# UI bar at the top



## adamc

... maybe I'm misremembering, but the bar at the top (with Youtube, Twitter, etc.) seems new, or at least different. I am finding it irritating and intrusive, in part because it floats up there even when I scroll. Is there a way to turn it off?


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## MarkB

I'd also appreciate such an option. I don't use social-networking sites, and everything else up there was easy enough to access from the standard site interface.

EDIT: Also, I've just noticed that when you jump to the newest unread message in a thread, the bar obscures the message text.


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## Ahnehnois

That bar also has the notifications and account settings, which are kind of sine qua non. I'm guessing removing it is not an option.

It appears to be doing real time notifications, which to me is nice. I won't use all that social networking stuff either, but my guess is we'll just have to get used to the new interface.


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## JamesonCourage

MarkB said:


> I'd also appreciate such an option. I don't use social-networking sites, and everything else up there was easy enough to access from the standard site interface.
> 
> EDIT: Also, I've just noticed that when you jump to the newest unread message in a thread, the bar obscures the message text.



Same exact feelings here. I find the fact that it follows me and obscures text pretty annoying. I can live with it, obviously, but just giving feedback. (It doesn't help that I'm not at all interesting in mixing websites and strongly dislike cross-contamination, so I don't like the social networking stuff being the possible cause of this new decision.)


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## Lwaxy

I would like it gone, too - I don't use social networking much either, in  fact we forbid facebook and some other stuff on our network. I find it  intrusive as well.Especially since I can't seem to block just the facebook icon as I used to do before. I am also bad at remembering icon meanings and prefer the info about what a link is in text not as some icon. And the following me around is beyond annoying.


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## JamesonCourage

I'm also getting notifications when people are posting in threads I've posted in, and I was fairly certain I had that box unchecked... any way to disable that feature, if nothing else?


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## Ahnehnois

JamesonCourage said:


> I'm also getting notifications when people are posting in threads I've posted in, and I was fairly certain I had that box unchecked... any way to disable that feature, if nothing else?



Yes. Click the notification bell, then click settings in the new popup window, then uncheck:
Enable Notification when someone posts a reply

That stopped it for me.


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## JamesonCourage

Ahnehnois said:


> Yes. Click the notification bell, then click settings in the new popup window, then uncheck:
> Enable Notification when someone posts a reply
> 
> That stopped it for me.



Weird. I had double checked the settings through the regular settings menu, and don't remember seeing that option. Thanks, hopefully that does the trick.


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## Umbran

Ahnehnois said:


> Yes. Click the notification bell, then click settings in the new popup window, then uncheck:
> Enable Notification when someone posts a reply
> 
> That stopped it for me.




The problem is that *elsewhere* in your account settings (in among the "user tagging" settings) are checkboxes that would seem to be for the same functionality that aren't being obeyed.  

Those are phrased to "ignore" notifications, and the ones above are for enabling notifications, and they shouldn't both be there - one or the other.


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## Ahnehnois

[MENTION=177]Umbran[/MENTION]
This is true; I also noticed that.


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## Obryn

I like it; I think it's pretty great, myself.  I like keeping notifications front and center rather than having to scroll.


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## Morrus

The weird obscuring behaviour is not intentional. It's an unexpected bug.

Duplicate notification controls will be fixed. It's because some of our old notifications are from mods whose functionality is now core. Needs some cleaning up.

The bar takes up about 10% of the footprint of the previous header area, which took up the entire screen on smaller screens.

Links you don't need you don't have to click on. There's lots of things around here that I don't use, too.


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## Dannyalcatraz

There's a space between the notifications "bell" and my icon & name that sometimes flashes some lights at me.  What is that about?


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## Morrus

Dannyalcatraz said:


> There's a space between the notifications "bell" and my icon & name that sometimes flashes some lights at me.  What is that about?




No idea!  It's not supposed to flash lights at you.  Can you post a screenshot?  What browser, etc., are you using?


