Multi page threads - any way to see links for the LAST several pages?

When a thread gets into multiple pages, the board default seems to be to show links for the first five or six pages, then a link to the last page. This is kind of annoying for threads that get into the tens or hundreds of pages. Is it possible to have the board show links for the last several pages instead of the first several? For example with a 100 page thread, I’d like to see “1 … 97 98 99 100” instead of “1 2 3 4 5 …100”. Can that be done?

That’s exactly what you see when you click on the last page and then look at the page navigation options at the top or bottom. There is a link to the last three pages, the first page, and then three pages at various points in between. I’m not sure there’s a lot of value in having those options on the main page.

Once you are past page 1, you can also navigate directly to whatever page you want by changing the number in the URL. The pagination is based on your default number of posts viewed - to reduce the number of pages, I set mine to 100 posts per page. Makes reading easier for me.

Right… I was hoping there was a way to see similar page navigation on the forum page. I usually go to the last page and then backtrack a couple to where I left off last time. But page loads can be slow on my phone, so it would be nice to be able to go directly to the second-to-last or third-to-last page. If there’s not, oh well.

Yes! It makes much more sense to list the last few pages instead of the first. A common reason is a long thread that I read infrequently. I’d like to jump in 1 or 2 pages from the end and catch up with what is going on. But I think it’s controlled by the bulletin board software rather than the SDMB settings.

It also seems like this could be a user preference rather than a site-wide setting. So if you wanted to see the first pages or the last pages (or both), you could choose for yourself.

I did the same change years ago when the ads dogged my connection. I spent more time waiting for the page to load than I did reading it.