Hide and reveal entries on Reading page

[green_grrl]

Title:
Hide and reveal entries on Reading page

Area:
Reading page

Summary:
The little triangles on the Inbox page that allow you to collapse or reveal the full text of what's in each entry? Add that function to the Reading page. Ensure that "collapse" or "reveal" persists in later views.

Description:
Subscribing to someone's journal is a mixed bag. You did it because she's an amazing writer. Maybe he always collects the most interesting links. Maybe you're good friends from back when, although you have different hobbies now. So there are many posts by your Circle member you want to read. Unfortunately s/he also posts a gazillion memes uncut, lengthy descriptions of fights with little sister, and/or highly intelligent thoughts about a fandom you've never even heard of and don't care about.

Multiply by entire Reading Circle, and there are numerous posts to skim past quickly to get to the ones you want to read.

If people were perfect about their tagging, it might be possible to just get notified of the entries you want to read. But they're not. Even if they were perfect about it, sometimes it's just one of their tags you'd want to exclude. And sometimes you might be less pressed for time and willing to take a chance on that long essay about the fandom you never heard of.

I love those little triangles in the Inbox. I want them on my Reading page--to be able to quickly skim my Reading page and collapse the entries I'm not interested in down to just poster and title. Then I would be able to go through the entries I really want to read at leisure, and not worry about missing one tucked between two I'm skipping past quickly.

As I skip back entries, or as I re-log in, I would like the collapsed entries to stay collapsed.

Poll #932 Hide and reveal entries on Reading page

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 59

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
25 (42.4%)

Should be implemented with changes.
16 (27.1%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
9 (15.3%)

(I have no opinion)
7 (11.9%)

(Other: please comment)
2 (3.4%)

Comments

[distractionary]

I really like this idea.

[cesy]

Javascript to be able to collapse as well as expand might be useful, but remembering which entries to collapse would be a huge thing, technically, and is not worth the bother, IMO.

[yvi]

It sounds shiny, but the technical work behind that is giving me the shivers. Still thinking about how to vote :)

[montanaharper]

I'm not against this, per se, but I honestly don't see the point. Collapsing and expanding comment threads, yes, but on one's reading list? Not so much. It doesn't strike me as being that much effort to just scroll past entries that aren't of interest, as opposed to the (admittedly minimal) additional effort of an extra click to collapse them and then scroll past.

Am I missing something?

[azurelunatic]

There's not much physical effort, unless one has hand mobility problems. There's a certain psychological effort to scrolling past text without reading it, at least for me -- there are all these WORDS and ordinarily I would be reading them, but I already know I don't want to, and/or I know that if I do read it, I won't be happy.

When I'm scrolling to skim and skip, I'm always a little anxious that I'll scroll too fast and miss something important from a different entry.

From a design psychology level, I'm wary of any argument against a feature that says "It isn't that hard to X, why don't you just..."

[green_grrl]

People on my list tend to have very busy entries--changed fonts/sizes/colors, big photos, scrolling glitter text, long, long paragraphs. If I can grasp in a second that I'm not interested in that entry and collapse it, then it reduces the visual distraction, lessens the amount I have to scroll, and lets me focus on the simple, one-line cut entry underneath that I am interested in. And after I have scrolled down and up the page again, I can find that simple, one-line cut entry again easily.

[montanaharper]

From a design psychology level, I'm wary of any argument against a feature that says "It isn't that hard to X, why don't you just..."

Okay, let's clarify that, then. Currently, to get past an entry on one's reading list that one wishes to skip, one scrolls past it. With the new suggestion implemented, one would click to minimize the entry and then scroll past it. So the suggestion wouldn't streamline an existing action, but would, in fact, complicate an existing action.

What I'm asking is: What is the benefit of complicating the existing action, and is it enough of a benefit to justify the amount of code required to implement it? Your answer seems to be that it would fulfill a psychological need for you (or ease something that's otherwise difficult on a non-physical level). Since both of the issues you mentioned are non-issues for me, I'm going to retain my previous position of neutrality toward the suggestion.

(Additional question: How, if at all, would implementing this suggestion impact current and future styles? Would it be style-independent?)

[montanaharper]

Where would you suggest putting the arrow, then? Because if it's like the inbox then you'd have to scroll up past the whole entry to get to it and minimize the entry anyway...unless you're reading your list differently than I am, which is always a possibility. *g*

[zvi]

I'm concerned about javascript making the page slower or more difficult to render. It's not that big a deal if I'm on a foreign computer and can't get to my inbox, because it chokes on javascript, but I would be v. upset if it happened with my reading page. Also, would this be restricted to the reading page or also apply to the network page? What about other accounts' reading pages?

