Downloading Entire Threads

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My preference for number of posts per page is:

Poll ended at 10 May 2014 11:31

25 (the way it's always been)
9
64%
100 (the way it is now)
4
29%
something in between
0
No votes
shorter than 25 so I don't ever have to scroll
0
No votes
make it 1000 so everything is on one page
1
7%
 
Total votes: 14

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abose
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Downloading Entire Threads

Post by abose »

Forgive me if this is explained elsewhere. Is there a way I can download or copy an entire thread of this forum when it spans multiple pages? There are a couple discussions I'd like to have available on my computer for future reference, rather than access online. How to best do this?

[Poll added by Norbert]
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Norbert Schlenker
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Re: Downloading Entire Threads

Post by Norbert Schlenker »

We're going to try something for a few days, partly to (somewhat) accommodate abose's request above, partly to see what members think of the change.

First to abose's question. There is no way with stock phpBB3 for a member to customize their view of a thread as far as number of posts per page go. The only setting we can play with is global, which means that everyone (members, guests, search engines) sees X posts per page when reading the forum. Since FWF began, X has been set to 25, a compromise between threads that had many many pages versus pages that were really really long. We still have members who read the forum on dialup connections, and we do them no favours if a downloaded page is longer. On top of that, most readers will look back only a little way from the most recent post in a thread to understand the thread's context, which favours shorter page lengths. The mobile style, which we put in place for people reading the forum on phones or tablets, favours shorter page lengths too.

Nevertheless, with almost all readers now on fast connections, and most threads relatively short, more posts per page will make little difference on computers. To accommodate abose's request, I have modified the posts per page setting from 25 to 100. Abose informs me by PM that some of the threads s/he wants to save were up to 10 pages long, i.e. 250 posts, so the new setting will cut that to two or three pages. When a thread is displayed, there is a little printer button near the top right of the page (in the default prosilver style) or a Print View link top leftish (on the old subsilver2 style) which, when pushed, generates a simpler graphics free view suitable for saving. Abose can use that to make copies of the threads s/he wants to archive offline.

For everyone else, I'd like to know whether the change from 25 to 100 posts per page is boon or bane. I'm going to add a poll to this thread in just a minute, and encourage members to vote their preferences over the next week. If none of the poll options reflect your opinion, then please reply below.
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always_learning
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Re: Downloading Entire Threads

Post by always_learning »

I voted for 25, as that makes it easy for me to only go back a little ways to pick up the recent context. For me, the clicking on a page number is easier than scrolling up. I can certainly see the trade-offs, though.

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Re: Downloading Entire Threads

Post by like_to_retire »

Norbert Schlenker wrote:For everyone else, I'd like to know whether the change from 25 to 100 posts per page is boon or bane.
Hate it.

Takes too long to scroll to the end.

25 was perfect.

ltr
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Re: Downloading Entire Threads

Post by Spudd »

LTR, you don't have to scroll to the end - instead of clicking on the thread title in the list, click on the little orange square just to the left of the title. This will bring you to the first unread post for you.
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Re: Downloading Entire Threads

Post by like_to_retire »

Spudd wrote:LTR, you don't have to scroll to the end - instead of clicking on the thread title in the list, click on the little orange square just to the left of the title. This will bring you to the first unread post for you.
Yeah, but it's so darn small I never use it cause I gotta pull down my glasses and look real close and then click. could I get any lazier.

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Re: Downloading Entire Threads

Post by Spudd »

Also, once inside a thread, you can press the "End" key on your keyboard, and it will flip you down to the end of the thread. You can then scroll up till you find the first piece of new content.
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Re: Downloading Entire Threads

Post by like_to_retire »

Spudd wrote:Also, once inside a thread, you can press the "End" key on your keyboard, and it will flip you down to the end of the thread. You can then scroll up till you find the first piece of new content.
Huh, thanks Spudd, the END key works pretty good.

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Re: Downloading Entire Threads

Post by HardWorker »

Definately fine the way it was.

For someone on a slower connection, or someone on a smartphone, it's horrible to have to hundreds of posts on a single page, specially if they contain images or videos. No need to fix what's not broken.
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Re: Downloading Entire Threads

Post by Bylo Selhi »

HardWorker wrote:someone on a smartphone
Especially on a smartphone using something like Speakout's 100MB/month plan. Can you make it 100 for full forum styles and 25 for Artodia styles?
Sedulously eschew obfuscatory hyperverbosity and prolixity.
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Norbert Schlenker
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Re: Downloading Entire Threads

Post by Norbert Schlenker »

Bylo Selhi wrote:Can you make it 100 for full forum styles and 25 for Artodia styles?
I wish. There is only one global setting. Ideally, this parameter - and topics per page in forum view - would be settable by individual members. A MOD is available to allow this but we hate moving off stock versions.

The majority in the poll are displeased with the result, and it is really painful on a phone no matter what style one uses, so I've put things back to the way they were. Thanks for being such gracious guinea pigs.
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Pickles
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Re: Downloading Entire Threads

Post by Pickles »

I vote for 25. If you're looking for a particular past post it's easier to flip back one page at a time to find it than to scroll, scroll, scroll.

On the Urban Toronto forum you have a choice of of several options in the range from 5 - 40 (default is 15). I picked 40 posts per day which makes reading a bunch of new posts in a busy thread more efficient (fewer clicks to download more) but more difficult to locate previous posts I wish to reread or quote in a new post. I can't imagine scrolling through 100, and that's using a desktop computer. I think 25 is optimal for our forum.

BTW, thank you for highlighting the button that enables printing a thread page. I never noticed it!
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Re: Downloading Entire Threads

Post by newguy »

abose wrote:Forgive me if this is explained elsewhere. Is there a way I can download or copy an entire thread of this forum when it spans multiple pages? There are a couple discussions I'd like to have available on my computer for future reference, rather than access online. How to best do this?

[Poll added by Norbert]
Search google for a script that downloads from phpbb. I'm sure there's plenty. If a few people are interested I'll make an extremely basic java program.

Actually most of the scripts I see are for downloading the whole shebang. Given the server woes of late I wouldn't recommend that.

newguy
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