Forum layout updates

Eric Chadwick

You may have noticed the forum is now a bit tighter, plus some other changes. Many people have been asking for this. We've heard you!


Thread list:

• Tighter margins.
• Tighter sub-forum lists (see Tech Talk).
• Fix for rollover popping.

Thread view:

• Tighter margins. 
• Post headers and footers are clearer.
• Ranks have been darkened down a bit and made smaller. Less overpowering.
  
• Redundant buttons on the side for Reply/Quote have been hidden.
• Member stats simplified, only Online/Send Message now.
• If you want topic count, reply count, join date, etc., then you can go to someone's Profile to get it all.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some of the other changes. We're always looking for ways to improve. More things to come soon. 

Docm30

Nice. That's way better.

Blaisoid

Posts definitely look better now with sig part and name part having a noticeably darker shade than the main part.
Edit: btw, i still see names and ranks in all caps.

Joopson

Like it a lot! Feels much more efficient.

Magihat

You really cut down on all that dead space. Finally!

Synaesthesia

I was wondering what you did to my beloved subforum! Looks fantastic, cheers guys!

Konras

Looks sweet. Maybe "offline / send message" on the right win thread view could be moved bellow avatar image to the left? Or do you plan adding more stuff into right side?

STRIKER

killer work guys! now those gallery thumbnails.....;)

AtticusMars

I like the tighter layout but I think there's waaay too much bold text

Mr.Moose

My dyslexia hates it LOL Maybe the bold words all right next to each other... trying to read forum names..impossible for me

Eric Chadwick

The user names and ranks shouldn't be all caps either. More layout/ styling to come. None of this is final.

Heck, maybe we should bring back the old skin.



http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/History_of_Polycount

MissMaddyTaylor

I love it! 

Autocon

soooooo much nicer! thanks a ton for this update. already browsing Polycount is far easier and nicer  

SimonT

awesome work! thank you guys!

beefaroni

Looks much better on mobile!

Notifications seemed to have disappeared though! (Little bell on top)

Eric Chadwick

beefaroni said:

Notifications seemed to have disappeared though! (Little bell on top)

Oops. We'll bring this back in the next update. Sorry about that!

super_villain

Definite improvement, thanks.

Needles

would be nice to

Eric Chadwick said:

The user names and ranks shouldn't be all caps either. More layout/ styling to come. None of this is final.

Heck, maybe we should bring back the old skin.



http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/History_of_Polycount

Would be nice to be able to edit colors, i just want green text for thread titles T_T, not complaining just so many years of using the old site colors that my brain expects a sea of green whenever i come here.
 Other than that the new layout is great.

Justo

New layout is pretty sexy. Loving the green glow when you post too. 

Eric Chadwick

I'm with you. I tried green for the thread list. But then the read and unread threads were all green all the time. I need to find how they're overriding the a.visited color, so I can set it to gray, or darker green, or whatever. Ongoing.

Offline/Send Message, yeah could be on the left. I like how it moves above each post when I'm on mobile, don't want to lose this.

Too much bold text in thread list, yep. Will try something for the next update.

Joopson

Yeah, green text for newly replied threads, that turn grey when visited, would be absolutely ideal.
I'd also love for subforums to show the most recent reply, like they used to. At the moment, I kind of forget all about subforums, since I can't easily see their activity without just going into them.
Thanks for the hard work!

throttlekitty

Thanks, looks much better!

Phoenix995

looks great!

Quack!

I like most of the changes, but the current thread overview / Topic layout is FAR to tight. The bold thread title text and the tight spacing makes the titles appear as a wall of text and hard to read.  A bit of space on the container of the thread titles will go a long way.  Now to make the home screen rectangles all the same sizes...

radiancef0rge

^ +1

PyrZern

Quack! said:

I like most of the changes, but the current thread overview / Topic layout is FAR to tight. The bold thread title text and the tight spacing makes the titles appear as a wall of text and hard to read.  A bit of space on the container of the thread titles will go a long way.  Now to make the home screen rectangles all the same sizes...

