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New forum look

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So the forum look has been updated again, and am I alone in thinking it's a step back?

The big issue for me is ease of navigation.  You should be able to glance at things and very quickly tell what state they are in.  For instance, users who were online used to have a lightbulb next to their name - very easy to tell right away who is online and who isn't.  Now it either says "user is online" or "user is offline."  Yes, it's easy to read, but at a quick glance, not so obvious, since the two phrases are so similar.  I have the same feelings about the disappearance of the new post icon and sticky icon - a lot more reading is required now to see what is new and what isn't.

A link to *all* new posts since last visit, regardless of forum, would render a lot of this moot for me.

Thoughts?

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I can still see the lightbulbs - do you need to clear out your cache?

Guidelines for post content and general behaviour: read announcement here

Max. allowable image sizes in signatures: reminder here

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Well that was weird.  I cleared my cache and everything went back to how it looked yesterday.  The text "user is online" is now gone, replaced by the lightbulb.  Never mind.

Thanks Moth3r.

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I posted updates last night to improve performance. Everything should look the same with a cache refresh. Some browsers are a bit more stubborn than others when it comes to updating their cache automatically (Safari especially).

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For me the problem is concentrating the text into the centre and limiting the scope for posting largeish (not too large) images.

Most people these days have wide monitors and reading the text squeezed into the middle does make the forum feel like the sort of place a Dianoga might let go of you and disappear from.

I don't know if it's possible to brace the walls with something and let the forum breath a bit more.

Some points require illustration with images.

While most of these can be expanded by right clicking on them it helps the flow of the discussion if they can be largely made out at a glance, without the need to expand them (expansion could be an option for people who want a really good look).

The restricted space limits that.

Some of the most visited threads have been going for sometime and people do like to go back over them.

With the new format many of the images previously posted (when horizontal stacking wasn't as much of an issue) have become rather imprisoned.

My eyesight is failing too and I've found I've had to toggle the magnification of the page up to view this site and then toggle down again when I leave.

Which is a minor inconvenience but still an inconvenience.

I do love the simple but elegant top bar (adore the wee Death Star up there).

Thanks for maintaining the hard work you keep putting into this site which is always a pleasure to visit.

But if you can crank those walls open a bit it would be greatly appreciated.

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I'm glad I get feedback like this and definitely want to continue this discussion. I'm a huge proponent of usability and want to hear from everyone.

While I see many forums with layouts that expand to fit the available space, I see very few good web sites that do. I don't understand--at all--how people read long forum posts on a widescreen monitor with lines of text that stretch into infinity. I think Windows has done a horrible job of training people over the last 10 years to expect windows to fill all available space and for the content to follow suit; ironically, one of the things Windows has always done worse than Mac is managing the actual windows :)

In my experience, moving from variable width to fixed width is jarring at first simply because it's different. Once people become accustomed to it, going back to variable width looks strange...mostly because it is. Shifting blocks of content to make better use of available space is fine and makes sense with web content expected to be viewed on monitors of various sizes, but stretching out the text on linear user-based content so it flows across an entire widescreen monitor is simply bizarre, and a fine example of learned behavior.

I'm not entirely sure why you feel the need to increase the zoom level on your browser here, but not elsewhere. We use a pretty standard 12 pixel font size for posts (typical for forums and larger than a lot of sites). The quote font size is smaller so it takes up less space, but I'm working on a solution for that as well (showing only the first few lines of a quote and letting the user hover/click to view the rest). None of these things have changed in the new layout and they won't change if I add a skin that's variable width. I am concerned to hear that you find that this site requires more zooming than others, so please post more thoughts on this point if you can.

I'm working on the image solution. I know it's a problem. But, as I said here, all these large images are a nuisance and they have to go. Again, only in forums do I see this kind of content. Good sites manage images much more cleanly through thumbnails and zooming. Large images embedded within the content simply don't work on the web. Users should be linking to these images, not embedding them.

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What is weird is that a few months ago (6+ I think), when bigger pics were posted (such as Vaderios' side-by-side comparisons), there was a horizontal scroll bar - if the pic went outside the forum frame, you could scroll to see the rest of it.  Now the pics get chopped off and the only way to see them whole is to right click on the pic and choose "view image". 

I understand the complaint about posting images that are damn near DVD cover art sized - people here need to realize they can resize their pics when creating their messages - or for that matter simply post the linkable thumbnails that places like ImageShack provide for their users.

I say widen the walls of the forum HTML pages to roughly an inch from the browser edge.  Don't know what you can do about larger than normal pics being posted, other than making the strong suggestion to start using linked thumbnails.  Users click on the thumbs, which open a new window with the image, as opposed to replacing the window you were on, which can result in the problem of going back and having to scroll all the way down to the message you were originally at.

         

 “You people must realize that the public owns you for life, and when you’re dead, you’ll all be in commercials dancing with vacuum cleaners.”

– Homer Simpson

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Also, I REALLY think the white outline around linked pics needs to be brought back.  Much like what TV's Frink was saying about being able to visually see what you need to know what is up, without the white box around the pics nobody will ever know if a pic is linked without having to actually write a statement telling everyone that it is.

         

 “You people must realize that the public owns you for life, and when you’re dead, you’ll all be in commercials dancing with vacuum cleaners.”

– Homer Simpson

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Yeah this is great improvement for reading.

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Thx Jay and Moth3r for bringing the link box around linked images!

         

 “You people must realize that the public owns you for life, and when you’re dead, you’ll all be in commercials dancing with vacuum cleaners.”

– Homer Simpson

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A lighter skin will make an appearance soon.

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