Comment pagination links

[triadruid]

Title:
Comment pagination links

Area:
entry navigation

Summary:
Maintain use of the #comments anchor when paging through entries with numerous comments.

Description:
DW has already implemented a feature (at least in some styles) where if you click to read comments on an entry, you are jumped to a #comments anchor. Paging forward or backward within an entry should also jump to that link; this avoids having to scroll down through the entry, which you have presumably already read.

'Link', as always, should take you to the top of the page.

Poll #896 Comment pagination links

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

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
17 (65.4%)

Should be implemented with changes.
2 (7.7%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
0 (0.0%)

(I have no opinion)
6 (23.1%)

(Other: please comment)
1 (3.8%)

Comments

[afuna]

Hmm, it should already be doing this, at least in the system styles. Do you have links to where it behaves otherwise?

[kyrielle]

After reading your comment, I went to a news post (mid-week surprise feature rollout) with a lot of comments and just started poking around. And as I clicked on the 1-2-3-4 links in whatever order, it jumped around wildly. At first it appeared the first page was comments-fill-page, second a little lower, third a little lower, fourth almost off the screen, but as I continued to move between the pages, any one of them might appear with the comment page links box at the very top to almost-the-bottom of my screen....

IE 7, Vista.

So then I pulled up Chrome (still Vista) and returned to the same entry. It handled it ALMOST perfectly. I thought at first it was perfect, but every so often it would load one of the pages with the last sentence of the post showing. Not a big deal, just very faintly quirky.

So I pulled up Firefox. It handled it perfectly. Every so often it would load the page so everything from "Well, I think that's it" (just below the ellipsis) was on the page, but it would then immediately snap down an instant later (before I could do anything) and be correct.

[afuna]

Whoa.

I can't say what's up with that! Hmm, maybe try this: is there a difference between

http://dw-news.dreamwidth.org/9628.html?page=2#Comments

and

http://dw-news.dreamwidth.org/9628.html?page=2#comments

?

[kyrielle]

Nope. I stuck to IE this time and the first one loaded with comments at the top of the page as you'd expect. Back, clicked the first one again. Top of page. Back, clicked it again. 3/4 of the way down the page. Oops!

Second one started out at the exact same position the first one ended at, but then reverted to top.

If I shift-click so that they open in a new window, they consistently open at the top of the post (comments nowhere to be seen). That's the only behavior that seems to be consistent in IE.

I think you've been IE-ified....

[afuna]

I think you've been IE-ified....

Oh, oy: so true, so painful. I think I need an icon of that...

[kyrielle]

Or maybe one that just says "IE." and then gradually fade in an A plus a line so it says "AIE!"?

[yvi]

Oh, IE...

[alchemise]

I don't know if this helps, but that second link always works correctly and goes right to the comments. The first link does this little hop about half the time, where it starts to load partway through the entry and then hops down to the comments.

Firefox 3.0.12 on OSX 10.4.11

[kyrielle]

*flails* Now that I'm paying attention to this, suddenly it bugs me where before it was just life. LOL. But it also gets worse (odder) every time I see it.

Latest: in Chrome, I followed the link http://dreamscapes.dreamwidth.org/4111.html#comments from the dreamscapes page. I ended up with the comment at http://dreamscapes.dreamwidth.org/4111.html?thread=36623#ljcmt36623 neatly positioned at the top of my screen.

...that's not the top comment. And not IE, either. (I'd retest with Firefox, but I've got a lot of programs open, and it appears to be a poorly-performing dog; I only haul it out when I need its stability/standards focus and to heck with the system load, which isn't very often.)

[7rin]

In Google Chrome (dunno what version 'cause it's waiting to update): Link #1 went to http://dw-news.dreamwidth.org/9628.html?thread=1154460#ljcmt1154460 the first time, and http://dw-news.dreamwidth.org/9628.html?thread=1153692#ljcmt1153692 the second time (second being comment above the first), and second link worked in exactly the same way.

I'm wondering if this is to do with the user pic's opening as the page is loading, and so 'bumping' to different levels dependant upon the pic's already saved in the cache?

[afuna]

Hm, maybe. So it loads to the correct position at first, and then ends up shifting down/up?

[7rin]

Heh. I now have no idea at all, 'cause both links opened where I'd expect them to this time (at the top of the "Page 2 of 2" box).

[mordyn4]

Chrome's using WebKit and yeah, sometimes Safari does this properly, and sometimes not. I'd assumed it was because of the layout style. I would have to collect more data to be sure when it does and doesn't work.

[triadruid]

It doesn't work reliably for me on dw_news posts, in Firefox 3.5.

[afuna]

Hm, and is this with #comments at the end of the URL?

And does it work reliably if you use a custom comment page with style=mine? (checking to see whether the problem is specifically with the talkread page, or what).

[triadruid]

Weird. The other day it was not even appending #comments reliably when navigating dw_news (which is why I assumed it wasn't enabled for comment navigation), today I can't make it produce a link that doesn't have it.

And I never use style=mine, so that probably wasn't it. I'll let you know if I come across it again...

[msilverstar]

That would be great -- we can still Page Up to see the body of the post, but don't have to scroll and scroll, or drag and guess.

[turlough]

Huh? This already happens for me. (Firefox 3.5.1 on a Mac.)