Taking a pulse: One huge page or multiple pages?

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Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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I am working on a fairly big article this week. I thought it would be a good idea to get the STH pulse on format. We have typically used a single page to present results which makes it easy (one page load then done.) On the other hand, some of the larger articles this is starting to get a bit ridiculous. This week's article is going to be one of them.

The basic choices are:
  1. Stick with the single page format - assume something like 45-50 images/ diagrams/ charts.
  2. Multiple pages, one big article - more like other tech sites do
  3. Main article with primary content, linked standalone/ related articles on sub-topics
I am leaning toward #3 because #1 is too long, #2 people will read page 1 and the last page, skipping all the in-between content. #3 gives nice bits you can forward along to colleagues but it takes a lot more work to do on my end.

I think I know what I am going to do but I wanted to take a pulse on what people prefer.
 

PigLover

Moderator
Jan 26, 2011
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6 of 1, half dozen of the other. I scan what I want and ignore the rest. Doesn't really matter to me if its on one page, multi-pages or one page with sub-links.

The only thing that annoys me is when the pagination is obviously done to increase the number of ads spilled - but I don't worry about that from Patrick.
 
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Patrick

Administrator
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Dec 21, 2010
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@cesmith9999 - will have follow-up content as well, just needed to get a big portion out on the same day.

@PigLover you should see how many people tell me STH should have more pages. I know places like Tom's and Anandtech have inverted bathtub readership curves (e.g. people read the first and maybe second pages then the last page and maybe second to last).
 

Patrick

Administrator
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Dec 21, 2010
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The answer at this point is going to be #3. I think people will like the results but let me know.
 

mstone

Active Member
Mar 11, 2015
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I hate lots of pages, they take so much longer to load on mobile devices.
 

Diavuno

Active Member
The Supermicro MicroBlade will be another article in this fashion.
That is something I'd love to sit down and read!



I think I often loose interest in multi page articles because I'm only interested in certain things... I'll skip pages looking for it. (maybe skipping features looking for power consumption.)
- Unless It's a highly anticipated article that I've been lusting over.

In one pagers, even long ones I tend to read them to FIND what I'm looking for.
 

nickscott18

Member
Mar 15, 2013
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#3 for me. Your comment about people reading the first and last few pages - yep, I'm one of those who reads long, multipage articles like that. Normally read the intro, teardown / unboxing / description pages, power consumption, and then conclusion pages.
 

warlord1312

Member
Sep 17, 2015
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I vote option #1. It is mobile friendly which is frankly where most of my reading is done nowadays especially when traveling to/from work on the train and I would bet that is the same for most people these days.
 

chinesestunna

Active Member
Jan 23, 2015
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#3, wikipedia style with "main article" and option for "sub articles" for sections that warrant it (with stub in main article as overview)