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Phil replied on March 06, 2009 17:39 to the idea "Digest top section" in Feedly:
Much better, the annoyance factor, at usually seeing the same type of uninteresting material, is gone.
One thing that seems improvablable is that it seems that a too heavy premium is placed on the recentness of an article. For example, I have a favorite feed with 2 recommendations on an article from 1 day ago. However, the article doesn't show on the digest page or the top section of the relevant category page. A different, unrecommended article (19 hours old) from the same feed does.
I'm not sure there isn't a good reason arguing the other direction, but I think that within a bucket a recommended article from a feed should generally be promoted over an unrecommended article.
It will be interesting to think about the problem more carefully once you make your algorithm public. I'll also keep watch on the question, though at least for now, the limitations aren't glaring.-
A comment on the idea "Digest top section" in Feedly:
Would be better if the article title were the same size as the other two articles. – Phil, on March 05, 2009 00:58 -
Phil replied on March 05, 2009 00:57 to the idea "Digest top section" in Feedly:
Too jarring. I'd suggest just an image placeholder like the cover and category pages use when there is no image. -
Phil replied on March 04, 2009 23:52 to the idea "Digest top section" in Feedly:
I think you nailed the problem. Most of my favorite feeds have very few pictures with their articles.
I don't see a significant problem with (1), except that unless I set the list length to L, the high-volume favorite feed that I'm behind in reading (>100 unread) displays no articles on the digest page. I think that limiting the number of articles displayed from the feed is helpful, but something should get through since it is a favorite.
With respect to (2), I'm not sure what the answer is for everybody, but if feedly has to skip over a bunch of silvers and platinums to find a bronze article with a picture, it should probably assume that, for this person at least, pictures aren't that important and take the top three anyway. -
Phil replied on March 04, 2009 23:31 to the idea "Digest top section" in Feedly:
Currently the top three articles on the digest page are all bronze and all from Engadget (3, 8, and 11 hours old with 3, 5, and 2 recommendations). The category sections of the page display many bronze article summaries, but also a number of platinum and silver article summaries. Many of these are from favorite feeds with fewer than 25 unread articles and no recommendations. E.g., some say "platinum: first recent from rare". A number of the bronze items are from a high-volume favorite feed that has 100 unread articles (even there I'm not sure that even the freshest article from a high-volume favorite feed should be deprecated). -
Phil replied on March 04, 2009 22:19 to the idea "Digest top section" in Feedly:
Was the filtering changed back? After a brief respite, I'm seeing a return the endless parade of recommended articles from non-favorite feeds in the top section. Perhaps it's just that yesterday I had cleared out all the most highly recommended articles before and now there is a fresh set of such articles. But it seems clear that the #1 > #2 > #3 > #4 logic above isn't operative. This is 1.2.1.2.196 (build 2419). -
Phil replied on March 03, 2009 22:40 to the idea "Digest top section" in Feedly:
Better I think. Certainly is nice to see some variety in the top section. I'll stick with this version for a bit, see how the articles that are displayed update, and let you know of my impressions. -
Phil replied on March 03, 2009 21:11 to the idea "Mini/Friend feed conversation issues" in Feedly:
Just wanted to remind you that it would be nice to extend the conversation selection logic from the mini bar to feedly's regular display of conversations in expanded articles. There are still lots of unrelated conversations being shown relative to the much improved minibar's selection.
Thanks for always being so open to suggestions. -
Phil replied on March 03, 2009 19:25 to the idea "Digest top section" in Feedly:
With respect to your question in paragraph 1, yes the feeds that are overwhelming my top section articles are non-favorites. I also note that this is an issue not only for digest, but also the category and cover pages' article selection.
Given that there is no fancy mechanism for reading my mind on the horizon, I prefer #1 > #2 > #3 > #4.
In principle, #1 > #3 > #2 > #4 sounds reasonable, but in practice doesn't work for me. The high volume, highly popular feeds seem to always have a wealth of recommended articles and my favorite feeds do not have many recommenders, so buckets #1 and #2 are usually close to empty and bucket #3 is always overflowing.
(Also, some feeds (e.g., ReadWriteWeb) consistently have articles with tons of recommendations, while another lower-volume feed that has a outstanding article might get one or two. If they are in the same bucket, I believe the current algorithm means you'll see only the highly recommended articles from ReadWriteWeb.) -
Phil shared an idea in Feedly on March 03, 2009 18:39:
Digest top sectionI know I've beaten this drum before, but it's a significant issue for me. I love the layout of the digest page. I like it better than the cover page. However the cover page remains my starting page. This is because I hate (I thought about using all caps there, but resisted) the selection of content in the top digest section. It's always from a few high volume non-favorite feeds. There is a related issue with the top articles on category pages.
I realize it probably works for a lot of people who want to see the most recommended articles out of all their feeds. But for people like me, whose most interesting feeds and articles are not from the top feeds, this section is polluted by articles from the top feeds. The only way I could stand to use the digest page is to unsubscribe from those feeds. I think that a great strength of the modern approach to news reading is the ability to follow closest what is most interesting to the reader, rather than the preferred content of someone else, whether it is a newspaper editor or the masses of tech blog readers and recommenders.
