h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As it occurs to me:

* it'd be nice to unsubscribe from a journal conversation without removing it from <./>watch129960?full=1</.> eg, I might not be interested in whatever the topic has drifted to, but might like to go back and read the original journal entry/catch up on the conversation later

* It'd be nice to subscribe to the 'message centre' of friends as well as the journal entries - if I'm interested in one, I'm probably interested in the other...

* It'd be nice to have a list to the 'conversations' page as well as to personal space and journal entries.

* Be nice to have it in two columns, for better use of space

* In Brunel, would be nice to have the little X graphic used to unsubscribe/delete entries/etc, rather than the word 'delete'

-Martin

Lucinda, that would be a lot of niceties

Subscribing to someones messagecenter should already be possible.

Have a look at the A-member of someones personal space, A338078 in your case. You can subscribe to that at least for new conversations.

But he wants it to be automated, and he's right, it should be! Jim should be able to do that.

I think i suggested 2 different deletes on the dev server, can't remember what happened.

Nice ideas though!

Tango

But the friends list is simply generated from whose journals you're subscribed to. So if that included message centres too, would it only include people to whose message centres and journals you're subscribed too, or just one or the other?

IMO the message centres are more about *leaving* a message for someone, so if you were subscribed you'd just see the personal conversations they were having with others and messages left for them by other people. It's like more subscribing to someone's letter box. (of course, you cna do this already, but I don't see the point in adding another link to it (which is what friends list does)).

Good point. I'll think about that and get back to you.

Tango

I'm a bit confused why you want these as specific features, when you can do most of this in other ways already.

>> * it'd be nice to unsubscribe from a journal conversation without removing it from watch129960?full=1 eg, I might not be interested in whatever the topic has drifted to, but might like to go back and read the original journal entry/catch up on the conversation later

I'd like this one. I'm subcribed to thousands (literally) of threads already

>> * It'd be nice to subscribe to the 'message centre' of friends as well as the journal entries - if I'm interested in one, I'm probably interested in the other...

no it wouldn't! well, not automatically... I certainly wouldn't want to.


>> * Be nice to have it in two columns, for better use of space

That would be very nice. Anything to make my PS shorter!

You've lost me a little bit there Mina...

The first one you currently can't do. If you unsubscribe from a journal, it'll be removed from the list of journal entries by your friends. I think it'd be neater for the journal watch page (watch123456) to list all journals by your friends, rather than just the ones that you're subscribed to. After all, you can keep track of the one's you're subscribed to by using 'my conversations' and the like.

The second one, yes you can do by going to the user page and clicking 'Click here to be notified', but it's inconvenient to have to click on two different places, and it'd be better to have a single button that would allow you to read both sets of conversations. If you're interested in what X is talking about in hir journal, you're probably interested in what sie is talking about in hir message centre. Automated, as Tango says.

The third one... well, you could include a list of people you know along with links to their 'my conversations' page, and skip the whole friends list concept completely. But much more convenient to have DNA do all the work for you.

The fourth and fifth are just display issues.

Frankie - I'd say one or the other. So someone is a friend if I've subscribed to hir message centre or to hir journal or to both.

Other features as they occur to me:
6) option to have people in friends list without subscribing to either message centre or journal. such people would have their journal entries appear in the list of journal entries by your friends, and would have the handy links to help you find them, but you wouldn't be subscribed. Handy for people who are friends, but post stuff you're not particularly interested in in their journals.

7) consolidated message centre for your friends, similar to the consolidated journal there is at watch123456

8) Rather than:

>>> Zarquon,
>>> _Personal_Space_ | _Journal_Entries_ | _Delete_

Have:

>>> _Zarquon_ | _Journal_Entries_ | _Delete_"

Which saves a line of display - the name 'Zarquon' would of course link to her personal space. That'd be more compact and just as functional

-Martin

9) consolidate the who do I friend and who friends me features, so you'd have:

Trixabelle | Journal | Delete | (mutual)

for mutual friends, rather than having two seperate links

10) a consolidated conversations page for my friends - listing all the conversations that any of them are subscribed to

11) The 'delete' buttons shouldn't appear on other people's friend lists.

