calendar link

[ratcreature]

Title:
calendar link

Area:
calendar

Summary:
I would like it better if the calendar link always took you to the current year, or the latest real-time year with posts (i.e. year = or < current year), rather than the most future year that may have a lonely sticky post rather than a progression of posts.

Description:
I usually go to the calendar to browse further backwards in the recent year than the recent entries go or to browse past subjects by month to look for a posts in a journal, i.e. to see a progression of posts. To land on a page with a calendar for 2017 or 2020 with a single entry in a single month is inconvenient, because I need to click to get to an actual year that has happened, and you see the sticky posts in the recent entries view anyway.

Therefore I'd like it if the default for the calendar was to always take me to the current year in the calendar first, as if there were no future dated posts, and only show the future posts if I explicitly click on the future year in the calendar. If there are no posts in the current year, I'd like to get to the most recent past year with entries, e.g. if someone has last posted in 2008, and has a sticky post for 2020, I'd like to be taken to the 2008 calendar.

Poll #2024 calendar link

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 35

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
25 (71.4%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
0 (0.0%)

(I have no opinion)
9 (25.7%)

(Other: please comment)
1 (2.9%)

Comments

[cheyinka]

"As if there were no future-dated posts" is problematic if someone for whatever reason is dating most of their entries in the future, and it's not even certain to work if future-dating is ignored unless there's more than one future-dated post (because some people have a "comment here to get access" plus a "here are the rules" or "here is my biography" or the like).

I don't know how common that is, though.

[ratcreature]

I don't think I've ever seen all future dates. Do RPGs do this to match the fictional timelines? I think that is rare enough that it would still make sense to default to the present year. These future dated singular posts (usually not more than 1-3 though) are quite common however, so every other time I go to a calender view I get a single month of 2017 or the like rather than the real calendar. I don't find the calendar pages the most convenient to use in the first place, though I have no clear ideas how to make it a better browsing experience overall, but this little bit would at least have me start in a better place in most journals I visit.

[kyrielle]

Might be awkard for a day or so around the new year each year, too, when it might be 2010 for you but 2011 for some....

[ratcreature]

Yeah, for a brief time it might be ambiguous what the current year is, whether that in the timezone of the poster or the reader, and if you go directly to a calendar link you might not see the most recent post. Though on the very first days of the new year I usually want to browse the old year via the calendar anyway, because I usually get to the calender through the recent entry page link instead of directly and all new year posts are still on that.

[yvi]

One thing to consider here is that imported entries automatically use the backdate option, so this might actually break some things and display incorrectly if someone only imports, but one post on Dreamwidth, say last year. The calendar would then display 2009 instead of 2010.

[triadruid]

Yes; this behavior has always bugged me. As long as the 'year selector' is there, it's much more useful to start at the present than the 'future'.

[ratcreature]

Good to hear I'm not the only one bugged by this.

[foxfirefey]

Iiii would totally like this.