New Forum Design

I've been working on it off and on for about six months and figured I should finish it before the season started, so here it is!

Hopefully it's a little easier to use and less retina-scorching. I'll be adding some neat new features next week once any potential bugs have been flushed out. If you see any design inconsistencies or problem, please post them in this thread.

I can't even begin to describe how utterly horrifying and useless the forum appears to me right now. Everything centered... no color... the header and the sidebar appearing as regular text in vertical order... Anybody know the keystroke in Windows for a screenshot, if there is such a thing? GAH!

Oh for God's sake, settle down.

Need more red. Much more red.

I agree that more red would be nice, but this scheme is definitely easier on the eyes. Also, THANK YOU for putting the "new" tag on individual messages in flat view! It is much easier to quickly get to my last stopping point, particularly the 50+ post threads.

Dianne 99
Also, THANK YOU for putting the "new" tag on individual messages in flat view! It is much easier to quickly get to my last stopping point, particularly the 50+ post threads.

Wow that is great!

Thanks!!

I would agree with the "needs more red" comment, but aside from that, I think it looks great!

more red and maybe more cowbell

Try Printscreen?

We are the Big Red. I get it. More red not actually required. I like the new look a lot.

Each post takes up a lot of vertical space in the normal view mode, which makes it slower to browse down though the vertical height of a thread with a lot of posts. Do you think it would be possible to reduce that empty space?

it's too lightly colored... it's like staring at a light bulb... but I like it...

Any particular reason for moving the menu to the right? It doesn't feel correct over there.

Also, despite the fact that I find most of INCH's writing annoying, it should probably be on the list of links.

It feels weird and not red enough. Can we get a choice of color schemes, including the old one (which I like more)? I know they do that on other forums.

EDIT: the design itself is a million times better. It's the color scheme that gets me.

RazzBaronZ
It feels weird and not red enough. Can we get a choice of color schemes, including the old one (which I like more)? I know they do that on other forums.

EDIT: the design itself is a million times better. It's the color scheme that gets me.

I haven't noticed the design, but the color scheme makes my eyes strain.

Bright red and yellow was ok, but this makes your eyes strain?

Well, I mostly like it and I do find it easier on the eyes (once I got over the initial shock).

The one thing that I miss, as a threaded view reader, is the stationary "next message" link. On the old one, I could just keep bopping the button on my laptop as I read messages (if I didn't accidentally move the cursor). On this one, the only "next message" link floats at the bottom of the message, so I have to move the cursor around after each message to find it. Or, I'm not seeing the statically positioned link.

Obviously, I'm incredibly lazy, since having to move the cursor annoys me.

CK

CowbellGuy
Bright red and yellow was ok, but this makes your eyes strain?

What can I say, I like brightly colored pages

the colors are an improvement. the new tag in the flat view is great. what'd be fantastic is an option to see only the new messages in the flat view. a few more entries at the top of the championships section would be nice too

CKinsland
The one thing that I miss, as a threaded view reader, is the stationary "next message" link. On the old one, I could just keep bopping the button on my laptop as I read messages (if I didn't accidentally move the cursor). On this one, the only "next message" link floats at the bottom of the message, so I have to move the cursor around after each message to find it. Or, I'm not seeing the statically positioned link.

Agreed. I can't think of a good reason for having removed that link, and I'd also like it back.

Hey, man, it looked horrible.

Incidentally, I notice that the new design seems to have an arbitrary limit on how far to the right the threaded view can actually nest, no matter what the actual nesting situation of the posts. Was that intentional?

I like, generally. Definitely prettier and looks more professional. Right now I have to say I'm on board with the more red comment, but I admit it could just take some getting used to. Although if the salmon-orange, could be made more a gentle red, that might be good

P.S. The poll could really use something between 'great' and 'eh'.

I started as an "Eh," but the more I get used to it the more I like it. It's very clean and professional. Great job as always, Age!