Number 11 has been reported already (multiple times ) I think Jim will fix it when he can be bothered, it doesn't do anything, so he's not going to do anything. Sound fair!

Tango

I like things that don't do anything. They remind me of myself.

Nobody posted to that effect *here* ...

1) I'd like to know if more Researchers are interested in this feature. We can look into it, to see if it can be done, although we'd like to see a little more support.

2) We've come up against the idea of adding yet more buttons/links to do something that we can already do. We'd still have to keep the original links, so adding a third one would make the site more crowded, and wouldn't bring huge benefits.

3) Researchers can already see conversations lists of their friends. The 'My Conversation' pop-up can be altered to do this.



6) You can mimic this by creating a list or drop down menu on your Personal Space, so this functionality already exists.


7) Would anyone else be interested in this? We can't see that having a link to show these would be more useful than simply going to their Personal Space.



I'd like to know what other Researchers think of 4,5,8 9 and 10.

1) Sure. Personally I think the consolidated journal page would be more useful if it showed all journal entries by friends, regardless of whether or not you are subscribed to the individual conversations.

2) As I said in post 8, my idea was for it to be automated. So clicking 'add to friends' would subscribe you to BOTH message centre and JOURNAL. No need for more buttons on people's personal space.

3) There's a typo in my post 1, I'm afraid: "It'd be nice to have a LINK to the 'conversations' page as well as to personal space and journal entries". IE, there's currently a link to the journal of your friend - there should also be a link to the conversations page of your friend. Like the journal link, it'd be there purely for convenience.

6) Adding a list on your home space is comparatively tedious and error-prone, and doesn't allow you to view them in the consolidated journal view. 'Add to Friends' is much simpler.

7) Rather than checking the message centre of twenty different people, you could just flick over to a single page and check them all at once. But I'm not hugely fussed about that one.

I take issue with your assumption that I would want to be subscribed to the message centre of a friend. As far as I know, I'm not subscribed to the message centres of anyone who I consider a friend on this site.

To me, that would spoil the usefulness of the "Add to friends" tool. And I'm sure I remember reading a thread about people concerned with privacy issues - whilst I don't think I should be unable to subscribe to someone's message centre, making it automatic when a friend is added, and some of the other features you propose wouldn't half make it easier on someone who wanted to be a nuisance to someone else.

Sort of as Frankie said, I tend to think that messages on my personal space are usually personal to me. Sometimes I like having conversations with one person without everyone else jumping in because they're subscribed.

Sorry this has turned out to be a bit of a rant....

2) As I said in post 8, my idea was for it to be automated. So clicking 'add to friends' would subscribe you to BOTH message centre and JOURNAL. No need for more buttons on people's personal space.

As J'au-æmne says, some people will want to subscribe to journals or message centres, but not both. So we need to keep these functions as they are.

3) There's a typo in my post 1, I'm afraid: "It'd be nice to have a LINK to the 'conversations' page as well as to personal space and journal entries". IE, there's currently a link to the journal of your friend - there should also be a link to the conversations page of your friend. Like the journal link, it'd be there purely for convenience.

We have higher priority features on the list than adding a convenient button when there is already, as I said, a gadget that does this.

6) Adding a list on your home space is comparatively tedious and error-prone, and doesn't allow you to view them in the consolidated journal view. 'Add to Friends' is much simpler.

We could consider adding this to the list if it's what Researchers wanted, although as there is already a gadget that does this, it wouldnt be very high priority.

7) Rather than checking the message centre of twenty different people, you could just flick over to a single page and check them all at once. But I'm not hugely fussed about that one.

A fair point, anyone else keen to see this on the list?

Only just noticed this, but does anyone else think it's weird that journals of friends goes up the page (date order) where everywhere else on h2g2 goes down...