December 15, 2003

Previous: Another Word on Reader’s Choice

Favorites I’m In

Hello everybody,

Sometimes the hardest part of creating a web site is naming things. I will say right up front that I’ve been trying all afternoon to think of a good name for what I am about to describe – and as you will see, I’ve failed at that part of the job pretty decently.

Anyways, I thought it would be interesting if each of us could see a list of the diarists that have us on their Favorites list. This is something others have suggested before, and it’s been on my whiteboard list for a long time. Today, it struck me as something cool to do.

You’ll find that on your favorites screen there is now a third link in the upper right corner – “this diary on”. Catcalls are now welcome regarding how nondescriptive and insipid that link’s name is. Any suggestions for something that would make more sense will be happily accepted by management.

In any case, clicking that will display a list of the diarists that list the diary in question as a favorite. This is important: only diarists that have set their Favorites to Public will show up on this list. It is entirely possible and likely that there are other people who have you on their Favorites list, but don’t have it set to public.

Most of our diarists don’t have their Favorites public – I think because many of you don’t realize you can. On the Privacy Settings screen off the Diary Maintenance menu, there is a setting for Private or Public Favorites. The default is Private, but if you set it to Public, your favorites list can be viewed by readers of your diary. This is, of course, entirely up to you – but I think makes for some pretty interesting reading in many cases. When I find a good diary, I often find that the Favorites of that diarist are of similar quality. As I said, you will only show up on one of these lists if you have your Favorites set to Public, so if you want to keep your Favorites private, this new screen in no way changes that. The only people who will show up on this list are people who have already said that they are willing to share their Favorites list with other readers.

It occurs to me that we can play some sort of weird Six Degrees game with this new screen, because it allows you to travel through a chain of diaries that have each other as Favorites. I’ll have to give that some thought – there may be some fun way to travel through this web of Favorites (sort of like the Random feature, but more targeted). Off to think more.

I repeat, if anyone has a naming suggestion that is less clunky than mine (not very difficult) please let me know.

The DiaryMaster

How about: “I am adored by:” …just kidding. 🙂

*ponders* How about “I’m a Favorite Of” or something along those lines. *grins* Not too clunky 😉

How about “My Fan Club”?

First thing that pops into my head is “Who Loves Me?”

What about “You’re a favorite” or “You’re a favorite of” to long maybe “You’re cool with” or replace “you’re with I’m “I’m on who’s list” “I’m on list”

I would’ve called it the “Go on, click here, you’re a voyeuristic bastard and you know it” option, but that’s just me. 😛

How about “Favorite Of…?” I know, that’s not very good either, but… I should have read your whole entry! As soon as I read the first couple of paragraphs, I immediately went and deleted all of the Train Wrecks and Secret Favorites and The Old Crush and now I have to put them back, LOL! Happy holidays. =)

I don’t know..Not buttkissin’ or anything here, but I can’t think of a better way to put it either, unless you wanted to put it this way, “Whose favorites am I on?” But that’s even clunkier, isn’t it? Anyway, I am SO glad you did this! This ROCKS! And strokes my ego.;)

You could call it: Who Loves Me???

That’s a joke. 🙂

How about ‘Reverse Favorites’? Or something like that.

Ok, your second to last paragraph made me feel as if I were wandering through the dreams the third-graders wrote for the class I’m teaching today. 🙂 I’m relieved that only public favorites are shown. I sometimes “lurk” and feel shy about letting people know I’m a regular fan. Thanks for your consideration. I’ve got a phobia of publicity. But darn me I want to be published. cheers!!

I think it would help avoid misunderstandings if you have the “only people who have their “favorites lists” set to public show up on this list.” on the actual “list” page so people don’t get upset when they don’t see a slew of names listed. I’m not sure how you’d make it clear but I can see problems ahead for people who don’t read this entry.

Favorite of.

