Reading library
Make a query change visible to the end user
Keep a quantization search traceable: save its starting conditions, change one filter, compare bounded responses and explain what the difference cannot prove.
Record a baseline
A baseline is not merely the starting keyword; it is the complete set of filters, including the subreddit scope, author constraints, date ranges, and score thresholds. For a proposed LocalLLaMA reading exercise, start with /v1/search?q=quantization&subreddit=LocalLLaMA&limit=3&page=1 on https://api.redditsearchapi.com. The reader's question might be which memory conditions an experiment describes. This is a suggested request, not evidence that particular discussions are available. Write that question above the parameters so later changes have a purpose.
Save the submitted values separately from whatever is currently in the form. Record the response time as an application observation, the number of returned records, and the actual pagination fields. Keep pagination.total together with pagination.relation; a value marked gte is a lower bound, not an approximate exact count. Saving a response locally can preserve what the reader inspected. Saving its URL alone preserves request conditions, not a stable archive snapshot. The API does not create this comparison notebook for you.
Change one control
Suppose the reader wants to examine the effect of a score threshold. Leave q=quantization, subreddit=LocalLLaMA, limit=3 and page=1 unchanged, then add min_score=10. Display both the old and new values before submission. This threshold filters the stored score; it does not identify high-quality evidence or request score order. A different exercise could change only the community. Use the exact subreddit value intended, rather than assuming that adding an r/ prefix is an equivalent spelling of the same filter.
Send the changed request only after an explicit action. Editing a field need not trigger paid retrievals on every keystroke. If the question instead requires quantization memory, explain that both analyzed terms must match within a matching title or text field; this is not an exact-phrase or semantic search. Keep any dates as YYYY-MM-DD UTC, with the to day included. Start the new conditions on page 1. A changed query is a new sequence, not page 2 of the old one.
Show a before-after query card
Place the two submitted requests beside their own outcomes. Highlight the changed parameter in text, not only by color, and show when each request was made. A compact card can contain the reader's question, submitted filters, response status, displayed-record count and qualified total. If one request failed, leave its result area labelled as failed; do not compare an old successful response under the new filter label. Associate each arriving response with its request so a delayed answer cannot silently replace the wrong card.
Display available source text beneath each card without calling the first records top results. Titles, authors, dates and usable source links may be absent. Identify those gaps rather than manufacture replacements. The reader can attach an observation such as settings still missing, clearly separated from the returned text. If the application stores both responses, that is caller-owned storage with its own retention choices. Sharing the parameter summary should omit credentials and include a warning if the query or reading note itself contains sensitive information.
Name the interpretation limit
Changing one input makes the intended comparison easier to inspect; it does not prove that every observed difference was caused solely by that input. Separate requests are not promised stable snapshots. Both responses are bounded, and a gte total cannot support exact subtraction of matching populations. Retrieval follows archive _doc order, neither date, relevance nor score order. The before-after card therefore documents two requests and the material they returned, not a controlled measurement of discussion quality, popularity or the prevalence of a technical problem.
Each successful retrieval costs one credit, including an empty result. A later page is another request, limited to at most 100 records and page numbers through 100; exhausting that window does not establish complete coverage. Flat records and optional parent references do not guarantee a complete conversation. End the comparison with the reader's next decision: keep a useful reference, investigate a missing setting, change one condition again, or stop. This independent historical API supplies material for that decision, not a live Reddit view or a verified answer.
