Forum suggestion - direct link to multiple last pages of topic

[Erik Leppen]

I had an idea. I don't know if it's possible, but I'd like to throw it out there so people in charge can think about it.

When a topic has, say, 30 pages, in the topic list it has buttons behind the topic title like so: Topic title [1] [2] [3] [4] ... [30].

But I'm much more likely to need pages 27, 28, 29 than pages 2, 3, 4. After all, I read the first few pages when the topic had 4 pages, and page 4 of a 30-page topic rarely contains anything of particular interest. Page 29 however, is recent, so may contain posts I haven't read before. After all, the topic may have 30 pages, but it may have had 29 last time I visited, and I'd like to pick up reading from there.

Currently, there are two ways to reach page 29:

• Click page 30, see some replies to oposts I haven't read yet, and then go to the previous page from there
• Click pgae 1, and use the "go to page" function and type 29.

The first option has the disadvantage of reading replies to unread topics, throwing the chronology upside down. The second option has the disadvantage of requiring many clicks. I think it would save time and hassle if I cold go to page 29 directly, and even 28, 27 because some topics can grow very fast.

Would it be possible to implement this? Does the software support this?

And how do others see this?

[Artanis I]

If you want to skip a whole heap, then it seems a quicker option. If you want to read the entire thread from where you left off however, you can just click the link to the last unread post.

I can't say that I've seen it any other way on other websites (than 1,2,3...10) in recent years (back in the days sometimes you'd be shown a range of the first few pages, a range of the last few pages and a few either side of where you up to at the time). Surely your suggestion is far more useful, but I'd imagine it's something that our admins couldn't change, and that the board providers would have to implement it in the software.