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locked How does one follow a topic or hashtag?

Shal Farley
 

Hmm...

I'm feeling a little dense, like I'm missing something obvious.

Say I join a group and set my Subscription to "First Message Only.
"The first message of every thread is emailed to you, along with all
messages from threads you start. You can decide to receive additional
messages from threads you're interested in.

Ok, so I go browse the Archives and spot a few topics I'm interested in. I don't see a Follow button anywhere. How do I follow them?

I go browse the #HashTags and spot a few of those I'm interested in. How do I follow them?

And what about the "Replies Only" and "No Email" delivery options. Do they preclude me from following topics or #HashTags of interest?

-- Shal
Mark Fletcher
 

On Fri, Jan 16, 2015 at 1:56 AM, Shal Farley <shal@...> wrote:
Hmm...

I'm feeling a little dense, like I'm missing something obvious.

Not dense at all.

My initial assumption was that people would interact with their groups through email and through the 'Inbox' view on the Groups.io website, instead of visiting individual group archives. When you subscribe to a group, all of the group messages instantly show up in your Inbox. So, when viewing threads in Inbox view, depending on your subscription, you'll have either 'Mute This Thread' or 'Follow This Thread' at the top (you get the same option in the message footers when emailed to you). And there are separate views for threads you've already muted or followed, along with muted hashtags, so that you can 'undo' those operations.

There currently is no option to follow a specific hashtag. That's clearly missing.

"No Email" currently means no email (subject to the other special notices discussion...)

If your subscription is set to First Message Only or Replies Only, you'll still get email from any thread that you follow.

Basically, if you're set to All Messages, you end up Muting things you don't want. If set to First Message or Replies Only, you end up Following things you do want.

This all is tremendously confusing, I agree. I believe you're the first person to dig into this stuff (and therefore the first person to review my design....) So, like with everything else, suggestions are appreciated. :)

Thanks,
Mark
Shal Farley
 

Mark,

My initial assumption was that people would interact with their groups
through email and through the 'Inbox' view on the Groups.io website,
instead of visiting individual group archives.
Through email is certainly true for me. Apart from moderator duties, I only go to the group's archives when I'm new to a group or to research messages that I may not have kept in an email folder.

When you subscribe to a group, all of the group messages instantly show
up in your Inbox. So, when viewing threads in Inbox view, depending on
your subscription, you'll have either 'Mute This Thread' or 'Follow This
Thread' at the top (you get the same option in the message footers when
emailed to you).
Interesting about the Inbox view. I ignored it largely out of inexperience with Groups.io, I see how that's a valuable way of keeping up with one's groups for those who don't rely on email. I would never have thought of it as a way to research the messages of a group I just joined though - I'd want to be looking at just their messages.

I think affordances for Muting or Following a thread likely should appear wherever one sees a thread - in the Inbox list itself (not just after opening the thread/message), as well as in the lists and opened messages of the group's pages.

And there are separate views for threads you've already muted or
followed, along with muted hashtags, so that you can 'undo' those
operations.
Excellent. It is possible that group- and member-specific versions of those lists ought to appear as tabs of each group's Archives page. I think that will help bring these features "out in the open" - make their utility more discoverable as well as making them easier to understand. Perhaps there labeled "Your Followed Threads" and etc. to make it clear that those are member-specific.

-- Shal
Frances
 

Hi Mark,

Muting is fabulous and will appeal to many users, but right now it is a little too complicated. I think you need to show the controls for muting and unmuting on more screens.

I can see “muted threads” in the Inbox.
Not obvious how to unmute them.
So I have to click on the subject line of my muted thread.
And I can unmute the thread.
Okay - works.

But from my specific group I have to wander around.
Go to Archives.
My muted thread does show in Thread View (and it should, I think).
But nothing saying it is muted.
As Shal mentioned, it doesn’t show which of the threads have been muted - not under thread view, message view or expanded message view.

So I click on that message.
Edit thread doesn’t do anything.
I know I saw how to unmute before within the group before.
Giving up!

I will have to go back to the inbox. But I am sure I saw another screen just a few minutes ago that would allow me to unmute!

Frances








A glitch - if you click on Mute This Thread in your email, and it is already muted, you get a popup page that tells you this.
You have a yes / no question - do you want to mute this thread? The answer has to be No, or the window won’t close. It stays muted. Not a biggie, I guess!

