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"Follow" option?

PostPosted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 1:19 pm
by Arthur Digbee
There are many "quiet" contributors on the site who continue to create great pages. I'd love to have some kind of a "follow" option so that I know when they have posted new material.

Unfortunately, a new TR disappears from "What's New" in less than a day, and a mountain can disappear in a couple days during busy season.

It would also be nice if the "What's New" page listed the page author in addition to the name of the page.

People on this site have reputations, both good and bad -- let's make it easier for the people with good reputations.

Re: "Follow" option?

PostPosted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 1:45 pm
by Bob Sihler
It's a good idea, but as with many of these types of things, the elves don't have access to the parts of the site where we could make such changes.

Maybe Matt will see this and can implement it if eh has the time or thinks it is a good idea.

In the meantime, don't forget that on the What's New page, you can always click on "More" to see a longer list of new submissions, complete with the page authors, hits, and page scores. Not perfect, but helpful.

Re: "Follow" option?

PostPosted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 2:31 pm
by dmiki
You can do this now (by creating and saving a few links yourself for later reference).

Look for the person you want to 'follow'. Note their user ID. (Arthur, yours is 34745, we'll use that in the examples.)

For instance all objects with 'rattlesnake' in their name on SP:
http://www.summitpost.org/object_list.p ... attlesnake

All objects with 'rattlesnake' in their name that you created:
http://www.summitpost.org/object_list.p ... r_id=34745

All objects that you created:
http://www.summitpost.org/object_list.p ... r_id=34745

All objects that you created, with the ones you edited last at the top:
http://www.summitpost.org/object_list.p ... r_id=34745

All objects that you created, with the ones you created last at the top:
http://www.summitpost.org/object_list.p ... r_id=34745

Just play around with the searches offered by the site, and note the parameters used in the address bar to create the exact link you are looking for. Hope I could help.

Re: "Follow" option?

PostPosted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 2:56 pm
by Arthur Digbee
I understand, dmiki, and thanks for the examples. I have thought about creating a custom object to that effect.

But . . . what makes me hesitate is declaring publicly whom I am following. I've seen a little of this here -- "You like so-and-so's peaks in range X, why don't you like my peaks in range X?"

I know I could save the info privately on my own computer. But it would be a nice bit of functionality to the site that when I log in, I see "new stuff from people you follow."

Re: "Follow" option?

PostPosted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 4:20 pm
by dan2see
Of course, any SP member could create any sort of database or home-built bookmarks file.

But it would be a wonderful convenience to let SP's computer do what it does best: manage a list; this time for a user.

Then "Follow Me" would be an welcome feature, instead of a chore for the elves, or a management headache for the users.

Re: "Follow" option?

PostPosted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 4:55 pm
by Arthur Digbee
Montana Matt wrote:I'd love to hear some ideas of how people would want to see this implemented. Off the top of my head, this is what I'm thinking:
1) Add a "Follow Me" link or image on each user's page that any other user can click on.
2) When that link is clicked by a logged-in member, they're asked to verify if they'd like to follow this user.
3) Add a section to every user's profile that displays all of the objects of the users they're following sorted by descending date. But since there's so much going on already on the user profile pages, this may be best done on a completely separate and new page that can be navigated to by clicking on a "People I'm Following" link or something similar on your profile.


1 & 2: definitely. 3: seems like a reasonable approach but there are probably other reasonable approaches.

Montana Matt wrote:Would you want to make it private by default but allow the option of showing who you're following to the public?

That's good, I like privacy options for the user. It might also reduce vote-begging and fan-begging. (And friend-begging -- see the South Park episode on Facebook.)
Montana Matt wrote:I think it would be a nice feature to have something like "Followed by XXX people" on the user's page. That wouldn't give away too much.

That's good too.

Thanks Matt, for your ongoing work to improve the site. It's nice seeing all the activity of recent months.

Re: "Follow" option?

PostPosted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 4:59 pm
by mrchad9
It seems to me that this might lead to accusations of stalking.

Re: "Follow" option?

PostPosted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 5:15 pm
by mrchad9
It's a joke Matt!!!

:P

^^^ Maybe I needed that on it first. :D

Re: "Follow" option?

PostPosted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 9:19 pm
by dmiki
Montana Matt wrote:I'd love to hear some ideas of how people would want to see this implemented.


Two things I find myself doing from time to time (once every couple of months):
- Let's say I enjoy reading the mountains/routes/TRs somebody puts up. It would be nice to know what the new ones are that I have not checked out yet. Somehow flagged like new posts in the forums.
- Same with photos. What new pics did the particular user share that I have not seen yet. Again, somehow flagged.

I also see articles, etc. (maybe published years ago) I would like to read, but don't have the time right away. It would be nice to somehow flag these for myself. (Of course I could create bookmarks in the browser for this purpose.)

I'm not sure how these could be implemented from a technical point of view.

Re: "Follow" option?

PostPosted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 10:04 pm
by PAROFES
Arthur Digbee wrote:There are many "quiet" contributors on the site who continue to create great pages. I'd love to have some kind of a "follow" option so that I know when they have posted new material.

Unfortunately, a new TR disappears from "What's New" in less than a day, and a mountain can disappear in a couple days during busy season.

It would also be nice if the "What's New" page listed the page author in addition to the name of the page.

People on this site have reputations, both good and bad -- let's make it easier for the people with good reputations.



Man i would love that! I was thinking long ago about some kind of tool for myself to check new stuff from the SPers i like the most, but as i never saw a "follow" tool, i'm doing it with a base of favorite urls at my browser, it's not that fast but i can see what's new and vote for them...
I must say, i think the idea is absolutly great!
:D