Truncate long quote histories

[GarlicFound]

I keep meaning to ask for this! I use the quote history feature a lot - but it gets ridiculous after 10 quotes. Apart from the extremely long scrolling required, the earlier quotes reduce in width until there's just one letter per column, which makes them unreadable anyway.

Could you limit the full quotes to five or six? You could still put the username, date and time of preceding quotes so that over-invested pedants (me) can find them as needed.

Screenshot attached.

Hi @GarlicFound - thanks for asking about this. We're aware of this issue and it's something we're working on as we can see that multiple quoted posts rapidly become unreadable.

We can't give you a timeline at this stage, but a fix for this is definitely in the pipeline.

Thanks, @JoMumsnet. I look forward to it!

Agree. Quoting has become ridiculously cumbersome.

Limit quotes quoted to the most recent 3 or 4 preceding the one being quoted, and put links to the preceding ones in the chain.

I would add not quoting the whole post if it is long, but just the first 100-150 words, and include a link to the full post.

Hey @GarlicFound and @Aparecium,

We’re looking at ways to improve quoting on Mumsnet and would really value your thoughts.

If you’ve got a couple of minutes, please take our quick survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TVN5BVG

Your feedback will help shape how conversations work on the site- thank you!

Oh, they're much better! Thanks!

I put in my responses that my ideal preference would be B (quotes revealed one at a time) but with the option to close them all at once.

Survey done.

My impression was that with option B closing any quote closed all the quotes beneath it. So that would be the option to close them all at once.

I forgot to my comment about the length of quotes at the end of the survey:

Can quotes only ever show the first 100-150 words of the post being quoted, with a ‘full quote’ to press to see the rest? It’s particularly annoying when there’s a massive OP and a poster quotes it un-necessarily.

Hi both,

First of all, apologies for the delay in coming back to this, and thank you for taking the time to complete our survey and share your thoughts on quotes. We really do appreciate the feedback.

We've been looking into this off the back of what you've told us. We agree that the formatting of posts with multiple quotes needs improving, as it can be difficult to follow at the moment. Working out the best way to address it is a little more complex than it might seem at first glance.

We're actively exploring possible solutions and we'll update here as soon as we have any news to share.

Thanks again for your feedback and for your patience while we work through it.

Thanks, Amelia.

I agree with the OP, and also this. The original post on a thread folds up and only shows the first paragraph or so when it's quoted, so I wish that could be done with all quotes (that are over, say, 175 words/1000 characters.)

What pisses me in particular is when someone puts a big post on - 500 words/3000 words or so, and someone quotes it IMMEDIATELY after the post.

Dude, the post is right there! The post above yours, from 63 seconds ago, WHY are you re-quoting it? Especially if it's bloody long?

Hi all,

We're still working on a fix for quote formatting, so thanks for bearing with us.

We've just released a change on web that should help make threads more scannable. Long posts will now be collapsed by default (including long posts within quotes), with a 'See more'/'See less' option to expand and collapse them.

Let us know if you have any thoughts or feedback. We'll post here again as soon as we have an update on the formatting issues.

Thanks for your patience!

I’m sorry I don’t like that. I am forever clicking “see more” because I like to read whole posts. It was much easier before.

You've set the line limit far too short!

Hi @DixonD & @myladydisdainisyetliving,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, and sorry that you're finding it annoying. We agree that the cut-off point is too short currently, so we've just rolled this back while we increase the cut-off point. Meaning that you won't need to expand them as often.

We've also made an improvement to the way quotes are displayed. When there are lots of nested quotes within a post, they should no longer be pushed off the screen on mobile and should be much easier to read.

Thanks for your patience!

@AmeliaPMumsnet Could we have an opt out then?

It really disturbs the flow, and not good for people with disabilities.

@ickky Thanks for sharing your thoughts. We're looking into adding an opt out.

We'll post again here when we have an update.

It’s a no from me too. A strong one,

Good to hear about the quotes!

Hi all,

Thank you again for all your feedback on the truncation feature released last week.

We've just released it again with a change based directly on the feedback we received last week. The original cut-off point was too short, so we’ve increased it. This means posts will need to be considerably longer before they’re collapsed.

Long quoted sections will continue to be collapsed, as we hope this will make lengthy posts in quotes easier to scan and read. They can still be expanded and collapsed using ‘See more’ and ‘See less’.

We hope this change is less intrusive while keeping the benefit for particularly long posts and quotes. Please let us know how you find it.

It's still annoying & interrupts the flow of reading a thread. Why not make it a setting that people can opt in to if they really want it?

Hi all,

Sorry for the delay in responding here, and thanks for bearing with us. We do appreciate the feedback.

We're working on adding a setting that will allow you to turn off truncated posts. This isn't an instant change, but it's something we're aiming to add as soon as possible. We'll update this thread as soon as we have any news.

Thanks again for your patience in the meantime.

I agree the feature disturbs the flow of threads. You could always turn off the new feature until the ability to engage or disengage it individually is available.

Why not do that?

Hi all,

Thanks again for all the feedback you've shared over the past couple of days. We completely understand that this change isn't everyone's cup of tea, and we appreciate everyone who's taken the time to tell us what they think.

We've been reading through all of your comments, and we've decided to switch truncated posts off again while we review everything properly.

As with any new feature, it's clear that people use the site in different ways, and what's helpful for some isn't for others. That's why we're looking into adding a setting that will let you turn truncated posts off if you prefer to see everything expanded by default, rather than taking a one size fits all approach.

Thanks again for bearing with us while we work through this. We'll update this thread as soon as we have more news.

Hi all,

Thank you again for all the feedback you shared about truncated posts. We switched the feature off while we reviewed what you told us and made some changes.

We heard loud and clear that collapsing ordinary posts was too disruptive. It interrupted the flow of threads, meant repeatedly clicking or tapping to read posts, and made the site harder to use for some people. At the same time, many of you told us that collapsing lengthy posts within quotes can be helpful.

With that in mind, we've changed the feature so that only long posts within quotes are truncated. This change is now live on the site.

Thanks again for taking the time to explain what wasn't working, and for bearing with us while we made these changes.