Just weighing in, Age, and this color scheme definitely gives me retinal burn whereas the old one did not. It's painful! I second RazzBaronZ's suggestion, choice of color schemes, if possible?
On the design, links feel weird on the right to me as well, but I can get used to that--it's the staring-at-the-sun-without-sunglasses feeling that gets to me....

REDhead
Just weighing in, Age, and this color scheme definitely gives me retinal burn whereas the old one did not. It's painful!

Are you looking at the same site that I am? This color scheme is much more subdued than the all-red solid of the prior rev. I can see someone thinking it's too "corporate" (I don't), but "retinal burn"? Come on...

Yeah, i don't get that either. This scheme is very pastel looking. Too professional, or too quiet maybe, but painful?. I wonder if some people's browsers may be rendering it weird? (Firefox here)

Trotsky

REDhead
Just weighing in, Age, and this color scheme definitely gives me retinal burn whereas the old one did not. It's painful!

Are you looking at the same site that I am? This color scheme is much more subdued than the all-red solid of the prior rev. I can see someone thinking it's too "corporate" (I don't), but "retinal burn"? Come on...

Regarding "retinal burn", I don't particularly like black text on white backgrounds. So much so that I change Windows settings so that every window (browsers, office, etc) is grey instead of white. A less bright background is simply more comfortable on the eyes. I'm not going to claim that I liked the yellow background color in the old format (always seemed odd having red and yellow), but it was softer on my eyes.

It would be nice to have the previous thread and next thread links at the very bottom of the thread. I'm one of those crazy people that likes the posts in chronological order so that link makes the most sense at the bottom.

CKinsland
Well, I mostly like it and I do find it easier on the eyes (once I got over the initial shock).

The one thing that I miss, as a threaded view reader, is the stationary "next message" link. On the old one, I could just keep bopping the button on my laptop as I read messages (if I didn't accidentally move the cursor). On this one, the only "next message" link floats at the bottom of the message, so I have to move the cursor around after each message to find it. Or, I'm not seeing the statically positioned link.

Obviously, I'm incredibly lazy, since having to move the cursor annoys me.

CK

That's no problem to add. I intended to, but obviously forgot.

Yeah, I'm going to work on colors a bit more. When I tried a light red, it just looked pink, and I've seen huge variation in how it actually displays on different monitors. But I'll keep at it.

I've actually been using the work-in-progress for about 3 months. I kind of had the same reaction. Once I got used to it, I hated going back to the old version.

One thing I'm definitely ruling out is keeping the old version around. First off, it wasn't complete. It was a stopgap. The control panel was never really finish and it had some serious display issues. Also, one I add the new features next week, they won't be supported in the old version. I'll work on improving this one, but I won't keep the old one available. Sorry.

What I CAN do is possibly offer the same layout with a different stylesheet/graphics. Maybe one with more beat-you-over-the-head coloring that some of you seem to prefer.

The countdown clock is either set with the wrong game time, or has some issue with time zones. It thinks the game is 7 hours away.

Jacob '06
The countdown clock is either set with the wrong game time, or has some issue with time zones. It thinks the game is 7 hours away.

Same here, looks like it just looks at the local time and doesnt consider the time zone.

I'll chime in on color scheme. It takes my eyes a couple of seconds to adjust and be able to distinguish the text from the background. Yah, I seem to fall into the category that's in need of a brighter/more contrasting color scheme.

Otherwise, reserving all other judgements for a bit.

That's the exact opposite of what Keith said. He thinks there's too much contrast.

The spelling aids were nice. You ought to add one for Clarkson lurkers: "hockey." And maybe indicate the hyphenation point.

Well, you'll never make all of us happy

overall i think it's nice
when the site first came up, at first i thought it hadn't finished loading, due to lack of the bright red heading...oops. hehe.

i agree with the i-think-there-is-a-lack-of-red comment, but if it doesn't really work, it doesn't really work!

overall, it's gets above an "eh" but not quite a "great"...maybe a "great minus" (which sounds weird...if it were letters, i'd give it an A-)
ok i'm done now.

LGR!!

LFS

I am adjusting to this new color scheme... rather nice... though it could use more green, maybe a hint of gold...

