We bring you...more!

[Jason Dunn]

Astute readers would have noticed that the RhinoSkin case review yesterday used something new - the "more" function. Uber-php guru Chris Edwards whipped up a little custom phpBB mod for us that allows us to truncate posts on the opening page. We add a special symbol, and everything after that symbol is cut off on the opening page but is there on the sub-page.<br /><br />The net result I'm hoping for is reduced load time on the opening page, especially for those of you with Pocket PCs. Even (especially?) with offline tools like Mazingo and AvantGo, having less text &amp; graphics on the opening page will help the anemic Pocket Internet Explorer to render the pages quicker. All the content is still there on the sub-page, so it won't speed up your Mazingo sync time if you do the full channel sync (two levels deep), but it should speed up the load time (the current page is 33 KB instead of 100+ KB). The down-side to this is that if you only sync with the "lite" channel (opening page only) you may not get the whole story.<br /><br />I'm really eager to hear some feedback from you on what you think of this. Better? Worse? How can we tweak it to make it better for you? I'm anxious to have a "real" mobile version of the site, but until then, this is the best I can do with the tools I have. As a general rule we'll try to force any graphics over 15 KB onto the "sub" page, and the same for more than one or two paragraphs of text. This post is an exception because I want all the Mazingo readers to see it. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif" />

[TinMan]

Good job, I like it.


-Mike

[Jason Lee]

I am not sure if I like it or not. It is nice that the page loads faster but it takes MUCH longer to read now. Before I just read through the main page and if I was further interested I clicked on the link. Now I become frustrated when I am reading along and all of a sudden it stops mid sentence. I have to click "more" and try to find my place again.
I think I like it better the old way. Now I spend all of my time clicking "more" then the back button. I loose my place too often. No flow the the reading experiance anymore. That is one of the things I liked most about this site. Unlike other sites I got all the important info without clicking or navigating back and forth.

Just my ramblings... :)

[spg]

I like the idea, but I think you have shortend some of the posts to much. Take Ed's post from a few days back. Now on the front page it says: "ARTICLE: He shoots.... he SCORES!!!!! - "It is May of 2004, the Grizzlies are in the playoffs and Shaquille O'Neal is at the free-throw line." ... ". How are we supposed to know what that is really about? At first glance you would think it might not have anything to do with Pocket PC.

I agree with the last guy who posted too. It does load faster, but clicking on the more button for all the stories you want to read all the way through takes a long time. Anyway, just my 2 cents.

[Robert Levy]

Would it be possible to have two versions of the front page? One (the default) would have this new feature and the other would show the entire article.

[Jason Dunn]

Thanks everyone - keep the feedback coming!

But look at our posts going forward, not the older ones - we're modifying the way we write them a little to make them work better with this new system, and some of the old ones clearly don't work very well. :oops:

[Small Town Man]

I don't like it, because it does not work with "View posts since last visit".
When I start reading and then click "more" to read the full text, it will reset the "View posts since last visit".
This way I don't see all the other posts since my last visit.

[Hugh Nano]

Good idea, but I much prefer having everything on one page. Easier than always having to click on those [more...] links.

[BevHoward]

Pro.

It makes a huge difference with a slow connection and seems to work and flow well... possibly because I normally don't post with a ppc but wait for a pc keyboard for that.

Thanks... tis appreciated.

Beverly Howard

[Rob Alexander]

I see what you're trying to do, but the load time never bothered me in the first place and it was a pleasure to have it on one screen so you could just scroll down and read the thoughts. Then you only had to click something to follow up the ones you were more interested in.

Now you can't just hit the scroll button to read the thoughts; you have to have your stylus in hand the entire time clicking backward and forward. Before it was easy to read and now it's work. I know you've put a lot of work into it, and that's always appreciated, but I'm not sure this one was an improvement.

[NewKreation]

__________ :cry: __________

This is my absolute favorite website to view offline in the evenings when I get home. Great job!

One of the reasons I like your website is I don't have to click links to read more or see the images. Pocket PC News is one example of a similar website.

I don't know what others see while connecting online, but since I'm viewing it offline, the top of the web page appears almost instantaneously. With PIE I can start to scroll down and read while the little IE icon is floating in the corner for 15 seconds or so.

I also like reading your site like a book, not like the front page of a newspaper or EE Times.

Also, I prefer to sync the Mobile Favorites to my PPC with only the images and no links available. This saves precious space on my 32MB RAM PPC.

Now, I'll have to download others comments that I don't particularly have time to read.

When you got rid of the images, which is one reason I bought a color PPC, from Mazingo I found a workaround (I use Mobile Favorites now).

If you do decide to keep this new format, please make the older format available somehow!

I've noticed that even on my desktop, from where I'm typing this message, you've chopped off the news.

I think many others may feel the same way.

To end on a happy note, keep up the good work. I really appreciate the time and effort you have put into what I consider the #1 PPC website hands down!

[Graham]

I'd vote for the longer version of items on the front page, and maybe an earlier time cutoff if it's necessary to reduce the file size. I read PocketPCThoughts everyday thru avantgo or the website, but don't find the download of the page to be onerously long. Graham

[bbarker]

I much prefer the old way. When reading online the more links make me click too much. When reading offline I can't get the more links unless I download the full version. And the full version includes the forums that don't work well with PIE (unless you've changed them recently).

So I have to either download the full version and get all the forum stuff I can't see in PIE, or I download the lite version and miss part of each main article. Neither of those choices works well for me.

Please return to the way you did it before. Thanks.

[Jason Dunn]

So, I'm seeing trend here... :-)

The problem is that when we want to publish long entries, there's a limit to how much should be on the opening page. It's a bandwidth thing for everyone - a 200 KB page that has 10 KB added to it forces a 210 KB download for everyone...

But keep the feedback coming.

[TinMan]

I said I liked the new format, in part, due to the reduction in those long-winded, ahem, "thorough" front-page items :wink:. Seriously, since I'm obviously in the minority on this, perhaps it can be implemented -- if at all -- on long entries only. If I am interested in the entry, I'll read the whole thing. If not, I don't have to scroll past it for x number of days. 8)


-Mike

[bbarker]

TinMan makes a good point. Maybe you should use the "more" feature exclusively for an occasional, very long piece.

[Don't Panic!]

Would it be possible to modify the "lite" version so you can click on more but not get the forums?

Don't Panic!
Bobby

[MyPaq]

don't like it at all... sorry.
I think it's really hard to read forum messages/threads due to the bad format.
To me, the information is the most important part - not how it looks.

I really love your site thou... keep it plain.