Allow reader to choose number of comments/page

[cos]

Title
Allow reader to choose number of comments/page

Short, concise description of the idea
Add a pulldown menu on any post with more than one page of comments, allowing reader to view a larger or smaller number of comments per page.

Full description of the idea
Currently, if there are more than 50 comments on a post, and more than 25 top-level comments, LiveJournal splits up the comments into multiple pages, such that each page shows 25 top level comments.

Sometimes, a reader may find themselves repeatedly moving back and forth among the pages on a post, and would prefer to see more comments on each page, so they don't have to load pages as often.

When the comments on a post are split up into multiple pages, LJ could add a menu to the bottom of each such page, labelled "Currently showing [N] top-level comments per page" - where [N] is the pulldown menu portion, and can be changed to other numbers. I suggest: 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200, 250.

There should still be a maximum, so that people won't load gigantic pages that would unduly burden LiveJournal and their browser. LJ should in theory allow any arbitary number through URL parameter modification, but should check to make sure the maximum is not exceeded.

Also, the result should be "sticky" only while the person remains on that post. Once they navigate away, their menu choice should be forgotten, so that the next time they load a post with multiple comment pages they get the default 25 per page.
An ordered list of benefits

• Clearer way to read and scan comments for some long posts.
• Eliminates the need to repeatedly navigate back and forth among multiple pages of comments on the same post.

An ordered list of problems/issues involved

• Possible extra load on LiveJournal resources if people use this a lot, and if the maximum allowed is too high. May require experimentation to get the right balance.