A while ago, there was a discussion here about enforcing readmore tags in long posts. It was basically shot down under that node as difficult to implement (though a few other reasons were mentioned). I have a different idea, that I think could be a better solution than forcing the tags in there. Read on for more.

A couple of recent nodes (here and here) lead me to do a little bit of thinking about all of this. (I actually ++'d both of those nodes. It's not about their content!) I suggest that when a new node is entered in PM Discussion, SOPW, or Meditations, the user be presented with two text fields instead of one. The first would be a short field (say 256 characters) for an abstract of the meditation or a short phrasing of the question. Then a longer text field for the remainder of the node. When looking at the node directly, the whole thing is shown. When looking at an index page, only the abstract is shown.

This would shorten the main pages, and people only have to go and get the full story for the nodes they really want to. The idea could be refined further by tweaking the abstract field such that short questions could be phrased completely within that field, but longer meditations use both.

Update: I was imagining this as being implemented such that each post is still only one node with only part of the node (the abstract) being displayed on index pages. I think that would prevent extra database access.

What do you all think of the idea? Can it be implemented?
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May your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth with the force of a thousand caramels.

In reply to Readmore revisited... by DentArthurDent

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