This.  The comments are good. But the threads are too tight.

Blaisoid

I like most of the changes, but the current thread overview / Topic layout is FAR to tight. The bold thread title text and the tight spacing makes the titles appear as a wall of text and hard to read. A bit of space on the container of the thread titles will go a long way.

Yeah, in most of normal forums you have thread author's name below thread name, in smaller font, which naturally fixes that problem.

McGreed

True, and this would also free up the right box to have last repliers name and date instead, which is helpful.

pior

The reduced spacing is definitely an improvement, and the erratic behavior on mouseover is not noW gone ! Great stuff - seing more threads at once certainly makes the forum feel more lively.

lotet

Niiice! my only complaint now is emojis automaticly make a new word wrapping  

Eric Chadwick

@Pior I would like some more details about the rollover bug. Could you please post in the Bugs thread, or send a PM? Browser, plugins, zoom settings, etc.

pior

Sorry about that, that was a typo - I meant to say, *now* gone, sorry ! It is indeed fixed, and this is quite a relief as it makes the whole experience much smoother now. Thanks again !

Eric Chadwick

@beefaroni said:

Notifications seemed to have disappeared though! (Little bell on top)

Restored now.

igi

Great update. I can't see the avatar pictures on the main forumpage. Suggestions:
 -Unread threads with green font, turned to grey when there's no new posts to read.
 -OP's and last repliers names indicated on the forum subsection pages.
 -OP's name below or left side of the thread name. It's tiresome to trace to the rightmost side to see who's the thread opener.
 
Thanks. 

Eric Chadwick

Thanks for the suggestions. All those have been asked for already though.

beefaroni

+1 on avatar pictures on main page

Eric Chadwick

Yep, been broken since Thursday morning. We know about it and have it logged.

aaronmwolford

So much better! Thanks!

Eric Chadwick

Some changes were just added:

• Thread lists should be easier to read, less bold. Had to switch the titles to another font, also font is a bit smaller. The thread authors on the right are now green instead of white.
• In Posts: usernames are now green, and show the proper case.
• Ranks also show the proper case, are smaller, and not bold.
• In the page header up top, Notifications/Inbox/Favorites are easier to read. Layout's a bit tighter, dividers a bit thicker, thread links and member names are green, message previews are gray.
• In your Profile, Notifications/Topics/Replies/Inbox are easier to read. Thread links and member names are green, message previews are gray. Working on unifying all these.
• In your private messages, the member names are now green.

Some before/after comparisons:







Still can't get unread posts to show as green, vs. read as gray. Any CSS experts willing to dig deep and offer suggestions?

Froyok

Very nice changes.
Reminder : don't forget to reset your browser's zoom level. Mine was at 90% because of the old layout. I thought the new one was too tiny... until I reset the zoom. 

beefaroni

Ah much better, this looks great! Thank you

RobeOmega

Some awesome changed have been made recently, good work! I am personally conflicted about the text size change, I feel the old size was too large but I also think the new text size is slightly too small so I may have to use 110% zoom for the time being.

MercurialForge

Instantly noticed the update, things just feel better overall. Much easier to read now. Less is more in a lot of cases, forums included.

sziada

liking the changes a lot

soulstice

the tighter layout is very welcomed   Looks great!

AFsoft

thanks! this is much better.

radiancef0rge

Yes! Thanks Eric so so much!

Alemja

I was skeptical of the new padding at first, but the new font you are using works so much better!

Eric Chadwick said:

Still can't get unread posts to show as green, vs. read as gray. Any CSS experts willing to dig deep and offer suggestions?

I took a look at the code using "inspect element" and I think you are going to have to go deeper than CSS, I think you are going to have to change some javascript too since the "new" tag is HTML that is being added and removed. I dove a bit into the javascript but couldn't find the correct code to make it work.

GrevSev

My terminal font on this is sexy

lefix

Really nice changes! The only thing left that is bothering me is the OP avatar size :P

Macrow

I like my forums like I like mah' women: Tight, trimmed, and easier to read.

Thanks, Polycount!