Feature request: Fast-scroll to the bottom on "private messages" threads
Hey everyone.
Throughout my time of being active here, I've been using the "private messages" feature pretty extensively to chat with several Tilderiños I appreciate, when we don't share any other platform(s) to "chat" on. In every case until now, all conversations I'm in have taken part in a single messaging thread instead of creating multiple threads per topic of conversation because, yes, although technically this is misuse, conversations naturally flow from one topic to another
This has ended up causing UX issues, however: when opening a "private message" thread, you're practically greeted with a massive wall of text that you'll end up having to manually scroll through for several seconds until you reach the latest "end" of the conversation, which makes it pretty annoying for the user to have to do that every time they open the thread. Especially when you can't manage to reply when reading the message itself, but instead hours later
I know that the reason we don't have instant scrolling enabled in general on tildes is because it does not comply with tildes's philosophy - you have to first read the entire thread('s comments) before you create a new comment chain. However, I believe this philosophy does not extend naturally to private messages, as only two people will ever be viewing those threads, and there is zero incentive to read the entire message history before you reply to a private message
Therefore I'd like to suggest/discuss either of the following options:
- Private message threads (and only message threads - not public posts) should have a "fast scroll" button instantly taking you to the bottom of the page, or
- Private message threads (likewise) should always direct the user towards the latest messages & the textbox at the bottom of the page, rather than the first messages at the top of the page.
What do you all think?
I've run into this issue recently too with a super long PM chain, so think it's a good idea that is worth adding to Tildes' Gitlab. ;)
https://gitlab.com/tildes/tildes/-/issues/832
I think an even better option is to hide previous messages up to a certain amount. Reddit pm's (before chat was introduced) had it. Automatically hides all previous messages except the last received/sent, and then you just click the icon to expand it if you want to view them. Comments on posts here are the same.
Click the [-] to collapse and if it's collapsed you can click the [+] to expand (the button next to the commenters' username). So add that functionality from comments into pm's?
Added to that Gitlab issue as an alternative suggestion.
Thank you!
YVW :)
Hitting the "End" button on your keyboard does the same thing for a workaround for the moment.
Also, could likely be accomplished with a violent/grease monkey script.
Thanks, that is a good workaround for now, provided:
If you're using tildes on another device (i.e. personally I use tildes predominantly on my phone), sadly this workaround wouldn't work for multiple reasons, maybe unless you specifically went out of your way to find a way to do it.
There's likely an end key hidden behind some Fn + Key combination - but I think they're different on half my keyboards.
gasp!
:D I was thinking the same, and wondering if I should have always spoiler box'd my msg for ease of reading.
thanks for raising a request "ticket"
Oh hey!
Honestly I'd probably not use them to make conversations shorter to scroll through, personally. I find them great for "hiding" potentially negative/triggering information so it won't always slap itself on my/your face when scrolling through the chat, but I don't think it'd be worth the trouble as it just delays the inevitable and makes it harder to reference past history if need be.
with iOS you can trigger the scroll bar then long press and drag that down to quickly go to the bottom.
Question: how feasible would be it be to reverse the order of private messages, and then add a link to the bottom of the message to skip to the reply box? Or maybe a link to open a reply box on the newest message?
I proposed a similar idea in the issue
From a UX perspective, I don't like the idea of reversing the historical order, personally. It's mainly because, using a left-to-right, top-to-bottom writing system I'd expect the oldest message at the top and the newest at the bottom.
I'd prefer to be transported to the bottom of the page (or have most previous messages auto-collapsed but easily toggled back into "normal" messages with the click of a button).