Big Posts And You: How To Not Break The Page!

[nookiepowered]

With Prom coming up tomorrow, we've been doing some detective work on when, where and how the Classic and (other) Custom comments break pages, and putting together our best suggestions on how to avoid it. This is a "for now" thing, of course; should LJ fix the pagebreaking issues, we'll let everybody know ASAP.

Here's what we've discovered: as long as you don't let any individual thread -- one single line of back and forth replies counting from the top-level reply to the post (aka the OCD header) -- reach 100 comments, you won't break the page.

So, to make big posts like Prom and the picnics work:

When a thread gets to around 90 comments (or fewer if you want to be extra-cautious), do 1 of 2 things

• Move the conversation to someone's character journal, and end the comm thread with a link over to the personal post



• Stay in the comm post, but
  
  
  • Go back and reply to the third comment in the thread -- in other words, not the OCD header and not the anchor comment of the first character in the conversation (because other people might have replied to that too and you don't want their subthreads to interrupt yours)
  
  
  
  • Branch off from there with a "Continued from..." link, and start counting toward 90 again
  
  
  
  • Also make sure you add one more "Continued over here..." comment to the end of the previous subthread so everything's linked up!
  
  

If we pull that off, we can have threads that look like this, and pages that look like this without anything getting busticated!

(The screened comments are saving your sanity from the creepypasta I was posting when I got bored with replying YOUR FACE to myself.)

This has been tested in both Firefox and Chrome, and on the Classic Comments (which all the FH comms are in) as well as custom comments for Smooth Sailing, Flexible Squares, and Expressive -- so you should be able to use the same strategy to avoid breaking pages in your personal posts too.

__

As a related note, we're going to put up a resource post soonish on the different types of comment styles and how to enable them, the issues with them, and so on, linking up the stuff we've already posted in bits and pieces. We'll also include a discussion section for people to describe what they're using and either ask for help or offer it. It'll take a little while to pull it together, especially with this weekend keeping everyone busy, but it's on the horizon!

Also special thanks to longislandiceme for taking his shirt off FOR SCIENCE, and yes, I totally want to do Pixelated Naughty Bits day for realz sometime so we can have Equal Opportunity Shirtlessness.

Comments

[likes_scoundrels]

The only problem is I'm not usually counting when I'm threading. :-/ I think this (LJ's issues, not the idea, to be clear) is really going to discourage people from playing out threads in posts like this, which is a huge shame.

I hate that we have to do this. It's awkward and annoying and this is why I really loathe LJ right now.

[longislandiceme]

A suggestion re: counting!

Change the subject line sliiiiightly (add a *, ., whatever) for each thread and then just count your comment notifs in gmail and multiply them by 2. In massive multi-character posts anyway. Journal posts where there's just one thread obvs don't need that ;)... especially since I have no idea if giant threads would break a page if they're the only thread, anyway.

I'LL STOP EDITING NOW.

[likes_scoundrels]

I delete my comments notifs after I reply to them.

Sorry, I'm not trying to be difficult. I'm just really frustrated by this.


YOU WILL HAVE TO STOP EDITING YOU HAVE NO CHOICE NOW.

[glacial_queen]

THIS. SO MUCH THIS.

It's how I keep track of what I've responded to! *Sigh*

If nothing else, 90 comments is a lot. If your thread is getting really long, maybe just preemptively move?

[likes_scoundrels]

Yep, the undeleted ones stare at me until I reply to them or too much time passes and I feel dumb replying and then I delete it. ;)

Right now I'm more "Screw big posts, I just won't ping in them because I'll just get knocked out of my thread and then it will get eaten and I won't be able to find it." I'm a wee bit pessimistic.

90 comments is a lot, but you have to rely on everyone else in the game to pay attention, too, so their threads don't eat yours.

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

idk, maybe just archive responded-to comments? which will then pop back into your inbox (assuming you're using gmail) when there's a new reply.

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

This is what I do. Not only does it count comments for you, but it makes it easier for me to find old threads -- I can just search on key words and they pop up. (I am way too lazy to use the memories feature.) of course, it'd be a little embarrassing if somebody else explored my gmail, but you can't have everything.

[unburnt-queen.livejournal.com]

Same! And if you want to find something with a particular character, you can search their username, too. (But then I have everything forward to my primary email, so sometimes I'll search for, like, 'arrival prom' and somehow turn up a Michigan Education Association email, which is always weird.)

I mean, this is what I've always done and no one is asking anyone to change to a new system of emailing or anything. If LJ is working on this, then there's every hope that it'll be fixed in the next little while. (I mean, we can hope.) In the meanwhile, this is the best solution we've got and while it sucks, I'm not sure I see another option. I mean, other than yelling at LJ more but it doesn't seem to have done much good in the first place.

[heromaniac]

I do this too. Very handy! I HIGHLY recommend it!

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

... I can't believe I never thought of that.

[glacial_queen]

They just stop going. You can scroll down and eventually they just stop. You can still click on the thread link to pull up the rest, but if you just look at the thread itself, it appears to terminate at the 100th comment.

[nookiepowered]

*nodnod* Yeah, it works the same with only one thread on the page as it does with a bunch: a hundred is the max comments you can have in one line before everything below it disappears.

[wasthecuteone]

Not everyone reads their e-mail from gmail. I don't, I never have, and I don't see myself being able to train myself to remember to do that when I'm in a long thread. Not all of my characters' notifs go to my gmail account anyway. And if I don't delete notifs as I reply to them my inbox piles up to five hundred e-mails I have to dig through very quickly.

I just...don't see counting as being that viable a solution, honestly. Even if you remember to do it it seems like it would bring an anxiety factor to RPing; "Oh no we're approaching 100 comments we have to decide what to do!"

Also it only works when comment notifications do. Which is a complete tossup.

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

Yeah, admittedly my thought is something that really only works if you use gmail and hold on to comment notifs (and, yes, that they work), but I figured I'd throw it out there in case anyone found it useful.

Not that it's ever likely to even *be* an issue for me, since I can't remember the last time I was in a thread that topped even 50 comments, pre-comment-page-changes included.

[glacial_queen]

Thank you again for doing all this, MP.

[nookiepowered]

Lesbian high-fives for SCIENCE!

[solo_sword]

without anything getting busticated!

Let's see a show of hands. Who read that as 'bifurcated'?

o/

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

I didn't, but thank you very much for the nightmares.

[nookiepowered]

Be glad I screened the creepypasta.

...Not that there was any bifurcation in there, but there were ghost babies and mirrors.

[likes_scoundrels]

*TWITCH*

[new-it-girl.livejournal.com]

*raises hand* I totally did.

[stykera]

NOT UNTIL YOU MENTIONED IT. D:

[wasthecuteone]

Damn you.

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.

[taseredagod.livejournal.com]

Well, now I did.

Thanks!

[childhood-taunt.livejournal.com]

Han Solo will never be the same for me. Ever.