Online Community - Comments, Improvements and Feedback

Sorry to moan again, but I simply cannot cope with thread streams as they are currently posted.  I see a new posting and my natural impulse is to go to the end of the stream to see the last comment... only to find that it isn't there, but has been posted in response to someone else's comment, and is therefore nested away.  So, I have to then go through all the 'Load more' sub-headings until I find the appropriate post.  This is bad enough on a short thread, but on one which has had, say, 30 replies?  Forget it.

Is there any way that a recently-posted comment can be seen at a single click, without having to go through (possibly) loads of nested replies?

Sorry to moan again, but I simply cannot cope with thread streams as they are currently posted.  I see a new posting and my natural impulse is to go to the end of the stream to see the last comment... only to find that it isn't there, but has been posted in response to someone else's comment, and is therefore nested away.  So, I have to then go through all the 'Load more' sub-headings until I find the appropriate post.  This is bad enough on a short thread, but on one which has had, say, 30 replies?  Forget it.

Is there any way that a recently-posted comment can be seen at a single click, without having to go through (possibly) loads of nested replies?

I'd also been finding it difficult to find the new posts in an old thread. In a list of threads, if I hover over the title of the thread, the status bar shows a link to the main post which may be months old, so that's no use as you then have to scroll through and expand everything looking for what's new. On the other hand, there are times (like '2 hours ago') listed on the main community page and those show an anchor '#' that takes you to the latest post in the thread. Good. However, if there have been several posts you haven't read in different parts of the thread, you may miss some of these (this is the drawback of a threaded view). A feature to highlight new posts since your last visit would be useful.

Then there is the list of notifications that you get by going to the lightning icon and going to view all.  Here again you have links to the top post, and have to click outside the links in the body of the notification to see the newest post. But instead of an anchor, this is done in Javascript. (I appreciate not having too many scripts on a page, and generally only allow scripts for trusted sites.) One drawback of this is that I can't right-click and open the link in a new tab. It would be far better to have the notification be a link with an anchor as from the main page. These are pretty minor modifications to help usability, not a request for a major change.

I doubt the mods will ever see this, as it's hidden in a sub-thread that's 5 months old.

When I click 'View online' in an e-mail notification I am taken straight to the posting so that may be a short-term fix for you.

I agree that the presentation of posts is a mess and it needs sorting; all this 'Load Previous' and 'Load Next' really annoys me and there are times when I just give up on threads (particularly new threads where I have not requested notifications).

To Martian Tom,

Currently in the Home Page, you must click upon that exact reply, ("Read More") and it should take you to that reply, wherever it is in any Thread. Yet so far, that is all (and before November, I am uncertain that anyone could even do *that*.)

Upon another Thread:
community.autism.org.uk/.../autistic-people-on-the-n-a-s-internet-and-how-to-use-it-2
...I am asking for "NAS" to add certain Buttons:

- Back to Top
- To End (Of Thread)

...and I pointed out that there is already also a row of buttons:

<oldest votes newest>

...which is near the start of all Threads, and so you might want to have a go at that ("newest") button... despite it, as I said, showing everything in "a sort of backwards, crazy order". This last, I do not think that NAS can do anything about, for the Internet is unpredictable. In any case, make of this Reply what you will, and a Good Evening to you... and to your Rainbow Cat/Kitten (!).

Martian Tom wrote:

'Is there any way that a recently-posted comment can be seen at a single click, without having to go through (possibly) loads of nested replies?"

Almost at a single click yes if recieving notifications ~ use the lightening bolt icon for notifications at the top of the page, click on the appropriate notification/s and bypass all the nested concertina disorderly accordion from Autistic and Aspergian hell on a website stuff.