I noticed today that we've had such a significant upsurge in posting that some threads posted to yesterday have been bumped to the second page.
How much trouble would it be to increase the number of posts that appear on the first page? It looks like it's 30 now; 40 or 45 would probably be better, if it's just a matter of changing a number somewhere.
Otherwise, it's not a big problem for me to check the previous page, but I'd like to have stuff that's within the last two days visible to everyone.
Thanks.
--M. J. Young
I agree...sometimes I disappear for as long as 6 days, and I'm tired of going back 3 pages =P
or make separate sub-fora per GM?
If it's just a matter of changing a number, why not make the front page hold 100 threads? Then you know it won't wrap the page.
a seperate sub-forum for each GM? what, and make me have to jump further to read all the threads? =P
It's sort of as if there is a happy medium. Too many and it becomes a task of hunting through all these threads; too few and they get bumped to the next page.
or make separate sub-fora per GM?
For reasons not explained to me, our Gaming Outpost hosts wish to keep the number of individual forums minimal. We have a Multiverser forum here at our insistence, because some years back when they were using a previous forum software they invited us to make Gaming Outpost the home of our Official Multiverser Forum, and having published to the world that this is where it is, we feel it important that it be identifiably present here.
If it's just a matter of changing a number, why not make the front page hold 100 threads? Then you know it won't wrap the page.
Well, I don't know if it's just a matter of changing a number, but I do know that the argument for keeping the number low is that the page loads faster and it's less burden on the database to find the most recent threads list. I suggested increasing it by 15 because half again as many wouldn't be that much of an increased burden. I had thought of doubling it, but I don't think tripling is necessary.
The first question, though, is whether it's something that can be done relatively easily, or a major undertaking. I know that some software systems allow users to select how many threads (or posts) they want to have appear on a page on an individual basis, but I don't see that in my profile (I do see lists of every thread I've started or posted to, which could be another way to get to them, but not to get to the ones you're just reading).
If changing the number is easy, then a small change works best; if it's a major undertaking then either we don't change it or we give serious thought to how many posts we want on the front page.
--M. J. Young
I've bumped the number of posts displayed to 45. If that's not enough, let me know and I can increase it to whatever works best. Changing it is just a setting in the admin area, so updating it is really easy.
And I'm happy to add additional forums and sub-forums if people want them. Just let me know what you'd like them to be.
Judging by what I'm looking at, at any rate, 45 is well beyond enough; check it out, we went from 29 pages of old threads to 19! Pretty sweet. Also, it looks like the bottom threads are all 2 - 4 days old, which should be more than enough to keep active threads to the forefront (for now, anyway).
Thanks, Aaron!
Nods, now if we can get the forum software itself looked at, the having to bump a new page twice for new posts to appear there is a waste of space.
I thought that had to do with my Opera based browser messing something up; is it an experience in threads I'm not involved in?
Yes it happens in firefox as well, which is what I use.
Thank you very much, Aaron.
Yes, somewhat erratically we have the problem that someone will post to a thread and his post will create a new page but the forum will (awkwardly) not show show that page, will put the new post box in the end of the page before it, but will show on the index page that the person who posted that "missing" post is the last poster.
If it is not the first page, the address bar includes the page number, and if you increase the page number by 1 to get to the next page it will show you the missing post; but the reply box is still on the page before.
I have that with Firefox also. I've not tried another browser, and I only see it once every couple weeks, although sometimes it may be that someone else fixes it before I get there, and of course it only happens when we've reached the bottom of a page.
I haven't bothered anyone about it because I figure it's probably an issue they're addressing for the next update.
--M. J. Young
Did anyone else notice that the pages now hold 45 posts? I thought that was kind of interesting. Is that a side-effect or what?
(Doing Therapy)
That would be a reason not to overdo the number--more posts per page means slower loading and more burden on the system. But this seems a good number presently.
--M. J. Young