Jacob '06
It would be nice to have the previous thread and next thread links at the very bottom of the thread.

Second.

I notice that just to the left of the "Posts" column, there's a "Views" column - but only in the Ticket Exchange Forum, not in the other three. It seems superfluous given that each thread's title is followed with the number of views in parentheses - and it's potentially confusing for those of us who are used to seeing only one column and having it tell us how many posts there are in the thread.

Dpperk29
I am adjusting to this new color scheme... rather nice... though it could use more green, maybe a hint of gold...

I see green and gold in the poll - and that's plenty

More red, if possible. Not sure having the yellow "E" in the eLynah logo is still appropriate, given the lack of yellow anywhere else, but I really like the rest of the logo.

I like the new set-up, but the colors just feel a little too cool.

If you want to read quickly and click next, next, next message, the cursor no longer is over the Next button because the location moves up or down with the message length.

[elf.elynah.com]

[elf.elynah.com]

You can't expect Bill to have read all the posts in this thread. The next message button kept jumping around on him!

I, too, will be happy when the next and previous message links are duplicated at the top, for the reasons others have stated, and also because there are often messages where I am ready to move on after the first dozen lines but the poster's twenty lines of signature pushes the bottom of the message off the screen, forcing an extra click to reach the end.

Is there away to give us "next unread message" in threaded view? I like the context that the threaded view provides, but find geting around a bit of a nuisance in the longer threads.

I'll echo the request to change the line spacing so that more subject lines fit on the screen.

Is there any way to implement the opposite of "Follow this thread?" Something like "suppress showing me this thread in the future." There are threads that have a sufficiently low probability of generating interesting new posts that I would like to be able to skip them automatically, rather than having to manually exercise my right to ignore them every time I check in.

Personally, I find the bright screen hard on my eyes. I don't know why it is different from the white window with black type of a MSWord window that I stare at so much of the day. I do like the way the selected message title is highlighted.

The quotee in quoted messages doesn't seem to line up quite right with the "QUOTE" heading.

The search function does not limit the search in time. For example, if I leave the default of last 30 days, I still get messages from last March and beyond. I doubt that it's related to the new design, since I was having trouble limiting searches by forum before the change.

I don't see a link for donations.

David Harding
Is there away to give us "next unread message" in threaded view? I like the context that the threaded view provides, but find geting around a bit of a nuisance in the longer threads.

Perhaps. I'll look into it.

David Harding
Is there any way to implement the opposite of "Follow this thread?" Something like "suppress showing me this thread in the future." There are threads that have a sufficiently low probability of generating interesting new posts that I would like to be able to skip them automatically, rather than having to manually exercise my right to ignore them every time I check in.

Probably not.

David Harding
The quotee in quoted messages doesn't seem to line up quite right with the "QUOTE" heading.

That's quite intentional.

DeltaOne81
Yeah, i don't get that either. This scheme is very pastel looking. Too professional, or too quiet maybe, but painful?. I wonder if some people's browsers may be rendering it weird? (Firefox here)

I said it strains my eyes, not hurts them. Part of it is that the font got really small on my hi-res laptop screen, but "text zoom" fixed that. But the pale color scheme means more work to pick things out that used to leap out at you.

David Harding
Is there away to give us "next unread message" in threaded view? I like the context that the threaded view provides, but find geting around a bit of a nuisance in the longer threads.

Seconded. That's the feature I still miss most from the old CHDF.

Age, when I did next year's schedule, viewing it on Firefox gave blank lines in between each date, not so in IE. Why?

Posting a little late but... I like the new forum design. I would just echo the people who say it would be nice if it were red instead of purple/salmon and blue. The blue/white could look good with red. Why not make the bar that says "reply to this message/quote this message/etc" bright red, and then I think the purpley-salmon shading might still look okay.

REDhead
Just weighing in, Age, and this color scheme definitely gives me retinal burn whereas the old one did not. It's painful! I second RazzBaronZ's suggestion, choice of color schemes, if possible?
On the design, links feel weird on the right to me as well, but I can get used to that--it's the staring-at-the-sun-without-sunglasses feeling that gets to me....

