Retain view selected on main Forum page

[Lady London]

Can the Forum remember which of the 2 main page views : Recent Topics or Category List – I last chose on the main page before I went into a topic?

Currently when Ibreturn from being in a topic to the main Forum page it always shows me the Category List (ie list of categories for topics). Whereas if I left the main page on a Recent Topics view, which I do always, I always have to re-select Recent Topics because I don’t use the other view.

If I did use the other view I’d be on flyertalk.

[dst87]

Are you clicking “Forums” at the top of the page to return there? There are a couple of other options to return directly to the list of recent topics:

1. Use the back button in your browser
2. Click “Recent Topics” at the top of the page instead

If browsing on a laptop another good option is to middle-click (or ⌘-click) each topic you’re interested in to open it in a new tab, then view all of the topics one by one in the tabs which open.

[Lady London]

dst87 back button returns to main Forum page and always defaults to Category view rather than the Recent Topics view. Even if the main Forum page had the Recent Topics view selected when it was left to click on a topic and view or do whatever, then return.

Which is why I’m pretty sure the main Forum page is built in a way that does not currently allow the View option selected on the main page (Categories or Recent Topics tab) to be saved.

Re sophisticated mouse antics, would love this but I am part of the majority, and the growing majority, that access HfP by mobile most of the time.

[Rhys]

You can bookmark the recent topics page if you like. It’s here: https://www.headforpoints.com/forums-recent-topics/

[dst87]

Lady London wrote:

dst87 back button returns to main Forum page and always defaults to Category view rather than the Recent Topics view. Even if the main Forum page had the Recent Topics view selected when it was left to click on a topic and view or do whatever, then return.

Interesting… I do not see that behaviour. If I open a thread from the home page (recent topics tab) then use the back button in my browser, the recent topics tab is still selected. Tested in Safari on iOS and macOS. 🤔

My guess is that the page is still in memory and therefore not being reloaded (reloading would switch back to the categories tab) so perhaps this varies by device.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[Lady London]

Mac and Safari on a pc is a completely different thing than Android on Samsung or anything else. O And anything iOS different again.

The default is settings on a page should be retained (and the page as built in Android should let the tab view chosen be retained). Samsung Android, and Vodafone Android, and Xiaomi Android, are all not remembering the tab choice that was last made on the main Forum page, on the back button. I believe the tab is coded as a “prism” and not programmed in a way to be remembered. I would like that choice to be built into the page in a way that it will be remembered ready for when the back button is going to be used. I expect the back button to work from where I am on the topic page I’ve chosen, which could be the last post of many screenfuls to scroll through to get back to the top. I don’t expect to have to scroll back to the top and select a hotdog then something else, or even a heading. This is not the 1990’s. I expect the back button to have enough information stored, so that it goes back to the main Forum page remembering I chose to view that as the Recent Topics version, and not the Categories of Topics version.

If the Forum is to be sticky and grab eyeballs because people participate, then I would suggest the Recent Topics view of the main Forum page should be the default version. Otherwise might as well just go to Flyertalk.

[Lady London]

This is about navigation within the Forum and “liveness”. If I have to use a bookmark I am just as likely to choose another site.

[Lyn]

I have exactly the same problem as Lady London when I use the back button in recent topics. Using Firefox on a laptop.

[Richie]

This is a much more lovelier place than Flyertalk Lady London, please stay.

[Lady London]

I suspect Tab view is just a prism and so as currently built that main forum page will always default to tab setting #1 when loaded.

If the software sounds like solving this problem would be difficult the workround would be to actually store it as 2 separate pages rather than 1 page with tab views.

I am only speculating about what this particular software may have as its limitation. But my background includes coding screens with a flaky proprietary screen handler as a novice programmer, coding IBM 36x Assembler and being a system performance specialist – luckily not on anything mobile or modern hence the speculation.

[Mikeact]

Lady London wrote:

I suspect Tab view is just a prism and so as currently built that main forum page will always default to tab setting #1 when loaded.

If the software sounds like solving this problem would be difficult the workround would be to actually store it as 2 separate pages rather than 1 page with tab views.

I am only speculating about what this particular software may have as its limitation. But my background includes coding screens with a flaky proprietary screen handler as a novice programmer, coding IBM 36x Assembler and being a system performance specialist – luckily not on anything mobile or modern hence the speculation.

As an Android user too I have to agree with your observations, in fact rolling over to FlyerTalk is more preferable currently as I still find the forum confusing and complicated.
I asked a question under the South Africa comment but I think I need to post it again, separately, as it doesn’t relate to the original post.

[Lyn]

@LadyLondon, I’ve been experimenting and it seems that, in my case at least (Firefox/Laptop), clicking the blue “Recent Topics” link at the top right as soon as you get to the Forum page seems to do the trick for being able to go back correctly. In other words totally ignoring the more obvious Forums/RecentTopics binary choice on the main page in the first place.

While I am sure this does not apply in your case, there must be many of us here on HfP that have never even thought about using a forum before. I can’t be the only one struggling to make it work effectively with what feels like relatively minimal guidance.

[Lady London]

Yes correct Lyn.

But as the success of the Forum grows thus will it become even more tedious on a mobile if having finished reading to the bottom of a topic, or finished posting, which puts me also at the bottom of a loooong page on mobile, I just want to click the Back button to go back to the list of Recent Topics I came from.

I have no wish to wear out my thumb scrolling back up past the quotes all the way up to the top then clicking on a hotdog then clicking on Recent Topics. It’s tiring. And it loses the “live” feeling.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .