I'm designing a mobile app that has an independent activity feed. One option on items in the feed is to "follow" individual stories/threads. What verbiage can I use to convey the idea of "following" a story, without using the word "follow"? (Or, should I stick with "follow" because of it's wide acceptance?)
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4 Answers
Just to add to the other answers - Track and Watch are good options, but are better used in the context of verb + noun.
For example: Track this ____, is good - like Track this event as used on Lanyrd and other conference websites, and Track this story as used by lots of news publications.
Watch this ____ is good too, like Watch this thread as used on many forum/discussion websites.
I think you'd have to work hard with location, whitespace and layout to make it really clear what the standalone use of the word Track or Watch actually refers to - especially the word Watch. Watch what? Watch a video?
Even if you stick with Follow, the same applies - Twitter for example use a 'Follow' button only where it's absolutely clear who is being followed. In some places they use 'Follow me' instead. In a location where you may have a topic, a story, a user, an author, a thread, a tag, or other content, it might not be 100% obvious to all users what a standalone Follow button might relate to.
answered Jun 20, 2013 at 20:23
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Or you can use the verb alone in context (adjacent/touching the post). Like some of the social platforms do for following individuals, posts or pages.– rk.Jun 20, 2013 at 20:44
Subscribe can work. So can Track.
Watch or Watching works too..Used a lot in forums for watching topics.
You could also describe the end result instead. What does it mean to "follow" a thread?
E-mail me updates
Notify me when ...
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That will make it quite verbose. Especially since these labels need to be followed up by a trigger situation: 'Notify me when anyone posts', 'E-mail me when I am tagged in a post', etc.– rk.Jun 22, 2013 at 1:59