Multiply Users & Developers Group

First, I want to say that I am in full agreement with the spirit of the entry on the sensible way to view comments in the Multiply Blog.

All the same it's pretty hard to get people to thread when there's a big open "Add a Comment" box at the foot of the page, so my suggestion is for the author of a blog entry to have the freedom to turn it off for that blog only, or even for their own site on Multiply. "House rules" if you like.

It would still be possible to reply as before by hitting the first reply link, so no freedom is lost, and those who want to keep an easy reply box open for their visitors can, simply by leaving things as they are.

Staff have long said that there will be a "fan" category, which allows one to follow another's blog without requiring reciprocation.

I'd like to suggest that should there be such a category, it auto-promotes to "Online Buddy" should it be reciprocated. Now that "Online Buddy" is a separate category (yay Multiply!), this shouldn't create too many privacy issues, and yet it would seem to mirror what an online buddy actually is in common English.

I used the review option to encourage quick feedback :o)

It would be nice to be able to turn off pagination in the replies to postings of various kinds. Page wrap can make a discussion hard to follow, especially when some random thread in the middle of the discussion is being extended.

It would seem to me that the best place to do this is where one selects to have threaded view, since it is threading that pagination messes up the most IMO.

currently there are 3 privacy levels

Friends, Family, and Professional Contacts

but i kind of hate that my online buddies see the same things my friends do.

who's with me on making a 4th level for online buddies?

ex:
Your friends who have a direct connection to you
Your family members who have a direct connection to you
Your online buddies who have a direct connection to you
Your professional contacts who have a direct connection to you

and/or:
Your friends, their friends, and their friends
Your family members, their family members, and their family members
Your online buddies, their online buddies, and their online buddies
Your professional contacts, their prof. contacts, and their prof. contacts

ps. if this has been discussed before i apologize though another thread could help the cause anyway