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## JamesonCourage

I also kinda dislike that I can't click "open in new tag" when I get notifications. I'm used to clicking on notifications, opening different threads in new windows, and looking at them one by one. Can't do that now. Not sure if that's a bug or just a new "feature" with the new layout.


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## Morrus

JamesonCourage said:


> I also kinda dislike that I can't click "open in new tag" when I get notifications. I'm used to clicking on notifications, opening different threads in new windows, and looking at them one by one. Can't do that now. Not sure if that's a bug or just a new "feature" with the new layout.




I can do that just fine; in fact I just did to get to this thread.  Make sure you're clicking on the actual link in each notification.


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## JamesonCourage

Morrus said:


> I can do that just fine; in fact I just did to get to this thread.  Make sure you're clicking on the actual link in each notification.



Oh, that'll do the trick. I was clicking on the box. Thanks!


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## Ahnehnois

Dannyalcatraz said:


> There's a space between the notifications "bell" and my icon & name that sometimes flashes some lights at me.  What is that about?



I think it means the toolbar is loading updates (say for notifications). Just speculating.

 [MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION] It's just a couple of white bars that kind of flutter next to the notification bell every now and then, very quickly IME.

It is weird and kind of distracting.


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## Dannyalcatraz

Morrus said:


> No idea!  It's not supposed to flash lights at you.  Can you post a screenshot?  What browser, etc., are you using?





I'm in Safari on a iPad2 runnin iOS7- Ahnehnois descibed it perfecly.


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## Morrus

Ahnehnois said:


> I think it means the toolbar is loading updates (say for notifications). Just speculating.
> 
> @_*Morrus*_  It's just a couple of white bars that kind of flutter next to the notification bell every now and then, very quickly IME.
> 
> It is weird and kind of distracting.




Ah, gotcha.  It's just the loading updates thing, as you say.  It's currently set to check every 60 seconds or so, I believe.


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## darjr

It obscures the first line or two of text when you got to 'latest post' in a thread.


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## Deset Gled

For anyone else who cares, you can use AdBlock's "Element Hiding Rules" to stop the floating bar at the top.  Use the filter: enworld.org###multix  You can then check your notifications by visiting your personal profile page.

My only problem now is that I used to disable AdBlock on ENWorld so that the site still got my advertising views/clicks.  Turning the element hider on also turns on the ad blocking.  I'll have to do some more testing later to see if there's a way to hide elements but allow ads through.


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## adamc

Morrus said:


> The bar takes up about 10% of the footprint of the previous header area, which took up the entire screen on smaller screens.



I'm curious how you are measuring that, and that is not my subjective impression. The new bar doesn't match the color scheme, sticks out like a sore thumb, and floats, which I loathe.


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## adamc

Deset Gled said:


> For anyone else who cares, you can use AdBlock's "Element Hiding Rules" to stop the floating bar at the top.  Use the filter: enworld.org###multix  You can then check your notifications by visiting your personal profile page.
> 
> My only problem now is that I used to disable AdBlock on ENWorld so that the site still got my advertising views/clicks.  Turning the element hider on also turns on the ad blocking.  I'll have to do some more testing later to see if there's a way to hide elements but allow ads through.




Thanks. I hate to do that, but if it's the only option... OK.


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## Morrus

adamc said:


> I'm curious how you are measuring that,l




How I'm measuring the vertical size of the headers? In pixels, mainly. The previous one had a large logo, two rows of 6 buttons, and a line of login controls and notifications, along with a large background image. This has all been reduced to the vertical space of just one single line of login controls and notifications and is a fraction of the size.


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## adamc

The previous header scrolled away when I was in a thread, so it effectively took up 0 pixels except at the beginning of the page. The current one is always there, and it takes as much room as my Firefox url bar and links bar combined.

But enough, I can make it go away, and will.


