Re: List archives "Next" button new behavior

On Mon, Jul 14, 2025 at 9:43 PM Noah Misch <noah(at)leadboat(dot)com> wrote:

> A few weeks ago, the "Next" button on pages like
> https://www.postgresql.org/list/pgsql-www/since/202507100000 changed
> behavior:
>
> Old behavior: "Next" would use the timestamp of the newest message as of
> when
> you last loaded the page. "Next" would take you to a page containing that
> timestamp and all newer-timestamp messages. For example, as I'm writing
> this,
> the newest message has timestamp 2025-07-10T14:03. "Next" used to take me
> to
> https://www.postgresql.org/list/pgsql-www/since/202507101403 and I'd then
> see
> the 14:03 message and later messages, if any.
>
> New behavior: As long as the latest message is from 2025-07-10, "Next"
> takes
> one to https://www.postgresql.org/list/pgsql-www/since/202507100000.
> Also,
> visiting https://www.postgresql.org/list/pgsql-www/since/202507101403
> redirects to 202507100000 (zeroing the HH:MM from the request).
>
> (I'm simplifying; there are more behavior nuances if one starts at a date
> far
> enough in the past for messages to fill the page.)
>
> Does anyone have background on this change? I found no discussion of it.
>
> I liked the old behavior better, since it made the "Next" button
> convenient to
> see everything since I last caught up. That said, I'll adapt if the
> change is
> intentional and/or favored.
>

Yes. The problem with the old more detailed URLs is that in practice it
generated an infinite number of URLs for AI bots to crawl, and they did. We
got a constant load of a few hundred bot hits per second just looking at
those indexes. Because AI is the future....

--
Magnus Hagander
Me: https://www.hagander.net/ <http://www.hagander.net/>
Work: https://www.redpill-linpro.com/ <http://www.redpill-linpro.com/>