature which wasn't enabled by default on a new device.
posted by TwoWordReview at 9:48 PM on April 6, 2013
posted by TwoWordReview at 9:48 PM on April 6, 2013
Another option that could be worth trying out is changing your "Byline Font Size" preference. Bumping that value up a bit makes the
posted by pb (staff) at 9:54 PM on April 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
+ a bigger target.posted by pb (staff) at 9:54 PM on April 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
I have this problem too. Trying out Swipe option now which looks good.
The usual problem is that I accidentally hit the link which shows who favourited the comment, which is a much bigger target, but I think probably used less often. I wonder if it could be changed so that only the "1" in "1 favorite" links to that? "favorite" could be a link to make favourite, or not a link.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 10:40 PM on April 6, 2013 [2 favorites]
The usual problem is that I accidentally hit the link which shows who favourited the comment, which is a much bigger target, but I think probably used less often. I wonder if it could be changed so that only the "1" in "1 favorite" links to that? "favorite" could be a link to make favourite, or not a link.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 10:40 PM on April 6, 2013 [2 favorites]
Or, if you find no need to know how many favourites anything has, turn them off in Preferences! That is how I have never found the small [+] to be a problem.
posted by undue influence at 10:52 PM on April 6, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by undue influence at 10:52 PM on April 6, 2013 [2 favorites]
Since we're discussing mobile ponies, could there be some more space between the comment window and the formatting shortcuts? It's too easy to press them when trying to copy or spellcheck text.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 12:45 AM on April 7, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 12:45 AM on April 7, 2013 [3 favorites]
Personally, I love swipe to favorite, though I do understand the difficulty in it not being an intuitive thing. Would it be possible to put in some sort of 'You're favoriting a comment on a mobile device. Did you know...' kind of pop up with a built in 'don't show me this anymore' button? I have absolutely no idea how difficult that would be to implement, but we wouldn't call them ponies if they consistently came true.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:26 AM on April 7, 2013
posted by Ghidorah at 7:26 AM on April 7, 2013
...could there be some more space between the comment window and the formatting shortcuts?
There really isn't much space to work with there. Next time you're having trouble with the formatting buttons, try switching your orientation. For example, if you're writing in landscape, try switching to portrait or vice versa. You might find that switching the display a little bit puts the hovering copy/paste controls in a different space.
...pop up with a built in 'don't show me this anymore' button?
Yeah, something like that could be a possibility if we decided to make swipe to favorite standard. We'd definitely need to do more on the education front if we add it.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:32 AM on April 7, 2013
There really isn't much space to work with there. Next time you're having trouble with the formatting buttons, try switching your orientation. For example, if you're writing in landscape, try switching to portrait or vice versa. You might find that switching the display a little bit puts the hovering copy/paste controls in a different space.
...pop up with a built in 'don't show me this anymore' button?
Yeah, something like that could be a possibility if we decided to make swipe to favorite standard. We'd definitely need to do more on the education front if we add it.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:32 AM on April 7, 2013
I have huge fingers, which, although useful in some circumstances, have a clear hate/more hate relationships with my phone's keyboard. Mostly, this does not affect my MeFi experience, especially after I got swipe-to-favorite enabled (it's wonderful! Thank you, pb, and all the other mods!). If I was asking for a variant breed of this pony, it would be a bit more space between posts. I have a tendency to hit the headline below when trying to hit the (x new) link. Yeah, I can enlarge, but that's an extra gesture, and I am lazy.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:40 AM on April 7, 2013
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:40 AM on April 7, 2013
As long as we're on the subject...If you were to move the + button to the left of the #favorites bracket, I would be less likely to almost flag something by mistake.
.
posted by SLC Mom at 8:52 AM on April 7, 2013 [5 favorites]
.
posted by SLC Mom at 8:52 AM on April 7, 2013 [5 favorites]
Once you click that link on your phone you'll need to reload any open pages and then swipe right over the text of the entire comment to add it as a favorite.
I have found that it only works for me when I swipe over the byline, not the comment itself?
It is a brilliant option. I'm delighted with it. Thanks!
posted by winna at 10:03 AM on April 7, 2013
I have found that it only works for me when I swipe over the byline, not the comment itself?
It is a brilliant option. I'm delighted with it. Thanks!
posted by winna at 10:03 AM on April 7, 2013
Oh wow! Thanks for the swipe to fave thing. I don't have fat thumbs, but I don't exactly have great control over my fingers lol
posted by Sweetmag at 10:29 AM on April 7, 2013
posted by Sweetmag at 10:29 AM on April 7, 2013
I'm only an occasional user of my wife's iTouch but now I'm wondering (and because there is some talk about making it the default) how you would scroll if swipe to favourite is turned on?
posted by Mitheral at 1:04 PM on April 7, 2013
posted by Mitheral at 1:04 PM on April 7, 2013
Swipe is sideways, scroll is up/down. They shouldn't conflict.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 1:11 PM on April 7, 2013
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 1:11 PM on April 7, 2013
I'm also loving Android's feature where if it's not sure what you've clicked, it'll throw up a mini zoom to let you better pick the thing you want. I find I'm missing out when I go back to our iOS devices.
posted by arcticseal at 1:19 PM on April 7, 2013
posted by arcticseal at 1:19 PM on April 7, 2013
Swipe is sideways, scroll is up/down. They shouldn't conflict
It is possible to accidentally bring up the (mis-spelled) favourite dialogue box while scrolling if you are particularly slap-dash about your swiping direction.
posted by dg at 10:29 PM on April 7, 2013 [1 favorite]
It is possible to accidentally bring up the (mis-spelled) favourite dialogue box while scrolling if you are particularly slap-dash about your swiping direction.
posted by dg at 10:29 PM on April 7, 2013 [1 favorite]
Speaking of using the site on mobile devices, does anyone else have this weird behavior: when I click "post comment" on my iPad, about 7 times out of 10 what happens is that the "post comment" button just changes from a plain rectangle to a rounded-corner shiny-button rectangle: then, if I click that again, the message posts. It's not a big deal, but I assume the shiny-button version is meant to be rendering from the get-go.
posted by yoink at 9:29 AM on April 8, 2013
posted by yoink at 9:29 AM on April 8, 2013
Sounds like a
posted by pb (staff) at 10:08 AM on April 8, 2013
:hover problem, yoink. That means iOS is trying to change to the state that happens when you hover your mouse over something, but there shouldn't be any hovering happening because it's a touch screen. I'll look into that.posted by pb (staff) at 10:08 AM on April 8, 2013
I don't think it was a hover problem, after all. But I did see what you mean about brief flash of the rounded button style. I made a change that should help with that.
My guess is that in those cases you were having a delay in your comment going through which made that shift in button style stand out. You were clicking again to get things to go through even though the comment was on its way—just delayed. So it felt like a double-click, but it was a delayed single-click with an odd style change. That's my guess anyway. The change should take care of it, but let me know if not.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:06 PM on April 8, 2013
My guess is that in those cases you were having a delay in your comment going through which made that shift in button style stand out. You were clicking again to get things to go through even though the comment was on its way—just delayed. So it felt like a double-click, but it was a delayed single-click with an odd style change. That's my guess anyway. The change should take care of it, but let me know if not.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:06 PM on April 8, 2013
Well, it hasn't happened ithe last few comments I've made, so I think it is fixed. I don't think that it was a case of just a delay in the comment going through, though (though there's no way to test, now!). Normally the little activity icon in the upper left corner keeps spinning until the post goes through, but when the button-style change thing happened there was no activity icon--and I sometimes waited quite a while (longer than I've ever waited for a post to go through) before clicking the button the second time. It would all just sit there quietly until I clicked the button--and then go through immediately.
posted by yoink at 1:38 PM on April 8, 2013
posted by yoink at 1:38 PM on April 8, 2013
yoink, that happened to me sometimes as well, but it isn't consistent. Maybe it is fixed now, though; thanks, pb!
And I had the exact same behavior that yoink describes: the page never looked like it was loading, but the rectangle button would change to a shiny rounded button. This happened on my iPhone and on my iPad, but it didn't happen all of the time.
posted by k8lin at 2:38 PM on April 8, 2013
And I had the exact same behavior that yoink describes: the page never looked like it was loading, but the rectangle button would change to a shiny rounded button. This happened on my iPhone and on my iPad, but it didn't happen all of the time.
posted by k8lin at 2:38 PM on April 8, 2013
restless_nomad: "Swipe is sideways, scroll is up/down. They shouldn't conflict."
Ah, reading comprehension fail. Somehow I got the idea that you needed to swipe from the top of the comment text to the bottom but on re-reading the thread I see no one wrote that and that it doesn't make much sense anyways 'cause how would you do that on a comment that overfilled the screen.
posted by Mitheral at 5:23 PM on April 8, 2013
Ah, reading comprehension fail. Somehow I got the idea that you needed to swipe from the top of the comment text to the bottom but on re-reading the thread I see no one wrote that and that it doesn't make much sense anyways 'cause how would you do that on a comment that overfilled the screen.
posted by Mitheral at 5:23 PM on April 8, 2013
maybe a two-line byline in mobile, with a double-sized plus to the left?
_|_ posted by theophile escargot | at 11:59 pm on April 1 [!]posted by kaibutsu at 11:12 PM on April 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
O.K., I ran the "swipe to favorite" test for a day and I just disabled it. Every fourth or fifth time I scroll down the page I get a false favorite hit. It seems if you drift rightward even a small amount as you scroll down the gesture is interpreted as a simultaneous horizontal and vertical swipe. It got old fast. So I'm putting in a vote for a bigger button or a more isolated plus sign on for mobile readers--if that's possible. Or the idea voiced above that there is an "add a favorite" button on the "these are the people who have favorited this comment" page so that if you do fat-finger it you don't have to go back and try your luck again.
posted by yoink at 8:35 AM on April 10, 2013
posted by yoink at 8:35 AM on April 10, 2013
I've been using an iPad much more to read MeFi these days and have found that, while it is almost impossible to accidentally bring up the favourite dialogue on an iPhone, it is much easier on the iPad. It's much easier when holding the device in landscape orientation than in portrait. I assume this is because the wider screen allows for more 'wandering' when scrolling. It happens a lot more on longer comments, also, which may be related to a higher likelihood of starting a swipe within the comment area, where smaller comments are more likely to be 'swiped over', which doesn't seem to trigger the dialogue.
posted by dg at 3:14 PM on April 30, 2013
posted by dg at 3:14 PM on April 30, 2013
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by arcticseal at 9:18 PM on April 6, 2013 [3 favorites]