Is there any way to get more entries defaulting to the front page of the green? August 17, 2004 9:27 AM Subscribe
I posted a question to the green yesterday evening and it's gone already. Is there any way to get more entries defaulting to the front page of the green? I would think 24 hours min would be better. 48 Would be ideal... Please?
true, but I wish when you clicked Archives it didn't strip the new comments number.
posted by evening at 9:37 AM on August 17, 2004
posted by evening at 9:37 AM on August 17, 2004
The 'current archives' link at the bottom of AskMe (and MeTa and MeFi, for that matter) would be more useful if it was a 'previous entries' link that went to the most recent point in the archives not represented on the front page—i.e., to an anchor point in the current archives, not to the specific post itself.
Might help address the problem that dobbs raises by making delving into the archives more of a natural continuation from the front page.
posted by rory at 9:42 AM on August 17, 2004
Might help address the problem that dobbs raises by making delving into the archives more of a natural continuation from the front page.
posted by rory at 9:42 AM on August 17, 2004
I'd like to rise in strong support of the feature request by the distinguished Mefite from Toronto.
posted by kenko at 10:05 AM on August 17, 2004
posted by kenko at 10:05 AM on August 17, 2004
I'll second the motion of our distinguished colleague from the great state of Illinois and his support of our friend from Toronto, and would like to give the remainder of my time to quonsar for shits and giggles, if the chair agrees. ; >
I'm with dobbs--why not change it so that the past 3 or 5 days are always visible on the front page of it?
posted by amberglow at 10:37 AM on August 17, 2004
I'm with dobbs--why not change it so that the past 3 or 5 days are always visible on the front page of it?
posted by amberglow at 10:37 AM on August 17, 2004
A similar, somewhat tangential idea I had recently, albeit more difficult/time-consuming to implement, would be to split the front page between new posts and older but active posts (this could possibly also be a good idea for the blue).
So, the first dozen or so links are under a header proclaiming that they are 'New Posts', and underneath would be another dozen or so 'Active Posts'. Or, even more convoluted, instead of just active posts, posts that are either really active, OR really inactive--those poor questions which have no or few answers and could probably use some more airtime, so to speak.
Obviously this would need some polish, like having the two section headers link to full-size pages with the same types of posts (as the front pages are now), and making sure that posts don't show up in both sections (i.e. the 'active/inactive' posts section draws from yesterday's material or whatnot).
This way, people can see both recent postings, and topics which continue to have ongoing discussion but fall out of view for anyone coming by 6-12 hours later.
posted by cyrusdogstar at 10:50 AM on August 17, 2004
So, the first dozen or so links are under a header proclaiming that they are 'New Posts', and underneath would be another dozen or so 'Active Posts'. Or, even more convoluted, instead of just active posts, posts that are either really active, OR really inactive--those poor questions which have no or few answers and could probably use some more airtime, so to speak.
Obviously this would need some polish, like having the two section headers link to full-size pages with the same types of posts (as the front pages are now), and making sure that posts don't show up in both sections (i.e. the 'active/inactive' posts section draws from yesterday's material or whatnot).
This way, people can see both recent postings, and topics which continue to have ongoing discussion but fall out of view for anyone coming by 6-12 hours later.
posted by cyrusdogstar at 10:50 AM on August 17, 2004
I'm with dobbs--why not change it so that the past 3 or 5 days are always visible on the front page of it?
Because the page would contain probably about 100 posts, and easily be in the hundreds of kb in page size. There is also a balance between showing everything and purposely showing less, to goad people into posting less. I think there are too many questions being asked on a per day basis right now, but I'm reworking a lot of the posting code right now and my hope is that it will surface a great deal of the archives, and reduce new questions about subjects that have been covered before.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:52 AM on August 17, 2004
Because the page would contain probably about 100 posts, and easily be in the hundreds of kb in page size. There is also a balance between showing everything and purposely showing less, to goad people into posting less. I think there are too many questions being asked on a per day basis right now, but I'm reworking a lot of the posting code right now and my hope is that it will surface a great deal of the archives, and reduce new questions about subjects that have been covered before.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:52 AM on August 17, 2004
Why speculate, Matt, about whether showing fewer posts will curb peoples' AskMe enthusiasm? Why not just implement the same thing you have on the blue, the 24-hour prohibition, but just change it to seven or ten days or whatever?
