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Abbreviate quoted text - helpful or annoying extra click?
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Asked by Architecht,

Abbreviate long quoted text?  

38 members have voted

  1. 1. Should we install a plugin to hide more than X lines of quoted text?

    • Install it and limit it to 15 lines
      5
    • Install it and limit it to 10 lines
      8
    • Install it and limit it to 5 lines
      9
    • Don't install it. If someone quotes something, no matter how long, I always want to be able to read it all without having to click "more"
      16

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Architecht

Architecht

Posted
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Posted

Abbreviate quoted text - helpful or annoying extra click?

I saw this plugin today that seemed like a potentially good idea.

What is does it hide anything more than X lines of quoted text under a "more" link that can be clicked to display the rest by the reader.

Most quoted text is reasonably sized, so this plugin wouldn't affect it, as we'd choose to always display several lines by default (exact number to be determined). But in cases where someone quotes 40 lines of text, some of it would be hidden.

 

Forum_View.png.5651c8410c1ef7ed6ff47a08f

 

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kav

kav

Posted
Posted

What the hell-sure.  It'll be great defense against wall of texters.  You only gotta see the wall once.

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Get Marwood & I

Get Marwood & I

Posted
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9 minutes ago, Architecht said:

According to that screen shot above, yes.

Got ya, sorry, I didn't get that straight away. Good idea in my view

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Get Marwood & I

Get Marwood & I

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, Foley said:

Who's Martin and why is his member "advanced?"

It certainly knocks Seasoned Veteran into a cocked hat. 

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lizards2

lizards2

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, Marwood & I said:
7 hours ago, Foley said:

Who's Martin and why is his member "advanced?"

It certainly knocks Seasoned Veteran into a cocked hat. 

Are you back now?

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VintageComics

VintageComics

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 2017-05-15 at 4:27 PM, Architecht said:

Abbreviate quoted text - helpful or annoying extra click?

I saw this plugin today that seemed like a potentially good idea.

What is does it hide anything more than X lines of quoted text under a "more" link that can be clicked to display the rest by the reader.

Most quoted text is reasonably sized, so this plugin wouldn't affect it, as we'd choose to always display several lines by default (exact number to be determined). But in cases where someone quotes 40 lines of text, some of it would be hidden.

 

Forum_View.png.5651c8410c1ef7ed6ff47a08f

 

I haven't voted yet but my personal opinion after spending months on the new site is that it still takes great efforts to read smoothly compared to the old site.

The new site is less compact (vertically) and causes a lot of scrolling (some of the little stuff like the "Like" and "Submit Reply" buttons and bars still take up too much space relative to the actual text I want to read.

Having said that, one of the features that also makes this site so less intuitive and smooth is all the additional clicking you have to do to get somewhere where one click used to be enough.

For example, If I want to add a graemlin I have to click on the graemlin tab and then scroll through several pages worth to find what I want.

Messages? I have to click on the envelope and THEN "Go To Inbox" to find messages that are past the top 4 in my inbox.

I think adding an extra click (stop scrolling, click and see if you're interested) in a thread you are interested in reading anyway is much more annoying than just scrolling past something you don't want (a natural motion on a phone).

The lack of quotes within quotes already cleans up the site considerably from that standpoint. That was very annoying when unnecessary stuff kept getting quoted over and over.

There's already too much extra clicking going on in this new format IMO so I'd be against adding the plug in.

 

Edited by VintageComics
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jcjames

jcjames

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, VintageComics said:

.

.

.

I think adding an extra click (stop scrolling, click and see if you're interested) in a thread you are interested in reading anyway is much more annoying than just scrolling past something you don't want (a natural motion on a phone).

The lack of quotes within quotes already cleans up the site considerably from that standpoint. That was very annoying when unnecessary stuff kept getting quoted over and over.

There's already too much extra clicking going on in this new format IMO so I'd be against adding the plug in.

 

Agreed.

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Architecht

Architecht

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Posted
1 hour ago, VintageComics said:

For example, If I want to add a graemlin I have to click on the graemlin tab and then scroll through several pages worth to find what I want.

Sometimes. But the top of the emoticon pop up is everything you've used recently. Also, try the search. It's handy. Also, try the categories. They're handy.

1 hour ago, VintageComics said:

Messages? I have to click on the envelope and THEN "Go To Inbox" to find messages that are past the top 4 in my inbox.

That pop up is scrollable. It shows the first 25 messages in your inbox. And from that pop up, if you click on the black dot, it goes right to the unread messages in that thread.

1 hour ago, VintageComics said:

I think adding an extra click (stop scrolling, click and see if you're interested) in a thread you are interested in reading anyway is much more annoying than just scrolling past something you don't want (a natural motion on a phone).