Teams wearing red win more games than teams wearing other colors. But team colors don't always make great background colors. This is fine.

While the Cornellian in me always likes more red, the I'm-at-work-ian in me appreciates that I'll now be able to check threads at work without my monitor screaming out, "THIS GUY IS SLACKING OFF ON THE JOB!"

I do like the idea of giving us a couple color schemes to choose from. It'd also be really cool if this setting came in two modes: a "default" and a "just on this computer" (using cookies), so that we could use a garishly fun layout for reading at home, and a calmer one for work.

In fact, if you could offer a layout that looks like the MSDN pages, that'd be ideal camouflage

Nice job Age!

At work, we just finished re-designing our website (which is much simplier that ELF) so I appreciate and admire you for undertaking such a project.

I do like the "new" tags on posts in the flat view.

However, I would like to see the spelling (and apostrophe use? ) guide return (so that I do not get in the bad graces of the forum's spelling and grammar police)

LynahFaithfulS
overall i think it's nice
when the site first came up, at first i thought it hadn't finished loading, due to lack of the bright red heading...oops. hehe.

i agree with the i-think-there-is-a-lack-of-red comment, but if it doesn't really work, it doesn't really work!

overall, it's gets above an "eh" but not quite a "great"...maybe a "great minus" (which sounds weird...if it were letters, i'd give it an A-)
ok i'm done now.

LGR!!

LFS

Isn't an A- almost a failing grade at Sucks?

-WillR

It definitely makes sense to professionalize the look of the forum. On that front the execution is done well and plausibly useful for at-work readers.

This is, however, a largely Cornell athletics forum, right? How about we steer from the limp colors and bring back a bit more bold, in-your-face starkness? I notice that the website icon is still hotdog condiment-colored, which is comforting to my psyche, at least. I'd seriously welcome back the ketchup background and let it beat me over the head. At least it'd remind me I was reading about hockey and not, say, flowers.

Well, you wanted more red. If you want to go back and look, the previous template is still available in Forum Settings in the Control Center.

CowbellGuy
Well, you wanted more red. If you want to go back and look, the previous template is still available in Forum Settings in the Control Center.

Looks Great! Thanks

Ahhhh...the new color tweak (red message bars) is excellent. One big reason why I like more contrast is that in flat view, it's easier to seperate the posts when scrolling and/or scanning. So the darkness of the red bar serves this purpose. The subtle color gradient for each post is nice, too.

One comment, the black text on the red buttons in this message composition box should change to white text on red buttons. For continuity and readability.

Generally, I'm function over form in most things. As long as I can find the information that I want quickly, I'm all good. This design is clean, the performance is fast, and all the data was retained, so thumbs up...and I'm one who liked the ketchup-mustard contrast of the previous design. The grey background in the top graphic makes me say "eh," but that's of such minor importance, I really don't care.

Basically, whenever a familiar website does a change, it's shocking to people. I felt that way when CHDF ended. It just takes time to get used to seeing it.

Much better, Age!

Now can we have more white? Just kidding

RichH
One comment, the black text on the red buttons in this message composition box should change to white text on red buttons.

Stupid IE... Actually that should have already been fixed by the time you finished writing that post.

You know.. I was just about to respond to the Forum poll with an "eh" when I noticed the beautiful Carnellian red has replaced that color that looked just too damn similar to Crimson. And here's a vote for "Great!"

Awesome work Age!

CowbellGuy

RichH
One comment, the black text on the red buttons in this message composition box should change to white text on red buttons.

Stupid IE... Actually that should have already been fixed by the time you finished writing that post.

Still shows black on red for me (Firefox 1.5.0.7).

I like the revised color scheme. Much.

Buttons are still black on red for me, as well. I did a shift-reload on firefox, so I don't think the problem is over here.

I would also make the lettering on the red menu bar bold: white on red is a little hard to read at normal weight.

