Starting a new thread by moving boot’s comments regarding the new favorites module.

Talk amongst yourselves.

I didn’t want to start a new topic on this one, but there are a couple of things I’m not that fond of about the new favourites hearts.  I think it’s possible I’m being a little surly about it, so, Keith, feel free to ignore everything I’m about to say.  Especially considering you haven’t actually asked for feedback.

I don’t think I like what the all the little hearts are doing to the front page.  It’s visually overwhelming.  It is better now that they aren’t bright red, but I still think it is detracting from Scrine.  I love Scrine for his words, not his whirring gadgets.  I think it would work better if they were kept contained in the comments pages.  After all, if you really love something, you’re likely to (try and) come up with something to say about it.

I also don’t like that it displays numbers on the little hearts (in the comments screen).  I know you’ve said that this isn’t a competition, but it feels that way.

I have some other thoughts, but I don’t want to be the big curmudgeon. After all, it could just be the Luddite in me and nothing else. 

So, I’m interested to hear what others think about the new set up.

Well, I for one, think this is a perfect opportunity to start a new topic, so I’ve moved your original post, boot.

First, let me start by reminding everyone who stops by this thread that I am open to any and all opinions when it comes to the pages of Scrine, and whether or not you come off as surly is of little concern to me.  Opinions matter and help guide how the site develops and looks.  I may be full of ideas, but I am the first to admit that maybe not all of them are good ones.

About the new favorites module, I am of varying opinions.  I love the ease and convenience of being able to select favorites without having to manually use a tag.  This is something I will support heavily, regardless of how we go about the selection process.

As for how the selection process is presented visually, I am open for opinion.  I have toyed with the idea of the small graphic links in the past, and for the most part, like them.  I do, however, see how they might visually clutter the page for some, although it somehow seems like a small, faint graphic might be easier for the eye to disregard than a word representation of the same link.  I agree completely, boot, that when all the hearts were bright red that the page was very distracting.

As far as number go inside the hearts, I can see and appreciate your point.  Maybe I thought I was being clever, or maybe I was getting Photoshop crazy, or maybe I was just excited that I figured out how to manipulate a part of the code of the new module.  Whatever it was, I think I’m in agreement that the numbers should go away.  I do, however, like that something pops up left of the title of sentences that someone has chosen as a favorite, and I am still not opposed to that image changing somehow to differentiate between sentences that have been chosen once, and let’s say, five or ten times.

As far as being Scrine’s biggest curmudgeon, I must insist that you leave that up to me, boot.  I will have it no other way.

I hope others will check into this thread and speak their mind, as the forum is a perfect place for openness and honesty.  I’ll place a link to this thread on the main page.

As an avowed Luddite, I’m pretty much echoing what Boot said.  I liked the effort it took me to remember if it was “mouse-favorites” or “favorites-mouse” (I had to look it up most times), and I liked that if I’d selected it that it was blessed by me was right there in the tag list and that might get someone to click the tag and see what else I’d gone to the trouble to tag.  I liked that I was probably only going to tag maybe one out of every two or three hundred sentences.  Given there are about 10,000 sentences on scrine so far I don’t like the way the newly invented tag toy is causing tagging of lots of not-great sentences to the detriment of the really great ones.

That said, I see the attraction of the module and the graphical-ish interface and if it’s do-able here’s how it would look in my perfect world:  The option to click a “favorites” selection icon would only show up on the comments/tag screen and there’d be no indication of favoritism on the front page and no graphical distraction.  If I picked a sentence, my avatar or my personal heart-icon or “favorites-mouse” would appear in or near the tag list.  Clicking on that tag or icon would take someone to my list.  There’d still be a pull-down link to favorites on the front page that’d go to a master-list of all tagged favorites.

The Big List of Favorites is a pain to use - you’ve got to click into the sentence to see what it’s about.  You can’t “next” to the next favorite to read thru. I think it should read like scrine or like the individual favorites pages where you see the headling and the sentence.

If it turns out that the overwhelming weight of opinion goes against me I’ll deal and learn to tune out the graphical distraction—and I suspect that I’ll ask for special indulgence to let me use my old-fashioned tag method.  /end $0.02/

I’ve never posted to the forum before! Squeeeal!

I like ‘mouse’s idea of keeping it a bit more quiet. I feel competitive about my sentences ever since the advent of the little hearts, and I don’t like that feeling very much.

