Tales of the Parodyverse >> View Post
Post By
Anime Jason 
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Location: Here
Member Since: Sun Sep 12, 2004
Posts: 2,834
In Reply To
HH

Subj: And reviews...
Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 at 10:42:49 pm EDT (Viewed 379 times)
Reply Subj: My views.
Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 at 02:26:31 pm EDT



Sorry about the delay in replying, a truck tore down my cable line and my only slow backup internet access was interrupted by angry phone calls to the cable company.


> What's new is that people are also beginning to value options. Some folks very much enjoy the ability to add tags and signature images, which enrich and simplify their posting experience and help give the board a homey feel. Others like to fix the way the board views to them to their own satisfaction. These things are therefore worthy of prioritisation too - as options.

Plus people in general crave customization. The board software won't be all that marketable without it.


> This one concerns me. The more the PVB uses specific non-transferrable icons (like the blue and red dots on the main page and smileys) the more I have transferred pages with little red crosses on white boxes all over them that I have to manually edit out. If the default display format remains with a column down one side I'll need to edit every single page I archive to keep it consistent in appearance with the 500+ story pages already on my site. Depending on what the debate concludes I might be lobbying for a "Convert to Archive" button somewhere that creates a page suitable for offsite storage.

There already is one in every post. The "Printable" link at the top eliminates most images and switches to a "high contrast" layout. I haven't really looked at it heavily though so it may need more image elimination.

Only thing I didn't think of is the possibility of exporting the main page or multiple messages at once.


> I like the margins, but for me the ideal with is 90-95%. Anything more makes small window browsing or blackberry browsing very irritating. I'd like to see this as a user-customisable option and I'd like default to be 95%

The good news is I have a Playstation Portable and now an iPhone as well. You'll see a lot more features aimed at small devices eventually like auto-scaling images, sliding display elements, and auto-elimination of items to save screen space.

Ironically, I discovered that the current layout is easier to read story text on a small device - because the most annoying part of reading on a small display is paging right and left trying to catch all of the text. The narrower the text area is the easier it is to read. It was part of the motivation for reducing the space.

As to whether I can add more separation between the text and info bar to avoid letting it become a distraction, that's another matter. Or perhaps make it fixed and put the text in an IFRAME so it can be paged independently of the bar. Or shove a narrow bar just above the text and use mouseover to make the poster info to appear (but then there's the risk of someone with a huge name screwing it up).

btw, I also experimented with making the message reader pop up instead of going to another page. No banner, no frills, just a small pop-up window with the message text. No reply list either, because the replies are still sitting behind it. The problem with that approach was the tendency of the window to accidentally end up behind the main window, letting people think it's broken. Plus without using Javascript there's no way to control the size of the window, making it possibly take up the whole screen, letting people think they're locked into the message text with no escape.


> I prefer the horizontal material at the top. For story posts this seems the right "intro" - a banner image, then the title and credits, then the story. The reply button at the bottom is important as well, because that should be the next natural response of anyone having read the content.

Here's the problem with the vertical bar at the top that seemed to be constant:  Text is vertical.  That means as long names, large text, and long subjects start to add up the horizontal bar at the top becomes so large that it takes up a whole page by itself. If the banner is large enough it's nearly a page and a half before the story text.  On a small portable device it can seem like an eternity before you get there.  

A smaller vertical bar forces the text into a smaller space so it can't spill over like that.  I'm still thinking over and adjusting hoping it'll work because personally I like less clutter.  If it doesn't work I'll have to rethink it.

If you notice the commands have been copied at the bottom of each post already.


> I appreciate the question of horizontal space saving, but actually the vertical space loss is much greater for story-length posts, especially if they are printed out (and the black band there is murder on printer cartidges). I also find the not-quite-black band down the side of the page intrusive, and it tends to clash with some colours -lightslategrey, for example.

The grey band is just part of the board's color selection at the moment.  As I convert from settings-based colors to Style Sheets I'll have more flexibility in changing colors of individual parts, and doing it quickly.

That band shouldn't be on the Printable sheet, though, I'll have to check that.

I might eventually think about putting a clickable "x" on the info bar so it can be dismissed but that would require Javascript (not a Profile though).


> The top of the horizontal page could be tidied, though. A smaller size for the banner (scaled down from the full one on the main board) might allow poster details to fit to left and right of it. A set of option buttons for reply and print etc might look better and pack neater than the current text links.

Right now the banner isn't scaleable, but that's on the "long" list.

Ironically back when I first designed the software all the board commands were above the banner.  I moved them because it was a pain paging to the message list and back up again.  I don't like putting commands around the banner because it causes problems for small screen devices.


> For this one I support the "traditional" layout for posts as default, with the sidebar version as a selectable option. If you are offering users choices of background colour and default fonts as well then the sidebar colour should also be customisable. Reply, print, and other links should then appear in the sidebar at top and bottom.

Infinite customization is an option I'd like to explore, but I can't do that until the Stylesheet and Template stuff is complete.

That said, I am thinking of adding small touches like the ability to "dismiss" parts of the layout.  That's a fairly simple one to add, and would bridge the gap in terms of people getting irritated with something.  If you're going to spend some time reading a post and the info bar is in the way, just make it disappear. 


> I agree that it's better to have micros disabled by default. However, it should be a customisable option in the user settings.

That's more difficult simply because there is only one message board header right now and it's only changeable by the mods.  I might add a separate page for playing with Micros later.


> How does CSS affect pages I lift to the Homepage of Doom?

It makes all formatting on the page disappear.  If you don't download and apply the style.css file I have, the pages will all be black on white.  Or you can write another CSS (or I can give you one) that changes the color scheme and styles entirely.


