I need a pony because I'm too lazy to scroll on foot. March 28, 2010 3:37 PM   Subscribe

I would like a pony that I can ride to a spot on the page where I can read the comment I'm trying to preview.

This is a very tiny pony, like even tinier than Thumbelina here. This may classify me as a miserably lazy person, but oh well.

Could the comment "Preview" button, rather than taking the user to the very bottom of the page, instead jump to a position such that the phrase "Comment Preview:" is the first line on the page? That is, could it send the user to a position where one can read the comment being previewed without additional scrolling?

As I see it, this will accomplish two things: One, it will become marginally more convenient for people to preview their comments, making it less likely that they will want a three-minute edit window (which I consider an abomination), and Two, it will mean I have to do less scrolling, and thus less exertion of my right index finger, which I'm sure is a goal we can all get behind.

Based on my limited web development knowledge, this doesn't strike me as difficult to implement, but I am prepared to be otherwise informed.
posted by Salvor Hardin to Feature Requests at 3:37 PM (18 comments total)

it will mean I have to do less scrolling, and thus less exertion of my right index finger, which I'm sure is a goal we can all get behind.

Imagine that your index finder is like the tiniest little pony, taking you, fearless rider, wherever you want to go on the vast plains of blue, gray, and green...

whoa...
posted by iamkimiam at 3:42 PM on March 28, 2010


The preview page is pretty much deprecated at this point, is my understanding. There are any number of improvements that could be made on it to bring it up to standard with the rest of the site, but it's of an old, old version of MeFi that doesn't jive so well. Also, it is not worth updating because of the forthcoming edit window feature.
posted by carsonb at 3:45 PM on March 28, 2010


...the forthcoming edit window feature.

Any second now. The SCR has been approved and funded.
posted by fixedgear at 4:07 PM on March 28, 2010


And on the day it finally gets rolled out, you can get a free Dr. Pepper!
posted by Wolfdog at 4:14 PM on March 28, 2010 [1 favorite]


Imagine that your index finder is like the tiniest little pony, taking you, fearless rider, wherever you want to go on the vast plains of blue, gray, and green...

Click clop, click clop, click clop.
posted by davejay at 4:32 PM on March 28, 2010


Wow – somebody still actually uses that "preview" button? Weird.
posted by koeselitz at 5:33 PM on March 28, 2010


Well, see, I use the preview to check the thread, i.e. the comments that have popped up since I started typing. To preview my comment, I usually either look at the Live Preview or, even more often, like, you know, I might just look at the words that I'm typing as they magically appear in the text box.

So, anyway, this would not help me in any way, and indeed it would be somewhat annoying.
posted by Sys Rq at 5:39 PM on March 28, 2010


Sys Rq: “Well, see, I use the preview to check the thread, i.e. the comments that have popped up since I started typing. To preview my comment, I usually either look at the Live Preview or, even more often, like, you know, I might just look at the words that I'm typing as they magically appear in the text box.”

But to do that, you can just press F5.
posted by koeselitz at 6:01 PM on March 28, 2010


Also, I wanted to point out that if Salvor Hardin were actually to put his lazy personage on top of a pony the size of Thumbelina, it'd be animal abuse. Thing probably wouldn't make it thirty seconds. And you wouldn't be able to ride it anywhere, much less to near the bottom of a page.
posted by koeselitz at 6:24 PM on March 28, 2010


If you need a tiny horse, Williard is your man.
posted by cashman at 6:34 PM on March 28, 2010


It's Dr Pepper, people, it never went to grad school and doesn't have a degree.
posted by Night_owl at 7:17 PM on March 28, 2010


But to do that, you can just press F5.

What? If you've typed out a long comment, then want to see if something's been added to the thread while you've typed, pressing F5 (or apple-R or whatever) would just erase everything you've just typed.
posted by davejay at 10:33 PM on March 28, 2010


davejay: “What? If you've typed out a long comment, then want to see if something's been added to the thread while you've typed, pressing F5 (or apple-R or whatever) would just erase everything you've just typed.”

Nope. Never will. Not on any computer I've used - which is to say, not in Vista, Win 7, or Ubuntu Linux. (I can't vouch for OS X, sadly.) In Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, and IE - pressing F5 won't delete anything in the text field. Here, I'll try it.

See, I just did it. Nothing deleted. Here, I'll try it again.

Nope, nothing deleted. F5 is fine. And it gives you a little rush when you do it.
posted by koeselitz at 10:46 PM on March 28, 2010


1) This seems like a pretty trivial fix for pb. I'm obviously not familiar with the codebase, but that's my first impression.

2) You either must post a lot of really huge comments or have the smallest screen known to man.
posted by Plutor at 6:40 AM on March 29, 2010


ok, this should be set everywhere. Let me know if not.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:50 AM on March 29, 2010


asdfasdf
posted by Salvor Hardin at 9:08 AM on March 29, 2010


oh dammit, I meant to hit "preview". Wow. I'm going to take a break here while my face loses the redness.

Thanks a lot pb - that's awesome :)
posted by Salvor Hardin at 9:09 AM on March 29, 2010


And don't bother deleting my little outburst there...it's a good monument to the motto "if you make your system more foolproof, they'll invent a better fool".
posted by Salvor Hardin at 9:11 AM on March 29, 2010


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