Important Bug report: story pages problem

I don't know if this has been reported yet or even if this is the right place to report it but here goes.

The original timeline story page breaks when you select 'All' from the 'number of items' pulldown. After you select that you only get a blank page if you (try to) go to the original timeline page. Even closing my browser tab and going to the page from a fresh tab doesn't help. This probably applies to all story pages but only Original Timeline has enough stories for the problem to show itself. At a guess, somewhere in the bowels of the site the code chokes on an overly large query return.

Kristin Darken wrote: It doesn't break for everyone. It's at least somewhat dependent on your browser/hardware limitations.

Why do you NEED to see all 400 stories listed on the same page, anyway? If I DO fix it, It's going to result in multiple 'archive' categories divided by some arbitrary value. And that will prevent 'other ' types of sorting from working.

Certainly we don't "need" all the stories listed at once. But it is convenient, especially if you're doing a search. As long as the option is available, some people are going to choose it not knowing any better, and for some of them it's going to break. Is it possible to remove "All" from the number of items list? Or if that's impossible, can a warning be added somewhere at the top of the page?



And to answer your question, Echo, yes, this issue has been reported before.

People, let me interject something.

KRISTIN DOES THIS AS AN UNPAID VOLUNTEER. The goal is not to have the fanciest, most perfect web site in the known universe (which no two people could agree on what would MAKE it perfect!), but to make something that's functional (if not perfect). Anything Kristin does to the site detracts from her spare time and her writing time. And we do NOT want her to burn out doing site mods to the point that she has no time to write.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...

In response to my previous post -

I'm not accusing anyone of being nasty to Kristin. I'm trying to point out that everyone needs to stop and consider the impact of 'nice-to-haves' vs. true 'brokes'. Sometimes, we all take things for granted; people (not saying it's you or Echo) tend to be harshest on things they (surprisingly) don't pay for. Maybe I'm being overly defensive of my fellow cabal-member, but there have been too many who've left Whateley, and I really don't want to see more. especially given how key Kristin is right now to running this whole show.

Yes, there might be a small fix. But what is it going to take to apply and re-apply and re-apply the fix when there's a software upgrade? What happens if the base software changes and the fix now becomes a larger 'broke' later? The fewer customizations that have to be done, the easier it is to maintain the site. And yes, I work with software (in the milllions of lines of code range) daily and have for over 2 decades, so I know of what I speak.

I'm not trying to start a fight. I'm just trying to remind folks to be judicious in 'bug reporting' that sometimes tends to become 'feature creep'. Is it really a bug? or is it a "nice to have"? Is there a slightly less convenient workaround? If so, please rethink calling it a bug.

If anyone took my reply as an attack, it is most assuredly not. Seeing the volume of conversations - several of which repeat - makes me get a little protective of Kristin and her time.

As the first one who reported this bug...

Let me say that I think this particular bug is, in fact, an important issue. Why?

Well, because it breaks the navigation on the site. Worse, it breaks it in a way that is not obvious to revert, and until the visitor finds/is directed to the workaround, they will be totally unable to visit the stories page.

It's not an aesthetic thing, it's not just a matter of preferred way to navigate. It's something that prevents visitors to find the stories, sometimes for days. So I hope that Kristin finds something to do about it. Myself, I'm just avoiding it by remembering not to use the "all" option.

With that said...

Kristin is ALREADY AWARE of the issue, she knows what IS and ISN'T possible to do, and if there is something that's actually FEASIBLE to do, she will get around to it eventually. Nagging her to death WON'T HELP.