I'd need to see an example of layout to be able to visualise what you're talking about.

On icons versus text links, I don't think that's worked as well as I'd originally hoped. Slow board loading times often mean I'm looking at little white boxes with red x's and no way to know what they're meant to link to without refreshing. The icons rather than words also cause me to stop and think for just a fraction of a second, making me "notice" the mechanisms of the board - which isn't usually a good thing.

Of all the changes you mention, though, the only one I'd actively dislike is being unable to change the size of text on the main screen. I usually use a larger font to emphasise when I've posted a story rather than a random comment to make it easier to find, and to promote a "sense of occasion". Way back in the day when we first migrated from the first BZL board I recall we turned down an offer of being hosted on Comicboards in part because it couldn't offer size and colour variations. It's an alteration I'd regret.

I'm making some of the easier changes already (the icon migration will take a while).



I've been hearing the same complaints. Originally the complaint was that there were too many links at the top of the board, and they were too large, so they spilled over into two lines. Moving some of the commands elsewhere on the page should solve that, and allow (much smaller) commands to return.



It's mostly the Subject and Weblog formats it creates a problem for. I'll see what I can do about minimizing the impact.

On the sample reply page you're demo-ing now I'd say the top of the page is probably clearer. The login information to the right of the banner seems to work, but looks a bit sparse. I wonder if there's room to put the text which says "The Moderator Board - View Posts" in that area as well, thus eliminating the second horizontal band which breaks up the continuity of the page?

I'm still unconvinced about the long vertical column to the right. Once past the head of the page we want people immersed in the story they're reading, not distracted by writer and link information.

Ideally, the page-viewer's thought processes should be:

"Okay, so that's what page I'm on. Nice banner."
"Okay, I can do whatever technical stuff I want before I read this story."
"Wow... great story."
"And look, here's the easy to find reply links. I'd better write a line."
"Now to see what everyone else has said."
"And now I really want to go back to the main PVB page to find more of this stuff."



I'm all for helping readers using atypical equipment to see the information, but not at the cost of a feature commonly used by the majority of posters. I use a regular web browser and I use the board regularly so I'm not keen to sacrifice useful functions for theoretical potential readers in other formats.

I had a conversation with a Marvel editor about Marvel's current approach to the Avengers not really being to my taste. He pointed at the increased sales figures for the New Avengers over material I had enjoyed better. I responded that although Marvel might be offering a more saleable product that meant nothing to me, except that the product they now produced wasn't one I would likely buy. They gained two new readers for now but they lost a long-time reader with brand loyalty - not always a smart business move. In other words, changes that make something more universally attractive may still not best serve the core audience, and individual members of that audience will still be unhappy that things they like have been sacrificed for the benefit of others.

For some reason I can't log in at work, so this change passes me by. (I wouldn't try fixing this as I am convinced that it due to the security baboons at work)


I welcome the return of the text links. I do not want to spend the extra effort to interpret the icons.

(Our timesheeting system uses icons and they are a perennial source of problems and mistakes - I really HATE icons)

Can you visit the PVB at all? Or you can visit it but the Login link doesn't go anywhere? Or do you try to log in but it doesn't stick and it still says you're logged out?



They were universally hated. I could have made better icons with words, but then I still would have had the problem of what happens if the icons fail to load.

The latter. I can get to and read the board - even post (obviously, or you wouldn't be reading this...). However, when I attempt to log in it simply ignores me.

As I said, I wouldn't worry about it. I can access the board and entering my credentials on each post isn't exactly onerous given the number of postings I make.


Besides, the thought of icons with words on replacing text links seems a little recursive...

Yeah but I need to find out if it's symptomatic of a common problem. It does seem, though, like the security baboons disabled cookies on your computer. The software currently doesn't check for that, but it should eventually.



Maybe, but originally I wanted to use icons instead because they're always the same size. Fonts vary too much by operating system and browser.

It looks like a cookie problem. When I deleted the cookie I started getting complaints about cookies being disabled, then when I did a little fiddling I managed to recreate the cookie and it seems to be holding the login. For now, at any rate...

That's because yesterday afternoon I added that feature! Now if your cookies are disabled it complains about cookies being disabled instead of failing silently.