Could we stop with the "following" business and go back to "added to a Fluther"?
Asked by
janbb (
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October 24th, 2010
OK – the changes are great and the searching is sublime. But every time I read that “Someone is following…someone” I start getting paranoid and looking down dark alleys. It also seems so derivative and unFluther-worthy. Could we find a way to restore Fluthery terminology while making it clearer to newbies what it means? (FlutherGods – this means you!)
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50 Answers
I agree. I find it pretty creepy too….
Yes! I don’t like it at all. It seems so unfluthery. We don’t need to copy twitter, we are Fluther.
I agree as well. The terminology for that is bad. I liked the old way better.
But then I wouldn’t be able to entertain myself at 3am creating names like a_bloody_trail or a_trail_of_bread_crumbs.
Get it? “Someone followed a bloody trail…”
Ha, ha, ha. I love following people.
Instead of following this question, I thought I would let you know I agree with you. ;)
@YARNLADY I always had my suspicions about you. :-)
I agree. Twitter sucks, and we don’t need to be like them.
Yup…I agree with ya penguin lady.
I don’t mind the anonymity of who added who to their Fluther but I’d the terminology back…so it could ‘someone added Simone to their fluther’...that’s fine…but if there are gqs or gas given out, I’d want to know who gave them to whom.
Someone let out gas in here? Eww! WHO WAS IT? XD
LOL. I noticed that tonight and nitwit that I am I thought “Who the hell is this “someone” who is following me? I kind of felt like I was being cyberstalked. I know it’s just a change in terminology but it creeped me out for a nanosecond.
Motion on the foor, heard and seconded. All in favor say “aye”.
Aye.
@bob_ I’m kind of trying out Halloween avatars. It could change at a moment’s notice. And, btw, it is a coyote; it’s a coyote wearing a pig costume.
@bob_ I did, didn’t I? But if I ditch the pig for something else the first ham sandwich is yours, unless you prefer pulled pork or sausage on a roll. I’m taking orders.
Aye. Tempted to create six new accounts just to pile on the votes. But no . . . that would be wrong . . .
“Following” has just become sort of an industry standard. It makes the terminology a little more consistent and is fairly self-explanatory. That said: We hear you, and it’s under discussion. :)
I prefer following since that is close to what the intent of the feature is. All it really does is give you a list of questions asked by people you find interesting.
“Added to a Fluther” makes it sound like a friends list. And that isn’t how I think it was intended to be used. I have people I cant stand in my Fluther.
@johnpowell I don’t mind the “following” part as much as the “someone” part. When I look at the community feed and see “Someone is following lillycoyote” it’s just kind of creepy. But as long as they don’t jump out of a van, grab me and take me to some abandoned warehouse where no one can hear me scream I can live with it, I suppose.
@lillycoyote :: I agree. I think it should work like this. If you are the one being followed it should say the persons name. If you are not the person being followed it should say, “Creepy guy in the van with heart shaped windows is following lillycoyote.”
Or they could do the right thing and remove it entirely from the feed. I don’t give a fuck who follows who or any of the other shit. Just make it a feed of Great Questions and It might be useful. That could point me to interesting stuff I might be missing.
I never even notice that stuff. So just now I looked and are you telling me that when it says someone just followed so and so, that means they were added to a fluther?
@rooeytoo Yes, that’s what it means. Not seeing any “nays” here…...Although I do see johnpowell’s point. Maybe it could be something like “Penguin was fluthered” instead of “added to a Fluther?”
@janbb: The “Penguin was Fluthered” sounds vaguely naughty.
I like it!
Chyna was fluthered… I like it!
@cprevite Was it good for you? (A birthday Fluther no less!)
I know following is industry standard, but it’s also become standard to be creeped out by it. For every person on Twitter, there’s another person thinking that Twitter is, at the very least, a dumb way to waste time. So it may be standard, but it’s a hotly contested standard. And isn’t part of the point of Fluther to go above and beyond and instead of being like Yahoo! Answers, be awesome?
Except for the chuckles I’m getting whenever I see “Someone is following Lemming” I’ liked it the other way. It’s not that hard to figure out!
@JilltheTooth I love “Someone is following lemming” and posted a question about it which was modded off for not being a real question.
@janbb: I think that was why I noticed it…full props to you! I still chuckle…
”<username> sent you pancakes” is so much cooler than ”<username> is following you” lol
<chants ”Bring added back! Bring added back!”>
@johnpowell I’m with you. Either the whole “following,” added to a fluther, etc. thing should be removed from the community feed altogether because, and this may sound selfish and self-absorbed, I don’t really care about the community at large in terms of this, about who’s following whom; all I care about who’s following me. I either want to know exactly who it is following me or know that it might be the guys in the van with the heart shaped windows. @janbb, the OP, finds the whole thing kind of creepy; it apparently has conjured up images in her head of dark alleys; @uberbatman finds it creepy; @papayalily is creeped out by it. I, @lillycoyote, am obviously creeped out by it. And what is the consistent theme here? Creepy. That’s undeniable. The fact that some individuals find it amusing that a “penguin got fluthered” or that “someone is following a lemming;” or that there is some “industry standard” that apparently gives web site operators license and free rein to “creep out” their users is no sort of justification for the practice at all. I say end this vile and frightening practice here and now. We will all rest a little easier.
We actually tweaked the community feed language to say “andrew was just followed”. No mysterious someone who’s waiting in a dark alley.
I did notice that and it is an improvement @timtrueman. I still would prefer getting “fluthered.” Maybe Twitter would – err, “fluther” our lead and we would become industry standard! Do you fluther what I’m sayin’?
And then in a few years, people will be all “whoa, check out the jellies on that one!”
Today Fluther; tomorrow The World!
@cprevite Could give “how they hanging?” a whole new meaning!
Following > Adding to a Fluther.
Followed = 8 characters
Added to a Fluther = 15 characters
15 > 8
Added to a Fluther > Followed
Its a nice change, but the word following is still fuckin creepy. Ohhh goody now I know who my stalker is…..
@uberbatman No, you still don’t know who is following, you just know who is followed, but that was true with added to a Fluther too.
@bob_ and @chels : So Jeff Goldblum’s Private Facilities probably wins, right?
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