No

January 13, 2009 8:03 PM

Is there a preference setting to turn off comment Live Previews?

To my embarrassment, having the javascript update the inner HTML of the preview box on each keystroke occasionally causes a noticeable lag on my hardware (Eee 901), especially when I'm writing a longer comment. Blocking metafilter javascript entirely isn't a good work-around, as that prevents me from favoriting comments.

posted by orthogonality to feature requests at 8:03 PM (18 comments total)

There's a small (hide) link that appears beneath the words 'Live Preview'. I clicked it, and live preview went away.
posted by carsonb at 8:05 PM on January 13

Yup, I turned mine off awhile back. Much better. Although I didn't realize at first that turning off Live Preview turns off the option of posting without previewing; you have to preview first. Is that relatively new?
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:08 PM on January 13 [1 favorite]

If you don't see it, try clicking this. To get live preview back, click this, or click the (Show Preview) link next to the comment box. Clicking these links will toss any comment you were writing, so beware. Also, if you turn Live Preview off you will be forced to plain ol' Preview your comment before posting.
posted by carsonb at 8:08 PM on January 13

Although I didn't realize at first that turning off Live Preview turns off the option of posting without previewing; you have to preview first. Is that relatively new?

Before we had live preview, we forced all comments to a preview screen first. When we added real-time preview, it was thought that we could skip that step since people could preview on the page itself and spot errors, so the direct post button was added.

If you don't have live preview on, you have to preview first, since there's no preview without it. There are greasemonkey scripts to skip it and add a post button if you really want a post button.
posted by mathowie at 8:10 PM on January 13

That was fast. Great, thanks.

(As it turns out, the slow-down was because I had a background process for no good reason sucking down 99% of both (virtual) CPUs; the Eee 901 isn't really that slow.)
posted by orthogonality at 8:15 PM on January 13

Oh and in case anyone is wondering, we do this automatically for iphones as well, since the preview really does drag down the little processor in an iphone.
posted by mathowie at 8:21 PM on January 13

I was just about to ask that (iPhone question)
posted by mrzarquon at 9:26 PM on January 13

Does clicking the hide button on one thread cause it to remain hidden for all threads, until the show button is clicked?

I was thinking of doing my own post, asking why I had such horrible lag as I typed mefi comments, but not on any other forums or boards across the great wide internets. Having hidden the live preview, it is now working perfectly and lag-free. Huzzah! Thanks for that.
posted by po at 12:33 AM on January 14

Er. That was a silly question, as I could obviously have answered it myself, and just did.

Don't look at me that way. I rolled a poor INT and the DM made me keep it.
posted by po at 12:36 AM on January 14

Mine usually lets me swap low rolls out for CHA. Fuck do I need that for?
posted by turgid dahlia at 5:45 AM on January 14

I'm gonna need everybody to roll for save vs. timeout.
posted by cortex at 6:46 AM on January 14

I'm gonna need everybody to roll for save vs. timeout.

Okay, how do I unhide the javascript dice?
posted by Pants! at 7:10 AM on January 14

All I have are a ton of d10s. DAMN YOU, ROLEPLAYING IN THE NINETIES.
posted by penduluum at 8:24 AM on January 14

How are you hiding live preview on iphones? I think my ipod touch still provides live preview.
posted by Pronoiac at 8:49 AM on January 14

Oh and in case anyone is wondering, we do this automatically for iphones as well, since the preview really does drag down the little processor in an iphone

Could the iPhone get a post button as well -- or a preview page that just shows the comment? It's murder trying to post on a reasonable-sized thread from iphone
posted by bonaldi at 8:56 AM on January 14

turgid dahlia: Fuck do I need that for?

For convincing villagers that giving you all their valuables is the best way of keeping the heretofore unknown "swamp-dragon" living out side their little town from coming in and killing everyone.

Also useful for convincing fair maidens that you have "the cure".
posted by quin at 9:55 AM on January 14

I don't think that the Greasemonkey script to skip works any longer.
posted by WCityMike at 4:05 PM on January 15

(Even if you modify the URLs in the @include.)
posted by WCityMike at 4:06 PM on January 15