Exposing blurblog activity

idea
#1

I follow the “Blurblog” of another NewsBlur user, and I see the following issue:

When the user shares a story (usually with a comment) that I’ve already seen and marked as read in my feeds, their comment is not exposed to me in any way. I have to click through to their blurblog feed to see their comments and shares.

I would love it if activity from users that I follow always appear as “unread” content in the “All Shared Stories” section of the left pane. This would help me see comments that the user I follows leaves on stories I might have already read. If it helps, I typically browse NewsBlur with the following settings:

  • I use the river of news
  • Oldest stories appear first in my river
  • I only show unread stories in the feed pane on the left
#2

I worry that marking stories as unread for people would be counterproductive. What you want is a Comment feed, which is what the All Shared Stories should already be doing. That’s why I added a “Read full story…” button, so you could scroll through shared stories and read only the comments.

Does today’s All Shared Stories not work that way? Don’t stories shared by friends pop to the top fo that list, albeit in a read state?

#3

Yes, a comment feed is exactly what I’m after. I’d love to be notified, however, when there are new comments. As it is now, I have to click the All Shared Stories view and manually scroll through the list, looking for comments I may have missed. Maybe a second count badge (different color, perhaps?) in the feed title could indicate if there are new comments I haven’t seen.

#4

In thinking about this a littler further, perhaps a feed for a user’s “Recent Interactions” would be what I need. I can see the last 4 actions a user has taken when I click their username. A feed for those would give me exactly what I want to discover.