I suggest that there be either different default behavior or a knob that controls how the articles on top of the digest are selected. For the latter, the user could choose whether the articles come from 1) all feeds or 2) favorite feeds only. Another option, 3) would be to take articles from favorite feeds in the rightmost (first) category only. I think that (1) is the current behavior, (2) would be a big improvement for me, and (3) would allow me to strictly control what feeds go into the section, but it might be overkill. While option (3) isn't relevant in the context of category pages' top sections, I would like to be able to give favorite feeds preference for the top articles section on category pages.
If you don't want to add another option, perhaps option (2) could become the default behavior. -
Phil replied on February 16, 2009 19:09 to the idea "Mini/Friend feed conversation issues" in Feedly:
Thanks, it's better now. Also, it might be good to extend the friendfeed conversation filtering rule to inline expanded articles. The same problem exists there (though for some reason the irrelevant conversation are less irritating there). -
Phil shared an idea in Feedly on February 12, 2009 21:46:
Mini/Friend feed conversation issuesI think that feedly needs to tighten up (if it can) the selection process for related friendfeed conversations. I'd rather more possibly related conversations be missed than have so many actually unrelated conversations be promoted. I get irritated when I try to be more social and click on the "join conversation" only to figure out--after some time scratching my head--that the conversation is completely irrelevant. On repeat visits to a main page of site I keep seeing earlier unrelated conversations beckoning me in the lower right hand corner. Maybe allow readers to mark a conversation irrelevant so feedly can do a little social learning and not show that conversation to other readers or on repeat visits?
Having an option to turn off friendfeed notifications on a site-by-site basis would be a stop-gap to keep me from disabling it altogether.
Also, two questions:
1) What are the meaning of the preference options for the mini-toolbar? Mine is currently set to my-content, but if that were accurate I would think there would be a lot less stuff in mini. What are the other options and do they work?
1) When there are no friendfeed comments, diggs, etc, would it be possible to further shrink mini-feedly? -
Phil replied on February 04, 2009 18:44 to the problem "Can't get ubiquity running" in Feedly:
I have the same problem reported in this thread. I don't see the feedly ubiquity commands. I just restarted Firefox and there doesn't appear to be any change. I have two errors in my console:
Error: Error opening input stream (invalid filename?)
Source File: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/PJohnson/Application%20Data/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/sbm9dp8j.default/extensions/ubiquity@labs.mozilla.com/modules/msgservice.js
Line: 87
Error: Traceback for last exception:
No traceback available.
Source File: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/PJohnson/Application%20Data/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/sbm9dp8j.default/extensions/ubiquity@labs.mozilla.com/modules/msgservice.js
Line: 88 -
Phil replied on February 02, 2009 23:42 to the question "Where do I get more info about the bar in the lower right-hand corner?" in Feedly:
I think all of my sharing energy is directed toward sharing my ideas for feedly. But I'll have to try sometime and find out if the world does have an unquenched desire to know whether Phil Johnson "liked it". :-) -
Phil replied on February 02, 2009 22:47 to the question "Where do I get more info about the bar in the lower right-hand corner?" in Feedly:
Could selected text be put into the message box by default when it is clicked?
If so, I wonder if people who share/tweet/save would find it useful. For my own purposes (as a non-social type), I was thinking it would be a nice way to explore from a page (i.e., I select topical words, click the box and then click a to-be-added explore icon). -
Phil shared an idea in Feedly on February 02, 2009 04:39:
The Next ButtonI think the next button could be even more useful.
I'd like to somehow be able to select the set of articles. For example, I'd like to be able to keep the next articles within a given category or a selected topic or just my favorite feeds. -
Phil started following the problem "Can't get ubiquity running" in Feedly.
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Phil replied on January 31, 2009 22:39 to the question "eliminate the feedly footer on web pages" in Feedly:
It's better, and probably fine for most people at least as a temporary solution. If you are thinking of making this style permanent (rather than something in the status bar, for example), I'd recommend making it still smaller by:
1. Replace the note text with an icon that opens/expands the text box,
2. Replace the "next" with a right arrow icon,
3. Make it more square by stacking icons, if possible,
4. When expanded, add a button to shrink the mini-bar back to its starting size,
5. Move it further (all the way?) to right.
Also, make it more useful to those who are still mainly readers, e.g.,
provide access the explore function through the mini-bar. -
A comment on the question "eliminate the feedly footer on web pages" in Feedly:
It is a drop down menu. Configuration is one of the menu items.
You may have a point that configuration deserves its own direct limk (e.g., icon). I think Edwin's goal was to eventually eliminate the preferences page entirely, but that still seems a ways off. – Phil, on January 31, 2009 22:14 -
Phil replied on January 29, 2009 06:48 to the question "eliminate the feedly footer on web pages" in Feedly:
e: The preferences page is accessible from the top menu bar of any feedly page (the little upside down triangle thingy).
Edwin,
I think that complaints about the mini toolbar are driven to a large extent by the way it invades the browser page reading area. E.g. when I was typing this reply and I got to the bottom of the page, the mini bar was covering the text I was typing. Not a way to make friends. It needs to be less intrusive for the ordinary user. Some suggestions:
1. Move all the information and functionality into the status bar (either displayed directly or accessible through a pop-up.
2. Change the shape/position of the minibar so it is to the side (horizontal and on the bottom is still ok, but at the side it is less likely to cover information I want to see.
3. Have it appear only when I hover over the bottom part of the screen
4. Accelerator keys to send it away and bring it back
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