Okay, I’ve made a flurry of changes, submitted for your approval.

1. On the main page, the favorite heart has been removed completely, with the exception of a small one appearing to the left of the title of any sentence that has been made a favorite by at least 5 members.

2. On the comments page, a list now appears below the title, showing who has selected a sentence as a favorite.  Clicking on this link takes you to that person’s favorites list.

3. The tag image will still appear on the main page, but only if an entry has no tags.  Once tagged, it disappears.  I like this because it helps me to keep on tagging sentences as we go along.

4. The little picture of the pencil will continue to appear next to your own sentences, leaving you a quick way to get in and edit a sentence.  Maybe I could put some sort of timer on this link, making it disappear after some set time.  I’ll think about it.

5. The complete list of favorites now appears more like a regular Scrine page, with title, link to comments page, and complete sentence.

6. Looking at another member’s favorites page, you can easily see which favorites you have in common by comparing the hearts.  A bright heart represents a sentence that you have made a favorite.

There may have been other changes, but they don’t come immediately to mind.

Keith, the reasons why I like Scrine always come back to you. 

Thanks for being willing to listen to feedback.  These changes are great.  I’ll try them out and see how they work for me.  I already feel less nervous now that I know the numbers have gone.

Jo, I’m so glad you feel that way too.  I thought I was just being stupid about it.  Phew!

And, lastly, ‘mouse, what a pleasure it is to have other (sensible) Luddites around.

I love this place.

(curmudgeon, curmudgeon, curmudgeon)

i, for one, really appreciate being able to remove that comma i wasn’t sure about two years before but am dead certain must go now.  so if you’re removing the graphic pencil, could you leave in a backdoor to the perpetual editing option anyway, somehow?  the rest i don’t care about as when anything gets above gadget1.1 i just tune it out anyway.  skwiki? wha?

wait, so how do we make it a favorite now?  i want to favorite the corruptible ice cream.

you have access to the heart-shaped favorites button on the comment page, or on the master list of favorites, if someone else has already made it a favorite.

And I’ve decided to leave the little pencil graphic alone.  It will always appear on your own sentences (unless someone absolutely must have it removed, and then I will do it on a person-by-person basis.)

I missed most of the debate by being out of internet contact this weekend, but I agree with everything that’s been done so far. I like the ability to favorite a sentence, but as ‘mouse said, I also like knowing it’s MY favorite as opposed to someone else’s. Thanks Keith for the updates and for asking for feedback!

I have finally gotten around to adding a few favourites and I’m afraid to say, I don’t like it.  I feel I’m being mean to those I haven’t added as a sentence yet and that, all of a sudden, Scrining is turning into a popularity contest.

I’ve thought about this a lot (and bounced some ideas of the beautiful grudknows) and I think the majority of my problem lies in the word “favorite”.  It’s an inherently emotive term.  ‘You’re my favourite granddaughter!” said Nanna when the other grandaughter wasn’t within earshot’ 

What about a different term?  That’s if the module allows you the flexibility, of course.

My first suggestion would be something along the lines of Memory Box or Shoe Box.  I’d prefer Shoe Box, but I’m a Boot, so that’s not surprising.

My shoe boxes at home don’t just have my bestest-everest things, they have scraps of paper I found odd or that felt nice, they have photos of excellent times, but they also have letters that cause me great sorrow or pain when I re-read them.

Personally, this is what I’d like to have the new module reflect.  Things that cause me to pay attention, not necessarily things that are the best Scrines ever.

What does everyone else think?

Yours curmudgeonly,

Luddite Boot

Keith has come up with a much better option than Shoe Box.  I love it almost as much as I do Scrine.

Keith is, as ever, a dead set legend.

After an invigorating discussion in the chatbox with boot today, a decision was made to change Favorites to something that I hope everyone will find more comforting as well as descriptive, since Scrine is, after all, a place all about comfort and description.

So from here on out, what was previously referred to as Favorites is now known as Stash.  It was thought that the idea of stash was less about ranking and more about “stuff,” meaning that everything that a member tucks into their “Stash” isn’t necessarily a recommendation that it is one of the best sentences, but rather that it is a sentence that for one reason or another sticks with them and needs to be singled out.

I like the change.  I hope everyone else does as well.