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## Morrus

adamc said:


> The previous header scrolled away when I was in a thread, so it effectively took up 0 pixels except at the beginning of the page. The current one is always there, and it takes as much room as my Firefox url bar and links bar combined.




That's a different question entirely. 



> But enough, I can make it go away, and will.




OK. I don't mind.


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## adamc

Deset Gled said:


> For anyone else who cares, you can use AdBlock's "Element Hiding Rules" to stop the floating bar at the top.  Use the filter: enworld.org###multix  You can then check your notifications by visiting your personal profile page.
> 
> My only problem now is that I used to disable AdBlock on ENWorld so that the site still got my advertising views/clicks.  Turning the element hider on also turns on the ad blocking.  I'll have to do some more testing later to see if there's a way to hide elements but allow ads through.



Alternative solution that doesn't require messing with adblock (but does require the stylish plugin):


		Code:
	

@-moz-document domain('enworld.org'){
    #multix{
        display: none !important;
    }
}


*Edit: * I went to using this (with the Stylish plugin in Firefox; Chrome would be similar, but slightly different):


		Code:
	

@-moz-document domain('enworld.org'){
    #multix{
        opacity: 0.0;
    }
    #multix:hover {
        opacity: 1.0;
        -moz-transition-delay: 2s;
    }
}

That keeps the floating div from showing up unless I deliberately mouse over it for two seconds.


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## JamesonCourage

So wait, is the floating behavior going to go away when you guys get time (which I don't mind), or is it the new norm? Just want to know if I should deal with it myself on my side or wait for it to be resolved.


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## Deset Gled

Morrus said:


> That's a different question entirely.




FWIW, the floating aspect is the only thing that bugs me about the new bar.  The social media stuff and design of the bar is fine, I just need it to go away when I scroll.



> Alternative solution that doesn't require messing with adblock (but does require the stylish plugin):




Thanks!  AdBlock is now disabled again.


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## Tovec

Deset Gled said:


> For anyone else who cares, you can use AdBlock's "Element Hiding Rules" to stop the floating bar at the top.  Use the filter: enworld.org###multix  You can then check your notifications by visiting your personal profile page.
> 
> My only problem now is that I used to disable AdBlock on ENWorld so that the site still got my advertising views/clicks.  Turning the element hider on also turns on the ad blocking.  I'll have to do some more testing later to see if there's a way to hide elements but allow ads through.





Perhaps I'm too inexperienced and unfamiliar with the Adblock system. I have it enabled but can't seem to find and properly change the element you are talking about.


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## Lanefan

I find the new bar is there sometimes and not others, but I haven't figured out what the pattern to such behaviour is, if any.

My question is more that I have no idea what some of the icons (e.g. the bell, the coffee cup) are supposed to mean - and I don't want to click on them to find out as who knows where I'll end up. 

Lanefan


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## Morrus

Lanefan said:


> My question is more that I have no idea what some of the icons (e.g. the bell, the coffee cup) are supposed to mean - and I don't want to click on them to find out as who knows where I'll end up.




Well, that's quite the insurmountable problem.  I assure you an icon can't transport you to Oz or anything.


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## doghead

Morrus said:


> Well, that's quite the insurmountable problem.  I assure you an icon can't transport you to Oz or anything.




Really. Bother. I was hoping that it would. Either there or Never Never Land 

thotd


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## JamesonCourage

Haven't heard any update on if the floating bar is going to stay or not, so I'll be using AdBlock for now, I guess. Will alter it if things change.


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## Morrus

JamesonCourage said:


> Haven't heard any update on if the floating bar is going to stay or not, so I'll be using AdBlock for now, I guess. Will alter it if things change.




Were you expecting an update?  Yes, it's staying.  Enjoy adblock!  I've added a link in the navbar to login and and your profile so you're not crippled by hiding it.


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## darjr

Is there a setting that can auto hide it, like with the windows bar?


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## Morrus

darjr said:


> Is there a setting that can auto hide it, like with the windows bar?




