@rnv I like this idea. We wouldn't necessarily need a Conversations tab, although I can see the value in having one. When following a conversation, Micro.blog could also just include those extra posts in the main timeline for you to see.

@manton If you mean following a conversation regardless of whether you’re a participant or not, then yes, I can see how a dedicated tab might be superfluous. But I think having a Conversations tab would be helpful as a centralized place to manage them all — and would allow you to control your timeline and keep it from getting too cluttered. The “Timeline” tab: posts, replies, and conversations you’re participating in; “Conversations” tab: conversations you’re participating in and/or conversations you’re simply following.

@rnv @manton The micro.blog client icro has an interesting solution to this, where I can see a full thread - that chat button on the side allows me to see the whole thread of any given post.

@chrismena Fair point (and I really like @hartlco’s @icro app and I can’t wait to see it arrive as a Mac app in Catalina) but I think both the web interface and the native iOS and Mac apps have this, too (or something like it).

What I’m thinking about is: suppose @manton & I were to continue chatting in this conversation without explicitly tagging you. You might not necessarily remember to follow along, and you might (tragically!) miss some of our insightful and brilliant musings… Presumably you’re chiming in because you follow both me and Manton, and you either spotted my initial post, or his reply, or both (or because you still have your Timeline set to “Show all posts and mentions”), in which case you’ll probably catch most (or at least some) of our subsequent comments as they show up in your Timeline.

But suppose you simply wanted to follow the conversation without necessarily contributing. Or suppose someone else were to comment — someone you don’t follow, and who doesn’t tag you in their reply: you wouldn’t see any of their subsequent replies, unless you somehow remembered to revisit this conversation.

Or suppose you’d been lazily browsing through the people you follow, to see the people they follow; and in your explorations, you stumbled on an interesting conversation which you have no desire to contribute to but simply listen in on, and which perhaps involves no one in your “following” list.

Sure, you could “favorite” some comment or other in the conversation — and you should definitely start following some of those interesting new people. But those aren’t the same thing as bookmarking the conversation itself.

So what I’m suggesting is that we should be able to bookmark a whole conversation to revisit it, separately from our default Timeline — since I don’t think “favoriting” the initial post or some subsequent reply accomplishes quite the same thing. And I suggest it partly as another way to help strengthen the various interest-based sub-communities here in Micro.blog that doesn’t resort to the sensationalist and hijackable hashtag method.

Oh, and also? Hello, and welcome to Micro.blog! (Please supply more awesome black & white pix of NYC!)

@rnv goooot you! Yea, that would actually be super nice. As you describe it (and as I see it in my head) it sounds like a bookmark method that would notify you. I’m into it. Also, @manton, kudos on being so interactive with other micro.bloggers!

Also, also, @rnv: Hi!!! And thank you! I have a ton more of those, and a whole lot more film to shoot! The idea is to use micro.blog as the blogging component of my website, where I share images that aren’t necessarily portfolio ready — I also wrote and shot a piece for EMULSIVE that won us a Communication Arts award here in NYC about social media, also in black and white film. I’ll share on a separate thread and tag you.

@smokey @manton I like this idea a lot — and I have many Very Strong Opinions, which will require numbered lists and so forth. And possibly banging my shoe on the table.

I think users should have the choice to keep their timeline as minimal or maximal as they want, which is why I am advocating so strongly for a new dedicated tab to display subscribed tagmoji & conversations (as well as any conversations the user has participated in) — regardless of whether any of these would also appear in the user’s main Timeline.

So in the Accounts section on the Web, you’d have the following options:

(“Show all posts of those you follow” is default.)

1. Show all mentions of those you follow. (Best to discover new conversations and people to follow.)
2. Show mentions only to people I’m following. (Includes fewer posts in busy timelines.)
3. Show all replies in “subscribed conversations.”
4. Show all comments and replies in “subscribed tagmoji.”

{Edit Subscribed Conversations}
{Edit Subscribed Tagmoji}
{Edit Muted Users}

Users must have either (1) or (2) checked, but can optionally check (3) and/or (4) — or neither. When either (3) or (4) are unchecked, those conversations will only appear in the dedicated “Converations” tab, keeping your main Timeline cleaner and less cluttered.

The two new {Edit…} buttons take you to where you can manage your conversations and tagmoji subscriptions, just like managing muted users. You would mute or unsubscribe from them here, and if you wish to have only a few selected conversations or tagmoji appear in your main timeline, you’d control that here, too.

@rnv I like this idea. Tagging everybody in a micro.blog conversation is tedious as the app doesn’t support this automatically, so you have to remember all the names to include. I also like the idea of micro.blog creating a tent pole around conversations which is a nice point of difference from Twitter, etc. and it highlights the community nature of this service.

@canion @rnv @smokey I think there's a lot of potential in this too. Thanks y'all!

@rnv I like your strong opinions. Very glad @manton continues to think and work on this stuff. I wonder if @jacob’s on-micro.blog idea could be incorporated. Perhaps feeds for interest based lists?

@rnv I worry about the UI complexity around the what-to-show options (there’s also a faction who have advocated for the ability to, at least on a toggle basis, turn off all replies and just get posts, like a feed reader), but otherwise 👍