This may be an awkard* topic to raise, but...

[hope]

Okay, so we've got:

Subscriptions:
- users whose entries you can see on your reading page
-- public entries only will turn up on your reading page if the user does do not grant you access
-- public entries and protected entries will turn up on your reading page if the user does grant you access.

So, the question is: What if I subscribe to someone because I want to read *only* their public entries, and they grant me access? i.e. their protected posts will automatically show up on my reading page, whether I want them to or not?

I ask this question because for me, this is a fundamental purpose of the 'subscribe' feature.

It's not just about whether I'm granting the user access to my protected entries by wanting to follow them. It's that I'm *only* interested in what they're posting publicly. In my case, generally it's to do with fannish vs. meatspace content. In many LJs in my community, fannish content will be posted publicly and meatspace content flocked.

Presently on LJ I manage to keep up with these public entries without friending journals with the tracking function. This lets me: a) specify what sort of content I want to keep up with, b) subsequently weed out the content i'm not interested in keeping up with, and of course c) not give the user access to my flocked entries.

But it also disengages me to a degree; the user doesn't know I'm tracking them in any way, whereas I would be indicating my interest in them - making a connection - if I friended/subscribed to them.

So I guess what I'm getting down to is, I want Dw's subscription feature to exert more control over what I want to see, either:

- If a user has granted you access, when subscribing to them you can specify if you want their public entries only, or both public and protected, on your reading page

or

- The tracking-tags function transformed from a notification service to a subscription service - you can subscribe to my "fic: torchwood" tag and only my public (and/or protected) torchwood fic entries would show up on your reading page.


Does anyone know if anything like this is in the works? Is it worth me requesting it as a feature?


* I say 'awkward topic' because I think we're still struggling to disconnect ourselves from the connection of "friending" with "i want to be your friend!" Actually, subscription may mean that I *don't* want to be your friend. And that's no more a bad thing than not wanting to be friends with the owners of blogs you subscribe through through your RSS aggregator.

Comments

[copracat]

I think we are always, always going to come up against the thing that people use privacy levels in different ways.

Does anyone know if anything like this is in the works? Is it worth me requesting it as a feature?


I'm very sure it has, but it can't hurt to add your vote. Um, where to do so? dw_coolhunters maybe?

[hope]

It's not the sort of thing that would show up in a bugtracker, though, innit? I'm wary of bumbling in this late in the game and suggesting things that have already come and gone.

*explores community, tyvm!*

[true_statement]

- The tracking-tags function transformed from a notification service to a subscription service - you can subscribe to my "fic: torchwood" tag and only my public (and/or protected) torchwood fic entries would show up on your reading page.

That would probably be my preference. And perhaps there could be some sort of mechanism attached to the tracking system by which the tracker could choose whether or not to let the trackee know they were being tracked (and if so, whether it's anon or not). And trackees would be able to choose whether or not they want to access the tracking stats.

[hope]

Ah, the myriad of issues WRT lurking vs. gathering stats!!

[lizbee]

Demonstration of self-absorption: I don't grant access to people who have only subscribed to me, because I assume they're there for more of the same of what they've seen. Don't want to impose, etc.

It didn't even occur to me that I'd end up having to see other people's boring locked posts!

[hope]

Hee.

I don't grant access to people who have only subscribed to me, because I assume they're there for more of the same of what they've seen. Don't want to impose, etc.

yup, I know what you mean. However, I know that not even everyone I know uses friending in the same way... perhaps I subscribe to someone because i want their public entries, but they see my indicated interest and grant me access because they want to be friends?

Just discussing it makes me sound callous. I can't help it! My attention span and socialising skills are equally minimal!

[wenchpixie]

certainly worth an ask, I'd think, I use tracking in much the same way as you, to make LJ more like an RSS feed of public only interaction (I suspect I might well do the same here, if only because those coming in from LJ are liable still to have a bit of that emotional "but friends" reaction)


I also use subscription to finess what I'm reading and filter down just to the specific tag public posts (I want to read an author's fic but they're a spoiler-phile and I don't want to read their spoiler rants etc)

let me know if you do and I'll come comment to your comment with my 2c :)

[hope]

Cheers mate! I'm going to dig around and see what other people are/have said about it. :)

[ainsley]

Ah, the myriad ways we all handle friending, and now its successors, differently, is managing to be more complex rather than less!

I'm just handling things the same way I did on LJ--if I don't have any interest in a relationship with you, I track either the LJ itself or the relevant tags. But then I also have a totally different take on friending than 99% of people in fandom, so my solution likely won't match yours.

If it's something that interests you, I'd say go ahead and request it as a feature. Someone else probably wants the same thing.