Just thought of a thing!
We posted our 900th comic just a little over a week ago and I realized that, dang, that’s a ton of comics! How many of you out there have read every single LHT we’ve ever made?
For those of you who haven’t read through the archives, is there anything we can do to help you with your new year’s resolution of reading every single Left-Handed Toon? I’m assuming that was your new year’s resolution. It was, right?
I’d love to add a feature to the site that will help new readers and even current readers keep track of which comics they’ve read when diving through the archives. I can imagine it can almost be overwhelming when presented with over 900 comics to read through as a new reader! So if you have any idea that could help with this problem, just post a comment!
-Justin
An animated gif that flashes all 900 at a rate of 30 comics per second, please.
I think I've read them all. I may have skipped a few guest cartoons though. Please dont shoot me.
I've read them all.
I am 'lompta' in some arenas in case you know me from those.
I think I've read most of them… I check back every day, but may have missed a couple during vacation or something.
Archive Binge (http://archivebinge.net) would be helpful!
from a purely web developer (which is what I do for a living) standpoint, what you're asking is pretty intense.
The most effective way would be to set up a database for your users, to log into, probably could ask them to make wordpress accounts on this site (you are using wordpress from what I can see from the source), and then have some logic attached to each post to display a "read/unread" list.
Another thing would be to use the browser's history to style visited links (read comics) differently. But that way isn't too effective because if the user clears their cache, or if they read them on different computers you won't get everyone.
It's possible though.
Or you could combine the two, and if a registered visitor visits the site with LHT comics in his history, then it will mark that user as having read that comic.
I really doubt Justin means trying to keep track of every single person who visits the site whether they register or not; rather, give users the ability to keep track of what comics they've read for their own sake and to provide a bit of interesting statistics, in which case the project would be relatively straightforward and simple, not "intense."
The DB approach was the one I was thinking of. Only the LHT blog is WordPress, so I'd probably do something with Facebook Connect and use that to register LHT users. I did something similar in the past with LHT Favorites lists (if you remember those =P ).
This kind of thing would definitely increase the number of DB inserts going on. Might batch them together or something. Store comic ids in a cookie and when it reaches X comic ids, fire off some ajax for a DB insert. That would be a whole lot better than firing off an insert for every pageview for a user logged in and tracking comics.
Imagine how many you'd have if you used your *right* hand instead!
It looks like your archives are in excellent shape. You have good navigation buttons on each comic, clean URLs, and all the comics sequentially numbered like the pages of a book. You're in better shape than most other webcomics.
I've read them all.
Pure brilliance.
Perhaps some kind of Clockwork Orange setup. That would be a pretty sweet vacation.
Haha of course I've read them starting with number 1! I always do, it makes most sense.
haha always make me laugh
I agree with Steve that it would be tricky. Another option would be to set cookies. This could be done with a single cookie holding the information of the most recent comic viewed, perhaps with additional information so that it only changes if the next sequential comic is read. This could also be done with a huge number of cookies (around 900 by the end), with one cookie set each time a new comic is read. If you decide to do either of these methods, you will have to inform readers as to the purpose of the cookies, and tell the to allow all cookies from this site. This has a similar downside to using the browser's history, being that it is all to easy to accidentally reset the counter without remembering its existence, and that a different computer won't have the same cookies.
Why wouldn't you just use a single cookie with a ~112-byte (for 900 comics, would increase the length as more were added) value field? Have a bit for every comic and set it to 1 if a comic is read. But cookies aren't meant for storing long-term data anyways, and for many reasons are not a practical solution for this problem.
Been down since day one.
(I have read every left-handed toon, yes)
I've read all of them. I don't really know if it could be done, but some kind of bookmark based on cookies or something like that may be the solution.
Maybe some kind of login so the site tracks you read comics too.
I've read through many webcomics this past year. Penny Arcade, online since 1998, was the longest one, though.
Read all the archives when I first found the site forever ago, been reading RSS ever since. So I've read them all
Muito Massa!!!
Read through all the archives, and thoroughly enjoyed it all… only recently discovered bizzaro LHT and thoroughly enjoyed those too!
You guys are all over thinking this.
Use client side DBs! webSQL.
It works in all browsers that matter, including the browser for iPhone, and probably the one for android.
