# Problem children / punch list for fixes / TIPS AND TRICKS **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [June 22, 2020, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044 "2020-06-22T01:21:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 23
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044/449 "2020-12-14T16:39:47Z")
How can I do a search for a whole word without having it match part of a longer word? For example, how do I search for the whole word “disc” without having it match posts with words that contain the characters d.i.s.c like **disc** ussion, **disc** course, etc? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044/450 "2020-12-14T16:41:33Z")
I just tried a search on "disc ", with the space included in the quote marks. That seemed to work. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044/451 "2020-12-14T16:42:49Z")
Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044/452 "2020-12-14T18:50:56Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > Sounds like you have a problem with your mouse wheel. Try a smooth mouse wheel, rather than one with an uneven texture. So I have to buy a new mouse just on account of the Dope? > [@TroutMan](#): > > If you don’t want to use either your mouse or your keyboard to scroll, I’m running out of ideas. I’ve **always** used my mouse to scroll. Move cursor over scrollbar, hold down left mouse button, move up or down. > [@TroutMan](#): > > ETA: one idea: most mouse scoll wheels have a “push” action. Press the wheel down, then moving the mouse (not the wheel) up or down will scroll the screen. It’s not exactly easy to control, compared to normal mouse-on-scrollbar operation, but lemme try it for awhile - it might work. Thanks for the suggestion! ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044/453 "2020-12-14T18:57:07Z")
Anyone know of a good way of getting to the end of a topic when reading on the iPhone? I’ve been furiously scrolling up, but is there any easier way? ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044/454 "2020-12-14T19:02:30Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > So I have to buy a new mouse just on account of the Dope? You have to buy a new mouse on account of you don’t have a usable one, because “the tip of my index finger quickly becomes oversensitized when I use it”. 😀 A decent mouse is not a huge expense, and you’ll even be able to use the mouse wheel to scroll on other sites! The mouse wheel is the most convenient way of scrolling anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044/455 "2020-12-14T19:34:09Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I’ve **always** used my mouse to scroll. Move cursor over scrollbar, hold down left mouse button, move up or down. I just tried that on this page. Works fine. ETA: Works whether I’m using the browser’s scrollbar, far to the right, or the Discourse scrollbar, towards the right side of the page but significantly left of the browser’s; though it works differently with the Discourse scrollbar, which only shows you the number of the post changing until you let go of it and then jumps to that post. The browser’s scrollbar works normally. Firefox on a Mac. If it’s not working for you, maybe try a different browser? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044/456 "2020-12-14T19:37:24Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > You have to buy a new mouse on account of you don’t have a usable one, because “the tip of my index finger quickly becomes oversensitized when I use it”. 😀 This is bullshit. My mouse works just fine everywhere except here. > [@GreenWyvern](#): > > A decent mouse is not a huge expense, and you’ll even be able to use the mouse wheel to scroll on other sites! The mouse wheel is the most convenient way of scrolling anywhere. I’ve been scrolling the way I have for 25 years, and it works fine. Why should I change now? ISTM that if there’s one website out of step with the hundreds I’ve been to recently that requires me to get a new piece of equipment, however inexpensive, the problem is the design of that website, not the fault of my equipment. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044/457 "2020-12-14T19:43:20Z")
Discourse uses dynamic loading. When you open a page, it only loads the current post and the nearest ones. This will make the main scrollbar not work as you might expect, but it’s hardly unique to discourse. Twitter, Facebook, (new) Reddit, and so on—all use dynamic loading because they would otherwise have too much content. This is why Discourse included the extra scrollbar. It should work in a similar manner to the original scrollbar in cases when you need to click to a specific spot. If you just want to click the arrows, the original scrollbar should work fine, as the next post will be loaded. However, no matter what scroll method you use, if you scroll too far, you may have to wait as that part of the page loads. Changing how you scroll won’t change that, as it’s just how Discourse (and those other sites I mentioned) work. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044/458 "2020-12-14T19:46:41Z")