> I'd want to live with the non-underlined Times New Roman text for a few days to evaluate how it looks and works before commenting about the loss of underlined links. I think I'd prefer all first-in-thread postings to be underlined just for emphasis. I'm not a fan of the coloured spots, which again divert attention from the stuff we're supposed to be looking at - the messages.

How about an underline that appears when you float the cursor over it?  It doesn't have to be a background color.


> I was happy with the previous system of indenting quoted material and placing it in a paler colour. The > symbol has become fairly well understood as referring to previous quoted text. I think the smaller font may prove difficult for readers with smaller screens (Wii etc.) so I'd make that an option rather than default.

The quoting format is still open for debate.  I just haven't changed it in a while because I got busy with the Rich Text and Stylesheets.  I'll probably change the quoting style back simply because the new one seems to clash badly with the Rich Text formatting (if you notice sometimes it fails).


> I find the highlighting very distracting as I scroll down, since it highlights and draws my attention to whatever random bit the cursor happens to be on as a I mouse-wheel down, not on the thing I'm looking for. I'd be willing to sacrifice rich text underlining in title lines in exchange for losing the highlights.

As I mentioned above, I can easily change it to a more subtle color outline...or something else entirely, like an underline that appears where you're pointing instead.  The background color is just because it was easy for me to see if it was working.


> This isn't a feature I'm likely to use, but I think it's a useful addition generally. The long-awaited spellchecker must be next!

You won't be able to use the Rich Text Editor without Javascript.  In fact it probably doesn't even turn on.  Sadly the spell checker would have to use Javascript too (I don't have a dictionary, which is part of the problem with making one).


> The links and buttons at the top of the main page could be revised and smartened. At the moment we have random click links all over the place - the login link at top right, five links to support pages at middle right, thread display to bottom left, moderator contact link bottom right, then the post-search - RSS etc links beneath that, with the previous pages links to the side. The eye gets dragged all over the place and there's no sense of design. There has to be a more elegant way of presenting all those things.

Interesting you should mention that since I'm currently looking for icons to replace the links.  They have to be intuitive enough to be easily recognizable, which is why they aren't there yet - it's tough finding them.  When I do they'll definitely be less intrusive and take up a lot less space.


> We have some talented graphics people right here on the board. Why don't we get them to suggest some way of simplifying the top-of-page layout?

That's both a good idea and a bad one.  Artists usually design things like icons to be part of a bigger design.  If some people on the board don't like that we'll end up with one heartbroken and insulted artist.  :)


> For commercial application, of course, the more customisable colour, font, size, layout etc is the more powerful and competetive a tool the software becomes.

And templating.  That's why, though it's not terribly useful right now, it's a priority.


> The question of drawing people's attention to posted stories and art is at the forefront of my mind. I wonder if we could find a way to add a "This Week's Stories and Art" list somehow - a roll-down menu added to the other (smartened up) links at the top of the board that offers direct links (or opens new windows to) any story that's been posted in the last eight days. Folks could either indicate if their new post was a story or art by ticking a box (like the No text box) on the posting form or the list could simply be maintained by moderators. That way occasional readers could see what's on offer and catch up with what they've missed without lots of scrolling down.

Yeah, the problem is getting it maintained.  :)  Allowing posters to select options like that is a recipe for trouble because of accidents and such.  It's like giving everyone a "Sticky" button (only moderators can do that btw).  In other words it would be labor intensive.  I might have some tech to aid that, but it'll still be labor intensive.


> I think there's still work to be done on the Archive Search as well. My most regular use of it is to to find stories from a specific date, so I miss the month/year search option. At some point a body text search would be really useful too (one that distinguishes and ignores quoted text from earlier postings).

The month/year thing had to go because of the new way messages are stored - it used to be stored in directories that were named by the month and year, so I was cheating.  :)  There is a way to get a month/year list for the current storage format but it takes a little bit of math to get it right and I'm terrible with math.  :)  That's why it hasn't been done yet.


> Finally, in the subject and name lines in the revised posting form in IE the return key now starts a new line of input text rather than sending the message, requiring instead that I scroll down and use the button which is down off the bottom of the screen. This needs correcting.

I'm going to have to find a way to trap the Enter key.  Only problem is, once again, it'll require Javascript.

That problem came about, ironically, because IE couldn't handle the text parsing in Javascript with HTML-containing fields like the Subject and Name.  I had to switch them to Textarea fields because of it.


> I'd be willing to forefeit the banner on the posting form page to get the vital information onto one screen

That's one goal I have in mind for remodeling the posting form - making it fit in the smallest space possible.


> I think this one definitely comes into the category over over-smart features that work against the function of the board. We want people to respond to other folks comments. I'd rather have a hundred space-wasting repeats in no-text responses than lose a single commetn from somebody who gets frustrated by the extra effort of importing text to comment on.

Even so, most replies that contain text are usually free of quotes.  It's not that I'm against the quote text, it's just that I wonder if the quoted text being there is more of an irritation to most people because they have to delete it to reply.  I was proposing making it a choice instead.  I probably could make it so that one button pastes all the quote material in.


> I'd suggest a different technical fix, if possible, where the posting form checks if any alternations have been made to the quoted body text and simply deleted the body text if its unchanged from the posting ahead of it in the thread (and maybe even checks the no text box as a bonus). That way if folks ignore the quoted text it goes away and if they want it they keep it.

I thought about that, and it's on my list.  The only concern I have about that is if someone replies and forgets to type anything, and then goes back to edit - all the quoted material would be gone.