7
$\begingroup$

I propose the implementation of a reminder feature on math.SE, which can remind users to take certain actions on the site after a specified time period. Under each post, there can be a "Remind" button. On clicking it, a user can have $2$ dropdown menus, something like:

$$\text{Remind me to} \; \boxed{\color{grey}{-\text{Select}-}} \; \text{after} \; \boxed{\color{grey}{-\text{Select}-}}.$$

The following are some use cases for the feature:

  • Remind me to answer
  • Remind me to comment

People may be in a rush and be unable to answer or comment at a specific moment. They may also want to conduct further research which can take time. A bookmark is valuable, but a reminder is more explicit (you won't receive an inbox notification with bookmarks). Moreover, a bookmark is generic, whereas a reminder will remind you of exactly what you need to do.

  • Remind me to close
  • Remind me to delete

Sometimes when new users post questions, they may not be up to site standards; however, they can improve the post with suggestions from other users. This can take a while. Closing immediately can be problematic as reopening takes time and can also drive new users away. A reminder can help an experienced user come back to review a question after a period of time and then decide an appropriate action (closing, deleting, etc.).

  • Remind me to bounty

Since once has to wait $2$ days to bounty a question, it can be inconvenient to have to consistently track the time left. A reminder to bounty can hence help.

  • Remind me to [special action]

This can be a personalised note that the user leaves for themselves to review after a certain period.

There are probably many more actions that I have missed that could be implemented (Remind me to flag, share, cite...) to ease activity on the site. Perhaps more functionality can also be added, such as reminding on a specific day or choosing the type of reminder (email, notification, etc.). I'd love to hear suggestions and feedback on the feature.

$\endgroup$
3
  • 5
    $\begingroup$ Feature requests like this are usually best to post on Meta Stack Exchange, because SE developers seldom engage in designing a feature for only one of 200 SE sites. I like the idea, and I'll add the tag [feature-request], just wanted to suggest attention will likely occur in meta.se, before here But It's perfectly valid to test the idea out here, first. My only response is that much of what you suggest can be accomplished by the bookmark/follow feature, already present on main. $\endgroup$
    – amWhy
    Commented Jun 5, 2022 at 18:16
  • 5
    $\begingroup$ I have added the status-review tag, which will bring this to the attention of higher ups in the SE organization. However, I honestly can't see a lot of use for this functionality, and would not hold my breath. $\endgroup$
    – Xander Henderson Mod
    Commented Jun 5, 2022 at 22:00
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ I updated to status-deferred because we will be looking into this and some related requests in the near future to see if these proposed changes will improve the experience with bookmarks and can be implemented. We'll update the status in the future once the team digs in. $\endgroup$
    – Rosie StaffMod
    Commented Jun 8, 2022 at 16:45

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3
$\begingroup$

While we see the value in a feature like this, it's not in our roadmap to build it for the foreseeable future. For that reason, I'm 'ing it.

Furthermore, and as amWhy noted, this is the sort of feature that would likely get built network-wide, and not specifically for Math.SE. So reposting it on MSE at some point in the future might be a good idea, when it might get re-escalated for consideration as per the guidance in the "And other old posts that fall outside of the scope of projects being worked on?" section of this post.

$\endgroup$

You must log in to answer this question.