How do you normally scroll? Do you drag the scrollbar on the right? Click somewhere? Use the keyboard? I can move down a page by single clicking in the whitespace at the bottom of the right-hand scrollbar just above the down arrow (\/). This seems to work reliably no matter how long the thread is. Dragging the scrollbar shuttle is jerky and seems to jump pages. I think the scroll behavior is part of the Discourse software rather than something part of the SDMB. A change to that behavior is likely that the Discourse company would need to change rather than something the admins here could do. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044/459 "2020-12-14T19:52:50Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I’ve been scrolling the way I have for 25 years, and it works fine. Why should I change now? If you’ve been using an inefficient method for a long time, it doesn’t mean you can’t use an easier and more efficient method. But of course it’s entirely up to you. You mentioned that you have a problem. No need to get angry if people try to help. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044/460 "2020-12-14T21:18:58Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > How do you normally scroll? I move the slider in the scrollbar on the right. > [@GreenWyvern](#): > > If you’ve been using an inefficient method for a long time, it doesn’t mean you can’t use an easier and more efficient method. > > But of course it’s entirely up to you. You mentioned that you have a problem. No need to get angry if people try to help. Saying I’ve been doing it wrong all these years when it’s been working just fine for decades isn’t trying to help. Some people **are** trying to help. You’re not. You’re just playing Mr. Superior. Kindly cut it out. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044/461 "2020-12-14T21:34:38Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Discourse uses dynamic loading. When you open a page, it only loads the current post and the nearest ones. This will make the main scrollbar not work as you might expect, but it’s hardly unique to discourse. Twitter, Facebook, (new) Reddit, and so on—all use dynamic loading because they would otherwise have too much content. I don’t have this problem with Twitter, where I read bottom to top (chron order). I scroll down **once** to where I’d left off before, and once that’s loaded, the scrollbar works like normal as I work my way up to the top. I’m not on the other two - I loathe Facebook in general, and I’ve got no idea what Reddit’s about. > [@BigT](#): > > This is why Discourse included the extra scrollbar. It should work in a similar manner to the original scrollbar in cases when you need to click to a specific spot. Not really; you’re lucky to get within 20 posts of where you’re aiming for in a thread this size. Trying to just move the next two or three posts into view with that scrollbar is next to impossible. > [@BigT](#): > > If you just want to click the arrows, the original scrollbar should work fine, as the next post will be loaded. However, no matter what scroll method you use, if you scroll too far, you may have to wait as that part of the page loads. I scroll the same distance, roughly, several times as I read maybe 16-18 posts. Then the next time I scroll down the same amount, I’m 20 posts further along rather than two or three. I don’t mind that it dynamically loads; I mind that it **dynamically jumps me past all the stuff it just loaded** , so that I’m in a whole new part of the thread, and it takes me a couple minutes to find the place I’d been at before the jump. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044/462 "2020-12-14T22:25:44Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I don’t mind that it dynamically loads; I mind that it **dynamically jumps me past all the stuff it just loaded** , so that I’m in a whole new part of the thread, and it takes me a couple minutes to find the place I’d been at before the jump. I don’t know what to tell you, then. I don’t have that problem. Using the special Discourse-included scrollbar doesn’t jump past anything for me. It jumps right to the post number I chose while scrolling. Sometimes I may have to wait for that post to load, but it’ll be the right post. It never jumps past it. I’ll admit it’s not great for small scrolling, as you need very slight movements to avoid moving through too many posts. Trying it now, if I want to scroll up, say, just one or two posts, I’ll probably wind up moving the mouse too far one way, and then have to move it back really slowly and precisely. But that’s a problem I have with the regular scrollbar, too. The solution there is the arrow buttons, which seem to work just fine for small scrolling even on Discourse. I will also say that the way you scroll on Twitter doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. If I were to do what you did, I’d have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page, wait for the new stuff to load, then scroll to the bottom again, rinse and repeat, until I got far enough down to the earliest post I wanted to read. Only then would I be able to start scrolling back up. I find Discourse letting you scroll right to whichever post you want to be a much better system if I wish to read posts going up instead of down. It really does suck that you can’t use the standard scrollwheel for scrolling. It is so common these days that it is the way software designers expect you to scroll\*. While they’ll keep the other ways if they can, it is a truism in software development that you can’t accommodate everyone. If things are jumping too far, going past the post you wish to see even when the scrollbar shows the right post, then I can only recommend a different browser. The same is true if you find it jumps past when you scroll the regular scrollbar. On the other hand, if the problem is that it’s too tedious to scroll only a small bit at a time using the included bar, I can only recommend trying other scrolling methods. Maybe you could adjust your mouse sensitivity settings, turning them down, but then turning acceleration up, making small movements easier. But that would likely be just as disruptive. \*On standard mice. If you use a touchpad or touch screen, then they expect you to use gestures, like swiping. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044/463 "2020-12-14T22:29:45Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > There’s gotta be a better way than that, right? You have to reach three rows into the keyboard and hit the J key every time you want to scroll down? How about the space bar? > [@RTFirefly](#): > > This is bullshit. My mouse works just fine everywhere except here. The tip of your finger doesn’t get desensitized on other sites? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044/464 "2020-12-14T22:31:29Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Maybe you could adjust your mouse sensitivity settings, turning them down, but then turning acceleration up, making small movements easier. This is possibly helpful - I didn’t even know “mouse sensitivity settings” were a thing. I’m sure it’s somewhere in the “Settings” stuff, I’ll let you know if I can’t find it. Only reason I never looked for it before is that I didn’t know it existed. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044/465 "2021-01-03T14:31:48Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > The scroll wheel on my mouse works, but the tip of my index finger quickly becomes oversensitized when I use it, so I can only use it for brief periods of time. > [@RTFirefly](#): > > I’ve **always** used my mouse to scroll. Move cursor over scrollbar, hold down left mouse button, move up or down. I don’t understand. Your finger becomes oversensitized from rolling the mouse wheel, but not from holding the button down? Interesting - wikipedia has this to say: > [@](#): > > The wheel is often, but not always, engineered with [detents](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detent) to turn in discrete steps, rather than continuously as an analog axis, to allow the operator to more easily intuit how far they are scrolling. Could this be contributing to the problem? Also, you seem to be saying you constantly hold the button down. Have you tried just sliding 1 or 2 posts, then releasing the button to read? Yes, the dynamic loading aspect sometimes annoys as the posts jump a bit. As you say, that occurs after you slide several posts with one mouse button press. I don’t know why the loading on this page makes it jump sometimes. It could be because it interprets the constant hold and slide as an intent to jump down the page. That would be a Discourse problem, not a SDMB setting. I know, SDMB chose Discourse, that makes it their problem. > [@RTFirefly](#): > > Some people **are** trying to help. You’re not. You’re just playing Mr. Superior. Kindly cut it out. He did try to help. He suggested that the texture of your mouse wheel might be contributing to the sensitization. Your response was phrased as a question, though I think it was rhetorical. But it was a question, so **GreenWyvern** replied to your question. If you don’t want to buy a new mouse, that’s fine. No need to get snippy because someone suggests a solution you don’t like. His description of your method being inefficient is an accurate statement - it is why scrollwheels were invented on mice. People didn’t like constantly holding the mouse button or clicking the down arrow. They wanted a fine-scroll option on the mouse. Design change - mouse wheel. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044/466 "2021-01-17T14:54:49Z")
Some questions about “high priority notifications”: what are they, and how do I find them? I’m referring to the green circle I see on the upper left of my icon. It’s got a little ‘2’ in it, and has for some time. When I hover my mouse over, it says, “2 unread high priority notifications.” If I left-click on it, I see a list of (presumably) all my notifications, because there are a lot more than 2 of them there. Right-clicking and ‘open link in new tab/window’ gets me another copy of the thread I’m in. Going to my profile page and clicking on ‘Notifications’, I can filter by ‘All’, ‘Read’, and ‘Unread’ but no option to filter by priority. The notifications themselves have various logos next to them, but none seem to indicate priority. So: what’s the deal on these ‘high-priority notifications’? What are they? Are they really high priority? Are they something I really need to read, or can I just ignore them? And if I need to read them, how do I find them? ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044/467 "2021-01-17T15:43:17Z")
They are probably personal messages. If clicking on the green circle doesn’t work for you, either click on your avatar and go to the messages tab 📧, or go to your profile page and then to ‘Messages’. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044/468 "2021-01-17T16:08:52Z")
Thanks - that’s what they were! At least, now that I’ve read them, the green circle has disappeared, so that must be it. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044.md?page=22) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044.md?page=24)