On Jan 17 15, at 7:56 PM, Shal Farley <shal@roadrunner.com> wrote:

Mark,

My initial assumption was that people would interact with their groups
through email and through the 'Inbox' view on the Groups.io website,
instead of visiting individual group archives.
Through email is certainly true for me. Apart from moderator duties, I only go to the group's archives when I'm new to a group or to research messages that I may not have kept in an email folder.

When you subscribe to a group, all of the group messages instantly show
up in your Inbox. So, when viewing threads in Inbox view, depending on
your subscription, you'll have either 'Mute This Thread' or 'Follow This
Thread' at the top (you get the same option in the message footers when
emailed to you).
Interesting about the Inbox view. I ignored it largely out of inexperience with Groups.io, I see how that's a valuable way of keeping up with one's groups for those who don't rely on email. I would never have thought of it as a way to research the messages of a group I just joined though - I'd want to be looking at just their messages.

I think affordances for Muting or Following a thread likely should appear wherever one sees a thread - in the Inbox list itself (not just after opening the thread/message), as well as in the lists and opened messages of the group's pages.

And there are separate views for threads you've already muted or
followed, along with muted hashtags, so that you can 'undo' those
operations.
Excellent. It is possible that group- and member-specific versions of those lists ought to appear as tabs of each group's Archives page. I think that will help bring these features "out in the open" - make their utility more discoverable as well as making them easier to understand. Perhaps there labeled "Your Followed Threads" and etc. to make it clear that those are member-specific.

-- Shal
Frances
 

Ah, just found the Muting controls again - on my list of groups.

Frances

On Jan 17 15, at 7:56 PM, Shal Farley <shal@roadrunner.com> wrote:

Mark,

My initial assumption was that people would interact with their groups
through email and through the 'Inbox' view on the Groups.io website,
instead of visiting individual group archives.
Through email is certainly true for me. Apart from moderator duties, I only go to the group's archives when I'm new to a group or to research messages that I may not have kept in an email folder.

When you subscribe to a group, all of the group messages instantly show
up in your Inbox. So, when viewing threads in Inbox view, depending on
your subscription, you'll have either 'Mute This Thread' or 'Follow This
Thread' at the top (you get the same option in the message footers when
emailed to you).
Interesting about the Inbox view. I ignored it largely out of inexperience with Groups.io, I see how that's a valuable way of keeping up with one's groups for those who don't rely on email. I would never have thought of it as a way to research the messages of a group I just joined though - I'd want to be looking at just their messages.

I think affordances for Muting or Following a thread likely should appear wherever one sees a thread - in the Inbox list itself (not just after opening the thread/message), as well as in the lists and opened messages of the group's pages.

And there are separate views for threads you've already muted or
followed, along with muted hashtags, so that you can 'undo' those
operations.
Excellent. It is possible that group- and member-specific versions of those lists ought to appear as tabs of each group's Archives page. I think that will help bring these features "out in the open" - make their utility more discoverable as well as making them easier to understand. Perhaps there labeled "Your Followed Threads" and etc. to make it clear that those are member-specific.

-- Shal
Nightowl >8#
 
Edited

Mark wrote:>>My initial assumption was that people would interact with their groups through email and through the 'Inbox' view on the Groups.io website, instead of visiting individual group archives.<<

I'm just the opposite. I prefer not to interact in E-mail as little as possible I have always preferred to go to the site and interact in each group directly. I set bookmarks and that's how I do it. I log where I stop on each site, and write message numbers to reply to on a notepad.

I've always collected the messages in E-mail, but I simply stored them on my computer and rarely ever read them there, not until Yahoo made the interface impossible for me to use. NEO caused me nothing but headaches in that respect, because every time I sent a message through mail, it was stored in my sent box, as my preference but I was also set to mail from the group. So I always had to make sure I deleted the right copy of the message.

Another problem was that if I sent the message using the wrong e-mail address it would bounce back, and cause more headaches. I am thrilled that I don't have either problem here because I can use this web interface. So given the choice, I will always choose using each individual Groups' site to interact with.

Mark wrote:>>Basically, if you're set to All Messages, you end up Muting things you don't want. If set to First Message or Replies Only, you end up Following things you do want.<<

I would not need to  mute or need to follow anything. I always read all messages, in chronological order, and would never do otherwise on any group I either created or am a member of.

