Metapost: OMG Comments!

Folks, it has come to my attention today that we are rapidly nearing the 200 comment mark on the latest Narnia post. (It only took a GRRM discussion and me posting at least 10% of those comments to get there, too!)

I couldn't help but notice that Disqus is appending a little "Load More Comments" at the bottom of the screen now.


And now I'm torn. I like having all the comments on the same page because it's SO much easier to search the content that way. But on the other hand, I'm guessing that the 150+ comment threads probably don't load super fast for everyone and might not be what everyone else wants.

What are the thoughts on the board towards paginating the threads? If I did implement pagination, it'd be a large number of posts per page -- probably 50 posts or more.

Obvious drawbacks are that searching comments becomes harder and since there's no way to adjust the "current comments" widget to take you to the last page in a thread, you'll always end up on page 1 with the sidebar widget. Obscure possible drawbacks is that Disqus may take longer to load 4 smaller pages of comments than to just load the 1 big page and let you have at it.

Talk it out in the comments if you have an opinion. If everyone is pretty equally divided, I'll probably just leave things as they are -- I've learned not to muck with things if they're not broken.

30 comments:

A Lurker said...

<delurk>
Please don't page the threads. I really, really like having a single thread - the delay isn't bad at all compared to the bother of having to page through things.
</delurk>

Brin Bellway said...

Please don't page the threads. I really, really like having a single thread - the delay isn't bad at all compared to the bother of having to page through things.

Pretty much. The annoyance of Disqus pagination is the main reason why I don't read Slacktivist comments much.

(Though I'm not sure if the "Load More Comments" is really any better, especially if it starts happening a lot.)

depizan said...

I suspect with Disqus, we're probably better off not paging - even in computing power. Even if we do occasionally end up with "Load More Comments."

chris the cynic said...

I'm not sure that there's a good thing to do. A lot of comments is a problem you want to have, of course, but I don't think there's anything that works all that well.

For the moment I think "load more comments" is better than pages, but if it gets to the point where you have to hit it several times then I think it would probably be better to have pages since then you can go straight to the last page if that's what you're interested in.

I thread at Slacktivist had 16 pages, I'd rather be able to get to the most recent comments by clicking once to get the the 16th page than have to "load more comments" 15 times.

Ana Mardoll said...

I prefer the one-page solution myself, so if everyone else is happy, I'm happy to leave well enough alone. :)

If we ever get to the point where we have 1,000 comment threads, Disqus allows up to 250 comments per page, so we could look into pagination at that point. Just let me know how ya'll are doing. :)

automaticdoor said...

No pagination yet!! Not until we get to, like, 1,000 comment threads as you just said. It makes it so difficult to find comments when you have no idea what fracking page they're on.

Amaryllis said...

I don't really mind either way, although it's mildly annoying that "last comment" no longer takes you to the last comment. But the "load more" feature works quickly, for me at least.

However...I thought of yet another thing to say on the giant thread, and it wasn't even directly related to GRRM and all his works, but "load more" didn't load all. It stopped at a post of my own from several hours ago, and the discussion since then, that I could see earlier this evening, has disappeared.

Did Disqus lose a page or something? Are you experimenting, or is something broken?

Ana Mardoll said...

I haven't changed anything intentionally. The Load More was working for me in Firefox. What browser are you using? I can see if I have the same problem. I've got most of them -- well, except Safari, I suppose.

Amaryllis said...

Never mind, they're back!

I guess it was just my network being weird again, which it does from time to time.

Sow what was I going to say...?

Brin Bellway said...

Never mind, they're back!

I guess it was just my network being weird again, which it does from time to time.


Not just you. I had the same problem, also now fixed.

Nina said...

I, too, prefer comments all on one page instead of pagination, for pretty much all the reasons above.

Amaryllis said...

And now Slacktivist is doing the same thing. Let's blame it all on Disqus. Which has its moods.

chris the cynic said...

