What’s your opinion on decoupling updates from content publishing?
In current implementation when a content item like Post, Album or Discussion is published the Timeline creates a card automatically and shows it in various feeds, depending on following rules and timeline settings defined by admin.
This approach has some pros and cons. On the positive side, we can have various types of cards, each customised for specific module - an album card looks very different from a discussion card, etc. There is also the benefit of frictionless sharing - you post and it gets shared. On the negative side - we have two different types of entries in feeds that create confusing UX - for example, “deleting” an update from a feed doesn’t delete the actual post, comments in feeds may not be seen on the page because they could be turned off via page builder, etc.
More importantly, often there are posts or actions that may be OK to be published as feeds updates in general but some specific posts or actions would be better off not shared in Feeds. For example, user uploads a Profile pic - this is a kind of action that create an update in feeds, but sometimes users change profile pics a few times in a matter of minutes, or the change is insignificant and the user would rather not update all their followers about it. Or for posts/articles posted as a matter of reference, not “news”, is sometimes preferable to not update everyone.
The alternative approach
Another way of ‘sharing’ would be to create embed cards for any content, and after it is published bring up a secondary “share” form that offers to create a Timeline update with the original content embed included, an option to comment and select sharing preferences. Say, if you upload a new profile pic, the form would ask “would you like to update your followers about the new profile pic” and you’d be able to write a comment like “... check out my new avatar” and publish a standard timeline card. This approach is used by Twitter for profile pics and retweets. Similar approach is used by Facebook for sharing updates about new Notes.
With this method we could make feeds look and feel more consistent and reduce complexity of special case publishing between Timeline and other content modules. We would lose some interactivity within content cards inside timeline though - for example, a Post card would not display the whole post, but only a Post embed and a sharing comment.
What do you think? Does this sound like an improvement?
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I like the latter.
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yes definitely more usefull is the second one
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The second option is a better alternative.
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Alternative approach is more logical.
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alternative approach is better
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+1 for new alternative. Could have used a poll for responses. :D
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"We would lose some interactivity within content cards inside timeline though - for example, a Post card would not display the whole post, but only a Post embed and a sharing comment."
I don't see this as a problem at all and should likely speed the page load up a little. If users see that the post is something they are interested in, they will gladly be willing to click over to it.
So many good ideas here at UNA, constantly bubbling up to the surface... Thank you, Team, for working so hard day and night.
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Important to know that comments, likes, etc will not be synchronised between content page and timeline card, but in some situations it's critical. Also this approach doesn't solve the problem with deletion content from timeline, content item will be still left.
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What about the public feed for the alternative?
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Public feed works much like private feed in terms of how items are displayed.
The biggest challengne as Alex noted is the UX for reactions and comments - they would be different for original content and the feed card, which may also lead to confusion