Paged topics

Is it just me, or is not the ui/ux of multi-page topics just not good? Could there be a way to fix it or to enforce things can't be bigger than one page, or can we all start teaching ourselves that we should start new pages or something?

When I go to the "recent posts" and see some posts on some topic, I click on the topic title (not the individual *'s new posts in the "recent posts" list) and then if they are on anything other than page 1 i can't find them.

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

in fact

if i click on one of the posts, it doesn't take me to the post. presumably any link to any post on any page other than the first doesn't work?

That's because there are

That's because there are more replies in the topic than you're allowing it to display on one page of the topic. Pick 400 or 600 rather than 200 and it'll be fine.

Oh, wait. You can't.

?comments_per_page=600

?comments_per_page=600

You can view more topics in a page, by tweaking the URL a bit.

But my usual approach is to switch to 'Flat, Newest First' when working with long topics. Then switch back, later. It's annoying. I would prefer this was fixed.

Click on the line for the

Afaik, you have to edit each url by hand, and you have to insert the extra stuff in the right place. Click on the line for the comment you want. Then edit the url, and just before the "#" insert "?comments_per_page=400". For example,

http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/5079#comment-83367

would become

http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/5079?comments_per_page=400#comment-83367

Modify URL before visiting

Click on the line for the comment you want. Then edit the url[...]

Loading the page twice means giving up the handy asterisks next to the post titles.

Personally, when I'm on the "Recent Posts" page and I see new comments in a thread that I know has gone on for a while, I copy the link address and do this kind of URL surgery before I visit the page.

After the first time for a given thread, it gets easier to make the change because I have the modified URL in my history. It won't have the right #comment-83367 fragment, but I can search for asterisks on the page to get to the new stuff.

(I look forward to any kind of forum upgrade even if I have to relearn habits. These habits may work, but they're pretty arcane and annoying.)

I do this same thing

I feel it gives me a competitive advantage over other readers and am opposed to any improvements in usability.

I figure after the topic has

I figure after the topic has spilled into page 2, its probably not very accessible anyways :) Time to start new topics at that point.

It is an annoying problem. I

It is an annoying problem. I am not sure about the best solution at this point.

If the total number of posts

If the total number of posts for a given topic is available while generating the tracker page, perhaps add the extended URL others have mentioned in this thread. Not an ideal solution, but perhaps an acceptable stopgap.

That might be a useful hack.

That might be a useful hack. Will check.

I found a way to do it, actually.

I opened up the form in the 'developer' window in Firefox, picked "edit as html", and monkeyed the "200" selection to select the value "600" instead. Then displayed the alternate page, selected 600, and hit "save settings."

'Gainst all expectations, it seems to work. Although certain UI elements insist on telling me I have selected 10 posts per page, probably because the actual number saved in my settings is not one of the choices they know how to display, the pages display all the posts.

kick the can!

you are destined to be a high level politician in the usa!