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Subj: Re: New Board Features Survey (and info)! Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 at 07:46:26 pm EDT (Viewed 436 times) | Reply Subj: New Board Features Survey (and info)! Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 at 12:07:25 pm EDT (Viewed 439 times) | |||||||||||||
> As you've noticed, there have been a lot of changes to the board operation and format lately. I'm going to address a few of them, and I'd like comments on what you think about it. 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?
Love it. Much easier to read and eye friendly, which helps the eyeballs considerably. 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? Works for me. Nice job
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'm sick of them, and wish I'd never started the damned things at times. I've shoved the TMB ones to the bottom too. A great improvement (especially when reading from a PocketPC or PSP)
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? I'm not really fussy over fonts in general. I have my settings and they seem to stay out, so I'm more than happy.
New Reply Quote Format: I tried to make quotes stand out more in posts by making them smaller and putting a border around them. Unfortunately that became obsolete with Rich Text, because I'm going to have to change the quoting system entirely. See below. Questions or comments? (see below for more on quoting)
Haven't seen it yet, but sounds good in theory. Automatic Highlighting on the Main Page: I added that via CSS because I removed the Underline from threads. Why? Because Rich Text allows you to add Underline to Subject lines, and you'll never see it if the underline is already there. I eiher have to put the Underline back into the threads or remove it from Rich Text. The Highlighting allows you to see that the threads are still selectable. The color is not permanent, I just grabbed one at random from Photoshop. Questions or comments? Style or color of highlight you'd like to see? I like the highlight, it feels like I'm browsing from the PSP. It can cause invisible/unreadable subject lines but that's simply a matter of moving the cursor anyway so..no real pref for colors. Whatever works with the theme of the board. Rich Text Options: Right now the Rich Text editor automatically opens if: a) The post you're replying to is Rich Text; b) You have Javascript enabled; c) It's not disabled in your Profile; d) It's enabled by default in your profile. Eventually there will be a cookie-saved option to turn it off so those without Profiles can make it go away. Questions or comments on the Rich Text behavior? You mean the green box of font and text options? Well, I can't seem to unbold but italics
Other Graphical Styles You might want to see: Is there anything else you'd like to see visually on the board? Questions or comments? Nope, it looks great.
Any other Features you would like to see here? Anything you can think of or have seen at other boards that you're dying to see here? Questions or comments?
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 Quote: and Quote: and
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
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? "Wyrd bið ful aræd" | ||||||||||||||
