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TheIowaCynic's avatar

What are some good adjustments that you think fluther could make to it's user interface?

Asked by TheIowaCynic (582points) March 30th, 2009

I would say the big one is that a person should be able to receive notices of when they are being responded to specifically without having to follow an entire question and check on it everytime that anybody answers it, so as to make sure it wasn’t a response to you.

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31 Answers

asmonet's avatar

I woudln’t like that feature much, I’d be worried that conversations might suffer from valuable input. If you only clicked back on things that were directed at you, it’s possible to miss great points and join in in other ways even if you thought there was nothing else you could add.

I like Fluther exactly how it is for the most part, there are a few things I’d change, but I know that Ben and Andrew are already aware of them and are working on it. But they’re trivial, I can wait. :)

cookieman's avatar

I agree with @asmonet.

I would, however, like the “Your Fluther” tab to be available on the iPhone version.

asmonet's avatar

@cprevite: Oh, I didn’t realize that wasn’t an option, that’d be nice actually.

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@asmonet Here’s a great “for instance” Let’s imagine I make some comment on some question 3 months ago or even a few days ago. I don’t want to have to follow all 250 questions I might have responded to, in order to be made aware that somebody might have responded to something I said a long time ago.

asmonet's avatar

Many people find the ‘Stop Following’ feature works just fine for them, if you’re worried about missing someone directing something at you specifically it’s not such a big deal to keep following. It doesn’t get that much worse the longer you’re on Fluther either.

Here I am at 11K+ lurve, I still only get 40 new activities a day. At 5K I was getting about 30, it’s not that big a deal to most of us I imagine. I think I’ve only stopped following a handful in total.

Perhaps, you’re different.

oratio's avatar

I think that the form of questions that you make can be developed. wis.dm is more advanced in that way, and I like it. I came here cause that site is going down. To be able to make poll questions, yes and no, multiple alternative polls. I think it would make the question maker get better feed back.

fireside's avatar

I have stopped following only 2 questions in the past 8 months.
No big deal for me.

crisw's avatar

I’d like to be able to send a question to someone without having to PM them, to be able to see when people in my fluther are online, and to be able to see responses that they had made to questions.

elijah's avatar

@crisw so you want to PM someone, but just call it something different? I don’t undertand the difference.

Ivan's avatar

@elijahsuicide There was a ‘share this’ feature on wis.dm. When you shared a question with a user, it appeared in their inbox. Here, it would appear in their ‘questions for you,’ most likely. This feature was really handy.

I agree about the reply-notification. I think that being responded to and following a question should be separated.

elijah's avatar

Ah so you mean direct another user to a specific question. I get it now. Thanks.

squirbel's avatar

If a jelly is only concerned with responses directed at him, and not interested in what the collective has to say, you are not a true jelly.

That jelly would be too self-absorbed to be in a community.

cwilbur's avatar

I’d like to see a “this person is a twit” feature. The idea would be that I could flip the twit switch on a person, and instead of seeing his or her replies, I’d see a notice saying “You think this person is a twit.” And then, if I really wanted to, I could click to see what he or she said.

cwilbur's avatar

@squirbel: I’m not joking. I’ve just read through a couple of threads where 2 of every 3 posters were twits, but the other third were interesting.

squirbel's avatar

I haven’t been here, you noticed? It’s because the twit population expanded exponentially.

cwilbur's avatar

That happens. It’s regression towards the mean, and it’s been happening since Fluther went live. More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise.

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@squirbel That’s a silly thing to say. I, for instance, am completely interested in what the entire community has to say, but if somebody makes a statement or response directed at me, it make sense to not have to keep up with every question you ever answered to be made aware of that

squirbel's avatar

Just use the “stop following” feature. And answer fewer questions that don’t fit your interest bracket.

dynamicduo's avatar

Ditto to @asmonet. For the most part, I like the site the way it is. It would be nice to have @cwilbur‘s feature though, I will admit.

I think the one thing to realize about the @user feature is that it’s not really meant to be a one on one dialog thing, as the conversation remains in the thread and is a part of the core question asked, or should be according to the guidelines. It’s meant to be more of a simple identifier, at least that’s how I feel. Any @comment you get in one question is likely related to the question at hand somewhat, and I think it’s important to keep the comments linked with the question, otherwise you’d get comments in your Comments For You section with no real context whatsoever and be confused as to the nature of them!

TheIowaCynic's avatar

@squirbel That’s what I do….....I stick with questions I’m interested in. What I’m suggesting is that if someone commented on something I might have said awhile ago, in a question I stopped following, there should be a way of notifying me

squirbel's avatar

That is true, dynamicduo. The @ feature was not developed for the purpose of side conversations in a main thread. Side conversations are intended to take place in “Comments for you”.

Fluther is a place where you ask a question that you simply don’t know the answer to, ie:

“I can’t remember which brown stuff goes in apple pie: curry or nutmeg. Help?”

Not:

“Do you believe in Shamanism?” “Why is the sky blue?” Do you think Obama will be effective?”

The reason that the first question is a good and well formed Fluther question is because it asks a specific question that all those who are expert cooks, homemakers and so on will answer.

The problem with the second set of questions is that they are broad, ask for opinons, inane, or are just simply polling for answers trying to get attention and lurve.

If you answer too many of the second type, yeah – your notices will be out the wazoo.

If you answer the first set – you would actually be interested in what other responses are in the thread.

Trust me.

Jeruba's avatar

@squirbel, I noticed. Welcome back.

squirbel's avatar

@Jeruba: <3

What is Fluther?

Answers from people.
We think there’s still nothing better than getting an answer from a person. So we made it easier. Just ask Fluther, and we’ll direct your question to people who can help. Simple, isn’t it?

cwilbur's avatar

@squirbel: on the other hand, one of the signs of a great tool is that it is used effectively for things its creators did not envision. There are good ways and bad ways to use Fluther, but I don’t think there’s only one right way.

wundayatta's avatar

What I have been wishing for is a kind of batch stop following feature, or batch “remove” or “not interested” feature.

I imagine it would work like this: next to each question would be a check box. You would check off the boxes for questions you wanted to stop following. At the bottom you’d hit submit or stop following all checked or something, and they’d all go away in one swell foop.

Right now, I remove a question, and I get bounced back up to the top, and I have scroll way down to where I was working. It’s a pain in the ass, and it really slows things down for me.

If I don’t work at this all day, before I know it, I’ve got a hundred or more new questions to reply to and 100 more new items on questions I’m following. Triage goes fast at that point.

fireside's avatar

I can think of at least one person who would qualify for cwilbur’s feature.
Otherwise, i trust Ben and Andrew to provide the features they can and will enjoy the ones they already provided.

cwilbur's avatar

Only one person, @fireside? I can name five without really even trying.

fireside's avatar

@cwilbur – Just one this week. : )

breedmitch's avatar

Here’s my passive-aggressive answer to the question.

To be more direct: I think Squirbel has it right. It’s not really like wis.dm, where you are replying to another user who posted a quip (or chowhound or Craig’slist or a million~ other sites). Here, when you answer a question, for better or worse you’ve committed to the whole conversation. You may refer to another user’s remark using the permalink (@) function, but you should PM if you’re just chatting with the other user. FWIW, we all break this rule.

Once again, welcome to Fluther! There are certainly changes that bendrew want and will make, but it’s their party. We’re just guests.
first wis kid who mentions timestamps gets it in the eye!~

Jeruba's avatar

I’d like to get a little notice with a link when somebody has addressed a remark to me using @.

I’d also like a button or link to go right to my fluther instead of going through ‘My Account” and external profile. That’s where I usually go when I want to PM somebody.

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