And count me as another fan of the idea of a "most-active threads" view -- a good tradeoff of page size for utility.
Can you say more about what you're planning? Some flavor of views by category?
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 11:04 AM on August 17, 2004
And count me as another fan of the idea of a "most-active threads" view -- a good tradeoff of page size for utility.
Can you say more about what you're planning? Some flavor of views by category?
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 11:04 AM on August 17, 2004
What this mean, this ask too many questions, Matt? Is it bad that people want to know stuff? Is it bad that there is a great diversity of ignorance here requiring people wanting to know many different things? I'm not trying to be a shit, really, but I am unclear on how too many questions can be a bad thing (as long as they aren't coming from a toddler, and do not consist only of "why").
posted by dame at 11:33 AM on August 17, 2004
posted by dame at 11:33 AM on August 17, 2004
Why speculate, Matt, about whether showing fewer posts will curb peoples' AskMe enthusiasm? Why not just implement the same thing you have on the blue, the 24-hour prohibition, but just change it to seven or ten days or whatever?
Most people don't ask multiple questions a day, but people en masse seem to ask more questions than they post threads. Seven days of ask-metafilter questions might be two or three times the size of the metafilter frontpage. Plus, as a subsidiary site, it seems wasteful to use more resources than mefi proper does.
Now, a one-question-a-week limit might be a good idea...
posted by The God Complex at 11:42 AM on August 17, 2004
Most people don't ask multiple questions a day, but people en masse seem to ask more questions than they post threads. Seven days of ask-metafilter questions might be two or three times the size of the metafilter frontpage. Plus, as a subsidiary site, it seems wasteful to use more resources than mefi proper does.
Now, a one-question-a-week limit might be a good idea...
posted by The God Complex at 11:42 AM on August 17, 2004
What about per thread rss feeds? Oooh, and per user rss feeds would be pretty cool, too. [Sorry to keep beating that drum, but it seems pretty useful to me. I don't know what kind of overhead is involved, though, so if this would be a bandwidth problem, just say so and I'll shut up about it.]
posted by monju_bosatsu at 12:05 PM on August 17, 2004
posted by monju_bosatsu at 12:05 PM on August 17, 2004
What this mean, this ask too many questions, Matt? Is it bad that people want to know stuff? Is it bad that there is a great diversity of ignorance here requiring people wanting to know many different things? I'm not trying to be a shit, really, but I am unclear on how too many questions can be a bad thing
No, I didn't mean that I wished people were less inquisitive, but that to me, it points out design failings I made in the process of setting it up. There wouldn't be 100 and 1 questions about ipods or rebooting windows or how to buy a wireless router if I did a better job with the archives.
I'll show off the new posting page and output later this week before implementing which should make the archives a good deal more attractive. I'm also planning on eventually having a list of recent comments on old threads, but the idea for unanswered questions is a good one I'll consider as well.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:50 PM on August 17, 2004
No, I didn't mean that I wished people were less inquisitive, but that to me, it points out design failings I made in the process of setting it up. There wouldn't be 100 and 1 questions about ipods or rebooting windows or how to buy a wireless router if I did a better job with the archives.
