Don't Panic!

[rahaeli]

So, tomorrow you might load LiveJournal and say "...wait, what the heck?" We'll be launching our new global navigation scheme, which is out of beta and has now been officially named Horizon. (The vertical navigation option, when we finish it, will be named Vertigo.) If you'd like to try it out in advance, you can go to the Browse Preferences page

Comments

[bandicoot]

Are we ever going to get the option to have long comment pages displayed uncompressed?

[livredor]

The option already exists! Using S2, add ?view=flat to the comments page URL. If the journal you're looking at isn't in S2, add ?fallback=S2&view=flat. More info in the FAQ, and unofficial resources on the No LJ Ads Wiki.

[bandicoot]

Thank you!

[bandicoot]

Ahhh - not so. From the FAQ - When there are at least 50 comments on a page, the comment threads will collapse, so lower-level child comments display as a link rather than the full comment. This automatic behavior can neither be prevented nor triggered sooner.
It's the option to view an uncollapsed page, not an unthreaded page, that I'm talking about.

[xb95]

That was implemented due to load on the servers. I can't see it ever being removed, because then we'd have the load problem again.

* Wicked fast
* Highly available
* Includes a kitchen sink

As with standard rules of "sets of three", you can pick any two. We like the first two. :-)

[bandicoot]

As far as I remember, when the idea was first suggested to reduce the display page size of entries with lots of comments (what's now the paged system), Brad had said that there would be an option to not page. I had thought the comment collapse would also eventually be an option. I wasn't aware it was a server load issue, and apparently I merged the two issues incorrectly in my mind.

However, with no data to back me up, I would think that when I try to view a collapsed comment page, I create a much higher server load by having to open many, many new pages in order to view all the threads on separate pages than I would just opening one long uncollapsed page. For example, the entry itself is repeated on each separate thread page.

Even a clickable link on the bottom of the page allowing an uncollapsed view for only that one page view would be a huge improvement.

[xb95]

As one of the people who was there when the decision was made, and helped engineer it, I can assure you it was motivated (on our end) from load concerns. :-) It may be rationalized to users differently, to give them a reason to care (what? server load? what's that?), but yeah

[bandicoot]

That's why I suggested a link on the bottom of a collapsed page to display that page only, on that load only, in uncollapsed form.

If I'm only looking for new comments, I'd stick with the collapsed version for the quicker load, but if I'm viewing the entry for the first time, it would be nice to not have to load 20 or so separate pages ;)

[xb95]

Then we get into another facet of human behavior...

If you knew you could click a link to get all content, you'd probably start clicking it every time out of habit without thinking about what you actually need. User's don't always know what they want, that's a fact. So instead of stopping to figure out if they really need the full view, they'll just click it, whether they need it or not.

Then we're back where we started. See #2 above again, about spreading the cost of a user's actions out over some period of time, which will always work out better for the servers. :-)

[bridgetester]

What about showing fewer threads or fewer comments per "uncollapsed page"?

up to 25 comments, for instance.

[imc]

As one of the people who was there when the decision was made, and helped engineer it, I can assure you it was motivated (on our end) from load concerns

And that was… how many hardware and software revisions ago? ;-)

When you hit a page, odds are, you've already read half of the collapsed threads. You're scanning to find new ones.

And the collapsed view is very hard to scan for new comments. I frequently expand threads only to find I've already read all the comments.

[bandicoot]

I frequently expand threads only to find I've already read all the comments.

Exactly. When it was originally implemented, it was a great temporary fix for entries with so many comments that it would bog down dialup users. But the user interface was never cleaned up so it was actually useable.

I think there could and should be a better balance between server load and ease of use. It needs to be rethought, even if the powers that be decide not to make any changes.

[kateshort]

OMG, icon.

Which usenet news reader was that from, again?

[imc]

Is from trn. :-)

[sarahq]

This problem will be resolved in large part as the notification system is made available to more and more user groups. The notification system will allow you to subscribe to a post and receive notification (typically via email) when a new comment is posted. Thus you won't have to scan for new comments -- they'll show up in your inbox.

[seaofdestiny]

Until you hit the cap of 500 (I think it was) entries you're watching.

Which will take how long, given a decent-sized friens list?