[zvi]

You can control large image display by setting image placeholders at http://www.dreamwidth.org/manage/settings/?cat=display

[yvi]

Hmm, requiring JavaScript for the Reading page is a bad thing, in my opinion.

[havocthecat]

I'm very, very fond of turning off the animation in my web browser. I'm sure people have worked very hard on those animated icons/mood themes/embedded pictures, but they're distracting, annoying, and they exacerbate the headaches I get all too often.

It would also be nice to collapse those people on my reading list who post fanfic in fandoms I don't read behind a cut tag, but forget that their author's notes, which are also extra long, should maybe go behind a cut tag as well. If I'm not going to read your story, I don't want to hear about your authorial process either.

It's allergy season. My eyes are itchy and my sinuses are throbby. Possibly this is making me extra-cranky about annoying reading list entries.

changes

[susanreads]

I was going to vote "as is", but then I read the comments about how difficult it is technically and requiring Javascript. But I really want to be able to collapse reading page entries, for the reasons given in the OP, and because feeds show the whole entry (whether there was a cut in the original or not) and I want to go to the original site (where the comments are) to read them.

How about:
• have a collapse button at both top and bottom, so you don't have to scroll past whichever direction you're reading in ... or a "top of entry" button at the bottom and a collapse button there
• don't remember the setting, because it sounds as if that's the database-heavy part
• if someone doesn't have Javascript, the button(s) just won't do anything.
Is that possible?

[allen]

I've never really done much with styles, but couldn't you get all of this functionality except for the persistent collapse through S2? (Assuming that the style were trusted and could use JavaScript, that is.) Or is the persistence a key feature?

[ciaan]

I think 1 click and 2 lines of scrolling is less work than 500 lines of scrolling.

Also, I turn all images off on my reading page, but if someone hasn't done that, and is suddenly presented with a NSFW image not behind a cut and wants it to go away quickly, this would be useful.

[kate_nepveu]

If I were using this, the persistence would be a key feature. I tend to close & reopen my reading page dozens of times in a day.

I like the idea but not at the expense of addressing other, simpler problems that are keeping me from moving my posting here.

[montanaharper]

I think 1 click and 2 lines of scrolling is less work than 500 lines of scrolling.

Depends on where the arrow is placed. If it's aligned with the top of the entry (like in the inbox) and your reading list is most recent posts at the top (like mine is), then you have to scroll up 500 lines to click the arrow anyway.

The NSFW image situation, though, is a very good point.

Re: changes

[cesy]

That sounds like it would be a lot easier from a technical point of view.

[distractionary]

Would it be possible to add code by each entry that wasn't just an arrow (like in the inbox) but was somehow explained to be "collapse this entry" – that would reload the page with the entry collapsed?

I really don't know any of the technical details, and I don't know how Javascript works, so I don't know if it's any different or easier for slower connections to reload the page instead of loading the entire page with Javascript from the start. And it could be a problem if your reading page had new entries on it between when it was originally loaded and when it was refreshed.

Another question: with the Javascript version described as above, would it be easier and less intensive (in terms of load and coding effort both) to remember the setting while the session is active and forget it when that window or tab is closed?

[7rin]

I'm lost. Why "up 500 lines"? Or do you read it reverse order (I tried it, but couldn't do it)?

ETA: Personally, I'm all for this idea. In fact, I think it's one of the best ideas I've seen in ages.

[7rin]

"And after I have scrolled down and up the page again, I can find that simple, one-line cut entry again easily."

This is what sells it for me.

ETA: Since it'd mean I didn't need to have ten thousand tabs waiting open until I get around to reading them all.

Re: changes

[7rin]

*goes to change vote to "with changes"*

[7rin]

I vote for "remember the setting while the session is active and forget it when that window ... is closed."

Re: changes

[kyrielle]

I like this.

Would the persistence be difficult if it were in a cookie, I wonder? that wouldn't work across browsers, of course, and I think it might present "OMG how much data in cookies?" issues, but...figured I'd throw it out as a thought.

[scemo]

I would just about marry Dreamwidth if this was implemented. It'd make the reading list so much more interactive, y'know?

(Though it'd all be a lot less useful to me if the reading list doesn't remember which entries have been collapsed... the entire idea, to me, is that when I go back to my rpage, I don't see the entries I've already read/don't plan to read.)