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Arantor

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Number of posts per page
« on March 19th, 2012, 02:49 PM »
How many of you realised you could configure the number of posts you see in a single page?

How many of you realised that you could set one thing as an admin and users can set their own separately? And that you can even turn off the user's ability to do so?

There's two reasons I'm asking this, firstly because I think it's a setting that can safely be ditched[1] and secondly, because I don't think I can make likes be cachable without this change.

(That's probably not a big deal for most of you, but it is for me, OK? :P Specifically, when you like something, you need to be able to expire that cache, and the only viable way to do that is based on the page you're on, e.g. topic 1, page 1, which only works if it's the same size for everyone, of course)

Thoughts?
 1. If anything, I'd suggest it *should* be ditched not only because of the user interface stuff but also the fact that you can performance tune it better doing it one-setting-fits-all and upping it from the default of 15 to more like 20-25 per page, it's more posts per page but fewer pages if that makes sense.
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Norodo

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Re: Number of posts per page
« Reply #1, on March 19th, 2012, 03:01 PM »
>How many of you realised you could configure the number of posts you see in a single page?

I did.

>How many of you realised that you could set one thing as an admin and users can set their own separately?

I did.

>And that you can even turn off the user's ability to do so?

I did not.

I personally like to have 50 posts per page. I wouldn't be heartbroken if you removed this, but I don't want you to.

spoogs

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Re: Number of posts per page
« Reply #2, on March 19th, 2012, 03:05 PM »
Quote from Arantor on March 19th, 2012, 02:49 PM
How many of you realised you could configure the number of posts you see in a single page?
I did
Quote from Arantor on March 19th, 2012, 02:49 PM
How many of you realised that you could set one thing as an admin and users can set their own separately? And that you can even turn off the user's ability to do so?
I did

Doesn't matter to me really if this is change/ditched, I usually set mine to 25 but it really doesn't matter to me.
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Dragooon

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Re: Number of posts per page
« Reply #3, on March 19th, 2012, 03:10 PM »
I did not realize that such a feature existed, interesting. I do not care for this, and hence, shall be burnt to oblivion.
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and

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Antes

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Re: Number of posts per page
« Reply #5, on March 19th, 2012, 06:25 PM »
it could be better to people have more option to customize their look & feel stuff... But i don't think its %5 of the whole forum users. So i think it can became a ACP option. (even that most of forum admins will not edit it.)

Arantor

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Re: Number of posts per page
« Reply #6, on March 19th, 2012, 06:30 PM »
Quote
it could be better to people have more option to customize their look & feel stuff... But i don't think its %5 of the whole forum users. So i think it can became a ACP option. (even that most of forum admins will not edit it.)
It already IS an ACP option. Just as it already IS an option for users. I'm asking, essentially, whether it's safe to remove the user choice part or not, as it gives more control to admins and allows for optimisations that can't be done if the user has a choice.

spoogs

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Re: Number of posts per page
« Reply #7, on March 19th, 2012, 06:43 PM »
I think it's safe to ditch it as in my opinion most users would not care or may not even notice it's not an option.

Farjo

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Re: Number of posts per page
« Reply #8, on March 19th, 2012, 06:52 PM »
Oh :blush: I use this, have set it at a different number to default and I think that some of our members have set their own value too (but I'll look in the database later in the week to be sure).

So like Nordo "I wouldn't be heartbroken if you removed this, but I don't want you to." :thanks:

Arantor

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Re: Number of posts per page
« Reply #9, on March 19th, 2012, 06:59 PM »
Well, if I'm honest, I did plan to remove it anyway because it's an option that I really didn't think people knew about, let alone used, and I figured it would be better simply to have the admin-only setting which does have use, especially considering the ability to tweak performance with it.

I'm just trying to find ways to save on database queries is all, and this is certainly a big one: right now Likes will take at least one, often two, queries on thread view to make it work. The latter query is sometimes avoidable, sometimes not, but the first one is only avoidable if Likes is turned off. I was planning on caching by page (so caching likes for topic 1, page 1; topic 1, page 2 etc.) - but that's only viable if the caching can be cleared when a new like is added.

That's the thing: if I didn't do that, you could like a post, refresh it and you wouldn't see your own like for ~2 minutes because it would still be using the old cache.

Nao

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Re: Number of posts per page
« Reply #10, on March 19th, 2012, 08:32 PM »
I did know about this all. I don't use the feature myself because I think 15 posts is a good number. I tend to hardcode numbers otherwise -- I believe Noisen.com has 8 posts per page on blogs, and 15 on topics, for instance.
Less posts: good for mobile, mostly..?
More posts: good for heavy readers.

An alternative would be to retrieve posts as an endless scroll. But I, personally, don't like this kind of thing at all... I just think that, if it's going to be a potential feature in the future, it might jeopardize Like caching.

I hate asking myself that kind of crap, but... "What would Facebook do?"
:lol:

Okay, and I have to go... Again... Sorry. As I said, it'll probably take me a week to catch up with everything.

Arantor

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Re: Number of posts per page
« Reply #11, on March 19th, 2012, 08:37 PM »
Endless scroll brings its own problems, like being a PITA for search engines. I must find that rant I saw about the problems of endless scroll and why for content like ours, it's sorely out of place.

The problem for me is that I don't like cutting features that people do actually use, even if they're very occasional.

Pandos

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Re: Number of posts per page
« Reply #12, on March 19th, 2012, 09:31 PM »
Those settings should left by admin settings only.
For me a fixed number is important because of ads that would display on fixed positions.
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Nao

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Re: Number of posts per page
« Reply #13, on March 19th, 2012, 10:44 PM »
Maybe simply indicate that allowing users to override the count will prevent caching and thus make the forum more CPU intensive..?

Farjo

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Re: Number of posts per page
« Reply #14, on March 19th, 2012, 10:44 PM »
Quote from Farjo on March 19th, 2012, 06:52 PM
I think that some of our members have set their own value too (but I'll look in the database later in the week to be sure).
Just had a look and out of a thousand, 6 people have set this option.

If anyone else wants to see if thier members are setting this option the sql code I used was:
Code: [Select]
SELECT *
FROM `smf_themes`
WHERE `smf_themes`.`variable` = 'topics_per_page'
AND `smf_themes`.`value` >0
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