Infinite scroll

[Simkie]

Maybe this will help @CrazyGuineaPigLady

@Simkie

How do I navigate within a thread?

There are two tools to make thread navigation easy:

The thread slider tool is found to the right of the thread text:

Breaking down the elements of the thread slider tool:

To quickly navigate within the thread, drag the navigation slider up or down. You will see the current post number and current post date change to reflect where you are in the thread.

Below the thread slider tool, there is a reply button, and a button to change your notification preferences for this thread.

The second tool for thread navigation is the first post footer. It is found at the bottom of the first post:

To go directly to the last post, click “Last Reply”:

To see who has posted on this thread, click the down arrow to the right to expand:

To filter the thread and view ONLY posts by a specific user, click on their avatar and the “filter” button:

[JB]

@CrazyGuineaPigLady

I’m finally seeing and remembering to use the green slider, but don’t understand what you mean by any of that. Looking at your post, I don’t see anything about Nov. 11. From the OP, I don’t see a timestamp that takes me back to the bottom.

Every post shows the time of the last reply to the thread. Click that to get to the bottom

Clicking Infinite Scroll at the top, which is the title/subject of this thread, will take you to the top. You can also grab the slide bar and fast-scroll it up or down to get to the top or bottom

[CrazyGuineaPigLady]

@Simkie

Maybe this will help

@JB

Every post shows the time of the last reply to the thread. Click that to get to the bottom

OK. I knew to hit the thread title but was confused by a “date” that was nowhere to be found at the bottom of the page.

[Simkie]

@CrazyGuineaPigLady

OK. I knew to hit the thread title but was confused by a “date” that was nowhere to be found at the bottom of the page.

Are you on desktop or mobile?

[CrazyGuineaPigLady]

Desktop but I have tried my phone, also.

[Moderator_1]

@CrazyGuineaPigLady

From the OP, I don’t see a timestamp that takes me back to the bottom.

When you’re at the OP, you actually have two ways of getting to the end of the thread. In that gray bar at the bottom of the OP, you can click on “last reply” and it will take you there. Or, you can click on the time of the last post (“3m ago” in this screenshot), which is at the bottom of the green bar on the right side of the page.

Before you even open the thread, you can also choose to go straight to the last post if you’d like to. You can click on the number in the last column that show the most recent activity on the thread (6m in the screenshot below). You can also click on the number in the replies column and that’ll give you a pop-up to choose whether you want to open the thread and go to the first post or the last post.

[Jealoushe]

@Moderator_1

Before you even open the thread, you can also choose to go straight to the last post if you’d like to. You can click on the number in the last column that show the most recent activity on the thread (7m in the screenshot below). You can also click on the number in the replies column and that’ll give you a pop-up to choose whether you want to open the thread and go to the first post or the last post.

I can’t find the 7m you mention in the screenshot?

[CrazyGuineaPigLady]

I think it threw me off when you mentioned the date of the OP for this thread because that’s what I was looking for while reading your post. Otherwise, I’ve managed to get around okay, except for the green slider being a little too light for my old eyes.

[Moderator_1]

Whoops! That’s because it was 6m when I took the screenshot.

[Moderator_1]

@CrazyGuineaPigLady

I think it threw me off when you mentioned the date of the OP for this thread because that’s what I was looking for while reading your post. Otherwise, I’ve managed to get around okay, except for the green slider being a little too light for my old eyes.

I agree with the slider needing to be much more prominent. I’ve had that on the request list since beta testing. I’ll reinforce with them that it’s a priority.

[Jealoushe]

@Moderator_1

Whoops! That’s because it was 6m when I took the screenshot.

ok I just thought I was really slow thank you!

[Janet]

@Horse_Rider

Maybe I’m just imagining things, because the category order is different from before, but it seemed like at one point the category order was different between the two times I entered the new format, so it feels hodge podged.

There are two different places the categories/forums are listed.

In the “3 line hamburger” next to your Avatar (at the top of the whole page), they are listed in the order of the most new posts. So that is likely to change each time you look at it.

Near the top of the thread itself, there is a menu link (the one near the top of this thred says “Technical Help” with an arrow/triangle). When you click on that, the forums seems to stay inthe same order.

[Moderator_1]

@Janet Thanks for bringing that up. I just made a change to increase the number of categories visible via the hamburger menu, so you should now see up to 20 there. Those are listed based on your personal patterns of use on the site.

We made the home page category list static. We’d changed the order around a bit from the old site to make more popular, universal categories higher on the list, but we’ve just been discussing on the big input thread about changing that back to the old way.

I think I may start a separate topic on that to see what people would like the order to be.

[Alterration]

All of these solutions are great, but they are missing a key aspect of how I used to read threads. I love going back and reading older threads that I may have missed because I was busy, but I don’t always have time to page through all 900 pages (or whatever) per thread. Usually I read the first post, then skip to somewhere near the middle, then about 3/4 of the way through so that I can follow where the conversation has gone. With infinite scroll, you have to digest the whole thing at once, and if you have an errant finger click, scroll, or back button you have no way of getting back to where you were.

I’m not sure if there’s a solution on the new platform for this way of reading, and maybe it’s not a common use case, but it’s making it hard to catch up on stuff that’s happened while I’ve been away.

[JB]

@Alterration use the green slide bar to the right. You know which post you’re on, out of how many total posts

[Moderator_1]

@Alterration

All of these solutions are great, but they are missing a key aspect of how I used to read threads. I love going back and reading older threads that I may have missed because I was busy, but I don’t always have time to page through all 900 pages (or whatever) per thread. Usually I read the first post, then skip to somewhere near the middle, then about 3/4 of the way through so that I can follow where the conversation has gone. With infinite scroll, you have to digest the whole thing at once, and if you have an errant finger click, scroll, or back button you have no way of getting back to where you were.

In addition to what @JB explained, the site also automatically remembers where you left off reading a thread, and the next time you open it, it’ll take you to the post where you left off. If you scroll back up within a thread, and want to return to where you left off reading, you can also click the “Back” button that appears on the green timeline to take you there.

Does that help?

[Alterration]

Does that work cross device? I frequently start a thread on my laptop and then go to my phone. I’ll try the back button

[Simkie]

@Alterration

Does that work cross device? I frequently start a thread on my laptop and then go to my phone. I’ll try the back button

Yep!

You can even bookmark your place, if you want, and that’s stored in your profile.

There’s also a “summarize thread” button in the first post footer of long threads. Or you can filter by poster–like see only the OPs posts on a long train wreck.

This board has waaaaaay more tools to consume content the way you’re talking about!

[CrazyGuineaPigLady]

Yes. I only found out by accident that the very narrow, very light green part allows you to jump up and down the thread with a single click. It took me a while to figure out that was intentional and get back to where I wanted to be.

[Bluey]

@Alterration

Does that work cross device? I frequently start a thread on my laptop and then go to my phone. I’ll try the back button

It does with my iPhone and laptop.

As long as this program knows is you, your settings are the same every place you click from, I think.