Re: Send To and Subscription Ordering

[Alex Chaffee]

> 1. However, once again, I'd like to be able to choose to which of those
> feeds to subscribe,

Options make things difficult, both for developers and users. Before I
try to figure out a UI for choosing users and feeds and sources and
subscribing and unsubscribing, I want a default Subscribe that works
for 90%.

> and this is especially important for me that my previous
> experience with the "Subscribe" button was kinda strange. I described the
> details of that problem here:
> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/google-reader-diaspora/jvVSkgRhBpE/X-omLw4Bw4IJ

> It looks, however, like you missed that post,

It is very hard to keep up with this whole thing. Sorry if I missed a message.

> so I am still concerned that I
> cannot delete some of the subscriptions that I got from that experiment.

It seems that if you're "subscribed" to the broadcast state of a
Reader user -- i.e. the old "People you follow" -- then the Reader UI
replaces "Unsubscribe" with "Hide". Look for that. Or maybe after the
new Subscribe you won't need to.

Also you got a bunch of empty or broken Lipsumarium feeds since those
people hadn't signed up for one yet. The new Subscribe will delete
those empty lipsumarium feeds since Emmanuel was kind enough to give
me an easy way to find out who has a feed and who doesn't.

> 2. I am wondering again how the revised "Subscribe in Reader" button will
> interact with the results of the previous "Subscribe" button (which, I
> think, interacted with ridllr results - see the above link).

I'm trying to make it seamless.

> 3. Alex>I've been working on getting sharing back in to the real
> Google Reader via a Send To item.
> Is it the same thing that you have been thinking about after getting the
> good API news from Mihai (I mean,  "Send to" -> GReader's broadcast)?
> Is my understanding correct that this has not been released yet and that you
> will let us know once it is ready?

Yes and yes.

> I am asking, because four days ago you
> wrote: "I will now walk the dog, get some dinner, and then see if I can make
> a functional "Send To Sharebro" link magically appear in everyone's Reader."
> (https://groups.google.com/d/msg/sharebro/7Pw8pcwIweE/eS8QDdApnAQJ) What
> kind of magic was it supposed to be?

The dog takes very long walks :-)

The current Send To feature has some flaws so I didn't enable it yet.
In particular:

- it can only find an item if it's in the first 100 items of the feed it's in
- sometimes it misses the very first (or first few) items in a feed
-- this is a caching issue at feedburner

and it doesn't really report those issues in a user-friendly way when
they do happen.

> FYI: I logged in at Sharebro.org, then refreshed my GReader, and I don't
> see  "Send To Sharebro." (I have not used the new "Subscribe in Reader"
> button though.)

That's the right idea. I will let you know when you can do that. I
will put the instructions on the mailing list and then right on the
web site's home page too.

> Sorry for stupid questions, but I am just a (pretty motivated :) confused
> unsophisticated user. Note that other similarly
> confused unsophisticated users (who are not as motivated) may simply get
> scared and run away, and you'll never know why :)

I KNOW! And the problem is I don't know what precisely will scare
them. And I still feel like I'm under time pressure, even though
probably by now all the reader sharing communities have already died.
:-(

--
Alex Chaffee - al...@stinky.com
http://alexchaffee.com
http://twitter.com/alexch

[Galina Ovcharova]

I have tried "Hide". As a result, I was told that the relevant friend's feed will no longer appear in my friends' shared items list (I wonder what it actually means...). To remove that feed from my "People you follow" and "Shares" folders, I unchecked these folders in the list that appears when I click on the triangle to the right of the feed's title.

>Also you got a bunch of empty or broken Lipsumarium feeds since those people hadn't signed up for one yet. The new Subscribe will delete those empty lipsumarium feeds

So, how is it gonna work with those of my friends whom I will (hopefully) be able to persuade to register at lipsumarium later?

After they register, will their new feeds get into my Reader automatically or will I have to subscribe to those new feeds separately?

Also, will the new Subscribe do anything with the feeds in my "People you follow" folder? (I guess they are physically the same feeds as those with identical names in my "Shares" folder, right?) Last time the Subscribe renamed them (which I was glad about). Will the new Subscribe do anything with them? I'd like to know: I don't feel like having unexpected consequences.

BTW, I got my husband (Alexei Ovtcharov on my Sharebro list) use the new Subscribe tonight, and I have noticed that, even though he has my lipsumarium feed on his Sharebro list, he was not subscribed to it. Was it the plan? 

>the problem is I don't know what precisely will scare them

In my experience (with my GReader friends), people are afraid to authorize access to their data. I don't know what can be done about it rather than somehow building a reputation. I am wondering whether it's time to create a Wikipedia page for Sharebro.