Poll - number of posts per page

The number of posts displayed per page of a thread is not user configurable - nor is it likely to be made so at this point.

However, we can change the setting globally - by default it is set to display 20 posts per page.

While the site is still young and we don't have many inbound links which might be broken by changing this setting, I am prepared to increase this if the majority of users want it. Once I change it, I most likely will not change it again in the future.

Some factors to consider when deciding on an appropriate setting:

• more scrolling - too many posts leads to lots of scrolling to get to the newest content which is displayed at the bottom of the page
• slower performance - more posts per page will hurt performance somewhat as the system needs to retrieve and render more data from the database
• slower page loads - your computer or phone will need to download more data before being able to view the page

 

Well, I voted 50 before reading your facts... now I'm not so sure...

I don't scroll to the newest content, but click on "new posts".

Slower performance sounds bad and slower page loads sounds bad too. If that is the trade-off, then maybe current settings is better.

Would slower page loads with 50 per page mean my phone bill might reach the monthly limit on the internet usage portion sooner than having 20 per page?

 

I think overall the total amount of data used would not increase that much - to view a new thread with 50 new posts, you would have to load three smaller pages versus one large page if we increased it to 50.

However, if you frequently read new threads with only a single new post in them, you'd be downloading the other 1-49 posts just to view the one post - so there is the potential for overall data usage to increase somewhat in that scenario.

That being said - text doesn't use much data - it's graphics and photos that would make the big difference (but they might also be cached by the browser, which helps avoid downloading the same photos twice).

 

I should point out that the server performance and page load aspects that I mentioned are not going to be that noticeable for the majority of users - the servers should be able to handle the extra load and we'd see maybe a couple of milliseconds extra time taken to retrieve the data.

The only people who would notice the slower page loads due to more data being downloaded are those on very slow links (eg mobile phone in poor coverage area or someone on really bad broadband).

 

This is probably the downside for me of having more than 20 per page. I read the forum when I'm on my lunch break when I work and when I'm filling in time when out, so on the mobile I cannot "grab" the scroll bar and drag it up quickly. I have to scroll up and it takes a lot longer on a phone.

 

Try using your 4G phone inside a building - quite often speeds are worse than what you'd get from a 56k modem.

You do know that clicking on the thread title jumps you to the first unread post, no matter what page it is on - right?

 

When it comes to posts per page, it is a global setting for all users.