Add link to first entry

[hatman]

Title:
Add link to first entry

Area:
Journal navigation, entries

Summary:
Add a link to the main journal page and the individual entry pages to the journal's first entry.

Description:
Sometimes, it'd be nice to be able to open a journal and go directly to the beginning. See where it all started. Read from the beginning, in order. Great for a fiction journal or a project journal, but sometimes you want to do that with a personal journal, too.

So add a link to "First Entry" next to the "Previous 20" link on the main journal page and the "Previous Entry" link on the individual entry page.

Drawbacks:

1. Not sure how hard it would be to automate finding and marking a journal's first/earliest entry, especially since this might change with backdating.

2. First entry might be locked. You'd still want to link to it for those who have access, but you'd have to do something for those who don't. Or maybe the "you don't have permission to view this entry" page would be good enough? Though if it came with a link to the next entry, that might be better.

3. Changing navigation might be confusing. People might accidentally hit the "First Entry" link when they meant to go to the previous one.

Poll #2029 Add link to first entry

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

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
5 (19.2%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
1 (3.8%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
17 (65.4%)

(I have no opinion)
3 (11.5%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[cheyinka]

I'd be interested in seeing a link like this, but next to the links to go back a page / an entry doesn't seem like it'd be the best place - the misclicking would be annoying. At least, it should only be by the back-a-page link, whether it's in recent entries view or single day view, not the back-an-entry link.

Also, my preferred way of handling "the first entry is set private, or is locked to people who aren't the link-clicker" is "show the first visible entry". That means if someone's got only one public post, anyone who hasn't been granted access would see that one. It also means that for people who use a dated-first private entry for some purpose, but have a 'real' first entry, the 'real beginning' would get shown as appropriate.

[lanterne_rouee]

Hmm. Maybe it could be in the sidebar, under/as part of the calendar module.

[cheyinka]

That seems like it's a good place for it to go.

[hatman]

Part of the calendar module could work well. Save you a few clicks digging back through the years without cluttering up the main page.

[ratcreature]

So to which "first" entry do you want this to go? The backdated one, or the first entry that was originally made here? I mean, I have the earliest entry that I really made here (i.e. the "hi I'm on DW now too" entry), the earliest entry that was in my LJ ("hi, I have an LJ now"), and then there were backdated entries in my LJ, that I had manually imported from my earlier Greymatter blog, both of which then also got imported to DW.

[triadruid]

This. The archive calendar already exists... and you can link this from the profile or wherever you like, really.

[cheyinka]

Not the original poster, but if I were, I'd suggest it go to the one backdated the farthest back - the one I'd find with the calendar as earliest, chronologically. (I emphasize "I'd find" because if I don't have access to your really-truly-chronologically-earliest entry I shouldn't be given proof that it's there, and instead pointed to the first entry that I may see.)

[cesy]

I think this should be an option, as it's something I wouldn't generally want to see or show, and it'll add more clutter.

[ninetydegrees]

+1

[foxfirefey]

I'd feel weird about having this, to be honest, so my perspective may be skewed. I think I made my original first entry made on LJ long long ago private because it was kind of awkward inducing. And really, I feel like this is more for people looking at a journal than the person who has the journal--people who have specific entries they feel are important put them in sticky entries, or links on the link list.

But anyhow, this seems like it would clutter up navigation for something not a lot of people would use. I think I would *only* like it on the archive pages, perhaps. The main journal page is too much.

[cheyinka]

I would say - more for people who have a journal as a means either of sharing something in a series (like an ongoing story, or comics, or something) or of writing about current events, or something, than for people who have a journal as an online diary, rather than necessarily being for readers rather than writers.

If chronological order is important, you can't really make a sticky entry out of the first one, though of course I suppose a links list could be used.

[foxfirefey]

What you're describing sounds like something else entirely, and much more useful. This post wants the a link to the first post ever made in a journal, which could be fun, but doesn't necessarily correlate with something the author wants to share--even somebody writing about current events, or people doing a comic or series, might not be starting off on the first post made to the journal. Rather, they could have several *different* series they want shown chronologically. I think it would probably be far more useful to be able to show everything in a given tag in chronological order (instead of the default reverse chronological).

[cheyinka]

Yes, someone who does a comic or writes a fiction series might not have started everything with the first entry, but those are what came to mind for content-producers finding this as useful as content-consumers.

I could definitely see the use of an option to show everything in a tag in chronological order, but I could also see a use for "Sometimes, it'd be nice to be able to open a journal and go directly to the beginning. See where it all started. Read from the beginning, in order," and it seems a lot less difficult to go "Show me the first entry that I have permission to see" rather than "Show me all entries in this journal in chronological order". I really was trying to give uses for the original suggestion in my comment!

[hatman]

I was (as mentioned in the original post) partly thinking of fiction journals and such, yes. Being able to read the story/comic/whatever in order. Don't see how the above comment is so different from that. Did I express myself so poorly? Or am I missing something?

But, in any case... yes, I was thinking that it would also be nice to read tagged entries in chronological order.

Hadn't thought of someone not wanting to share their oldest entry. But then, they could do just what you did... access-lock it.

But... *shrug* Doesn't seem to be a popular suggestion. And, as others mentioned, it is possible to do it via the calendar... you just sometimes have to do a bit of digging to go back that far.

[trinity_clare]

I don't think this would work for enough journals to be worth something as a feature. The calendar feature can get you to the first entry in three clicks (calendar-->year-->day) anyway. I think the benefit of having it on fic or project journals is outweighed by the number of people who probably wouldn't want it on their personal journals.