# main forum page get new look?



## Crothian (Sep 15, 2005)

Instead of the list of forums going down, they now go across.  Different scares me.


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## Ankh-Morpork Guard (Sep 15, 2005)

Well, I think Spoony's still playing with it...but I do miss(already, and its only been 10 or so minutes) not being able to see the last post in all the forums.


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## Angel Tarragon (Sep 15, 2005)

Messed it. I want it back the way it was.


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## Truth Seeker (Sep 15, 2005)

Ah..change...what is it that people say, to explore, change comes from within.  

Put it BACK!!!


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## Michael Morris (Sep 15, 2005)

I'm done with it, but I'm not sure I like it either.  The goal is to get rid of the intimidating flood of information on the main page. Now forumhome only shows the main categories and their child forums. If the icon is red there's been a new post.

If you click on a category it will bring up it's section and that will be displayed the way it was displayed before.

Again, the goal is a reduction of clutter on the forumhome page. I'm certainly not enamored to this new look either, so if anyone has any ideas I'd like to hear them.  If no one (including me) starts to like it in a few days I'll change it back - no big deal.


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## Ankh-Morpork Guard (Sep 15, 2005)

Well, I know I reduced the old thing by minimizing the sections I didn't use. Of course, that probably isn't helpful for new users, but this interface makes it hard to just browse the forums.


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## Truth Seeker (Sep 15, 2005)

Spoony Bard said:
			
		

> I'm done with it, but I'm not sure I like it either.  The goal is to get rid of the intimidating flood of information on the main page. Now forumhome only shows the main categories and their child forums. If the icon is red there's been a new post.
> 
> If you click on a category it will bring up it's section and that will be displayed the way it was displayed before.
> 
> Again, the goal is a reduction of clutter on the forumhome page. I'm certainly not enamored to this new look either, so if anyone has any ideas I'd like to hear them.  If no one (including me) starts to like it in a few days I'll change it back - no big deal.




Alright, in fairness, I will let it grow on me, to see how much an effect it has...anyone here has a problem with this solution, no?


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## Jdvn1 (Sep 15, 2005)

... Weird...


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## Crothian (Sep 15, 2005)

Truth Seeker said:
			
		

> Alright, in fairness, I will let it grow on me, to see how much an effect it has...anyone here has a problem with this solution, no?




I liked being able to see what the first thread in a forum was, I miss that option.


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## Angel Tarragon (Sep 15, 2005)

I just plain don't like it.


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## spatha (Sep 15, 2005)

Too me it doesn't look like a message board anymore. If that makes any sense. I like the layout and look of NTL, rpg.net, etc. This new layout is so different than these that I have to say this is the worse change I have seen here yet. Sorry Spoony you do a lot of hard and good work but aesthetically the new layout is not my cup of tea.


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## reveal (Sep 15, 2005)

I like it. It's clean and simple. I don't care what the "latest post" in a forum is because I'm gonna go into it anyway.

Remember, folks, resistance is futile.


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## Hand of Evil (Sep 15, 2005)

EEK!  Now that is just wrong!


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## Enkhidu (Sep 15, 2005)

How about changing the sub-forums listing under each main heading from a list style to a true bulleted style?


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## Angel Tarragon (Sep 15, 2005)

spatha said:
			
		

> Too me it doesn't look like a message board anymore. If that makes any sense. I like the layout and look of NTL, rpg.net, etc. This new layout is so different than these that I have to say this is the worse change I have seen here yet. Sorry Spoony you do a lot of hard and good work but aesthetically the new layout is not my cup of tea.



Couldn't have said it better.


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## Cutter XXIII (Sep 15, 2005)

From a strict layout standpoint, the legibility is very low. Try to let your eye scan down the page...you can't, because nothing lines up.

The age-old question...a little bit of illegible info or a whole lot of legible info?


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## GlassJaw (Sep 15, 2005)

Not a fan.  Not a fan at all.


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## Kylara (Sep 15, 2005)

Ugly as sin, and illegible to boot.  If you are going to inflict this, can we at least have an option to see it in the way it used to be?


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## reveal (Sep 15, 2005)

Spoony Bard said:
			
		

> I'm done with it, but I'm not sure I like it either.  The goal is to get rid of the intimidating flood of information on the main page. Now forumhome only shows the main categories and their child forums. If the icon is red there's been a new post.
> 
> If you click on a category it will bring up it's section and that will be displayed the way it was displayed before.
> 
> Again, the goal is a reduction of clutter on the forumhome page. I'm certainly not enamored to this new look either, so if anyone has any ideas I'd like to hear them.  If no one (including me) starts to like it in a few days I'll change it back - no big deal.




