make the reading page's window title change when new entries have been posted

[ratcreature]

Title:
make the reading page's window title change when new entries have been posted

Area:
reading page

Summary:
I think it would be useful if the reading page changed its title with the number of new entries posted since you last reloaded, so if three people posted since I last reloaded my window title/tab name would say "ratcreature | Reading (3)" instead of just "ratcreature | Reading".

Description:
I reload my reading page fairly often, but frequently nothing has bee posted. OTOH my GMail inbox changes its window title and thus the tab name with the number of new messages in brackets, so I can see that new mail has arrived, and the Tumblr Dashboard does something similar in that a number appears over the Dashboard link and the also title changes with the number in brackets, so I can see something new was posted, even if I'm in another tab, and then reload the page to see the new content. Also, in Firefox I can change these to application tabs, and the small tab markers change color to alert me.

I think it would be useful if the Dreamwidth reading list also changed the title of the window if new posts appeared with the number of posts since I last reloaded the page.

I don't know how this kind of thing is realized on the technical side, so I'm not sure what the drawbacks would be. Maybe if it caused more server traffic the time interval in which the status is checked needs to be larger so that it wouldn't be nearly instantaneous, but it would still help if it only checked every couple of minutes (which is about the time interval I'm rechecking my reading list manually when I'm really bored and hope someone would post something already).

Poll #7837 make the reading page's window title change when new entries have been posted

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 67

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This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
27 (40.3%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
13 (19.4%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
9 (13.4%)

(I have no opinion)
18 (26.9%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[matgb]

Has to be fully opt outable.

On my laptop, on my unlimited bandwidth home connection, as long as it's coded well, I'd be happy to see it.

When I'm roaming on metered bandwidth, or on my smartphone, it'd suck bandwidth I wouldn'[t necessarily want if the tab's open the background.

Specifically, "old" Twitter was terrible for this, I switched away from it completely when I realised it was using up more bandwidth idle in the background than all my other tabs combined, including Gmail.

Many, most, people will love it, but for some it'd be an annoying intrusion and possibly a bandwidth hog.

[allen]

Maybe have a full opt-out option for the user, plus a GET parameter that would explicitly disable the feature? That way you could choose to have your home machine go to the update-enabled page, while bookmarking the no-auto-update version on your mobile device.

[matgb]

Works for me, I'm used to adding lots of silly parameters to URLs anyway, but I think it'd need linking somewhere on the page (or navbar?) for those that don't like/understand directly amending URLs

[kyrielle]

Except then, if you're trying to have it work one way on a device and you navigate to it via an on-site link, you have to "flip" modes. If it's an option, I'd like it to be a tri-state - "Never" / "Non-Mobile Only" / "Always" - so if the site detected a mobile device, it could skip the updating.

I'd LOVE this on my computer. I wouldn't hate it on my phone (I have unlimited bandwidth), but it'd be a silly use of resources since I can't see page titles there unless I'm actively flipping between them. Especially if I wasn't even in the browser at the time but had just left the page up, although I admit that'd be more likely if my phone browser were better (since I have 50/50 odds it'll refresh the page when I go back in anyway, leaving a reading page up to track where I was is fairly pointless).

[voldsom]

Yes to this.

(I was wondering about skipping the option, so that it was automatically disabled for mobile devices, but realised I'd prefer to have the option available for normal browsers)

[cesy]

+1

[deborah]

+1

I have mixed feelings about this from an accessibility perspective. On the one hand, it's really nice to be able to glance at the tab and see if it's worth checking updates. But on the other hand, having control over my tab names, knowing that they will always stay the same, has adaptive technology implications. So I might use it, but I would be likely to turn it off.

[turlough]

+1

[chagrined]

I guess I would also be okay with it as long as it were opt-in or opt-out.

[feathertail]

Ideally, I'd think, smartphones would simply have a feature like this coded into the app for their respective platform. (I wonder how iDreamwidth is doing?)