5 ms·

> some users have suggested pretty smart features that i've since implemented, like this back-to-top button to quickly get back to the top of the page To me al

> some users have suggested pretty smart features that i've since implemented, like this back-to-top button to quickly get back to the top of the page To me all position:fixed elements (headers, footers, this back-to-top button, etc) feel like a kind of annoying dirt on the screen. Their absence is a big part of why I love the web 1.0 aesthetic.

nicbou 4y ago
Me too, but I still added a table of contents button on my long, structured articles. It's very helpful in my opinion.
- layer8 4y ago
  Wikipedia does this now, and I find it annoying, in particular the changing “current section” highlighting, and the fact that it hides when the browser window is a bit narrower. I’d rather press Home to get to the TOC again when it scrolled off.
  - retox 4y ago
    Agreed, seeing something changing out of the corner of my eye is very off-putting.
    - nicbou 4y ago
      Hm, I can see where the criticism comes from. Is there a way to keep this feature that would make it more acceptable?
      - layer8 4y ago
        Personally I don’t think it’s worth the benefits over just having a TOC at the top of the page, as is otherwise customary. It’s different if this is a web site or web app where you have an account, and where users can permanently enable/disable it as an option when they prefer it. But on a public web page for a general audience, it always introduces friction by being visually distracting (because it doesn‘t scroll with the rest of the page), or by hiding due to responsive layout (requiring the browser width to be adjusted, or having to toggle it by mouse instead of scrolling to the top by keyboard), and so on.
        nicbou 4y ago
        Fair point. I personally end up using those a lot, especially in articles that I skim (instead of reading end to end). I'll start collecting data on its use, because people on the orangey site (including me) tend to have opinions that don't represent the average user.
  - nicbou 4y ago
    I don't see it on my phone. Do you mean the desktop table of contents? I have one of those too. I use it all the time on other websites. I think it's a really good feature, but the Wikipedia implementation needs work.
saurik 4y ago
My god yes. There is literally a key on a full keyboard dedicated to this function (Home), smaller keyboards have a chord for it (like Fn-Up), and "mobile" touchscreen UI has a global mechanism for this (on iOS: touching the status bar)... to plop down a position:fixed button on top of the content to make it even easier to access this feature that is already extremely easy to access is just gratuitous.
- newaccount74 4y ago
  Does Android have this? I had an Android phone for some time and the thing I missed most was the back-to-top shortcut
  - layer8 4y ago
    Android doesn’t have this, and I missed it at first as well, but the scroll acceleration is so fast (much faster than on iOS) that you can nevertheless scroll to the top very quickly.
- perilunar 4y ago
  On MacOS Fn+left arrow = back to top, fn+up arrow = up one window.
eythian 4y ago
I have this in a bookmarklet: https://github.com/t-mart/kill-sticky https://github.com/t-mart/kill-sticky

nicbou 4y ago

Me too, but I still added a table of contents button on my long, structured articles. It's very helpful in my opinion.

layer8 4y ago
Wikipedia does this now, and I find it annoying, in particular the changing “current section” highlighting, and the fact that it hides when the browser window is a bit narrower. I’d rather press Home to get to the TOC again when it scrolled off.
- retox 4y ago
  Agreed, seeing something changing out of the corner of my eye is very off-putting.
  - nicbou 4y ago
    Hm, I can see where the criticism comes from. Is there a way to keep this feature that would make it more acceptable?
    - layer8 4y ago
      Personally I don’t think it’s worth the benefits over just having a TOC at the top of the page, as is otherwise customary. It’s different if this is a web site or web app where you have an account, and where users can permanently enable/disable it as an option when they prefer it. But on a public web page for a general audience, it always introduces friction by being visually distracting (because it doesn‘t scroll with the rest of the page), or by hiding due to responsive layout (requiring the browser width to be adjusted, or having to toggle it by mouse instead of scrolling to the top by keyboard), and so on.
      - nicbou 4y ago
        Fair point. I personally end up using those a lot, especially in articles that I skim (instead of reading end to end). I'll start collecting data on its use, because people on the orangey site (including me) tend to have opinions that don't represent the average user.
- nicbou 4y ago
  I don't see it on my phone. Do you mean the desktop table of contents? I have one of those too. I use it all the time on other websites. I think it's a really good feature, but the Wikipedia implementation needs work.

saurik 4y ago

My god yes. There is literally a key on a full keyboard dedicated to this function (Home), smaller keyboards have a chord for it (like Fn-Up), and "mobile" touchscreen UI has a global mechanism for this (on iOS: touching the status bar)... to plop down a position:fixed button on top of the content to make it even easier to access this feature that is already extremely easy to access is just gratuitous.

newaccount74 4y ago
Does Android have this? I had an Android phone for some time and the thing I missed most was the back-to-top shortcut
- layer8 4y ago
  Android doesn’t have this, and I missed it at first as well, but the scroll acceleration is so fast (much faster than on iOS) that you can nevertheless scroll to the top very quickly.
perilunar 4y ago
On MacOS Fn+left arrow = back to top, fn+up arrow = up one window.

eythian 4y ago

I have this in a bookmarklet: https://github.com/t-mart/kill-sticky https://github.com/t-mart/kill-sticky