Can you make the text bigger at all? That may help the illegibility.


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## Michael Morris (Sep 15, 2005)

Ah, forget, I'm switching it back.


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## Rystil Arden (Sep 15, 2005)

(Edit: This post became pointless as I was typing it--Thanks Spoony!)


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## Michael Morris (Sep 15, 2005)

Don't worry about it.  The more I looked at it, the more *I* didn't like it. Switched it back mostly (thought the main categories now have descriptions - that I do like a bit -- thoughts?)


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## Henry (Sep 15, 2005)

Michael's just trying to make it take less than 20 seconds to scroll down to Meta. Give him time to see what works. 

EDIT: And speaking of obsolete messages...  I see you changed it back. 

I admit it's becoming harder to see the whole list, but I'll admit I still like seeing and being able to jump to the most recent post in each forum. I didn't really feel comfy with the other formats, either, but if we had to do something different, the one with all the sub-forums linked in a paragraph seemed to work.


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## Crothian (Sep 15, 2005)

I was kinda liking the other way...then it gets changed back...my brains going to explode.....


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## Crothian (Sep 15, 2005)

Spoony Bard said:
			
		

> (thought the main categories now have descriptions - that I do like a bit -- thoughts?)




I like that bit


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## Ankh-Morpork Guard (Sep 15, 2005)

Spoony Bard said:
			
		

> Don't worry about it.  The more I looked at it, the more *I* didn't like it. Switched it back mostly (thought the main categories now have descriptions - that I do like a bit -- thoughts?)



 I do like the descriptions.


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## Kylara (Sep 15, 2005)

Maybe you can set it up so that people can hide entire forum areas, and onl have those areas that they choose to be expanded, ie, I only read the General, Talking the Talk, Playing the Game, and the Books/TV/Sci Fi/Fantasy forum areas.  Allow people to hide those areas that they don't use.

Or set it up that the sub forums are hidden by default, but you can work them like you work windows explorer with little plus boxes that expand to show the sub forums when you click on the plus.


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## Michael Morris (Sep 15, 2005)

Kylara said:
			
		

> Ugly as sin, and illegible to boot.  If you are going to inflict this, can we at least have an option to see it in the way it used to be?




The difference between the two is a single variable, so making it user controllable is possible.  I don't think anyone likes the other way though.


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## reveal (Sep 15, 2005)

Kylara said:
			
		

> Maybe you can set it up so that people can hide entire forum areas, and onl have those areas that they choose to be expanded, ie, I only read the General, Talking the Talk, Playing the Game, and the Books/TV/Sci Fi/Fantasy forum areas.  Allow people to hide those areas that they don't use.
> 
> Or set it up that the sub forums are hidden by default, but you can work them like you work windows explorer with little plus boxes that expand to show the sub forums when you click on the plus.




If you look on the right side of the screen, there are little boxes with minus signs on them. Clicking those will collapse the section you don't want to see. It doesn't hide them, but it's the next best thing.

I was actually going to suggest, if it's possible, allowing the individual the ability to order the forums from top to bottom. So the one's they visit more often are at the top and the one's they visit less frequently can be near the bottom.


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## Kylara (Sep 15, 2005)

reveal said:
			
		

> If you look on the right side of the screen, there are little boxes with minus signs on them. Clicking those will collapse the section you don't want to see. It doesn't hide them, but it's the next best thing.
> 
> I was actually going to suggest, if it's possible, allowing the individual the ability to order the forums from top to bottom. So the one's they visit more often are at the top and the one's they visit less frequently can be near the bottom.




Wow, thanks, never noticed that.

What would make it perfect though, is if you could simply specifiy that you wanted to only see X,Y, and Z sub forums, and have everything else hidden, (hidden in that only the major forum categories show up)


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## Knight Otu (Sep 15, 2005)

The ISRP Chit-Chat forum description mentions that "Subforums of this board allow for in character participation." Maybe the other ISRP forums could become actual subforums, if that is ok with the ISRP members? It would reduce the page size, at least.
I'm sure there're other possibilities as well, but the best I can come up with is having Rules, House Rules and Conversions as subforums of a "Crunch Talk" forum. Which doesn't sound very good to me.


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## reveal (Sep 15, 2005)

Kylara said:
			
		

> Wow, thanks, never noticed that.
> 
> What would make it perfect though, is if you could simply specifiy that you wanted to only see X,Y, and Z sub forums, and have everything else hidden, (hidden in that only the major forum categories show up)




I thought about that, but, personally, I like seeing the other forums, even if I hardly ever visit them. Every now and then I'll see a topic heading that catches my eye and I visit.


