Tales of the Parodyverse >> View Post
Post By
Rhiannon

In Reply To
Anime Jason 
Owner

Location: Here
Member Since: Sun Sep 12, 2004
Posts: 2,834
Subj: Re: New Board Features Survey (and info)!
Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 at 07:10:50 pm EDT
Reply Subj: New Board Features Survey (and info)!
Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 at 12:07:25 pm EDT (Viewed 439 times)


> Margin Width Changes:  I've always posted stories using a table that takes up about 75% of the page width.  I've always been taught that it makes the text easier to read when it's not spread from margin to margin, like in a hardcover book.  I decided to give everyone else the same advantage, so I narrowed the display area (see sidebar info below).  Questions or comments on this?

You changed the margin width? It's not causing any noticable difficulties here.

> Sidebar with Poster Details:  As mentioned above, the display area was narrowed.  But then I had a long page vertically with lots of empty space horizontally.  That made posts harder to read because you had to scroll just to get past the poster info at the top.  So I made more efficient use of space and moved the poster info to the empty space on the side.  At first, the wrong side - it interrupted the flow of reading on the left - so I moved it to the right margin.  Questions or comments on this?

I found it simpler to actually read the information before the format changed, and it seems to waste a lot of space going top to bottom only to present a reletavely small amount of information. All in all I have learnt to ignore it and no longer care if it stays or goes though I understand that it might be somewhat problematic for other people.

> Revised Page Top Without Micros:  I loaded the PVB at an Apple Store, and the first thing I saw was Pantsless Nats and Lisa.  While that doesn't bother me particularly, it made me conscious of who was standing behind me.  So I thought, maybe a lot of people aren't checking the PVB at work because it's not work-safe enough.  I made a judgement call to improve the visitors' experience by removing them.  Questions or comments on this?

I guess some new posters might be slightly put off by some of the micros, or simply sent into despair by the idea of having to learn about so many caracters.

> The New Default Main-Page Font:  That's not permanent.  I'm transitioning the pages from built-in font coding to CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) so I don't have to modify the software code every time I want to change a font or font size.  I picked Arial because the default font was Times and I wanted a visible change so I knew it was working.  I'll be changing it to Times shortly.  Questions or comments?  Fonts you want to see?

It needs changin to a manageable size as soon as possible, it makes reading difficult.

> More on Quoting:  The old style of quoting (pasting the entire post you're replying to into new replies) was inherited from the ancient wwwboard, the same software Comicboards is based on.  Problem is most replies posted to the board don't need quoted text at all.  It's just taking up space there for no reason, unless you've taken the time to clear it out.  So I propose changing the behavior.
> The proposal is this:  When you post a reply, the Message area is empty.  If you wish to quote text, you can do one of three things:  Type something like
    Quote:
    blah blah
, you can select text from the original post shown at the bottom and copy and paste it between
    Quote:
    and
, or if I can figure it out I'll put in something that will allow you to just select text and click a link and it shows up between
    Quote:
    and
in the Message area.  Or possibly another link that will put the entire contents of the original post in the Message area to be edited.

> Advantage:  Less clutter when posting replies.  You can edit the quotes as you see fit, and you don't even have to use the
    Quote:
     and
tags.  You can turn them into a Marquee if you want.

> Disadvantage:  One extra step when posting a reply with quoting.  It's a small step, especially with links/buttons to do the job, but still an extra step. 
> Questions/Comments/Suggestions?

Sounds a bit complicated. I'm not sure if going to all that trouble is worth not having to tell all the unwanted text to go away.