Make skip 20 actually skip 20

[matgb]

Title:
Make skip 20 actually skip 20

Area:
Reading page

Summary:
Wouldn't it be nice if when you clicked the 'back 20 entries' link on your reading page that's actually what it did?

Description:
When reading entries on DW, if you skip back at the end of a page, if new entries have been made then the next page you load will have some entries you've already read. This is made worse if you sub a high-traffic comm, especially one with a moderator queue (*cough*DW_Suggestions*cough*).

If enough entries have been posted while you've been reading, it's possible the top entries on your new page are new to you, then it goes to entries you've read-some people may even stop then assuming they've skipped back, etc.

It's my understanding that when the reading page is loaded, it will load however many it's been set to by user preference, but will "know" what the next entry will be at time of load.

How about making the 'skip back X entries' link at the top/bottom of the page link not to ?skip=20 but instead, say, ?start_id=XXXX where XXX is the item id of the 21st entry on the reading page (ie the next one not loaded).

This way you can backread a lot quicker, reduce server load of duplicate entries, reduce bandwidth for those of us on a mobile connection, etc.

I can imagine that some people like the current style, so it may be necessary to make an option as to how it should work, but if the number who like this current setup is small option creep should be avoided?

Regardless, I got this idea directly from my web-based Twitter client which runs as a much better web interface for my preferences (ie it works like DW/LJ reading pages with no dynamic memory hogging scripts getting in the way), http://dabr.co.uk Log in there with a Twitter ID and you can see how it works,

Poll #7886 Make skip 20 actually skip 20

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 74

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
33 (44.6%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
3 (4.1%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
23 (31.1%)

(I have no opinion)
13 (17.6%)

(Other: please comment)
2 (2.7%)

Comments

[matgb]

So currently your reminder that there's new stuff at skip=0 is that you've had duplicate content? That makes sense but it'd be a very quick habit to get into to just go back to the top afterwards (I do it on Dabr constantly).

However, I think there was a suggestion recently to give a notification for new content, perhaps if that's approved it could be in some way combined?

Regardless, you'd still see the missed entry, next time you check your page, surely?

(I am expecting a billion different "but I do it this way" responses to this one, the vast diversity of the ways we can all use the exact same interface always astounds me, normally in a good way, and it definitely makes me appreciate a good UI design a lot more)

[ratcreature]

I don't tend to run into this on my regular reading list, because I display 30 posts, and it happens very rarely that it's been so long between my visits that more than 30 new posts have come up, so I never use that skip link there. I mostly run into this when I go back through a community or tag I do not read normally to read old entries, and usually only one new thing is posted. I might not visit again.

[matgb]

Ahh, I see. Yes, that is a different use case-I'm thinking specifically of Reading page as opposed to journal pages, but it could be used there or not-I honestly don't care about that too much.

[ratcreature]

Well, as long as it would only affect my own reading page skip (and maybe the network page) but not the regular page skips elsewhere I wouldn't mind.