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## William Ronald (Sep 15, 2005)

Spoony Bard said:
			
		

> The difference between the two is a single variable, so making it user controllable is possible.  I don't think anyone likes the other way though.




On my browser, it looks like the boards went back to the old style -- which is a bit easier for me to follow.

I did not like the horizontal arrangement of the subforums.

However, I do appreciate the hard work.


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## Kylara (Sep 15, 2005)

reveal said:
			
		

> I thought about that, but, personally, I like seeing the other forums, even if I hardly ever visit them. Every now and then I'll see a topic heading that catches my eye and I visit.




My reason fo suggesting it is that, I have 4 categories open, that is something like 25 subforums viewable, but I only ever enter 6 subforums, of which, 3 are all alone in categores that have 5 sub-forums that I don't read.  I was making the suggestion since Spoony wants to reduce scroll time
.


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## RangerWickett (Sep 15, 2005)

Perhaps a listing of the main areas -- RPG Forums, Gaming Action, ISRP, Non-RPG, Hosted Sites, and Meta -- going down vertically, each with the subforums listed in paragraph format. Then two highly obvious buttons that say "Expand" and "Expand All." So when you first load the page, you see 



> *MAIN AREA 1. *
> Description.
> Linked list of subforum names, like general, rules, house rules, etc.
> 
> ...




But if you click expand for area 1, you'd get:



> *MAIN AREA 1. *
> Description.
> General
> D&D Rules
> ...




and if you clicked expand all, . . . well, I'd have to type a lot of forum names that I don't feel like doing.


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## Cutter XXIII (Sep 16, 2005)

Ooh...I like the current iteration, Spoony.


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## Truth Seeker (Sep 16, 2005)

*i HAVE a DREAM!!!*

Man, I must apologize to Michael...for going all dog tear on him, when I saw the changes. Like ya know, one moment, I was going through the menu selection, going back and forth forums, and all the sudden....WHAMMO!!! Twilight zone, at first, I though, someone hacked my system, then I checked.

NaAAAAA!!!

Then I chedked around EnWorld.

Naaaaaa!

Then my fingers and peeps, direct me here.

BINGO!

Then I went all Dr jeckle and Hyde on him.

Not nice from me  .

So...me sorry, me almost forgot the great dreams that Michael has for this site, me listened with GREAT passion to Spoony, Fix things on occasion...Michael. Me did. So...from me, purely me...live the Dream Man...Live the DREAM!

( But can we get a shadow of a forewarning, first? mE KNOW the other warning, me saw on the promter of blackness and orange font...still not prepare yet, for the madness)


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## William Ronald (Sep 16, 2005)

Truth Seeker said:
			
		

> Man, I must apologize to Michael...for going all dog tear on him, when I saw the changes. Like ya know, one moment, I was going through the menu selection, going back and forth forums, and all the sudden....WHAMMO!!! Twilight zone, at first, I though, someone hacked my system, then I checked.
> 
> NaAAAAA!!!
> 
> ...




Michael does have great dreams, but I think he also needs our support.  Some constructive criticism can help.  Truth Seeker, at least you have the grace to apologize. 

I like Ranger Wickett's idea, and possibly the main area might include the title of the most recently posted thread and a time stamp  (possibly the poster's name).  Expanding the list would produce the same information for each subforum.  This might just be a matter of hiding some fo the sub forums, and having something added to each main forum.  (The thread titles might draw people to each forum, or at least let people know what is discussed in a forum on the boards.)


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## Truth Seeker (Sep 16, 2005)

William Ronald said:
			
		

> Michael does have great dreams, but I think he also needs our support.  Some constructive criticism can help.  Truth Seeker, at least you have the grace to apologize.




Yes...It had to be done, cause...when Michael spoke to me at Gen Con, on all the wonderful things that has been envisioned for EnWorld(and the total of it will stay private). It took a delay moment to digest all that tech talk, at the end...I witness an individual who is knee deep, in the rare thing, that we never truly see.

Magic...

Michael is the mage of the code speak, and God Bless him, I can't wait to see the wonders, that swirl in his layered mind.

And I will NOT take him for granted, either.

So...bring it on 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 SPOONY!!!


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## Hand of Evil (Sep 16, 2005)

Spoony Bard said:
			
		

> Ah, forget, I'm switching it back.



We are just set in our ways.


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## Mark CMG (Sep 16, 2005)

Which is functionally the easier to use?


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## Angel Tarragon (Sep 16, 2005)

The former (the way it is now).


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