The lack of quotes within quotes already cleans up the site considerably from that standpoint. That was very annoying when unnecessary stuff kept getting quoted over and over.

There's already too much extra clicking going on in this new format IMO so I'd be against adding the plug in.

Well, we'll see how the vote turns out. If it's close, maybe we'll install it, let it run for two or three weeks, and then run another poll to see whether to remove it, or adjust the # of lines after people have had experience with it.

I think in most cases, what will happen is:

  1. Most quotes will fall below the line limit, and will just show up.
  2. Sometimes someone will quote something really long without breaking it up, but when you see the first 5 lines, you will remember what was quoted, you'll know what they are replying to, and you won't need to expand it.

I think the number of times you'll want to expand will be pretty limited. But we'll see.

emoticon-search-cgc.png

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Get Marwood & I

Get Marwood & I

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, jcjames said:
1 hour ago, VintageComics said:

.

.

.

I think adding an extra click (stop scrolling, click and see if you're interested) in a thread you are interested in reading anyway is much more annoying than just scrolling past something you don't want (a natural motion on a phone).

The lack of quotes within quotes already cleans up the site considerably from that standpoint. That was very annoying when unnecessary stuff kept getting quoted over and over.

There's already too much extra clicking going on in this new format IMO so I'd be against adding the plug in.

 

Agreed.

 

I get what you're saying there Roy. The trouble with this one is that neither option is an obvious front runner as both come with pros and cons.  My thinking was that if I read a thread from the top, I've already read any post that is subsequently quoted. So if I only see the first few lines, which show me who is being responded to, I can then read the next persons post more easily without having to scroll past the full duplicated quote. If someone started a thread with a long post, and there were 10 replies, half of which quoted the first long post, there's a lot to scroll through and dodge. So a reduction would help. Where people post, say, five pictures of their CGC books in one post, and someone quotes "cool books Barry!" it's a pain to have to see all five again. And again. And again (etc.)

On the flip, if I join a thread late, and work backwards (which I'm sure we all do?), not seeing the quotes in full could be irksome.

So it's a straight toss up between two scenarios which I'm sure for both I would find a reason to be annoyed, depending on the reading situation at the time.

On balance, I think less is more, and would prefer a less cluttered thread with less scrolling of duplication to an occasional need to expand a quote. But it's hard to know for sure without experiencing it.

I asked about the impact on pictures earlier and got a response which Kav at least thought was sarcastic. I was reading the opening post on my phone, couldn't really see the 'Martin' picture reduction example and didn't see pictures mentioned in the thread title or supporting wording.  I would guess most people will miss the chance to vote for this change as it has only been posted in Comics General. Maybe an announcement or a post in the 'Change Requests and Voting' section would extend the audience.

 

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VintageComics

VintageComics

Posted
Posted
11 minutes ago, Architecht said:

But the top of the emoticon pop up is everything you've used recently.

I can't be bothered to scroll o the bottom to search for emoticons so I've succumbed to just reusing the same old ones over and over.

12 minutes ago, Architecht said:

That pop up is scrollable. It shows the first 25 messages in your inbox. And from that pop up, if you click on the black dot, it goes right to the unread messages in that thread.

I'm still not a fan of how much narrower the new chat forum is and how much more scrolling is involved.

I've limited my use of the forum because of it. I just can't be bothered wrestling with it.

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Architecht

Architecht

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Posted (edited)

Well, we ended up with 16 for it, and 7 against (given that one of the "against" posted later wanting to change their vote), with the most votes for 5 lines among the "for its". If I count the "against it" folks as wanting more lines, because that means it would be even more rare that they would ever see the "more" link, then the magic number might be 10. We'll give that a run.

We'll try it for a while, and see how it feels. Feel free to offer clear, polite feedback. Remember, no matter how much you like / hate it, this is a consensus thing, not an individual thing.

Thanks!

 

Edited by Architecht
Changed it to 10.
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Sqeggs

Sqeggs

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Architecht said:

Well, we ended up with 16 for it, and 7 against (given that one of the "against" posted later wanting to change their vote), with the most votes for 5 lines among the "for its". If I count the "against it" folks as wanting more lines, because that means it would be even more rare that they would ever see the "more" link, then the magic number might be 10. We'll give that a run.

We'll try it for a while, and see how it feels. Feel free to offer clear, polite feedback. Remember, no matter how much you like / hate it, this is a consensus thing, not an individual thing.

Thanks!

 

I'd like to change my vote from "for it" to "against it."  I hadn't realized that scans will be covered up and have to be clicked on to be revealed.  That's not desirable, imo.

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