No, not unless somebody writes one.


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## JamesonCourage

Morrus said:


> Were you expecting an update?  Yes, it's staying.



In post #29, I wrote: "So wait, is the floating behavior going to go away when you guys get time (which I don't mind), or is it the new norm? Just want to know if I should deal with it myself on my side or wait for it to be resolved."

So, yeah, I was kind of expecting an update. I stopped expecting one when you replied to other people but not my post. Thus my new post.


Morrus said:


> Enjoy adblock!



Already am.


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## Lwaxy

Where did the link to subscribed threads go?


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## Morrus

Lwaxy said:


> Where did the link to subscribed threads go?




Hmmm? Nowhere. It's still there


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## MarkB

One very minor request: Could you either remove the "Top" button from the bottom of forum pages, or restore its functionality?

I know there's a "top of page" icon on the new UI bar, but I still try to click the one at the bottom of the page (purely muscle memory at this point) and feel disconcerted when nothing happens.


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## adamc

darjr said:


> Is there a setting that can auto hide it, like with the windows bar?




This might not be exactly what you want, but if you use the Stylish plugin you can achieve something like that with


		Code:
	

@-moz-document domain('enworld.org'){
    #multix{
        top: -45px;
    }
    #multix:hover {
        top: 0px;
    }
}


Or, if you want it to completely vanish, you could go with the code I showed before, that changes the opacity.

I don't care much for the current implementation, but it isn't hard to adjust.


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## darjr

I think I'll try a few of these. wonder how I could make an option to make the bar stick and scroll, and it auto hide at the moment, if Russ likes the ideaa


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## Morrus

darjr said:


> I think I'll try a few of these. wonder how I could make an option to make the bar stick and scroll, and it auto hide at the moment, if Russ likes the ideaa




The developer is actually working on an upgrade to fix several issues, so I'd hold off.


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## adamc

That's good to know. The developer will have more options available than mere styling. (With greasemonkey, we could too, but... I prefer to try to minimize changes to pages, since they will often break when the page changes.)


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## Lwaxy

Morrus said:


> Hmmm? Nowhere. It's still there




Not for me. It used to be on the top right side under my settings or whatever it was called. One click and I was there. Now I can't find it anymore.

Also just noticed, once you click on the bell symbol, it does not matter how many more unread stuff you have, it won't show an alert anymore. Which is kind of bad as I will then forget to read stuff. It also shows every reply to a thread and not just what is directed at me.


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## Morrus

Lwaxy said:


> Not for me. It used to be on the top right side under my settings or whatever it was called. One click and I was there. Now I can't find it anymore.
> 
> Also just noticed, once you click on the bell symbol, it does not matter how many more unread stuff you have, it won't show an alert anymore. Which is kind of bad as I will then forget to read stuff. It also shows every reply to a thread and not just what is directed at me.




It's in your profile drop down.

And control notification behaviour with the settings link in the drop down notification box.

It's all there. Just gotta look at it!


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## Tovec

For me its not a huge deal. It doesn't take up as much real estate and its a little annoying - so I'm going to see if I can alter it in some way.

But the real issue that bugs me is that it lops off the beginning of a reply when I go to first unread or last post. I do this rather a lot and I have to keep scrolling up to catch the first few lines of a reply each and every time I hit that first new post button. Is there any plans on fixing that particular bug?

Whether or not there is will definitely affect if I'll end up going through the effort of disabling the entire bar. It is such a minor thing but one that bugs me to no end each time I go to read the many threads on this forum.

EDIT: Just finished this post and as soon as I posted it I realized that what I immediately see is "But the real.." and not "For me.." and not even counting the things like "Today at [time]" and Post #whatever. Or my name, and things that can be clicked via my name. Gaah, annoying.


