http://qs1969.pair.com?node_id=225441

I hardly ever read The Monastery Gates anymore. I have Newest Nodes bookmarked, and I usually just jump right to that page. Today, however, my attention was called to the front page, and it does seem to have grown rather large.

My questions are 1) Other than newcomers, does anybody actually use The Monastery Gates as their landing page? And 2) Does anybody else agree that its really annoying when large posts get frontpaged in their entirety?

What I'm wondering is it would be good for the sake of the front page's appearance if a rule was solidified that specified the maximum amount of text that could appear per node on the front page. Does anybody else have any opinions on this?

s/Monastary/Monastery/g - dvergin 2003-01-09

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Front-paging nodes without readmore's
by belg4mit (Prior) on Jan 09, 2003 at 05:15 UTC
    Yes, I've heard mentioned in the chatterbox that the vast majority of visitors hit the front page first. I've been meaning to create some form of auto-readmore functionality (lop at the first paragraph, or 500 chars), it may get done eventually.

    --
    I'm not belgian but I play one on TV.

Re: Front-paging nodes without readmore's
by AcidHawk (Vicar) on Jan 09, 2003 at 06:52 UTC

    I guess this is part of the reason we get to Consider the node before it is frontpaged.. ie ask one of the editors to add the READMORE tags.

    As for using the front page, I hardly ever go there. But I do agree that it is the first place a new monk or potential monk will see. It's what I saw first.

    How about limiting the number of posts allowed on the Monastery Gates and putting the ones with highest Reputation there first..? You would obviously also need to put a time limit on how long the node could stay on the Monastery Gates, otherwise we would have very very old nodes with high reputation there..

    -----
    Of all the things I've lost in my life, its my mind I miss the most.
      How about limiting the number of posts allowed on the Monastery Gates and putting the ones with highest Reputation there first..?

      I have to point out the obvious here -- while not a bad idea, you would no doubt want to combine this with some sort of freshness date. Otherwise each section in the gates would calcify as a "best of" archive, like specimens trapped in amber.

      Matt (mixer of similes and metaphors)

        There's also the question of whether it has a high rep because it was good or because it was the most noticed. Moving it higher on the front page is likely to raise the rep artificially, just as front-paging the node at all will raise the rep - regardless of the quality of the node. Thankfully, most front-paged nodes do tend to be of high quality.

        {NULE}
        --
        http://www.nule.org

Re: Front-paging nodes without readmore's
by krujos (Curate) on Jan 09, 2003 at 06:05 UTC
    I still use the front page quite a bit. I agree that at times the font page gets rather long, I would love to see something like this in place.
Re: Front-paging nodes without readmore's
by peregrine (Acolyte) on Jan 10, 2003 at 01:09 UTC
    I always start off by going to 'The Monastery Gates' followed by the newest nodes section. I prefer it that way around as although newest nodes contains a lot of information, you have to explore further in order to find out articles that you want to read. The Monastery Gates provides a nice easy interface to ease into the site with, that its easy to skim and see if you want to delve deeper.

    In some respects, it might be nice if you had a page which was a mixture of the random node and the newest nodes pages. I guess it would be a sort of a snapshot page, with random entries expanded, giving you a quick view of what kind of discussions are going on today. Just a random thought.
Re: Front-paging nodes without readmore's
by Anonymous Monk on Jan 10, 2003 at 13:34 UTC
    yes, I reguarly go to the front page, because generally I only have limited amount of time to spend & quickly check new cpan modules & i'm off doing something else... and actually the number of nodes that pop up for the annoymous user makes the front page quite large.... (and time consuming to download...)
Re: Front-paging nodes without readmore's
by Bismark (Scribe) on Jan 12, 2003 at 14:36 UTC
    I'll admit that although I was a lurker for quite a while before I joined the Monastery, I always start with the Gates. It gives some good samples of what people are working towards and it takes little time to scan it. I agree that some of the postings are hellishly long, but it is balanced out against many concise posts. credo quia absurdum Kerry
Re: Front-paging nodes without readmore's
by robot_tourist (Hermit) on Jan 15, 2003 at 02:01 UTC

    I use the Monastery Gates most of the time, or go to SOPW. Anyway, I noticed that the Gates page was getting very long and then discovered that the user preferences allowed me to reduce the number of nodes displayed in each section.

    How can you feel when you're made of steel? I am made of steel. I am the Robot Tourist. Robot Tourist, by Ten Benson