Why not have some kind of "recent posts" sidebar, or the like?

April 8, 2004 3:11 PM

Why not have some kind of "recent posts" sidebar, or the like? As it is, ongoing conversations fade out in mid-thought as they go down then off the page, as people stop checking them. No doubt someone will remark that that would be bringing Mefi closer to some kind of message board, but is that really such a bad thing?
posted by abcde to Feature Requests at 3:11 PM (14 comments total)

But the Howie-man already allows you to sort by "recent comments."
posted by Skot at 3:18 PM on April 8, 2004

You can sort by recent comments on the main page.
Or what Skot said.
posted by rhapsodie at 3:19 PM on April 8, 2004

That didn't specifically occur to me when I was posting, but I meant the general ethic anyway. What can be done, to help discourage the event horizon where a post suddenly falls silent.
posted by abcde at 3:33 PM on April 8, 2004

Without the superfluous comma.
posted by abcde at 3:33 PM on April 8, 2004

Seems like the way things are now, noise/hijacking/snark/random commenting dies out after the post scrolls off the page, leaving only the people who are really interested in discussing the topic. Which, when it works, is a nice feature. Also, what was said above. Also, the front page is busy enough.
posted by evinrude at 3:57 PM on April 8, 2004

It would be nice to have a *recent comments/updated threads* feature for the Grey and Green. It would be nice to track threads in all 3 sections, without having to reply in them, somewhat like a "subscribed threads" feature found in message boards.
posted by Gyan at 4:53 PM on April 8, 2004

How about a small cell that holds the last 5 threads you've commented on? I mentioned many things to improve MeFi (IMHO) but of course it's like talking to wallpaper.
posted by SpaceCadet at 4:54 PM on April 8, 2004

Awww, SpaceCadet has been acting out The Yellow Wallpaper in the privacy of his home in an attempt to get closer to feminist women writers of the twentieth century. That's sweet. Stick with it!
posted by onlyconnect at 9:15 PM on April 8, 2004

Don't ask for a pony 'less you can pay for the stable.

Take from that what you will.
posted by Jimbob at 10:19 PM on April 8, 2004

"Don't ask for a pony 'less you can pay for the stable."—Jimbob

No, really. I'll clean up after it and feed it and everything. Really. I promise. Aww, please? Please, please, please? Daddie...c'mon, I double promise-cross-my-heart-hope-to-die.

Seriously, though, I wouldn't like a rating system. Isn't that what MeTa has become? It's redundant.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 11:24 PM on April 8, 2004

Oh. Yeah. Also this sidebar thing. I don't want that either. Damn similar-pony-threads.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 11:26 PM on April 8, 2004

Awww, SpaceCadet has been acting out The Yellow Wallpaper in the privacy of his home in an attempt to get closer to feminist women writers of the twentieth century. That's sweet. Stick with it!

Hmmmm, yeah.....funny! I said "wallpaper"....a feminist play has that very word in it! Lateral thinking....damn smart........
posted by SpaceCadet at 2:24 AM on April 9, 2004

AskMeFi would do well from a 'recent comments' button, or even having it set up like a message board. some people may 'bump' topics to start with but that would soon get quashed.

it would allow unfinished askme questions to remain in the public eye.
posted by Frasermoo at 11:15 AM on April 9, 2004

Perhaps a solution would be to make the "search" link more prominent in MetaTalk?
posted by dg at 5:25 PM on April 9, 2004