Add Additional Navigational Links to Inbox and Pages

[ivorygates]

Title:
Add Additional Navigational Links to Inbox and Pages

Area:
Styles?

Summary:
Add additional instances of action and navigation links to the top of pages -- and the Inbox -- where these items only appear at the bottom.

Description:
At the moment, the navigational/action links: "Reply | Add to reading list | Mark as Spam" exist only at the end of the new comment/PM which appears in your Inbox. If the original comment/PM is very long, or [in the case of a PM] contains several previous PM exchanges, you have to scroll down a very large number of screens to get at these links, which is frustrating when all you want to do is "Reply" to a brief new comment at the top of the thread [or navigate elsewhere in the journal].

In journals, the nav buttons for things like "Go Earlier" and "Go To Top" [which you might want to use before you reach the bottom of the page, if there are a lot of entries], are only available at the bottom of the journal. Adding instances of them at the top as well would make it easier to Get Places, especially if you (a) have mobility issues which make scrolling difficult (b) have visual issues which make "scroll down to the bottom as fast as lightning" problematic. And zippy scrolling doesn't address the specific navigational problem of the Inbox, since if you zip to the bottom of your screen, you might blow right past the links at the bottom of the specific message that you're looking for.

Poll #764

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 26

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
9 (34.6%)

Should be implemented with changes.
16 (61.5%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
0 (0.0%)

(Other: please comment)
1 (3.8%)

Comments

[ninetydegrees]

+1 for 'Go Earlier' being available at the top but not for the other ones. I don't like it when there are links everywhere.

[cheyinka]

I don't have any opinion on the journals part, since it seems like that's an individual-style issue (at least, I had to go look at your journal to figure out what you meant), but I like the idea of the inbox-item links being at the top as well as the bottom. :)

[zvi]

It would be nice if there could be some sort of minimal text threshold to trigger the action links before and after on inbox entries. I don't need two sets of "mark as read" links on my notifications that someone has voted in a poll, for instance.

As for the style issue, that's a per-style issue, and I can't tell if ivorygates has a system style or not. I mean, it looks like it might be tabula rasa, but I'm not sure. In any case, there are go back links of the desired sort in Transmogrified and Negatives already.

[cesy]

It would be nice if there could be some sort of minimal text threshold to trigger the action links before and after on inbox entries. I don't need two sets of "mark as read" links on my notifications that someone has voted in a poll, for instance.

+1

[instantramen]

+1 to the inbox part.

[archangelbeth]

Yes, definitely prefer the minimal text threshold thing.

[(Anonymous)]

The inbox thing, yes, definitely (I use a script to achieve this on LJ already). The other part sounds like a styles issue, and it can surely be achieved without forcing this on all styles.

[turlough]

+1

[melannen]

Yeah, the go earlier/go later links in journals are an individual style setting. I really, really wish they *could* be forced to standard places on all styles, because they're sometimes #$^%#& impossible to find. But since they're customizable, I think the best you can do is make sure your style works for you and use the convenient style=mine link judiciously.

And I do currently dislike the way those links work in the inbox; you get the del/freeze/mem icons just kind of randomly stuck at the side, and the text links at the bottom, and flag/checkmark/collapse way up at the other side. It's annoying enough for *me* to find the one I want to use, I can only image for people who have extra accessibility needs.

Collapse icon

[susanreads]

I hadn't realised that was "collapse"! I'm sure that's not the direction the collapse caret points in other software ... have now collapsed some things and my inbox is easier to navigate.

I agree that the del/freeze/mem icons are in a silly place. It looks as if they're at the same height they'd be if they were under the set with the flag; I'd prefer it if they were on that side, or next to the text links.

[ciaan]

I agree with adding it at the bottom of long inbox messages but not short ones.

I think that on the journal front page or customized entry pages that sounds like something to be solved by editing your style. On an individual entry page in site default, though, the memory button and next entry link and so on could be duplicated at the bottom of the page as well as the top.

Request for newer/older link text

[msilverstar]

Gmail uses "newer" and "older" as the text, which is much clearer than anything else I have ever used.

I can never remember if "previous" is older or newer, it could go either way and frequently does.