MikeMirzayanov's blog

Need help with renaming friends into followers/following
By MikeMirzayanov, 2 years ago, In English

Hi.

Sometimes it seems like all you have to do is change a couple of inscriptions on the site and that's it. But it's not that simple.

For example, I decided to change my friends to followers/subscribers. In fact, the relation we have here is more like a following or a subscription than a friendship.

But there's a tiny issue.

Sometimes this relationship is used in the interface in one direction (we are talking about those who follow us). Then everything is easy in this case, we can mention them as your followers.

Sometimes, it's about those you're following. Then a little more difficult. The best thing that I came up with and advised me is the term "following". But replacing "Friends Standings" with "Following Standings" (or "Followings Standings"?) looks so-so. Likewise, what was "Friends Rating Changes" and will it be "Following Rating Changes" (or "Followings Rating Changes")? Looks really clumsy.

Probably, you can change the interface so that to get rid of these menu items at all. But I don't want to do that now. It would be wonderful to find some way of writing that would be most successful.

Thanks to Ivan and Peter, with whom I have discussed this problem a little, but I haven't found a good solution.

What are your thoughts?

  • Vote: I like it
  • +331
  • Vote: I do not like it

Comments Comments (46)
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2 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +74 Vote: I do not like it

Mike finally taking action :yayy:

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2 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +127 Vote: I do not like it

I think it's not bad idea not to "follow" people, but to "star" them. So "starred standings", "starred rating changes".

Maybe something like this but with "interesting" instead of "starred".

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2 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +31 Vote: I do not like it

I think renaming them to "Standings of Followed Users" and "Rating Changes of Followed Users" could look great. Might be a little long but I can't think of a better idea.

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    2 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +54 Vote: I do not like it

    I would like to see a more concise version. Probably, suggested above "starred" is better.

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      2 years ago, # ^ |
      ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      No more stars please; starring blogs, starring problems, starring people. Also is "starring/starred" even a word? It sounds terrible.

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      2 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      And please consider translating it in Russian too

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2 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +57 Vote: I do not like it

"Followee(s)" instead of "Following(s)" could be more precise?

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/followee

Edit: But I guess another terminology could be better. Words with "ee"-endings seem to be seldom used in international settings.

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2 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +37 Vote: I do not like it

"Friend standings" can be udpdated to "watchlist". "Friend rating changes" to "watchlist's rating updates"?

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2 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -149 Vote: I do not like it

Honestly these two tabs should disappear. There should be 'standings' and 'rating changes' only, and inside the page there is a checkbox to enable/disable starred/followed/some other sensible name

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2 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +46 Vote: I do not like it

Why go far when you can just look in the backyard?

I'd suggest using "favs" as they do on AtCoder. It's more apt than "followers" as people don't necessarily are followers of somebody, they just want to see their favourite cpers in the standings. It's also concise enough to not mess up the UI by being a long word like "followers".

I'd also suggest (if possible) having a separate standing for virtual contestants just like AtCoder does in the above image. It'd solve the feature request a lot of users have regarding not wanting to see virtual contestants in the official/unofficial standings.

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    2 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +16 Vote: I do not like it

    But also still leave a possibility to see virtual participants in general standings

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2 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +179 Vote: I do not like it

Please, don't remove friends standings! I don't care about common standings at all, I'm more interested in my friends rather than some random people.

I don't think anything should be changed, who cares if your followers are called friends? I'm always happy when I see that I have "100 friends", it's kinda cute, but "100 followers" looks worse for me.

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2 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

Why not making this relation as "following" but add another relation (when both of the users know they are friends) as "friendship" , like I want to see this guy standing in contests , although he doesn't know me , and when both of us are following each other we become "friends" . In this case it doesn't matter what you name this tab since it contains your real friends too :D

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    2 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

    and with this you can make a real friends list with two tabs : "friends" and "following" .

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2 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

Since "FRIENDS STANDINGS" and "FRIENDS RATING CHANGES" work as a filter, I suggest to rephrase them to a more filter-like name.

| [STANDINGS] [FOLLOWING ONLY] | [RATING CHANGES] [FOLLOWING ONLY]

This might be little bit confusing at the first glance, but since these buttons are grouped, I assume people will quickly realize the second button for each group is a filter.

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2 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +14 Vote: I do not like it

I believe it is best as it is right now. We've grown so accustomed to this interface that switching to something new would be difficult.

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2 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Also, when we open standings, can we directed to friends standings and not common standings because most of the times we are interested in seeing our friends' performances first.

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2 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

How about Comrades? Seriously though. Comrade standings would be pretty nice I think.

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2 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -14 Vote: I do not like it

Who makes me friends in CF? Add an option to see that!

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    2 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +16 Vote: I do not like it

    Mildly infuriating privacy violation rules go brrr

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    2 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +22 Vote: I do not like it

    What about to implement "you have a match!" notification?

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      2 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      The moment when you think its tinder but its actually kinder lol

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    2 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

    In my opinion, it would be nice to be able to enable the option in the settings "show those who followed me" and you can only see those who have enabled this feature and others can see you, but if you don't need it, you can just turn off this feature.

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2 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +25 Vote: I do not like it

Imo "friends" is better

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2 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +20 Vote: I do not like it

I like it as is.

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2 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +109 Vote: I do not like it

I like Friends better. It gives me illusion of having friends. Please don't change it.

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2 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

related to companion or your competitor something like this???

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2 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -23 Vote: I do not like it

Dude theres literally a blog post for list of recommended features and youre tryin to change name of friends standings?! Just if you missed it: https://codeforces.me/blog/entry/106719

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2 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

It works basically like a WatchList, an option could be ‘Watched’ in the profile page and ‘WL standings’/ ‘WL rating changes’ in the contest page. In case you will go for ‘Follow’, to me it sounds more meaningful ‘Followed’ than ‘Following’.

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2 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +35 Vote: I do not like it

Please, Mike, don't remove "friends"!

I really love the environment in the community with friends who have the same hobbies with me. Actually, people who I subscribe is mostly my real friend, and the word "follow" seems very clumsy, like you are a fan of someone.

I'm not starring people to be a fan of them...

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    2 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    I completely agree with you and I also want it to be unchanged

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2 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Well, people follow leaders so logically it would make sense to have "Leaders Standings" and "Leaders Rating Changes"... lol ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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    2 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +12 Vote: I do not like it

    Unfortunately not all of my friends are leaders :(

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2 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -55 Vote: I do not like it

It would be nice to finally fix language selector issue and remove excessive use of flags.

Sources with supporting arguments:

Codeforces Language Picker -- chrome extension to see how fixed codeforces language picker would look like.

Please support the initiative and stop reinforcing poor UX practices.

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2 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +18 Vote: I do not like it

you guys believe in one-sided love but not one-sided friendship...great!!

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2 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +14 Vote: I do not like it

I guess current one aka friends is ok cuz it's more nicer than having called as followers. It can be emotionally helpful for people who don't have friends :( :(

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