Just ad an entry every time the user reads a comic and store it in the client side DB, then make a little widget on your site that keeps track. If the user clicks a disable button, that widget goes away (by going away I mean you set a global variable to false for whether the widget shows or not.) Oh also, if the user doesn't have this global variable set, then you create it and set it to true, otherwise if it's false or you can't set it because their browser sucks, then don't show the widget or try any client side DB stuff.
From there you can do whatever user friendly features you like.
I <3 html5.
it was my resolution last year to read through all of them, and I did. it was amazing and my life is much improved.
I've read them all! Keep 'em coming!
I have read all 900
been a fan from the beginning and i tip my hat to you guys. pure awesome.
Wow, interesting to see how many comments this has garnished. My thought is that this seems like total overkill for something that most users are used to just relying on their browser history for. But whatever!
It all reminds me of MS Paint Adventures, which I think just uses cookies to save the state. But that comic requires your place in the archives because it's actually acting like a video game. Our comics obviously don't require it. But again, I guess if ywanna implement that?
Other parts of this discussion remind of this: http://twitter.com/#!/tehawesome/status/153329919…
Just trying to think of fun things to program for the site =) Also, judging from the lack of "I totes want that", no one really totes wants it.
I'll just program that more puppies button instead.
More Puppies!! Definitely a higher priority extension to the website.
I've read all of them!
I've gotten in the habit of archive binging over long weekends, that way I can just leave the page open.. other times, I just leave an incomplete URL in the URL bar and let it autocomplete to the latest comic..
This comic, I forget how I archive-binged it, but I did read it all
"New Site: January fifteenth, 2007
Hey! I have a new website that I'm proud to present here. It is a collaboration site with my good friend, Justin, who you've seen on Penguin Calls before.
Lefthandedtoons.com
-drewmo"
*sniff* I remeber it like it was yesterday
Read them all from #1, just bookmarked the one I was up to and came back to it later.
Love the Did You Know Bats, love Fridaynosaur, love the every day randomness that is guaranteed to make me smile ^_^
cookies!
um.
sometimes when i'm bored/and/or tired, i click the "random" button. again and again. and more often than seems random, the same comics pop up over and over. maybe it would seem more random, and would seem as if you had more comics, if the random button produced results that were less truly random and more algorithmically random. HOORAY FOR OXYMORONS.
I've read all of the comics, because I started being a regular reader back when there were like.. five of them.
That makes me better than everyone else, right?
You guys have done great work over the years! I started reading when I was forwarded the "subway cheese tessellation" comic (on the day you posted it), and I went back to read through the rest of them. I have read all of them (so far, including Bizarro) and hope you don't get some silly idea that 1000 is so awesome of a milestone that you decide to discontinue your work. Keep it coming, and thanks for all the stapler licking, Sanjaybies, and Tiga Punches.
I've read them all. I started reading about two years ago, at that time I started at the beginning and read until I was up to date. I love Fridaynosaur and the John series. I also just received my Fridaynosaur shirt and can't wait to wear it this Friday!
Totally read them all, I'm a boss.
I've read them all, even the hidden ones!!!
They'll just have to read through everything like good little children. Definitely worth their time. I quite enjoyed reading through everything again.
Is it so hard to read 900 comics? When I first found this site, I immediately went through the complete archives. Must have been about a year ago, so I guess that's about 600 comics, but still… If something is consistently funny, like this site is, it isn't really much of an effort, is it?
Sometimes, if I'm too early and no new comic is up yet, I just click random until there is. Once you've read them all, you understand all the references to older comics, so it isn't any problem, then.
And, in comparison, SMBC has over 2000 comics. When I started reading those, it was like 1500. Not a problem browsing to the archives from start. Only took me a couple of hours, which flew by. And although SMBC is one of my favourite comics, it has had it's lesser periods. I haven't seen one of those on LHT.
I'm like this guy /
When I find a new webcomic I like, I start from the beginning of the archive and work my way through 'em all. Then it goes on a feed.
So yup, I've read every single one.
Cheers.
I started reading when I was sent the 'owl playing ultimate frisbee' comic as i play ultimate frisbee myself, got hooked and read from the beginning. I'm pretty sure I just bookmarked the one I needed to read next (however I am one of those people with an insanely long bookmarks list)
I've been reading since there was about 3 months worth of comics
I love this place. I've seen every single one!
I have read them all! followed drew to this site from spinnerdisc!!
I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article. I am hoping the same best work from you in the future as well. In fact your creative writing abilities has inspired me to start my own blog. now.