I'll show off the new posting page and output later this week before implementing which should make the archives a good deal more attractive. I'm also planning on eventually having a list of recent comments on old threads, but the idea for unanswered questions is a good one I'll consider as well.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:50 PM on August 17, 2004
Oooh. I'm distinguised. :)
Matt, what about a sidebar for when things are happening that might generate a lot of questions. For instance, there've been several Olympics posts in the past few days. Wouldn't it be better to stick them all in one thread on a sidebar like you did with Michael Moore?
posted by dobbs at 12:52 PM on August 17, 2004
Matt, what about a sidebar for when things are happening that might generate a lot of questions. For instance, there've been several Olympics posts in the past few days. Wouldn't it be better to stick them all in one thread on a sidebar like you did with Michael Moore?
posted by dobbs at 12:52 PM on August 17, 2004
well, dobbs think about this alternative:
Say all the questions were tagged with "olympics" and you could easily jump from one to any other, or get a page showing all posts tagged with "olympics" as a keyword. Then imagine a sidebar showing last X commented threads, and people "resurfacing" old olympics questions by asking new questions within comments on them.
I can't wait to get the keywords stuff launched, I think it'll be incredibly helpful. Also - you'll be able to tag your old questions, so that all the existing archives can be brought up to date.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:18 PM on August 17, 2004
Say all the questions were tagged with "olympics" and you could easily jump from one to any other, or get a page showing all posts tagged with "olympics" as a keyword. Then imagine a sidebar showing last X commented threads, and people "resurfacing" old olympics questions by asking new questions within comments on them.
I can't wait to get the keywords stuff launched, I think it'll be incredibly helpful. Also - you'll be able to tag your old questions, so that all the existing archives can be brought up to date.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:18 PM on August 17, 2004
And you can't make money off this somehow? Sounds brilliant. I can't wait either.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 1:57 PM on August 17, 2004
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 1:57 PM on August 17, 2004
What about an "Answered" button that the poster can click when he's satisfied with an answer, which could drop the post off of the front page and into the archives?
posted by ALongDecember at 1:26 AM on August 18, 2004
posted by ALongDecember at 1:26 AM on August 18, 2004
Or she... the button can work for females too.
posted by ALongDecember at 1:28 AM on August 18, 2004
posted by ALongDecember at 1:28 AM on August 18, 2004
I can't wait to get the keywords stuff launched, I think it'll be incredibly helpful.
Glad to hear this is still in the pipeline. My breath, she is bated.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:35 AM on August 18, 2004
Glad to hear this is still in the pipeline. My breath, she is bated.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:35 AM on August 18, 2004
Or she... the button can work for females too.
Oh, that button...
posted by AwkwardPause at 4:37 AM on August 18, 2004
Oh, that button...
posted by AwkwardPause at 4:37 AM on August 18, 2004
"I posted a question to the green yesterday evening and it's gone already."
This probably explains why so many questions require so little thought. ;-P
posted by mischief at 7:06 AM on August 18, 2004
This probably explains why so many questions require so little thought. ;-P
posted by mischief at 7:06 AM on August 18, 2004
I have an idea. What if the preview page of AskMe also showed the first 5 or so hits using the post as the search criteria. It could say "Does this answer your stupid question?" or something nice like that.
posted by signal at 8:25 AM on August 18, 2004
posted by signal at 8:25 AM on August 18, 2004
Because the page would contain probably about 100 posts, and easily be in the hundreds of kb in page size
I know a new format is coming but I think this a bit of a false economy. I know I always reach the end of the main page before seeing an old question at which point I click on the archives button resulting in loading the entire month. A 36 hour minimum would mean this would only happen to me over the weekends instead of everyday.
posted by Mitheral at 9:23 AM on August 18, 2004
I would like to second the motion for an "answered" checkbox, so that the multitudes of easily answered computer problems and accounting questions share top billing with some of the more complex and interesting questions.
posted by milovoo at 2:06 PM on August 18, 2004
posted by milovoo at 2:06 PM on August 18, 2004
The "answered" checkbox is a bit tricky, isn't it? I mean often another individual posts a followup question raised by the comments which is not of interest to the original poster. Should the thread be flagged as answered when more complete information is still being requested?
posted by Songdog at 6:03 AM on August 20, 2004
posted by Songdog at 6:03 AM on August 20, 2004
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posted by y6y6y6 at 9:31 AM on August 17, 2004