"Display crosspost link" should be retroactive

[squirrelitude]

Title:
"Display crosspost link" should be retroactive

Area:
Crossposting

Summary:
When "Display Crosspost Link" in Account Settings > Other Sites is checked or unchecked, it should retroactively affect all of a user's existing Dreamwidth entries.

Description:
Motivation: I only recently discovered that this option existed, and was enabled on my account. I disabled it because my DW journal is a public identity and it crossposts to a non-public LJ identity. I'd really rather not have that link show up on old entries, but I don't know how to remove it!

Expected behavior was that changing the setting would change the old entries.

Note: Editing an old DW post does not seem to change the link's existence.

Poll #12913 "Display crosspost link" should be retroactive

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 50

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
7 (14.0%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
15 (30.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
5 (10.0%)

(I have no opinion)
19 (38.0%)

(Other: please comment)
4 (8.0%)

Comments

[swaldman]

I think it would make intuitive sense if this did change old entries. I'm not sure how much of a massive PITA it would be to accomplish, though...

[ninetydegrees]

Admins, isn't there a bug for this already?

[denise]

if there is, i couldn't find it on a quick search, or i wouldn't have let the suggestion through...

[ninetydegrees]

Sorry for phrasing it like that. It was pretty stupid of me. This is what it reminded me of:

http://bugs.dwscoalition.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4239
http://bugs.dwscoalition.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3574
http://bugs.dwscoalition.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3138

Not exactly the same thing originally but ultimately the same effect?

[montuos]

Bugs 4239 ("I propose there to be an option to disable displaying them. Maybe a question when deleting a crossposting account setting from the linked page or when you disable it for new entries you get the option to also remove them from old entries.") and 3138 ("When a crossposting account is deleted, the links on the DW entries remain and there is no way for the user to remove them.") sure sound to me like they've got this suggestion covered, yeah. 3574 is just a bonus. ;>

[kerravonsen]

I would be happy with this if it also worked the other way around: that if one enabled the crosspost link, it would update old entries so that they showed the link.

On the other hand, it could be a PITA to automatically update lots of old entries. Though that would be a problem with either version of this feature.

[montuos]

+1

[aedifica]

My "with changes" is "only if there's an option to keep current behavior". I'm thinking something like:

[checkbox] Display Crosspost Link
[checkbox] Change on existing entries?

[kyrielle]

I was going to vote "shouldn't be implemented" as I absolutely wouldn't want mine removed - but went "with changes" for this one. I'm not sure a pair of checkboxes is right, but some part of the workflow so when you uncheck (or check?) the crosspost link, you can modify existing entries, I could live with. I wouldn't use it, but as long as I could dodge it affecting me. :)

[dancing_serpent]

+ 1

[fujicori]

+1

I think I support this more in the end, but I just keep going back and forth between "sudden change to default behaviour" and "adding more options" in terms of Things Which Might Be a Problem.

[kaberett]

+1

[cesy]

+1

[montuos]

+1, although I personally would rather see it as a question spawned by changing the Display Crosspost Link setting.

[sapphoatsunset]

+1

[runpunkrun]

+1

[randomling]

I think I like this idea! It occurs to me that option fatigue and confusingness might be a concern here, though, so maybe a discussion about sensible default behaviour and what options would be useful might be productive?

[deborah]

yes, this. I worry about option fatigue, but I actually have a lot of old dreamwidth entries that point to a LiveJournal identity which has been vanished and reclaimed by somebody else. Actually I think by a spammer. So it would be really nice to get rid of them.

On the other hand, I do think it would be a PITA to accomplish, with a certain amount of server drain. Huh.

[dragonfly]

+1 My old crosspost link is to an IJ identity more closely aligned with my RL name than I like. I just kind of whistle in the wind and hope no one searches that far back. /o\

[turlough]

+1

[msilverstar]

This is way too important to put into a little checkbox where all most options apply to future posts. The side-effects could be pretty ugly, if someone guessed wrong about what that means.

Mass-editing past posts seems useful, including setting the crosspost link, but it should be separate.

[susanreads]

There should be a way to get rid of old links, but I don't think this is the best way. I think implementing the bugs ninetydegrees linked to would be better.

[sapphoatsunset]

It should be a choice. You might not want it to affect everything.

Well...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Since some people would want to change all posts retroactively, and some would want to change only future posts, there should be an option for both of those so they can do what they need.