Moving the "Older" and "Newer" navigation bar to the top?

July 1, 2012 10:38 PM

Possible pony: Moving the "Older" and "Newer" navigation bar to the top?

If you want to navigate from thread to thread anywhere on MetaFilter (except, I think, on IRL), there's a handy navigation bar that lets you instantly move to an adjacent thread (either the next newest or next oldest) with a single click. I personally like being able to do this because sometimes I like running through FPPs or AskMes one at a time while seeing all the "more inside" content for each one—and without having to flip back and forth between multiple tabs, or having to hit the back and forward buttons in my browser.

However, the "Older/Newer" bar is all the way at the bottom of every thread. That means that in order to use it, you have to scroll past all the comments. Sure, this can be accomplished with a quick keyboard command, but I thought this nav bar might be more useful and easier to use if it appeared at the top (perhaps above the thread title) rather than at the very bottom.

That may be undesirable from a page design point of view, and there might also be other unintended consequences I haven't considered. But just tossing this out there as a possibility. (I note that this request has been made a few times, though it's not clear if there's ever been a definite answer. The most recent request appears to be from four years ago. At the time, mathowie said he'd "consider" it, but I don't know if a final decision was ever made.)

posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell to Feature Requests at 10:38 PM (21 comments total)

Late night in mathowie / pb land, but one of them will be along later to respond to this.
posted by taz (staff) at 11:10 PM on July 1, 2012

However, the "Older/Newer" bar is all the way at the bottom of every thread. That means that in order to use it, you have to scroll past all the comments.

Yes, as it should be. Then you can read the thread and, when you're done with it, move on to the next one. I don't care either way about an extra set of links at the top but please don't actually move the navigation up. If nothing else it will be actively encouraging people to not read the thread and, personally, I'd find it very annoying.
posted by shelleycat at 1:12 AM on July 2, 2012

Lots of webmail clients have duplicate nav links at top and bottom, and I've always found this to be a good thing.
posted by flabdablet at 1:49 AM on July 2, 2012

Perhaps it could be an option in the user preferences?
posted by chillmost at 2:41 AM on July 2, 2012

I don't think config bloat is a good solution to that.

If the answer ends up being "no" (though I'm notnsure why that would be), I'm sure someone will come along with a GreaseMonkey script that can make them.
posted by subbes at 4:58 AM on July 2, 2012

There is a quick keyboard shortcut, the End button. :-) Not being snarky, but just reach to your right and tap that end and with the bottom anchored nav and all that, the Older Newer bar is at least in the middle of your screen, if not near the top.
posted by deezil at 5:43 AM on July 2, 2012

shelleycat: " If nothing else it will be actively encouraging people to not read the thread and, personally, I'd find it very annoying."

People not reading a thread is ok. People not reading a thread and then commenting is not. Would placing navigation links at the top of a post encourage the latter? Not sure it would.

Personally, I think it would make pages look cluttered.
posted by zarq at 6:58 AM on July 2, 2012

Similarly to this, what I've often wanted since I've started browsing MeFi on a phone is a swish function to go forward or backward through the threads with a flick of the finger a la Google reader on Android (and probably loads of other apps)

hope that makes sense
posted by criticalbill at 7:09 AM on July 2, 2012

That means that in order to use it, you have to scroll past all the comments.

Or you can hit the "END" key on your keyboard.
posted by desjardins at 7:12 AM on July 2, 2012

Not that interested as it's not the way I navigate the site (I go back and forth using touchpad gestures). However, if it can be done without being too obtrusive, then I have no issue with the functionality being duplicated at the top of the page.
posted by arcticseal at 7:27 AM on July 2, 2012

Or you can hit the "END" key on your keyboard.

TIL... Thanks desjardins!
posted by spilon at 7:29 AM on July 2, 2012

Wait, wait. You didn't know about the End key? What about Home? PgDn?
posted by Plutor at 7:57 AM on July 2, 2012

From the post:: "Sure, this can be accomplished with a quick keyboard command, but I thought this nav bar might be more useful and easier to use if it appeared at the top (perhaps above the thread title) rather than at the very bottom."

deezil: "There is a quick keyboard shortcut, the End button. :-) "

desjardins: " Or you can hit the "END" key on your keyboard."

:D
posted by zarq at 7:58 AM on July 2, 2012

If you don't know what the SysRq key is for, that's totally forgiveable.
posted by Plutor at 7:58 AM on July 2, 2012

Wait, wait. You didn't know about the End key? What about Home? PgDn?

Witchcraft.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:05 AM on July 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

We discussed it this morning and while we think it'd be handy, we also don't want to detract from the main thread. And right now keeping it clean and simple is winning over the slight extra utility. Since there are work-arounds like the End button for quick access to the links, we're ok with how things are right now.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:12 AM on July 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

If you don't know what the SysRq key is for, that's totally forgiveable.

The last time I pressed it, a Klingon "medical team" beamed down ready to put me out of my misery, so I wouldn't suggest experimenting with it.
posted by griphus at 8:47 AM on July 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

Similarly to this, what I've often wanted since I've started browsing MeFi on a phone is a swish function to go forward or backward through the threads with a flick of the finger a la Google reader on Android (and probably loads of other apps)

oh god please no not for love or money down with this sort of thing

Every time I find myself on a website that has this behavior I am constantly accidentally switching pages when I just meant to scroll down a bit. The simplest gesture to access on a site devoted to reading text should not be "skim on to the next thing whatever it is I am bored already"
posted by ook at 10:15 AM on July 2, 2012 [2 favorites]

Also that would interfere with the "swipe to favorite" function.
posted by subbes at 10:27 AM on July 2, 2012

Yeah I sometimes accidentally swipe myself on to the next email or thread or whatever but not nearly as often as i try to swipe when I'm here and it doesn't work
posted by criticalbill at 2:44 PM on July 2, 2012

Thanks, zarq! I knew when I wrote this post that there was a chance people would come down on me for not knowing the proper keyboard command, so I deliberately made sure to mention that I was aware of the existence of such a thing. Fat lot of good that did!

pb: Thanks for the answer. Hope you guys reconsider at some point.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 8:01 PM on July 2, 2012