Site speed: Profile pages and comments

I'm profiling the site a lot recently, looking for queries and processes that can be rewritten to speed it up. I'm happy with where work pages and, after Mike did some work, also where profile pages are. Profile pages take an average of 0.7 seconds to make, and the standard deviation is low.

There isn't much more fat to cut, but the fattest is the comments section. Users with hundreds of unarchived comments can expect an extra second, or even five, devoted to grabbing their comments from the database, munging them onto the page and sending it across to the user. Pages of 450MB are not rare for long-time members.

Solutions:

1. Send out a message to users with more than 200k of comments, telling them archiving their comments would speed things up—and you can still view archived comments.
2. Having the profile page show only X comments at a time. The rest of the comments could either be swapped in (like reviews) or on a separate comments page.
3. Remove comments from profiles, and put them on another page entirely.

Any preferences?

Choice 2 makes the most sense to me. Then again I usually archive after a week or two anyway.

Could I place a vote for 2 - out of all those.

I like the idea of being able to pull in more than one comment at a time, or archiving more than one at a time - with a tick box or something similar. I don't know how hard that would be to implement, but the reason I don't archive much is because I only have the choice of one at a time, or all. If I could pick and choose which ones to archive, in one go, I would be more tidy!

I have archived the whole lot - and then felt bereft when looking at my profile page.

Though this wouldn't really affect me much - I don't get a lot of comments, and I tend to archive mine away fairly regularly once I've got more than a handful - I'd also vote for option 2. I'm not sure what you mean by "swapped in," but having something like "see all," "see next 10," or something sounds good. The question then is what's the right cap, but that's probably best answered by people who have lots. For me it would be around 10, but that's because I don't get that many or leave very many up. 20? 30?
(edited: dern grammar)

#2 sounds reasonable, but I feel that it's not mutually exclusive with #1; for those users with huge comment lists, by all means send them a note!

If the munging frobnitz won't scale, then 1 followed by 2.

Not a biggie for me as I don't get a lot of comments and usually delete them once I've read them.

I haven't archived my comments and won't, even if you send me a note. I don't care about how long it takes to load my Profile page. My option would be none of the above.

Option 2 with a separate page of all comments.

Another vote for 2.

As long as there is a see all option (without unarchiving all the comments I've already archived!). Currently I don't mind that my profile page takes a while to load. But if you want to hide comments more than x months old into a second page that's fine. But I do want to be able to see all of them without loading seperate pages. It's a real pain to opne lot so of seperate pages when you're looking for specific information

No strong feelings about this. But I admit I hadn't realized the comments were taking up any considerable space - so sending out friendly messages telling people that might not be a bad idea either.

I'm a minimal comments user. Happy for Tim to choose the solution he thinks best.

v

Other than comments from Abby telling me whether or not I won a ER/MG book, (and all those "Sorry" comments get deleted right away) I'm another one of those people with few comments, so I can go with whatever works best for everyone.

I agree with the see all. Maybe you could add a comment size counter to the page first, like the timer on Add Books? Some people might notice then before any comment was necessary. :)

option two

option 2 or 3 are best. I like the idea of having a separate comments page.

Actually, for viewing my own comments I would love it if the most recent n (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) could be a home page module, as well as their own page. Then I'd be happy for them to be gone from the Profile page altogether.

Of course, the "leave a comment" form should still be on the profile page, since that's often where people are when they want to leave a comment.

Have you considered setting up an archive comment module somewhere? Something that's easier than just de-archiving everything on the profile if you want to suddenly look at a comment from someone?

I guess maybe I'm thinking of my gmail search in a way, which doesn't care if I've archived the message or if I've filed it in another area or if it was just received. If there was a message center area like that in addition to the current profile messages, maybe individuals would archive more often? If you could easily go to that and search through comments by user or for a few phrases, that would be helpful.

I think I like 2 the best.

I treat my comments mostly like a to-do list. And I leave up the comments that I find to be entertaining. Everything else, I delete or archive (depending on some heuristic I haven't really standardized, but I think it's working well).

I think 1 is not the best, as it requires the user to do something, and the user is lazy.

Maybe a combination of 2 and 3: Show five comments on the profile page, and then a link to the comments page. But with JUST 3, not a big fan here.

I delete all comments after reading them.
Soooo, do as you wish, I will not make any change in the way I operate.

As long as they are all readily available, I don't mind. I would like best something like most recent 10(?) or those less than a month(?) old to be instantly visible, full set available for one click.

If there was a "re-archive" option then auto-archiving would be fine.

Ie. only last n weeks comments displayed. unarchive to see all, but re-archive was only one click instead of the current, one click and wait and re-load per comment. Hence why I don't unarchive very often!

I suggest a blog post about comments.. as well as an announcement on the home page.

I also suggest a way to select more than one message to either delete or archive, without having to archive all. There are some I want to keep, some I want to delete. Some I delete immediately.. and so on. I often have a busy comment section, so being able to do this would be helpful, imo.

I wouldn't mind a separate page for comments, but what I've often wished for is a facebook-wall-like way to show comments between users.

Option 2 or 3 is fine with me.

>22 mckait:, I second mckait's suggestion for a way to select multiple messages at once to delete/archive/whatever. That would be handy!

Yeah, thirded. Especially useful for when arseclowns leave multiple stupid messages.

*giggles at arseclowns*

I know, it's spelled wrong!

Umm.. I want to know how you would spell it??

What mckait said is what I was trying to say all those comments back...so another vote.

And... (off-topic a bit) a way to EDIT comments! PLEASE!

I only archive "system" messages (once I am done using them as a reminder) - I leave (most) comments from individuals up 1.) in case the individual wants to re-reference them (they can't see my archived comments even if I can). 2.) other OCD reasons of my own.

I don't mind the extra time it takes my profile to load (if I even have enough comments to make a difference - I don't know what 200K looks like) but others viewing my profile might.

If a change must be made I would prefer #2 - show either last 10 comments or last months worth of comments with a "show all" link available to both the individual whose profile it is AND to anyone viewing the individual's profile.

... it would be really nice to have a page where one could see all the comments that one has left elsewhere.

31> Yes! Please. It can get awkward not remembering what I wrote to whoever after they have archived or deleted the comment.

31/32: Adding my 'vote' to this idea.

Lately, when I make a comment on someone's profile, I've been adding at the end of my comment, "(For continuity) you said: ...". Then I copy the whole sh'bang, including the date/time posted, into a private comment on my own profile so that everything gets captured together. I'd much prefer having an automatic system, instead of having to kludge it, though.

People have said we should do a wall-to-wall thing, like Facebook. Another option would be to have a "real" message system, with conversations and etc. I rather prefer the simplicity of a wall, though.

The wall would be fine with me -- I just think it would be really helpful to be able to see comments you've posted to others' profiles. I don't want to tell someone the same thing twice!

Can you explain what a 'wall' is for those of us who don't do Facebook or any of the other similar sites ?

An easier way to have a real conversation without a lot of jumping back and forth, or cutting and pasting would be great.

I prefer the idea of 'real' conversations, but even a wall-to-wall would be a vast improvement over what exists now.

> 36 FicusFan - The 'wall' on facebook works a lot like profile comments do now. The difference is that there's a link under each comment that says ' see wall to wall' and it shows all their comments to you and your comments to them, in order, so if you're holding a conversation with a person, you can see both sides of it.

> 36 Thank you Aerrin99.

I have a Facebook account, a wall, and a few friends, and I still don't get it. I hope we don't use that model.

Robert