[bbstar]

I think newsfeed was a great idea to allow TDs to advertise the upcoming tournaments, announce the results to all members (even if not playing in the tourney) etc.

Recently all the posts to the newsfeed were deleted. Currently users can post new news, but they only show up in users own feed; And the posts are deleted after logout.

What is the purpose of allowing to post news?
What are BBO plans with newsfeed?

[barmar]

The user posts in the newsfeed were not very popular, so we decided to remove it.

You're not supposed to be able to post anything any more. You may need to clear your cache to force it to pick up the new version. What version do you see if you go to Help -> About BBO? It should be 1.48u.

[bbstar]

barmar, on 2017-March-09, 15:41, said:

The user posts in the newsfeed were not very popular, so we decided to remove it.

You're not supposed to be able to post anything any more. You may need to clear your cache to force it to pick up the new version. What version do you see if you go to Help -> About BBO? It should be 1.48u.

Thanks for the reply. My BBO version is 1.48t. Looks like the upgrade is complete now, as posting to newsfeed is removed.

Good luck to BBO!

[barmar]

bbstar, on 2017-March-09, 15:57, said:

Thanks for the reply. My BBO version is 1.48t. Looks like the upgrade is complete now, as posting to newsfeed is removed.

We made some small changes last night, it should be 1.48u now. I expect you'll get it in a day or so.

[gwnn]

"Not very popular so you decided to remove it?" How about allowing people to use what they want to use? Or do you mean that it actively caused abuse somehow?

[barmar]

gwnn, on 2017-March-11, 09:28, said:

"Not very popular so you decided to remove it?" How about allowing people to use what they want to use? Or do you mean that it actively caused abuse somehow?

Many users were annoyed by all the posts from friends cluttering up the newsfeed.

[1eyedjack]

barmar, on 2017-March-12, 13:39, said:

Many users were annoyed by all the posts from friends cluttering up the newsfeed.

Are we sure that there is no solution other than the binary choice of turning the tap on or off?

[barmar]

1eyedjack, on 2017-March-12, 13:47, said:

Are we sure that there is no solution other than the binary choice of turning the tap on or off?

If we thought there were enough users who were interested in seeing them, we could have made it an advanced option. But you know our general opinion on proliferation of options.

[gwnn]

barmar, on 2017-March-12, 13:39, said:

Many users were annoyed by all the posts from friends cluttering up the newsfeed.

Weren't the official BBO news on top regardless? So what were the posts from friends cluttering up, other than the now empty space at the bottom? This seems like a terrible solution to a bunch of users whining about a feature that they don't use/understand. I liked my friends' post a lot (and, like a good millennial, I enjoyed the thrill of posting some mildly interesting hand myself and getting likes for it) and didn't think I needed to write a thank you email to keep it from being turned off. I am much more interested in a funny hand played by a friend of mine than the "Daily top performer award" (yes I know others feel differently, but this is why both should be allowed...) Any chance you could check with people before you delete it just like that?

[gwnn]

I was thinking about this a bit more and it really sounds like a terrible solution to a non-problem. Just think about it, why can't you pin your official news on the top right and let people have their fun in the bottom half? The fact that people were complaining about being flooded by updates from their friends should tell you not that it's unpopular, but exactly the opposite: it must have been a very popular feature that most people gladly used and a few sour people didn't like that the "performer of the day" is hidden. You had a great idea to make BBO more fun and you took it down without asking anyone. At least start a poll here before you definitively disable the feature.

[1eyedjack]

gwnn, on 2017-March-23, 02:29, said:

The fact that people were complaining about being flooded by updates from their friends should tell you not that it's unpopular, but exactly the opposite

How can the receipt of complaints be interpreted as positive evidence of popularity?

[gwnn]

1eyedjack, on 2017-March-23, 05:24, said:

How can the receipt of complaints be interpreted as positive evidence of popularity?

If people are flooded by these "bridge tweets" and so much so that they are compelled to ask BBO to ban them, it means that tweeting is popular among other people. Otherwise, how would they be flooded?

[gwnn]

Another way around the "flooding problem" without turning it off for everyone who likes it is the ability to "mute" people. It could be that I want to be friends with someone on BBO but I don't want to listen to their spam.

If you need any more alternatives, you know how to find me

[1eyedjack]

gwnn, on 2017-March-23, 08:05, said:

If people are flooded by these "bridge tweets" and so much so that they are compelled to ask BBO to ban them, it means that tweeting is popular among other people. Otherwise, how would they be flooded?

I suppose that there may be alternative ways of defining the popularity of a communication. I get inundated with phone calls asking me if I would like to claim back PPI, or perhaps I may be due compensation for a missed flight or road accident that I haven't had. No doubt you would categorise these calls as "popular" based on their high frequency. From the caller's perspective, no doubt they are.

(For the record I have no opinion on the specific issue here - just perplexed by your logic)

[gwnn]

1eyedjack, on 2017-March-23, 14:14, said:

I suppose that there may be alternative ways of defining the popularity of a communication. I get inundated with phone calls asking me if I would like to claim back PPI, or perhaps I may be due compensation for a missed flight or road accident that I haven't had. No doubt you would categorise these calls as "popular" based on their high frequency. From the caller's perspective, no doubt they are.

(For the record I have no opinion on the specific issue here - just perplexed by your logic)

How hard can this be? Clearly, a lot of people liked posting their hands online, and some people got annoyed. Clearly there was demand for the ability to post. The nuisance value is possibly there but there are ways around that, and anyway it is hard to compare.

Your analogy misses the point entirely and I have no idea if you are being intentionally obtuse or just are unwilling to try to understand what I mean. You are comparing companies badgering people to people posting things to each other. In the first case, the users are only on the receiving end, in the second case, the users are both the senders and the receivers. In the first case, "popularity" would be measured in the circles or angry customers who want to be left alone, and in the second case, you should gauge "popularity" across both senders and receivers. Should I make a powerpoint presentation along with this?

[barmar]

gwnn, on 2017-March-23, 08:05, said:

If people are flooded by these "bridge tweets" and so much so that they are compelled to ask BBO to ban them, it means that tweeting is popular among other people. Otherwise, how would they be flooded?

I think what was happening is there were a small number of users who like to post lots of hands, and they each have lots of friends who ended up receiving them. The receivers are the ones who complain, and the number of these complaints is what leads us to believe that it's not popular.

I think almost all the hands in my newsfeed were from just 2 friends. And I don't even have lots of friends.

[gwnn]

That's possible... I had several friends post several funny hands and usually enjoyed them. When I didn't feel like clicking on them, I didn't. I just don't know what the harm would be if you left this area:


for user-generated posts (plus a scroll bar)? Who would be hurt by this?

I don't want to go all "disgruntled customer" here but honestly this was my favorite feature that you added recently and it's just such an overreaction to just halt it when you could have it back so easily and have several ways out without stopping the fun for people who enjoy it (and no, not each of them involves different user interfaces for different users).

[chicca2015]

i would like to be able to write news feed again please. im td bboitalia and newsfeed was very useful to advice about tournments and other events. is it possible to be able to create feed again? tyvm