Mark wrote:>>This all is tremendously confusing, I agree. I believe you're the first person to dig into this stuff (and therefore the first person to review my design....) So, like with everything else, suggestions are appreciated. :)<<

I'm probably the second one then. ;) I am curious about how everything works on groups.io  including hashtags and muting, even though I might not ever use everything. I'm basic and simple and prefer it that way, but I have a lot of people I have to explain things to sometimes.

Brenda
Duane
 

Like Brenda, I prefer to use the web site and go to each group to see the archives.  I think she may be confused about the reference to the Inbox though.  Mark was referring to "the 'Inbox' view on the Groups.io website" which you see at https://groups.io/ once you're signed in.  I've started using it to see where there's been any activity, but still go to each group to read the posts.


I was baffled by the references to following and muting until I realized that I probably won't see any of that since I have most of my subscriptions set to NoEmail and the other 2 are set to All Email.  I did that so I wouldn't be "wasting" bandwidth to receive messages, especially those that contain little new information in replies, but a mile long original thread.  Even these days, there are some of us that have slow and/or limited access to the internet.  One of the benefits of living in the boonies outside a small town. ;>)


Duane
Shal Farley
 

Duane,

I was baffled by the references to following and muting until I
realized that I probably won't see any of that since I have most of
my subscriptions set to NoEmail and the other 2 are set to All Email.
"Following" is still useful for those read by web - there's the "Followed Threads" tab of the Inbox page which can give you a concise list of the things you're interested in (rather than having to plow through the entire Inbox). "Muting", not so much.

-- Shal
Duane
 

Thanks, Shal.  I hadn't thought of that angle.  I don't see a way to Follow a thread though.  Because I have this subscription set to No Email possibly?


Duane
Shal Farley
 

Duane,

I don't see a way to Follow a thread though.
LOL, which brings us full circle to my original post. Turns out the buttons are only visible when you've opened a thread from the Inbox view.

Because I have this subscription set to No Email possibly?
Possibly. The current implementation is tied to one's Email Delivery setting, and I think that ought not be so.

-- Shal
Duane
 

I followed up on this. Setting it to All Mail seems to enable the Mute button only. Setting it to First Message Only seems to enable the Follow button only. Back to No Email and no extra buttons.

Duane
Nightowl >8#
 

Duane wrote:>>Like Brenda, I prefer to use the web site and go to each group to see the archives.  I think she may be confused about the reference to the Inbox though.  Mark was referring to "the 'Inbox' view on the Groups.io website" which you see at https://groups.io/ once you're signed in.  I've started using it to see where there's been any activity, but still go to each group to read the posts.<<


I am definitely confused about the inbox. I don't even want to use it. I set bookmarks for my groups, and I want to be able to go right to the group itself and be at the archives. Problem is, when I sign in, I am taken right to the Inbox where I don't want to be. So then I have to choose one to get back to the group.

Is it possible to sign in on any group archive page and stay on that page, or will I always be thrown out of the group to the Inbox? Or, is it possible to have a "sign in" page where I can sign in and then choose a group so I'm not thrown out of it right after signing in?

Thanks,

Brenda
Judy F.
 

Brenda, if I recall, Yahoo Groups Neo was like that in the beginning.  They then added Sort and View preferences and also Navigation Preferences.  This sure made it a lot easier for those of us that always looked at one specific thing.  In my case, Photos Album View, Messages not Topics, etc. 

 

Maybe Mark can come up with something similar to what I have provided above. 

 

Judy F.

SW Florida - USA

 

From: Feathered Leader [mailto:featheredleader@...]
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 11:01 PM
To: beta@groups.io
Subject: [beta] Re: How does one follow a topic or hashtag? #question

 

Duane wrote:>>Like Brenda, I prefer to use the web site and go to each group to see the archives.  I think she may be confused about the reference to the Inbox though.  Mark was referring to "the 'Inbox' view on the Groups.io website" which you see at https://groups.io/ once you're signed in.  I've started using it to see where there's been any activity, but still go to each group to read the posts.<<


I am definitely confused about the inbox. I don't even want to use it. I set bookmarks for my groups, and I want to be able to go right to the group itself and be at the archives. Problem is, when I sign in, I am taken right to the Inbox where I don't want to be. So then I have to choose one to get back to the group.

Is it possible to sign in on any group archive page and stay on that page, or will I always be thrown out of the group to the Inbox? Or, is it possible to have a "sign in" page where I can sign in and then choose a group so I'm not thrown out of it right after signing in?

Thanks,

Brenda

 

 

 

 
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