Discussion Following

Sir ArmaMalum·Nov 6, 2013·6 votes·78 views

While I realize this is largely an issue confined to Fan Creations (Champ concepts, fan fics and such), I would like to inquire about the possibility of a "follow" option. Specifically I'm drawing the idea from my experiences on the Warframe forums, a current game beta that has (imo) a great forum format.

The reason I push for this is because while the update system is nice, there is very little motivation to maintain and update a WIP post or a post you planned to add to regularly. Number of followers do not have to increase the popularity of a post at all, in fact, a post getting buried won't necessarily get killed because the people who already found the post and liked it can simply jump to it as soon as its updated or changed in any way.

I realize this isn't an original idea, but adding an incentive for long-term posts would go a long way to generating some awesome content and also getting dynamic, changing feedback instead a "fire and forget" mentality for the original post and merely coming back to reply to replies. Yes, this defeats the purpose of a 'discussion' if the original post is updated often for most topics outside of Fan creations, but I just wanted to throw the idea out there.

To better clarify what I'm talking about I could just use Youtube's 'subscribe' option as an example. But for a more medium relevant example I have some pics of how Warframe handles it. Note that the updates given in pic #2 are replies and comments not directly linked to me in any way, but instead directly linked to a post I had flagged to follow.

Thanks for reading! :)

8 Comments

RiotKrylhosNov 6, 20136 votes

Thanks for taking the time to write this out!

We're actually working on this at the moment. It'll probably be a couple weeks before we can get it out the door, but it is in progress!

Sir ArmaMalumNov 6, 20131 votes

Awesome! Great to hear! Thanks for the reply, and gosh darnit I will think of something before you guys eventually! lol XD

eKatSSNov 6, 20131 votes

Isn't the "My updates" tab doing the exact same thing, just without requiring you to manually click the "follow" button? While I admit that the Warframe forums are leaps and bounds superior to this one in terms of usability and customization, I find it unnecessary to add a "follow" button.

Edit: the "My updates" tab is not working as I thought it would, or is not implemented yet, so a "Follow" button would be nice in the case it doesn't serve the same purpose as an update feed

Sir ArmaMalumNov 6, 20132 votes

Updates works for discussion you have posted, and replies you have posted. But to boil it down there are two things that I think the current beta is lacking that I would love to see implemented

Following posts from others. On top of being updated when someone replies to content (replies, posts, etc.) that you have posted, also be able to be updated when changes have been made to interesting posts you have 'followed', and when others reply to this followed topic.
Display the number of active followers on a post. As a frequent poster and replier to Fan Creations, I cannot say enough how important it is to know how many people are still interested on a somewhat old discussion. Champ WIP posts and lists of skin ideas become redundant to update, edit and add-to because the post itself has been buried. If, during the brief time it was in the top of the list (for how recent it was posted), a post grabs some of these followers, these interested people will be notified when this post has been updated, edited and/or added to. Essentially it gives the same continuity and lifespan to half-decent posts that 500,000 upvoted posts do, without taking away from the popular posts on the front page.

eKatSSNov 6, 20131 votes

I see your point and I am tempted to agree with you. I shall proceed to upvote this.

Sir ArmaMalumNov 6, 20131 votes

thanks!