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## SkidAce

Tovec said:


> For me its not a huge deal. It doesn't take up as much real estate and its a little annoying - so I'm going to see if I can alter it in some way.
> 
> But the real issue that bugs me is that it lops off the beginning of a reply when I go to first unread or last post. I do this rather a lot and I have to keep scrolling up to catch the first few lines of a reply each and every time I hit that first new post button. Is there any plans on fixing that particular bug?
> 
> Whether or not there is will definitely affect if I'll end up going through the effort of disabling the entire bar. It is such a minor thing but one that bugs me to no end each time I go to read the many threads on this forum.
> 
> EDIT: Just finished this post and as soon as I posted it I realized that what I immediately see is "But the real.." and not "For me.." and not even counting the things like "Today at [time]" and Post #whatever. Or my name, and things that can be clicked via my name. Gaah, annoying.




What [MENTION=95493]Tovec[/MENTION] is saying is my concern also.  The covering up of the first 3 or 4 lines of a post when going to first unread etc...


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## Lwaxy

Morrus said:


> It's in your profile drop down.




Well, it is under quick links after searching for a while. It'll take getting used to.


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## Morrus

Lwaxy said:


> Well, it is under quick links after searching for a while. It'll take getting used to.




I can't tell whether you're joking with me or not.  But it's right there:


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## Lwaxy

Wne I click on my name nothing happens, probably an issue with NoScript. 

Today, my notifications took about 5 min to load. That is likely on my side, too, though.


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## MarkB

I have the Notifications bell set to alert me to new XP received, but that last two times someone XP'd me, there was no visible alert. I only saw the XP when I read the thread.


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## Morrus

Lwaxy said:


> Wne I click on my name nothing happens, probably an issue with NoScript.
> 
> Today, my notifications took about 5 min to load. That is likely on my side, too, though.




Yes. If you disable the site, the site won't work.


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## JamesonCourage

MarkB said:


> I have the Notifications bell set to alert me to new XP received, but that last two times someone XP'd me, there was no visible alert. I only saw the XP when I read the thread.



This seemed to be a problem for me, too. (And this was before I disabled the bar via AdBlock, as Morrus okay'd.)


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## Ahnehnois

I concur about the XP notifications. I just found I'd received 3 XP that I was not even aware of after this thread inspired me to check.


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## Lwaxy

I do have the site enabled, but something was whacky. I removed and reinstalled NoScipt and now it works. Site speed is normal again, too.


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## JamesonCourage

Just wondering if the XP notification bug has been fixed.


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## MarkB

JamesonCourage said:


> Just wondering if the XP notification bug has been fixed.




Not noticeably. I just took a manual look at my notifications page and found two XPs from yesterday and this morning that I didn't know I'd received.


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## SkidAce

Not getting XP notifications either.


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## Kramodlog

The bar is gone.


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## JamesonCourage

But the old notifications are there. I don't know how long it will last, but I will bask in its glory while I still can


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## Olgar Shiverstone

Thanks for rolling back to the old UI bar! It's much less intrusive.


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## Viking Bastard

I, for one, miss the UI bar.


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## trappedslider

Viking Bastard said:


> I, for one, miss the UI bar.




Same here


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## MarkB

Ahh, it is like breaking the surface and taking a breath of clear, cool air. The lid has been taken off the site.


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## Deset Gled

I'm also happy to see it gone.

Any word on why it went away and if it's a permanent vacation?


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## Lwaxy

Yay, I can immediately find my notifications again. 

I got kind of used to the bar, so not going to be grumpy if it comes back, but this is way easier for me without.


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## Halivar

Viking Bastard said:


> I, for one, miss the UI bar.



I would love to be able to opt back in to the new, newly missing one.


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## StreamOfTheSky

It's so much nicer now, thank you site admins....or random glitch....whoever the benefactor may be.


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## delericho

Yep, I'm afraid I agree with those who prefer the 'classic' style. The UI bar wasn't a problem; I just prefer the site without.


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## adamc

Yes, I definitely prefer this version. Thanks!


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