Sometimes I try to catch up on Recent Comments, but it seems as though the only way to do it is one page at a time. To make matters slightly worse, the link for the Next page going pastwards is at the bottom of the page, but the page loads at the top, so I have to scroll down for each page.
Hmm… I don’t know about recent comments, I just go to the posts I’m following. Hit control+F and then type (or copy/paste) “load more comments” and go through and hit each one. Then erase it and type the current date or yesterday’s date in the formate “date month” (18 June) and it will highlight all of those comments (if you use youtube a lot, you might already use this method on the “see all comments” page except you have to type “hour” or “minute” instead of an exact time which is actually more convenient.) When you’re done checking all of the new comments you can erase that and put in “continue this thread” (is that right, I forgot what it is exactly.)
Use the RSS feed that appears on the recent comments page. I use reader.google.com to read my RSS feeds. This will allow you to scroll back in bulk using just the scrollbar then read at leisure. It also shows comments as ‘read’ or ‘unread’ based on where you are up to.
The only measure I know of that might make it more efficient to catch up on recent comments is for you to go to your preferences page, and where it says “Display 50 comments by default,” change the “50″ to some larger number. I have been using “200” on a very slow (33.6 K bits/sec) connection.
Are there periods in your life when you read or at least skim every comment made on Less Wrong? The reason I ask is that I am a computer programmer, and every now and then I imagine ways of making the software behind Less Wrong easier to use. To do that effectively, I need to know things about how people use Less Wrong.
As much trn functionality as it seems to be worth coding—in particular, the ability to default to only seeing unread comments (or at least a Recent Comments for posts as well as for the whole site) while reading comments to a post while having easy access to old comments. the ability to default to not seeing chosen threads and sub-threads, and tree navigation.
If you want to find out how people generally use the site, I think a top level post asking about it is the only way to get the questions noticed. If you post it, I’ll upvote it.
And in the absence of such a feature, my current compromise is to not look at a post until people have mostly stopped commenting on it, so that I can read the comments with threading and without redundancy. This is not very conducive to conversations, and as such I have mostly stopped commenting since adopting this strategy.
I also find this problem annoying and would like to see more recent comments on a page. I usually read through every comment on recent comments when I come to LW.
Thanks. I’ve got it set at 500 comments, but I don’t think it actually shows 500-- and in any case, I think it’s just for comment threads, not for recent comments.
It’s akrasia, but yeah, I’ve been using Recent Comments to read or at least skim everything.
I don’t even have clear ideas of the right questions to ask about how people use LW, but a survey would be interesting.
I’ve got it set at 500 comments, but I don’t think it actually shows 500-- and in any case, I think it’s just for comment threads, not for recent comments.
I never noticed that before, but you are right: all the /comments/ pages I have asked for have 100 comments on them regardless of how I try to change that. (I tried setting the number in prefs to a smaller value, logging out and in again, following a “Next” link.)
(Oddly, although it will show me a page with 100 comments on it if I click it, the URL in the “Next” link bottom of a /comments/ page contains the string “count=50″.)
Sometimes I try to catch up on Recent Comments, but it seems as though the only way to do it is one page at a time. To make matters slightly worse, the link for the Next page going pastwards is at the bottom of the page, but the page loads at the top, so I have to scroll down for each page.
Is there any more efficient way to do it?
Hmm… I don’t know about recent comments, I just go to the posts I’m following. Hit control+F and then type (or copy/paste) “load more comments” and go through and hit each one. Then erase it and type the current date or yesterday’s date in the formate “date month” (18 June) and it will highlight all of those comments (if you use youtube a lot, you might already use this method on the “see all comments” page except you have to type “hour” or “minute” instead of an exact time which is actually more convenient.) When you’re done checking all of the new comments you can erase that and put in “continue this thread” (is that right, I forgot what it is exactly.)
Hope that helps.
Use the RSS feed that appears on the recent comments page. I use reader.google.com to read my RSS feeds. This will allow you to scroll back in bulk using just the scrollbar then read at leisure. It also shows comments as ‘read’ or ‘unread’ based on where you are up to.
The only measure I know of that might make it more efficient to catch up on recent comments is for you to go to your preferences page, and where it says “Display 50 comments by default,” change the “50″ to some larger number. I have been using “200” on a very slow (33.6 K bits/sec) connection.
Are there periods in your life when you read or at least skim every comment made on Less Wrong? The reason I ask is that I am a computer programmer, and every now and then I imagine ways of making the software behind Less Wrong easier to use. To do that effectively, I need to know things about how people use Less Wrong.
Here’s my wishlist:
As much trn functionality as it seems to be worth coding—in particular, the ability to default to only seeing unread comments (or at least a Recent Comments for posts as well as for the whole site) while reading comments to a post while having easy access to old comments. the ability to default to not seeing chosen threads and sub-threads, and tree navigation.
If you want to find out how people generally use the site, I think a top level post asking about it is the only way to get the questions noticed. If you post it, I’ll upvote it.
Seconded.
And in the absence of such a feature, my current compromise is to not look at a post until people have mostly stopped commenting on it, so that I can read the comments with threading and without redundancy. This is not very conducive to conversations, and as such I have mostly stopped commenting since adopting this strategy.
I also find this problem annoying and would like to see more recent comments on a page. I usually read through every comment on recent comments when I come to LW.
Thanks. I’ve got it set at 500 comments, but I don’t think it actually shows 500-- and in any case, I think it’s just for comment threads, not for recent comments.
It’s akrasia, but yeah, I’ve been using Recent Comments to read or at least skim everything.
I don’t even have clear ideas of the right questions to ask about how people use LW, but a survey would be interesting.
I never noticed that before, but you are right: all the /comments/ pages I have asked for have 100 comments on them regardless of how I try to change that. (I tried setting the number in prefs to a smaller value, logging out and in again, following a “Next” link.)
(Oddly, although it will show me a page with 100 comments on it if I click it, the URL in the “Next” link bottom of a /comments/ page contains the string “count=50″.)