Very cool! Off the top of my head, “Six Degrees of OD” or “Six Degrees of the Diary Master” or …anyway, I like the “Six Degrees” idea. Kevin Bacon is taken and probably copyrighted though, and a lot of people might not get it.

I just had a question, but not related to this entry… How could I get an email address at OpenDiary? I have seen some email addresses (ex: whoever@opendiary.com) and I wouldn’t mind having one as well. I am an OD Plus member, so is there another upgrade I have to get in order to get this feature? Please email me at sarahramirez@comcast.net. Thanks!

How about “fanlist”

How about: My Fans. The logic of thinking is this: If you add someone to your favorites list, then you’re a fan of them. Inversely, if they add you to their favorites, then they’re your fan. Just a suggestion though 🙂

How about “Who Loves Me”

wow. i am stunned to see so many names of diarists I have never read or gotten a note from

Favorites I’m On? People who think I’m awesome?

Call it “Their Favorite” implying the diary author is those peoples’s favorite. ?? maybe?

How about “Who loves me?”

you should call the link “favorites of…”

Why not “Six Degrees of Diaries”?

how about just labeling it “this diary is currently read by…” or maybe diarists interested in this diary or other diarists who read this person or who else reads this diary

I was always wondering if you’d ever put up that feature and I’m glad you did. Thanks. 🙂 I think you’re doing a really good job with Open Diary. It’s a lot of fun. 🙂

Cool…making it a bit Friendster-esque. I like it.

Is all of OD+ down or just portions? Uncle Gnome has been unreachable for 2 days now. I cannot reach any of my favorites, either. Please don’t say all is lost.

addendum to my last note … I can reach Uncle Gnome if I am logged on to this diary in free OD.

I think is is cool, but i can’t find anything that says the diary on or whatever you said to go to. Please help me because I would like to try this out.

I am still unable to get to Uncle Gnome or any of my favorites if I am not logged on thru FreeOD. I hope it is just me but have a feeling it is not.

How about just…”Favorite Of”? BTW, you’re doing an awesome job with this site. Thank you for all your hard work 🙂

people who hate my diary have it on their favorites list.

Mr DM – This feature further proves what a popularity contest/high school cafeteria you’ve turned this site into. I hope you’ll keep in mind that many of your diarists are adults, and don’t need this kind of indulgent pandering.

“my diary’s favourite visitors”?! perhaps, tis a bit rubbish but it’s a thought

how about “people who love you”… just a thought. lol. and the “six degrees of kevin bacon” thing, definitely a cool possibility.

Perhaps you could call the link “My Fans.” 🙂

How about “My Groupies” ?

who’s got me

ok, how about “my fans” or ” my groupies”?? ok, so the latter one is kinda lame….LOL something along that line i think might work…. 🙂

maybe you should call it “favorite of”

well what your saying is you will be able to veiw who’s on who’s diary? so call it just that. lol i know a very stupid name but hey mine’s better than your’s. lol. so “Who’s On Who’s Diary?”

“a favorite of..”

How about ‘I’m a favorite of…’?

Ok I dont know if I am leaving this note in the right place.. but I hope you can help. Theres this diary called: The Fetal Position And it is HIGHLY offensive. Check it out and see what I mean. THAT diary needs to be gone A.S.A.P! Please help. Its terrible.

I think you should call it “You Like Me” or something like that… (i was originally thinking, ‘you love me. you really love me!’ but that’s probably too long.

My suggestion would be calling it the diaryist’s “fan club” “friends/budddies” or “readers list” something like that.

Also another suggestion: Private chapters. No, not just the ability to make entries in chapters private, which you can do now. I’m talking about making entire chapters private so that only the diary author (and private readers) can read them.

Finally, if you do implement “Favorites I’m in,” a corresponding idea (that goes along with reader passwords) is to give favorites (and favorites of OD+ members only) the option to read private entries. Example, have a checkbox next to each favorite on the list to determine if that particular favorite can read private entries. We could count this against the number of reader passwords…

How about “Diary Readers”?