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Ask HN/PG: Why are comments being paginated?

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Re: Ask HN/PG: Why are comments being paginated?

#71

Post by brianpan »

flatline wrote: post #54
redthrowaway wrote: post #16

There's a really easy fix to this: Load more comments on scroll-to-bottom. No button, no bandwidth used, but those who make it to the bottom of a thread don't have to do anything to see new comments. I agree with OP; the current system is suboptimal, to say the least.

Ugh, I hope this does not happen, I hate the scroll-to-the-bottom-and-get-more thing. Particularly if the server is under heavy load already, you never know if there is more or if so how much, and it takes the scrollbar away from your mouse pointer once it's loaded another chunk due to the relative offset.

I'm confused by your reasons. With scroll for more, you would know if there is more- the end is the end, just like with pagination. And it's no worse than pagination in the "you don't know how much more" department, either. The pagination is a "More" link, it doesn't indicate how much is on the next page.

Re: Ask HN/PG: Why are comments being paginated?

#75

Post by Encosia »

jamesbritt wrote: post #22
shawndumas wrote: post #9

Until it gets reverted (hopefully) -- AutoPagerize [1] ---- [1]: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/igiofjhpmpihnifd...

I'm curious: Why does this plug-in need access to my browsing history?

That's the priveledge that Chrome extensions require in order to inspect URLs as you load them, so they can conditionally apply themselves to the appropriate site(s). As far as I know, there isn't a more granular priveledge to allow access only to URLs as they're loaded (which an extension could still use to track your browsing habits by storing them in its localStorage).

Re: Ask HN/PG: Why are comments being paginated?

#76

Post by acqq »

pg wrote: post #72

To cut load. I'm not sure it helped much though, so I may not keep it.

How about displaying the comments "shallower": if some discussion ("a branch in the comments") goes too deep, maybe that's what doesn't have to be on the same page, as it's obviously something where a lot of arguments and counterarguments occur, and not something where the biggest insight is to be expected.

Such comment handling would however certainly motivate people to "post without the parent."

Re: Ask HN/PG: Why are comments being paginated?

#77

Post by nitrogen »

pg wrote: post #72

To cut load. I'm not sure it helped much though, so I may not keep it.

Is there some way the HN community could help with the load, or some pathological behavior that a lot of us are doing that could be replaced by behavior that's easier on the server(s)?

Re: Ask HN/PG: Why are comments being paginated?

#78

Post by danvet »

acqq wrote: post #76
pg wrote: post #72

To cut load. I'm not sure it helped much though, so I may not keep it.

How about displaying the comments "shallower": if some discussion ("a branch in the comments") goes too deep, maybe that's what doesn't have to be on the same page, as it's obviously something where a lot of arguments and counterarguments occur, and not something where the biggest insight is to be expected. Such comment handling would however certainly motivate people to "post without the parent."

I'd very much welcome that. My gut feeling is that on quite a few posts, discussion seems to stick to the first comment. I'm assuming that starts to happen as soon as this top-level comment has enough upvotes to quickly displace any new postings.

I think preventing such "sticky" threads from clobbering the first pages of comments may add some decent value to the discussion. Especially in brining in different aspects and povs, perhaps sometimes yielding a more balanced discussion.

Re: Ask HN/PG: Why are comments being paginated?

#79

Post by danvet »

alttab wrote: post #8

It would be interesting to see an auto-extend feature like Facebook does with the timeline. Keep scrolling? We will AJAX load them into the page in batches. That should do ya. No buttons necessary, full comment history the further you go, and you don't show more information than you originally ask for (just a couple of comments).

As some other commenter already noted, this breaks browser text-search. In case you want to quickly checked whether what you want to say has been said already (and upvoted that comment instead or add something as a reply).

Re: Ask HN/PG: Why are comments being paginated?

#80

Post by gscott »

zppx wrote: post #3

Let's wait for the official answer, but I also include my take. Maybe because of the community growth. When I began to hang out around here, 6 months before I created an account I believe, 40 upvotes was a huge amount for a post or a comment. Today it's common to see posts with more than 100 in the front page and comments receiving 60 or so. EDIT: The number of comments in each posts also exploded, 20 comments in a t…

Your more likely to upvote to get comments that you like higher. I typically do not upvote much but now it seems important.
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