Thoughts, opinions about wrapping www.anandtech.com around the forums

[MemberSince97]

Why are the login buttons amongst others static sometimes?
Jason, I really empathize with you .

I talked to technical support and they could'nt help...

 

[mscdex0]

Here are my issues/suggestions with/for the new forum software:

1. I prefer the quick reply better (I can't seem to find where to change it back to quick reply?)
2. The default yellow color scheme isn't very appealing. It reminds me of a pukey-type color.
3. I prefer the number of messages to be unbolded.
4. I prefer to have no spaces in between each post in a thread
5. Lastly, I noticed right away when loading the new forum, that it took much longer to load than previously. Almost painfully, and yes, I am on (1.5mbps down) broadband.

 

[dahunan]

Why did anyone change ALL of the previous formatting

Can't an upgrade be done - yet still leave the forums just like they were?

way too many things changed.. all at one time

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

I would hate to have all of that clutter surrounding the forums. My opinion is: keep them as they are.

 

[Maleficus]

Kept them as they are, eliminate all the dead space on the left, eliminate the space between the posts.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

You can do such things yourself. The html sent to your browser is at the mercy of however you tell your browser to interpret it. (or you can even use things like privoxy to filter it before it even gets to your browser)

 

[alm99]

Originally posted by: RossMAN
Jason,

Would it be possible to get the old default FuseTalk colors as an option?

Thank you for everything you have done so far.

God, please make this an option. The new layout is terrible, absolutely horrendous.

 

[Hossenfeffer]

Trying my best to keep this on the topic of the thread...

Personally, the choices to vote on made me laugh. That you included :"I like it, but prefer..." 3x with no choice for dissention, I chuckled. When I saw that there was a choice for 100% width, I nearly wet myself, thinking that you were indeed considering a format that included the despised left-hand ads somewhere on the top of the screen. I figured I'd check the screenshots first before I voted, and much to my chagrin, I saw no such movement of the ads.

Just to humor me, could you make a mockup that shows the ads at the top so I can at least compare? It's frustrating that the suggestion is met with (perceived by me) such opposition. I don't mind looking at ads and I completely understand that they help support the forums. What I don't understand is why on earth the decision to put them on the left ever stood. Is it under the assumption that the vast majority of folks use the default number of threads/posts per page? Give me something, almost anything to justify that wasted space on the left. Heck, I'd even entertain the option of some small adframe up top that was always in view, no matter how much you scrolled. Just some gesture that says "We hear ya, and we'd love to accomodate things, but we just can't."

All that being said, I've yet to decide on which choice to vote for. I wouldn't mind things having a fixed width (or at least a 90% width, to insure some buffer on the right, lord knows we've got plenty on the left ) but do also see value in 100% width, minimizing the scrolling being done. With the fixed width in the screen shot, you've got such a huge chunk of space on the left (gray space plus the beloved ad(s)). I'd be interested in seeing something that included the space on the right, but all but negated the extra space on the left.

 

[XeoBllaze]

I love your new layout w/ the wrapping of anandtech.com! VERY NICE! A++!

 

[RemyCanad]

I do not like the anandtech nav bat at the top. I believe the theme should be similar to anantech's theme but I do not like wrapping the site around it.

 

[Shawn]

Jason, I like the idea. I always wondered why the forums weren't intergrated into the main site more. When I first found AT Forums I didn't even know the main site existed for a little while. Just make sure to have the width set to 100% and elminiate as much space wasting stuff as you can and it'll be fine.

 

[KristopherKubicki]

Both look good to me.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Please, no more change. Take it slowly!

 

[InlineFive]

Since you won't do that I say keep the current layout and be rid of the annoying section navigation buttons at the top. Instead have a simple search button for the articles and FAQ as this would be a useful feature.

-Por

 

[cookj]

Ok,I liked the other better,but after getting used to it,if I do,.I might like it.You can`t tell until you try.

Jackie

 

[ulTimate]

let me echo the people who have said PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE allow us to sort posts by MOST RECENT THREAD instead of MOST RECENT BUMP... I barely have time now to keep up with forum topics--I will never have time if I always have to wade through the same posts up at the top.

Except for that, though (and that's a BIG EXCEPTION), I like the new layout.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

a couple issues I could think of if the layout changed to incorporate www.anandtech.com into the forum look:

1) slower loading times
2) hate the blue color for the background for the top ad.

that said, I'd prefer for it to stay the way it is now, (with a the navigation dropdown added to the bottom of course.)


For people that don't like the colors, try the black theme....I like that one the best and it changed the in between post row to a gray (which is less obtrusive)

 

[cookj]

Originally posted by: GtPrOjEcTX
a couple issues I could think of if the layout changed to incorporate www.anandtech.com into the forum look:

1) slower loading times
2) hate the blue color for the background for the top ad.

that said, I'd prefer for it to stay the way it is now, (with a the navigation dropdown added to the bottom of course.)


For people that don't like the colors, try the black theme....I like that one the best and it changed the in between post row to a gray (which is less obtrusive)

The black does look better,thanks for the info

 

[Jeff7181]

I don't like that the "my forums" section doesn't fit on my 1024x768 screen... 1280x1024 and 1280x960 etc. etc. are becoming more and more popular... but it's DEFINATELY not the standard. Would be very nice if you could make every page fit a 1024x768 screen.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
I don't like that the "my forums" section doesn't fit on my 1024x768 screen... 1280x1024 and 1280x960 etc. etc. are becoming more and more popular... but it's DEFINATELY not the standard. Would be very nice if you could make every page fit a 1024x768 screen.

Not to mention less, since many don't browse with a full screen browswer (that's the problem I see with taking the current AnandTech layout as-is and wrapping the forums into it).

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: jliechty

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
I don't like that the "my forums" section doesn't fit on my 1024x768 screen... 1280x1024 and 1280x960 etc. etc. are becoming more and more popular... but it's DEFINATELY not the standard. Would be very nice if you could make every page fit a 1024x768 screen.

Not to mention less, since many don't browse with a full screen browswer (that's the problem I see with taking the current AnandTech layout as-is and wrapping the forums into it).

Good point. So ideally, the forums should fit about a 800x600 screen with no scrolling side to side necessary.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181Good point. So ideally, the forums should fit about a 800x600 screen with no scrolling side to side necessary.

Ideally, yes, and indeed the forums fit very well right now in an average-sized window. Thus, going to the AnandTech.com layout would make things 250% worse from the way things are now for those of us who think running with a maximized browser all the time is stupid (not to mention that readability greatly decreases with longer lines of text).

My point is, Jason's about got all the bugs that have been found yet ironed out, and with some of the alternate color schemes, the forums don't look that bad. I'm still PO about the popups, but software will never be perfect (they fix one thing - well, maybe or maybe not, and make something else worse). Anyway, why can't we leave good enough alone, instead of wanting to tinker with stuff now to make it much worse? (this rant is not directed at Jeff7181 or any other users who posted in this thread in particular).

 

[jjones]

I like it with the 100% width.

 

[kendogg]

i like 100% but I accidently voted for the other.

 

[Jason Clark]

100% it is, it looks like this will happen. When, I'm not sure. We've done some work with left ads and i think you'll like it.