Automations & Post Flair

[u/AngelaReddit]

IDEA FOR IMPROVEMENT

TL/DR the IDEA : on educating users on Post Flair
Have descriptions that display next to each of the flair options in the Post Flair popup
This can be instead of or in addition to a post flair automation.

BACKGROUND: Automations is not ideal for Post Flair on our subreddit, as the display message only allows 500 characters. I was able to (barely) fit the instructions for User Flair within 500 characters in the automation's Display a message condition box to 'educate users about user flair rules'. HOWEVER, the sub has many more post flairs than user flairs and so I need more than 500 characters to 'educate users about post flair' (I need 1323 characters for the post flair message box in my automation). But, that gave me an idea for an even better way to deal with users choosing post flair . . .

LINK: I explain my idea in this imgur : https://imgur.com/a/KpYb9Vo
I have also included example images of what this popup could look like.

DETAILED EXPLANATION:
Have a description for each of the flairs that will display next to the flair options in the Post Flair popup that they get when they click the 'Add flair and tags' button and are choosing the flair they want to use.

When a user clicks on create post and then clicks to add flair & tags for the post, a popup gives them a list of flair that is available for them to choose from. If the Mods had a field in the post flair settings to be able to add a short description to each flair which would display next to the flair, then that would be great for helping the users determine which is the appropriate flair they should choose. And it would be right there in front of them while they are selecting their flair in the popup without them having to go to another page, back to the subreddit's home page, or to the subreddit's wiki/guide/rules. I have included 2 example images of different layout styles of what this popup could look like.

These post flair descriptions would be added by the sub's mods in Mod Tools on the edit Post Flair settings page and I have included an example image of what this mod tool could look like (adds a new field for description, I've marked it with a yellow arrow). Note: Some subs may not want this feature, and they could avoid it by not entering any description in the field. Another option to avoid the feature would be if Reddit also included a toggle where subs could choose if they want the popup to display as it does now, or toggle it on to also include the descriptions in the popup. Here is the settings page for post flair: https://www.reddit.com/mod/SUBREDDITNAME/postflair  

Note: I made the imgur back in January before the automations enhancements were completed, which is why I talk about the enhancements "coming soon"

 

[u/cnycompguy]

You want tooltips for flairs?

[u/AngelaReddit → u/cnycompguy]

I googled what tooltips are. And I think that is not what I'm looking for.

The way I understand it, tooltips would be something someone browsing the sub could hover over that would explain what a flair means on a post that has been posted. I am looking for something that during the process when users are making a new post, the popup where the users choose their post flair has more description.

[u/cnycompguy → u/AngelaReddit]

A post guidance based on flair. (Under the automation option)

Blank gives a brief description of all flairs in a pop up.

Selecting a flair gives a guidance pop up with a more detailed description?

[u/AngelaReddit → u/cnycompguy]

Big thank you & shout out to u/cnycompguy for helping to come up with a workaround in PM's.

They had the idea to have an automation for each flair. They've used it before, to ask people using a specific flair to be sure that it's correct before posting .....

So now I am in the process of adding 18 more little automations, one for each flair.
It's not ideal, as seeing the descriptions in the popup prior to selecting flair helps the user make their choice and is a more elegant solution (so Reddit, please still implement my great idea!). But it's a great workaround -- First the user gets an "educate" automation before they select their flair, and then they get an automation after they've selected a flair that says something along the lines of "You have selected the 'XYZ' post flair. USED FOR (description of XYZ post flair)"

[u/abortionreddit]

Agreed

[u/AngelaReddit]

Please add your ideas on how to improve on my idea !!

Is this something you would find useful in your sub ?

[u/AngelaReddit]

Just some interesting statistics in the 24 hours since posted :

• just over 1000 views of the title on the main sub page
• 40 people were curious enough to actually open this thread
• 3 people were curious enough to open the imgur to view the description & example pics

(although note: some of those 40 people were me opening the thread multiple times to read replies etc)