Feedback on the new site

Hi,
I agree with Frank, message boards is the most important part.

Clear Skies !

Calibos wrote:

Frank,
Have you had a look at iceinspace.com. Same layout as here. ie banner across the top, Menu down the side. Its just its tailored specifically to my resolution and makes full use of all the screen real estate.

Not quite, iceinspace auto fits the entire screen width and doesn't have the big empty space at the end of each post like here, it much more like the old board, its alot more readable.

I am afraid I have to agree with Frank also. I appreciate the time that went into the site redesign and trying to accommodate everyone, and I too dont want to offend anyone but I also find the new boards slow and cumbersome and much less user friendly,

The rest of the site is fantastic, and opens up a world of opportunity. Its just the boards that are the weak point.

I wouldn't worry about the level of activity falling off, after all we are in he middle of summer and people are not in front of their pc as much as winter

Dave_Lillis wrote:

Calibos wrote:

Frank,
Have you had a look at iceinspace.com. Same layout as here. ie banner across the top, Menu down the side. Its just its tailored specifically to my resolution and makes full use of all the screen real estate.

Not quite, iceinspace auto fits the entire screen width and doesn't have the big empty space at the end of each post like here, it much more like the old board, its alot more readable.

No, I know the site isn't like Iceinspace yet but the basic layout is the same and that it is just a matter of tweaking this site to get it perfect. Tweaking that the admins acknowledge needs to be done, and will do when they have the time. Tweaking like getting the site to autofill the available resolution, tweaking like setting the default text area allocated to posts smaller.

(ie. Its set at the moment to give a post a minimum area on screen, if you only post a few lines, it still gives the post this minimum area filling the rest with white space, and only if your post goes over the default text area does it not add any extra white space. EG my posts went over the default textarea and I don't have any big chunk of white added to the bottom of my post. Vagelis only posted a line or two and didn't go over the default textarea and thus he had a huge chunk of blank white space added)

I would imagine the post textarea problem is just a matter of tweaking one paraemter and as soon as an admin see's and acknowledges this particular bug it'll be fixed almost imediatly.

Another little thing that would give a little bit of extra space back to the forum width would be making the menu fram a bit thinner. Looks to me that its only the 'Main Menu','User Menu' etc little banners that push that frame width as wide as it is. The actual text links in the Menu only extend to at most 2/3 of the frame. Shorten those menu banners and assuming that left side frame and Forum frame autosizes, well then the forum width just got back 1.5inches on my screen.

I want to clarify that I agree (with Frank too)...with what everyone is saying about usability and my only point is that I don't think everyone needs to preface their posts with appologies. We all think the forum is the most important part and has useability issues currently. I think the admins concede and acknowledge this too and its just a matter of time before they get around to addressing these concerns.

I don't think we need to keep pointing out the resolution and cramped nature of the forums anymore. Its been acknowledged. But I do think we should keep pointing out any of the other bugs we find.

Calibos wrote:

But I do think we should keep pointing out any of the other bugs we find.

Hm... I don't like the emoticons :kiss:
See what I mean?

Actually I think the "minimum post height" and fairly narrow post width are both reflections of having the avatar & user info in a column to the left of the post.

Note that they're across the top of each post in IceInSpace.

-- Jeff.