Breaking up comment pages

June 20, 2004 8:58 PM

Can our comment pages be broken up into smaller pieces? (more inside, yo.)
posted by John Kenneth Fisher to Feature Requests at 8:58 PM (18 comments total)

I like to load up my 'comments by...' page to quickly see threads I might have been responded to on. This works for me, but as these pages grow from tens, to hundreds, to thousands, so does the load time, and the hit on the server.

Can there be an option to show the last, say, 50, perhaps in a 'page 1 of x' format, perhaps simply with a single link to show the entire list if we prefer?

(This seems like it MUST have come up before, but this is the only thing I could find. Apologies if I'm wrong.)

Also, can I name her Princess Golden Prancer, cause of her beautiful golden mane?
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 9:01 PM on June 20, 2004

Why wouldn't you be using sort by my commented threads? It shows a limited list, and those threads that you have commented in, that have new messages in them, are at the top of the list.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:21 PM on June 20, 2004

But no need to shoot this pony quite yet: legs off, fins on, stick a little pipe through the back of its neck so it can breathe, bit of gold paint...

...and then when we comment-preview, we see only the last two dozen messages, instead of two hundred. It'd really pick up the xfer rate, and greatly reduce server load, I think.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:24 PM on June 20, 2004

That does fit my specific use, though only for MeFi, not MeTa and AskMe, where I don't think it is an option. Unless i missed it, #1, consider that a second feature request.

But even for other purposes, some of those pages are just too long to be useful, and I still think breaking it up would do much good, especially with the server not being the most stable thing in the world
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 9:27 PM on June 20, 2004

I second the motion. JKF hits it right on the head.
posted by Quartermass at 10:20 PM on June 20, 2004

I don't disagree with this feature request, but I think the reason there's no "sort by my comments" on metatalk is that arguments like this would go on for months if there were one.

As it is, the issue falls off the page after about a week (until it's brought up again...) and less space is filled as a result.
posted by interrobang at 11:16 PM on June 20, 2004

You can't just use the "Sort by my comments" function on the main MeFi page? It only shows the last 20 threads you commented on, but it seems that this would cover at least 95% of what you want to do.

Also, naming of MeFi ponies is done by a secret process that you have way too high a user number to be told about.
posted by dg at 12:04 AM on June 21, 2004

Oops, forgot I had let several hours elapse between preview and post. Ignore my comment, as usual.
posted by dg at 12:05 AM on June 21, 2004

i've loaded that page maybe 4 times in 4 years. yawn.
posted by quonsar at 6:28 AM on June 21, 2004

Contacts: This user links to 16532 MetaFilter user(s).

angry modem has been very busy.
posted by hama7 at 7:25 AM on June 21, 2004

How did angry do that? Not individually, right? Please, not individually.
posted by iconomy at 7:40 AM on June 21, 2004

I'm a somebody! I'm on angry modem's contact list! Yaaaaahooooooo!!!!!!!!

There is no chance he could have done that individually. None. I hope.
posted by ashbury at 8:18 AM on June 21, 2004

I think this would be a useful feature too, though - it'd be nice to be able to see the recent comments of posters you find interesting, for example, or to go back to the "next 20" old commented threads to which you contributed. I mean, if it's not a big deal to do. If it's muy complicado, forget it, but I've often thought I'd use that page if it didn't take soo long to load.
posted by mdn at 8:20 AM on June 21, 2004

No, he wrote a short script for it. Sadly it is a little anti-social, because the loadtime makes my browser hang, then crash. Also, it kinda makes contacts redundant, if everyone is a contact (I say everyone: I'd love to know who wasnt selected to go on that list...)

Angry has removed me from his list tho - I'm sure he will accommodate others who email him.

/po-faced
posted by dash_slot- at 8:23 AM on June 21, 2004

Just think about the poor 809 people that angry modem left off his list, they must feel slighted.

Or there is the possibility that these are 809 people that scarabic has practiced his "disappearing" arts on. He sounded awfully knowing. (cue Twilight Zone music)
posted by madamjujujive at 8:26 AM on June 21, 2004

AskMeFi: How to dispose of a MetaID using lime, balloons and an ice bucket... (cue Alfred Hitcock music)
posted by wendell at 10:23 AM on June 21, 2004

And to think I thought I was so special when I noticed his name on my contact page - but I was just another notch on his post. sniff. I feel so used.
posted by Blue Stone at 1:59 PM on June 21, 2004

Only slightly slighted.
posted by gi_wrighty at 2:34 AM on June 22, 2004