Idea for Update Feed

Question

Hello, all. I have an idea for a new feature for SD. I was thinking it would be nice to have a section that would be updated with and put all your relevant incoming messages/communications in one place. It would include incoming PMs, answers to questions you've asked, comments on your questions, and (this is the one that would be most helpful for me) comments posted on your answers and new comments on questions and answers that you've commented on. As it is, I think I probably miss some of the comments made on my answers because I just don't know they're there. I go back and check my answers a few times for a day or so, but it doesn't seem time-effective to be constantly going back to check on every answer I've ever posted. The same goes for comments on answers and questions to which I've posted comments. Those are probably worse, really, because you have to remember them all and track them down because there's no list of things you've commented on if you haven't answered them. Anyway, I thought it would be nice to collect all these things and put them in one big feed instead of chasing all over the site for them. Does this sound helpful to you guys? Do you have any other ideas for things to include in the feed?

Edit: Just so everyone knows, I am aware that you can see all your answers and all your questions in a list in the forum, and also subscribe to them to get updates in your email inbox. The idea is to build a feed into the website that puts all your incoming communications in one place.

Especially the comments ... it's important to find and apply corrections... some people don't like it if you don't apply the corrections ;) - LateToDinner, Jul 20, 2010

Answer 1

Mac, I like the category of new comments to your comments, but I think you could get an avalanche of feeds.

Since the computer only knows who posted the question (or answer) and who posted the comment, for you to get a feed on a comment it would have to feed you every comment on every q/a that you have commented on.

Someone posts a picture, you say 'nice picture' and then Quentin says the dog in that pic has 5 legs then Gekko says it was photoshopped and Rikko says no one was supposed to notice and then 20 comments later you are emptying your feeds trying to find a pertinent one.

While that may be an exaggeration, think about how many of the q&a that you and some of the others do supply a comment to and pretend that there were only 4 additional comments appended. It could easily exceed hundreds of feeds to one member.

Heidita's feeds alone would equate to a Denial of Service attact on the system!

One thing it might do is inhibit some of the comments from folks that don't want to be inundated with feeds since you have no way of knowing how controversial a subsequent comment to that post could turn out.

You make esveral good points. It might be a strain on the system to keep track of all that stuff. About avoiding inundation, there could be an on/off option, maybe by category (comments on comments, comments on q/a, PMs, etc.) - MacFadden, Jul 21, 2010

Or the updates could be grouped together by what question or answer they go to, and if there were a busy q/a, you could just minimize/unsubscribe to it. - MacFadden, Jul 21, 2010

A lot of people would get very long feeds, I agree, but maybe it could be a scrolling box, and they would just float by and you could glance at it. - MacFadden, Jul 21, 2010

You could definitely get Chris some overtime. - LateToDinner, Jul 21, 2010

Answer 2

I have only been using the forum for a week or so but already I have seen how useful it would be to have such a feed. Like lovely, I do not necessarily get through all the emails in my inbox, and I would far prefer to have a single feed on the site where I can keep track of threads.

It's a great site, though. I'm very impressed to date. Thank you to all who have invested so much time and effort in it.

Answer 3

But there still a problem, the problem is that I got lots of E-mails so I don´t get time to check them all so I couldn't´t notice that anyone posted a comment on my answer or question .(I got about 200 E-Mail for a one day )

Answer 4

See that box above"see" watch this question.. if you click on that you will be emailed updates, hope this helps. -

I know about email updates. But they don't deal with watching comments on answers, which is my main concern. - MacFadden, Jun 15, 2010

Thanks, though. :) - MacFadden, Jun 15, 2010

Answer 5

Most forums have functions like "all threads started by this user" and an "all posts by this user" (of course, SD would need a third category..."all comments by this user"). These would be very nice features, but I think they would be difficult to implement as SD doesn't appear to use common forum software.

As it is, you should receive emails to all threads you have opened. And you can receive emails for any thread to which you click "watch." That will take some of the work out of it for you.

Answer 6

Actually you should get a mail for comments you post too, do you not get them?

What kind of "feed" as you call it are you thinking about?

Like a little box with a list of all the comments, answers, PMs, etc relevant to the user on their homepage or some such place. Just to put them all in one place on SpanishDict and not in yoru email inbox. - MacFadden, Jun 15, 2010

The truth is I don't know if I get email updates on comments. I don't check that email address very often. :) It would be nice to have it right on one of the SD pages, though. - MacFadden, Jun 15, 2010

Okay, now I've checked. I do get emails when someone comments on my questions, but the link leads me to a 404 not found error. That's not too much trouble, I can always tell what post it was on by the text of the message, though. - MacFadden, Jun 15, 2010

I'm still not sure if I get updates when new comments are posted to other people's questions/answers that I have commented on. - MacFadden, Jun 15, 2010

That does mean this should be fairly easy to implement, though. SD would just have to find a way to divert the email updates (and possibly a few others) to an on-site feed. - MacFadden, Jun 15, 2010

Answer 7

S.D. Should set up a twiter that people can subscribe to about website changes and importaint announcments.