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from the if-at-first-you-don't-succeed,-avoid-skydiving-or-making-immediate-changes-directly-to-live-systems dept.
[2020-03-21 15:06:00 UTC: Update 1:
(1) Reminder: this has so far been implemented only on our *development* server (https://dev.soylentnews.org/); it has NOT yet been rolled out to this (the production) servers.
(2) The control (now a simple text link, no longer a button) no longer defaults to taking up a whole physical line immediately above the first comment.
(3) Please note that in certain corner-cases, it is possible that screen size limitations may cause an overflow onto the next line.
(4) And the control should now appear aligned-right in the story header. =)
--martyb]
[2020-03-21 15:42:00 UTC: Update 2: Fixed typo in the first of the above two links to our dev server. --martyb]
This is a follow-up to: Changing the Site UI to Making Long Stories Easier to Navigate -- Input Requested.
Wow! Thanks for all the positive feedback to the previous story! I knew the implementation was a bit rough around the edges, so I very much appreciate the positive, constructive feedback that was provided!
Based on your input -- primarily displeasure in having a single button take up a whole physical line -- I have modified the in-memory template on our development server to now provide a textual link in the story header right after the printer icon. It should only appear when viewing the story by itself; there should be no indication of this on the main page.
To repeat, this is only on our development server so far; it is not yest implemented on our production server (i.e. what you see here).
In short, should this get rolled out to production?
- Yes.
- Yes, with these suggested changes.
- No.
Please refer to the previous story (linked above) for test scenarios and reply with any issues you may find!
teamwork++
(Score: 2) by martyb on Saturday March 21 2020, @03:38PM (2 children)
That sounds like a great idea. A deeper look "under the hood" reveals there would be a whole lot required to implement that.
New field(s) in the database. New code to write the date/time stamp of when it was first read (or even a boolean flag). New code to retrieve it. New code to determine if the section should be shown or not. New code to implement the hide/show. New code to allow override (Yes, I read it a while ago, but I want to read it again now; how to we make that option available?) How to set a preference? Never hide? Hide after first read? Always hide? Hide override>? I'll grant you the logic is not exceedingly difficult. OTOH, it is not as easy as it appears on the surface: there are many corner cases to consider, too.
What I've implemented so far was strictly in an in-memory site template (think: glorified macros). Doing the other stuff would require coding for SQL, Perl, and templates. Further it would require a rebuild and redeployment to get it "live".
For those reasons, and others, I do not foresee it being implemented any time soon.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Saturday March 21 2020, @09:33PM (1 child)
Actually, the way it is now seems just fine. When you go to the main page (currently on https://dev.soylentnews.org [soylentnews.org] ) you see the first part of TFS (assuming there's more) and you don't see the "Skip to comments" button until you actually select the story.
That gives us a chance to see if we even *want* to see the rest of the story or the comments. As such, I think it's just fine as it is.
Good work on this martyb! I take back some of the things I've said about you. :) :) :)
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by martyb on Sunday March 22 2020, @01:47PM
Thanks for noticing! By default, it would have displayed it on the main page; I had to do some extra CSS work to specifically exclude it. Especially since the target of the link ("#acomments") does not even exist on the main page! The target is created only when you actually open the story by itself.
Wit is intellect, dancing.