Kyle

When I opened up elf the other day I thought, "AAhh! What happened??!!". Then I realized it was a nice scheme that just needed more bold and more red. When I opened it up today, I thought, "Wow! That is sweet!".

Nice job Age. Thank you for spending so much of your time keeping this forum going.

The spelling guide is back!!

redhair34
The spelling guide is back!!

Ditto! But no apostrophe guide for the grammatically challenged?

Yeah, just noticed there's a button style for IE-only and one for everything else. Safari does its own buttons so I didn't notice. I'll fix it in the morning.

Sure, it's got red now, but I can't help but think it's maybe too red.

It might be intentional, but why is Spelling Guide spelled "Speling Guide" ?

redheadfanatic
It might be intentional, but why is Spelling Guide spelled "Speling Guide" ?

Humor?

Kyle

Fab. And I think this is actually closer to Carnelian red than RPI red, anyhow.

redheadfanatic
It might be intentional, but why is Spelling Guide spelled "Speling Guide" ?

You mean instead of "Speling Giude"?

Age...how about restarting the poll on what people think of the site now that you've added additional colour, some additional features, etc. Really NICE job.

Much better with the red. I'm satisfied.

hehehe
I figured it was intentional

I've noticed today that any new posts in the sticky threads show up as new posts in each forum. For example, when I logged on just now, this thread had three new posts, Other Sports advertised six new posts, but only three new non-sticky posts, and John Spencer had three new posts, but none outside the sticky thread. Did I explain that clearly? Is this just a problem for me, for me and other Firefox users, or for everyone?

Oh,and I love the feature that jumps to new posts in flat view!

It's not a sticky, it's an announcement. It shows up in all the fora, so until you read the unread messages, they'll show up as new in all of them.

This is beautiful! I absolutely love it, even over the old site.

One question - how do I jump to new posts in a thread? Mine still takes me just to the top, so I scroll down (or start at the bottom and scroll up) to find where I left off.

las224
This is beautiful! I absolutely love it, even over the old site.

One question - how do I jump to new posts in a thread? Mine still takes me just to the top, so I scroll down (or start at the bottom and scroll up) to find where I left off.

Click on the "x new" red text next to the thread name in the main listing.

Whats with the recent scores section? Sometimes our score is put second and sometimes its put first? Are you trying to confuse us? Will scoring leaders be listed:
Topher Scott 6-2-4

fullofgas
Whats with the recent scores section? Sometimes our score is put second and sometimes its put first? Are you trying to confuse us? Will scoring leaders be listed:
Topher Scott 6-2-4

Road team first. Home team second.

Oh, thanks for the clarification.

redheadfanatic
It might be intentional, but why is Spelling Guide spelled "Speling Guide" ?

I know Apache web server has a "speling" module that corrects missspelled URLs. For example, (shameless plug) if you go to
[www.srh.noaa.gov]
the web server will correct the PPH at the end and show you the PHP page.

Humor Age, or a reference?

So the link that says salsashark.net link on the bottom of every page:

If you click on design, and try to click on the eLynah logo, it takes you to a nonexistent page. Probably not good, right?

Not exactly a Forum design point but on the schedule the January Yale and Brown games are listed with the same date.

Thanks, fixed.

This isn't a big deal, but I noticed while repeatedly editing the out of town scoreboard last weekend, that the number of times edited listed at the bottom seemed to be pretty random. Once it got past a few, it would randomly be somewhere between 7 and 9. I wasn't paying close attention to it but I know I edited the post more than 8 times.

I just thought I'd point it out to see if anyone noticed something similar.

Chris '03
This isn't a big deal, but I noticed while repeatedly editing the out of town scoreboard last weekend, that the number of times edited listed at the bottom seemed to be pretty random. Once it got past a few, it would randomly be somewhere between 7 and 9. I wasn't paying close attention to it but I know I edited the post more than 8 times.

I just thought I'd point it out to see if anyone noticed something similar.

Yeah I noticed something similar when I was editing the Qunnipiac game thread/post.