ordered by "Date Modified" instead of "Date Created"...what do you think?

July 20, 2004 2:40 PM

All MetaFilter Comments by [Member] , ordered by "Date Modified" instead of "Date Created"...what do you think?
posted by LairBob to Feature Requests at 2:40 PM (14 comments total)

I'm just thinking how hard it is to see whether a thread you've participated in has had any recent activity. When I look at my list of "answers" in AskMe, for example, if they were ordered by the last time anyone touched them (rather than when they were started), then it would at least be easier to see which ones were still active.

Personally, as well, I don't mentally file threads by when they were initiated--I remember the last time I looked at it or commented there.

As I see it, it's really just a matter of re-ordering the list of posts on that page, on an index that's pretty easily retrievable. Doesn't that make sense, at least as an option?
posted by LairBob at 2:41 PM on July 20, 2004

i'd like this for askme threads, because sometimes you're helping someone out and then they drop off the bottom of the page. at the moment i check back "manually", but only for a few threads.

for meta, though, it's normally a pleasure to see threads go.
posted by andrew cooke at 3:01 PM on July 20, 2004

I'd love to see this as an option.

Don't hold your breath, though.
posted by rushmc at 5:21 PM on July 20, 2004

Don't hold your breath, though.

Awww...dude! You just pooped on my pony!
posted by LairBob at 6:33 PM on July 20, 2004

Date Modified = last time anyone commented in a thread? I'm not sure I'm in favor of that, as the sort will change around constantly based on the behavior of third parties, ie: the other people commenting in the thread.

But I do agree that another view besides sort by thread creation date would be helpful. I've always wondered why the "display this users comments" shows a list of threads, anyway, and not, um, a list of the user's comments.

[ducks]

I'd probably suggest something along the lines of:

"In [Thread Title from FPP]
[text of comment...]
posted on [comment timestamp]

*repeat*

"

with the list sorted by comment timestamp. This, plus the current view, would be killer. The current view is nice because it gives you a chronologic list of what's been posted, and shows you how many times the user commented in each thread.
posted by scarabic at 8:21 PM on July 20, 2004

Yes, this would be more useful.
posted by sudama at 8:49 PM on July 20, 2004

Well, my idea kind of was to have the sort order change pretty constantly, scarabic. A lot of times, my interest in a thread isn't even really _my_ comment in it, but what's being discussed. I just want an easy way to find out if there's been any recent activity in threads I've cared enough to comment in.

Repeating at least the first line of a given comment would certainly help sort them out, in a thread where you participated a lot, but I've also found that, for the most part, my latest comment in a thread is the only one I really jump back to. Still would help parse the list quickly, though.
posted by LairBob at 8:51 PM on July 20, 2004

I'd really like the 110 comments (1 new) part to show up when I'm looking at my comments this way, then I can tell if there's been activity. Barring that, a "my comments" toggle in a pullldown menu just like on the main page would be great for the AskMe main page.
posted by jessamyn at 11:35 AM on July 21, 2004

Just to make sure it's mentioned in every relevant thread:

RSS/Atom feeds for AskMeFi threads.
posted by gleuschk at 12:09 PM on July 21, 2004

I just want an easy way to find out if there's been any recent activity in threads I've cared enough to comment in.

Ah, well, in that case all Matt would need to do would be to put the "total#/new# comment" thingy from the homepage into the existing user comments view.

However, if it's crucial to find the *newest* activity in any thread you've posted to, then yes, a new sort is required.

But given your need, I think some kind of "watch this thread" checkbox would be a better target than a redesigned "recent comments by user X" page. It does sound like what you want is to navigate threads, not navigate a user's comments. So why tackle it by redesigning the user's recent comments page?
posted by scarabic at 4:44 PM on July 21, 2004

Yes please.
posted by zpousman at 7:53 PM on July 21, 2004

Just to make sure it's mentioned in every relevant thread:

RSS/Atom feeds for AskMeFi threads.

FYI, there is an RSS feed for AskMeFi located at http://ask.metafilter.com/rss.xml. Doesn't seem to be an Atom feed though.
posted by estey at 9:41 PM on July 21, 2004

Well, part of my thinking was just finding the easiest possible way, implementation-wise, to get some kind of leverage on recently active threads--like I said, I'm usually not interested in my own most recent comment, I'm interested in activity's that's happened since then.

Just reorganizing the sort order of that list, by a piece of data that's pretty easy to reckon, seemed like the shortest, straightest line to that goal (and therefore the most likely to ever happen).
posted by LairBob at 7:13 AM on July 22, 2004

Yes please.
posted by dg at 4:10 PM on July 22, 2004