Yeah, I was going to post something I thought, "I wonder if anyone has said this already," I figured that before I checked I should refresh in case someone had said something since I loaded the page (for it had been left open for a time) at that point all of the comments disappeared. Refresh, refresh, refresh. 0 comments. I think this is where I'm supposed to raise my fist to the sky and shout, "Disqussssss!" or something like that.

Silver Adept said...

I'd prefer one page to many pages myself, so that I can see the flow of the narrative. Once in multiple pages, I tend to respond to what's on the page, not the interesting post two pages back that I wanted to.

Gelliebean said...

I cast my vote in with the "no pagination" crowd.... :-) For me, it's easier to follow along, to look back to see what other people are responding to, and to keep track of what the last post I read was. If you do decide to go with paged comments, larger numbers (50-100) on each page are definitely preferable.

Kit Whitfield said...

i like single page, esp w disqus.

also, brava on popular n sociable blog!

Pthalo said...

*casts vote for single page for as long as possible*


*really hates discus*

JenL said...

I'd prefer paginating to "load more comments", but then again I'm really new here.
Just found your Twilight deconstruction - from slactivist, of course ;-) - and then the Narnia deconstruction...

Brin Bellway said...

Oh dear. Now the Narnia thread has two Load More Comments. I guess Disqus will only load 100 comments at a time. Maybe pagination would be better after all: for the moment, 250/page is only one page, and would (hopefully) get rid of all the button-pressing (or most of the button-pressing, if we get big enough threads).

Ana Mardoll said...

also, brava on popular n sociable blog!

Thank you! This is a source of constant astonishment to me, I confess.

Now the Narnia thread has two Load More Comments. I guess Disqus will only load 100 comments at a time.

I was afraid of that. :(
I don't even know if the "Load More" works on mobile phones, too, since the disqus links are touchy.

Ana Mardoll said...

OK, reporting back. The "paginate 250 comments" DOES seem to load all the Narnia comments for me on the Narnia page. Everyone go look and report back here, if you're interested. :)

Now we need to decide whether or not to keep the "paginate 250 comments" or to stay to "one page" but with a "Load More Comments" button every 100 pages. (I can't seem to turn that off, unfortunately.)

Also, I'm temporarily disabled the Google Ads, because I think that was slowing the page load down a bit, too. We'll see if that helps.

Brin Bellway said...

The "paginate 250 comments" DOES seem to load all the Narnia comments for me on the Narnia page.

Me too. Yay!

chris the cynic said...

One page for me, which came as a surprise because I went there first expecting to have to hit load more comments twice.

Smilodon said...

This seems like the most on-topic place to post this ...
I've been lurking for a bit now (you all seem really nice, I just like lurking is all) for a bit now, but I've had to mostly give up lurking since I only have internet on my phone and when my computer comes to school. Which is a shame. I still read all the posts, but I can't see the comments.
I know there must be a good way to load comments on a Droid, but I can't figure it out ... if someone could help me to lurk more, it would be awesome :)

Ana Mardoll said...

Lurker! Grab-and-hug! :P

Do you have the Opera browser on your phone? I use that, and it seems to see the disqus comments fine. It can't *post* that way, though. I have to use the disqus app for that.

Smilodon said...

There are different browsers? (I feel like Pippen "It comes in pints?") But now that I try, comments seem to load in Opera. And lurking is worth learning a new set of browser shortcuts!

Oh, and also hugs.

Ana Mardoll said...

Heh. Easily my favorite line in that movie. :D

I do like the Opera browser because when you tap to zoom in, it reflows the comments so that you don't have to drag the screen left-and-right to read. And the launcher with the 9 favorites is nice, too.

Dolphin and Firefox probably work, too, but I like Opera best for mobile viewing because I'm used to it. :)

Samantha C said...

I have no particular opinion on pages vs not, I'm just amazed it's gotten that huge XD I ducked out of the GRRM discussion early and I guess it was a good idea if it got that heated

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

Post a Comment