DEVELOPER DIARY: Followed Activity Feed is Back

Hey Duders,
 
We just deployed another small addition to go with the new follow / activity code we pushed last week. This feature was launched last week for mods and staff and was opened to all users earlier today.

• what you like
• what you dislike
• what you want to see in this activity feed (more images, more forum posts, more relevant information, etc)
• is it too "spammy" -- what could be filtered out to make it more interesting
• what would make this feed more useful - being able to filter by content type, or by user?
• voting - would it make sense to allow you to vote activity up and down?
• comments -- would it make sense to be able to comment on activity?
  

Hey Duders,
 
We just deployed another small addition to go with the new follow / activity code we pushed last week. This feature was launched last week for mods and staff and was opened to all users earlier today.

• what you like
• what you dislike
• what you want to see in this activity feed (more images, more forum posts, more relevant information, etc)
• is it too "spammy" -- what could be filtered out to make it more interesting
• what would make this feed more useful - being able to filter by content type, or by user?
• voting - would it make sense to allow you to vote activity up and down?
• comments -- would it make sense to be able to comment on activity?
  

I don't really get why you would comment on an activity, when you can just reply to whatever the activity is.

Oh, I really like this! Voting sounds like it would be a good addition, Images would be nice as well. Commenting seems like it'd be a little much.
 
I'd like to reiterate my request for a list of who is following me.

I don't, personally, want to see everyone's posts. I could see this just getting full of forum posts, and if I cared about those I'd check the topics. Also, I doubt I'm going to go to the top of the page, highlight, "Following," and then go to the Friend Feed. If it could be integrated into the, "User Activity." "User Wall" then "User Following Activities." Sort of thing.

"  I'd like to reiterate my request for a list of who is following me. "

I don't see a need for commenting. Nor do I see a use for voting except for certain activity like posts, but that functionality was already in place and unfortunately removed a while ago, while lists already have the capability to be voted on (though not specific items in a list). Maybe a guide or page could also be voted on, but probably not a specific edit. So voting could be useful in a few instances, but I don't think it needs to be connected to the feed. All the custom filtering stuff looks useful. But I wish feeds weren't limited to so few items.

• I'm not really sure how to make an activity list look less spammy besides alternating between two [background] colors for each activity -- I think it would make it easier to read. 
• I think both being able to filter by content type and by user would both be useful, but if only one had to implemented I'd say filtering by user would be better. 
• The only way I would like voting to be implemented would be in the style of urbandictionary.com, where both positive and negative votes are calculated instead of having just one score overall. I'm not sure how voting would work, but if someone really thought a user's post stood out perhaps you could somehow make a system that let's users favorite posts and collect them on a "favorite" page. This would probably be complicated to implement, but I think it would be neat. :P
• I don't really see the usefulness of commenting on activity unless it was for someone's edits on a wiki page or a guide they posted. Otherwise I just see people going to the user's page and leaving a wall comment about it. 

• I like the tabs. Makes it very easy to sort through my peeps that way. The format for the Online Now/ Your Followed Users looks great and I wouldn't change a thing about it. Blog format still looks good.
  
• The activity feed looks rather disorganized. A more immediate way to differentiate between what sort of activity is which would be a major plus. There's so much white space that could be taken advantage of on the sides as well. I don't see the whole "associated with X game" as that useful and just takes up more space. The ability to click on the user who created the activity from the feed would be great as well (ie. User Y posted Z, ability to click on User Y's name to get to his/her profile). More images sounds good, but all depends on which ones. For a post of an article, a larger shot of the article's main picture would suffice, while a comment on said article, a normal sized avatar of the user who posted (with the ability to click on said user's icon to get to their profile) would be best, rather than seeing the same article's picture continual throughout the page. That said, there shouldn't be a spamfest of the same user's avatar, so a way to pile of similar activity by the same user would be ideal. And perhaps this is just because those I'm following are lazy good for nothings, but I don't see any activity based on wiki edits. Those should be highlighted right after staff articles in terms of which gets more prestige in the feed. The only other thing I can think to add, and this is probably a bit much, would be the ability to watch videos via the feeds (ie staff videos or forum posted youtube videos). Collapseable feeds of forum text posts rather than posts that end in ... would be better as well.
  
• Being able to filter content sounds good, as long as it's easy to go through.
  
• I like the idea of voting much like we had back in the day in the forums, but to prevent abuse, just limit it to up votes.
  
• Some activity like videos and articles, yes, perhaps even wiki edits, but not forum posts. Status's, absolutely.
  

Looking good Coonce.

"

• I think both being able to filter by content type and by user would both be useful, but if only one had to implemented I'd say filtering by user would be better. 

  "

" I think both being able to filter by content type and by user would both be useful, but if only one had to implemented I'd say filtering by user would be better. "

"   

• The activity feed looks rather disorganized..... More images sounds good, but all depends on which ones. For a post of an article, a larger shot of the article's main picture would suffice, while a comment on said article, a normal sized avatar of the user who posted (with the ability to click on said user's icon to get to their profile) would be best, rather than seeing the same article's picture continual throughout the page......
• I like the idea of voting much like we had back in the day in the forums, but to prevent abuse, just limit it to up votes.

I would say my part but it's pretty much the same as what everyone else here said. I do like it though, thanks guys.

The only real issue I have with the feed (and it's a minor issue) is the inconsistencies with the naming of the forum thread sections. For example:
 
" Buzz_clik replied to the topic If you could have one animal as a pet..."
 
" Steve_C replied to the topic Spirit Tracks Euro cover vs. American cover in the The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks board."
 
It seems that replying to forum threads on the main forums (e.g. general, off topic, editing & tools etc.) only states the user & the name of the topic, and on specific boards it states the user, the topic name and the board it was posted on. I'd like it to say the board even if it is on one of the main boards.

In addition to what MattyFTM said about the descriptions lacking details, I've also noticed that even when a user creates a topic it still just says they "replied to" it. It would be nice if the feed specified that they created it.

I wonder where that Coonce did go

• Easy to look at each activity.
  
• Too short. It could use that feature on YouTube where you reveal more comments.
  
• Filters.
• See above.
  
• What did I just say?
  
• I don't think so. It'd feel too cumbersome and a bit pointless.
  
• Again, not really. Hell, a lot of them could be commented on anyway in some form.
  

One thing I have noticed from this Follow Feed is that Giantbomb users tend to use the site in short bursts as oppose to continuously. A person will log on, comment on some forums and update their status, maybe edit a wiki or two, then logoff in a relatively short space of time. This means you get bursts of activity from whoever has most recently come on. For instance my feed is currently full of updates about only 4 people who have all been particularly busy over the last 20 minutes. It means that, unless I'm keeping my eye on the feed at all times, a lot of the stuff whizzes by too fast for me to see and only the harcore users get noticed. 
 
This could be solved by maybe posting 1 or 2 updates for a user, then giving us the option to "See this user's full feed". For example instead of posting 12 feeds for 12 threads that a user has just posted on, which looks really cluttered, perhaps: 

 Sweep replied to Any thoughts on the Demo? in the God Of War 3 Boards and In the Spirit Of Website Friendlynessness. Click here to see this user's full feed.

Sweep

replied to Any thoughts on the Demo? in the God Of War 3 Boards and In the Spirit Of Website Friendlynessness. Click here to see this user's full feed.

ooo I like it! Voting sounds like a great idea, some things people aren't going to want to hear about, achievements for example, and some will want rid of other things.