New Forum Design

CowbellGuy · October 21, 2006, 11:50:20 PM

http://elf.elynah.com/read.php?1,99428,99497#msg-99497

Chris '03 · October 21, 2006, 11:50:25 PM

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

David Harding · October 22, 2006, 12:52:32 AM

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. ::worry::

CowbellGuy · October 22, 2006, 02:14:14 AM

[quote 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.[/quote]

Perhaps. I'll look into it.

[quote 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.[/quote]

Probably not.

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

That's quite intentional.

jtwcornell91 · October 22, 2006, 03:45:58 AM

[quote 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)[/quote]

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.

jtwcornell91 · October 22, 2006, 03:46:56 AM

[quote 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.[/quote]

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

Jim Hyla · October 22, 2006, 12:02:34 PM

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

las224 · October 22, 2006, 12:10:38 PM

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.

billhoward · October 22, 2006, 01:00:32 PM

[quote 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....[/quote]

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

ftyuv · October 22, 2006, 04:50:37 PM

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

Rita · October 22, 2006, 05:47:14 PM

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) :-)

WillR · October 22, 2006, 07:51:41 PM

[quote 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[/quote]

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

-WillR

DL · October 22, 2006, 10:11:27 PM

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. ::nut::

CowbellGuy · October 23, 2006, 05:02:43 PM

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.

redhair34 · October 23, 2006, 05:12:07 PM

[quote 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.[/quote]

Looks Great! Thanks :-)