Livejournal Flags

[dotinthesky]

There is one feature missing from Livejournal which I think would be very welcome: flags.

This would solve the problem I have at the moment: being unable to keep up with everyone's journals. I wanted to have loads of LJ friends, my wish was granted, and now I face the daily dilemma of choosing who I should read.

If there were flags, people could choose their posts' level of importance. Then, on a busy day, I could read my filter for "important posts". On other days, when I had more time, I could read the more average stuff.

Right now, I have to scroll back through various pages, scanning hundreds of posts in order to see if I'm missing anything, not really enjoying this thing anymore! I want to get back to enjoying Livejournal, but also spending less time here without feeling guilty I'm forgetting someone's birthday, etc.

Comments

[dj-alexander.livejournal.com]

I assumed you wanted two england flags attached to either side of your LJ.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

All similarities to the ongoing World Cup are pure coincidence. :-)

[izzybees]

That's actually a really good idea!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine it would be terribly hard to implement. They could add the box to the post's template, then link that to the "manage filters" option.

[the-lonely.livejournal.com]

its not the same, but you can change the colour around people's icons ao you could create your own colourcoded system!

[the-lonely.livejournal.com]

er yeah i totally misunderstood you! sorry!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

no worries. :-)

[canudiglett]

Only trouble is that some people would think that all their posts were terribly important and flag them thus. And other people would be modest and say "Oh, don't mind me, I've only grown a second head and been selected to play football for England".

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

It would be helpful in letting users know who are the Drama Queens in their friends list, who are the modest ones, etc. Could be a new way to gain insight into people's minds.

[canudiglett]

I would probably be guilty of over rating my posts. I already try not to post things if they aren't at least vaguely important, and I'm sure some people could pick out recent posts of mine that they don't consider important in the slightest.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

What I mean by important are posts which refer to jobs, pregnancies, deaths, etc. Those are the kind of posts to cause most offence if you miss them.

[canudiglett]

In that case, NONE of my posts are important!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Doesn't mean you wouldn't be read -- you do have, after all, a really entertaining journal. :-)

Having a type of flag system would help in the sense of checking, when first logging in, whether anything "major" has happened before moving on to the business of reading people's journals.

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

Knowing me, though, I'd probably only flag the entries that said "Hey! One of my stories is out! Go read it!" :)

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

And that would be cool! That would be genuine news for your friends, so a flag on that kind of post would be welcome. :-)

[suede.livejournal.com]

You have my vote for the flags :D
But most of the people will always think their posts are the most important ones.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

People who assume all their posts are important would, eventually, find themselves writing for a very small audience. People would get fed up and move on.

[suede.livejournal.com]

Yes, I see you have thought about it a lot... Good one.

[suede.livejournal.com]

just noticed you have 188 friends! OMG!
just one word: FILTERS

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I do have filters, but I still wish I could read everyone! If I could read everyone's important posts, I could maintain some kind of connection with everyone, ya know?

[suede.livejournal.com]

Yes, filters made me so crazy. I now just use them for comms (veggie, literature, etc). And have all the friends together.

But I have only 66 now. I deleted some.

Eddie Izzard on the Brain

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

"You can't take over Live Journal. There are millions upon millions of users here!"

"Do you have a flag?"

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

you gotta drop some people, dude!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Most people on my list have journals I enjoy reading for one reason or another. The others are new people who I'm still getting to know, so I wouldn't want to remove them... it's a hard call.

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

pobrecito...buena suerte!

[msanthropist.livejournal.com]

...or cut yerself more slack about being so diligent...

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

It's something I'm working on.

[violentlyhappy.livejournal.com]

That's a great idea Ollie, it would be so helpful. Maybe you should write to the LJ team or something and give them this suggestion? :)

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I'll send them a link to this post. Maybe they are already working on something similar.

[kibean16.livejournal.com]

Flags are a good idea, but with 188 friends, I hope you know that I personally don't take offense when you don't comment in my journal. I don't take offense when you don't read my journal. I know that some days I'm writing about important stuff, and other days it's "clothes and boys and tits and goth and blah."

You don't have the read the latter stuff. :)

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

But I still want to be aware if anything major goes down in your journal, and that's how flags would be helpful for me.

I like reading the other stuff too, usually during the weekends. ;-)

[sor-eye-ah.livejournal.com]

Face it - you're just too popular.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm a freak show but I just wasn't aware of it.

[la-mascherina.livejournal.com]

Can you not use those coloured tabs that mark the posts of friends to sort out who is in your first priority reading group?

*sighs dramatically* The bane of popularity, eh?

*gives you a peck on the cheek and runs off again*

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

But I still want to know the important things happening with the non-priority group! :-)