Front Page Layout

Dord

Dades wrote: »

+1 for this, btw. It looks great I think.


Regarding the boardsie characters...



Maybe it's time to let go?
I think the ones on the footer are great - less... finicky.
That goes for the right hand links too.

Quick suggested mock up (using basquille's nav idea)...
(Right hand navs are shoddy example only)

I like that suggestion for the new layout with the new boardsie guys. It's much more readable, less busy.

KatCookie

-1 i love those characters! they are timeless in design, Dades people could look old real quick. I was going to put in a thread asking about Boards.ie Tshirts ( i found old threads and then forgot about the idea) but i'd love to have those characters on a tshirt, very original looking!

Ricky91t

CuLT wrote: »

Background: This really grew on me for some reason, it was done by an outside designer, and the more I stared at it in the background of various design shuffles the more I liked it. Plus the opportunity for seasonal background changes is too good to pass up

I really like the back ground image,makes a nice change

Crash

Rather than seasonal background changes, could the background be changed dependent on the outside weather? :P

eVeNtInE

This post has been deleted.

Basq

Going Forward wrote: »

Rather than seasonal background changes, could the background be changed dependent on the outside weather? :P

eVeNtInE

This post has been deleted.

randylonghorn

Vexorg wrote: »

Next the "Last Poster", I have to admit to being surprised that would be missed, given the sheer volume of posts and the chances you might see a poster of interest rather than a topic of interest, cleearly stalking is importmnat to some people:) We will see how this can be incorporated and if it proves difficult, we can see if it can be enabled through a user control panel option.

I agree with Boston (below).

I actually wouldn't miss the Post Date column at all, I think it's fairly redundant to actually display it given the sheer volume of posts and the speed with which the table updates (except in the middle of the night), though obviously it's important in the background to order the table.

Drop it, reinstate Last Poster?

Boston wrote: »

For me, its not a case of stalking posters but rather threads. When I see a thread I posted on the main page I tend to look for the last poster so I know whether or not a new post has been added since the last time I looked at it. Quiet handy is a fast flowing thread.

But also what others have said. When I see a certain someone has replied to a thread I rub my hands together with glee because I know its going to be something witty, cutting, funny, intelligent, ect ect.

Vexorg wrote: »

In relation to the slow page load can anyone affected by it do a check against www.boards.ie/index-old.php also - a bit of a sanity check.

No, my sanity (such as it is! :P) is unimpaired!

There is a definite lag of about a second between the loading of the clouds background and everything else kicking in more or less simultaneously (IE7 / bb).

Just tried it on Firefox there, and it was also slow ... but it was more a series of small lags as each element popped in, rather than one long pause and then bingo!! Old index page isn't that much faster on Firefox that I could see, but there is a very noticeable difference on IE7 between the old and the new, on my machine anyway.

Rabies

Maybe I'm the only one, but I don't always have my browsing window open full screen.

Only the Latest Forum Posts box is scalable, Updates, Adverts, and Events stay the same size.
Would it be possible to have them all scalable?

The background is growing on me.

But I really do miss the last poster column.

aidan_walsh wrote: »

The page has been changed that if you hover over the title of the thread you will now see who the last poster is.

That's fine if you're only interested in one or two threads. If you enjoy browsing all of Boards and checking out what certain posters have to say, then it is more of a mini annoyance.

The date isn't really needed in my opinion. Time and user is better.

The size of the adverts themselves doesn't bother me. Hardly ever take notice of them.

seamus

\o/ all of my suggestions were implemented. Goe me! Yeah, 50 characters looks way better; Most people don't seem to use more than that for thread titles.

Maybe I'm the only one, but I don't always have my browsing window open full screen.

I'd say you're certainly in a minority alright

Only the Latest Forum Posts box is scalable, Updates, Adverts, and Events stay the same size.
Would it be possible to have them all scalable?

From my scant and non-recent experience of working with Google Ads, the ads themselves aren't scalable, you have to specify exact width and heights for the ads. So except for maybe putting it into a scalable iframe (Ugh), I'm not sure if it would be possible. I could be wrong though, it's been a while. The far-left bar is also pretty much at it's minimum limit, you couldn't make it any smaller.

An idea for future revisions of this page (which I'm stealing from someone else in this thread) is to have it customisable to a certain extent. Give subscribers the ability to hide ads, and turn the left and right panes into moveable panes, which you can choose to dock or minimise off to the side of the screen (like an MS visual studio window). That would probably take a bit of work though and it's not exactly crucial.

All the database would have to remember for users is three items - show ads, show left and show right.

The date isn't really needed in my opinion. Time and user is better.

Agreed (sorry Cult). Since I don't use the page, I hadn't fully understood the whole reason for having the last poster, but having it in the title is a bit pointless when all you want to do is skim. I agree the date is pointless. It's been a long, long time since the front page showed anything but posts made in the last 30 minutes. If you remove the date, that *may* give room for the poster name.

Rabies

Minority!!!!
I feel discriminated against


A customisable front page similar to Google would be cool

Vexorg

Having the front page customisable has been something we wanted to do for a long time, its just a question of getting the time to do it properly, being able to move the panels that interest you makes sense.

Subscribers should not be seeing the ads if they have the remove option elected. This is just an oversight I think.

Last poster :- will keep working on this, perhaps a last poster button beside the filter button which would give a different view with the poster name in place of the date/time field.

Epic Tissue

Vexorg wrote: »

Having the front page customisable has been something we wanted to do for a long time, its just a question of getting the time to do it properly, being able to move the panels that interest you makes sense.

That would actually be great

Dades

Was it all a dream? The homepage is back to last Tuesday!

Vexorg wrote: »

Having the front page customisable has been something we wanted to do for a long time, its just a question of getting the time to do it properly, being able to move the panels that interest you makes sense.

That should deffo be the goal for a top down redesign when time permits (imo!)

mike65

Looks good - last poster restored.

Mike

Vexorg

Yup - Pretty much.

KTRIC

Moaning FTW

Sully

Am I the only one with the old front page rolled back, and javascript errors all over the site? Im forced to use IE7 on the PC im on, so it could be that (also the ads dont seem to be showing, but I dont have them turned off?)

Villain

Same here Sully

takola

I'm back to the old front page too. No errors so far though and the adds are showing fine.

r3nu4l

I'm using Google Chrome and am on the old front page as well

Bring back the new front page!!! :mad:
:pac:

Hail 2 Da Chimp

The old page is back... Man I HATE the old page!!!

r3nu4l

Hail 2 Da Chimp wrote: »

The old page is back... Man I HATE the old page!!!

We are what marketing people call early adopters...hell I'm using Google Chrome and have been since it became available, I also had a Gmail address at the time when only Google were supplying them to people. :pac:

Now, Bring back the NEW front page...NOW!!

Villain

I like the old page...........runs for cover

Dord

This is like the new Coke disaster all over again! :rolleyes:

Basq

I rule!

:pac:

That is all..

dr.bollocko

Yay sanity is restord. Albeit I fear temporarily.

Kinetic^

Bah...only gripe I had with the new layout was the lack of latest poster. I liked the background. Stupid whiney jerks!!!!! :mad:

gaz wac

I miss the new layout

Villain

gaz wac wrote: »

I miss the new layout