forum update

[sillek]

Not sure if I like the flashing icons that indicate new posts. Sort of like those flasher lights [chaser ? ] at Christmas that drive you bonkers. But in a much less severe way.

[Zaknafein]

Well, I love them.

[Baak]

I'm playing around with some options - the trick is making them visible enough and yet not annoying with the extra problem of showing "sticky", "announcement", and "locked" entries that have new posts in them. Ideally they need *two* columns for information - but I think I have come up with a good compromise.

I like the flashing ones, and then sometimes I don't, and it would probably be very annoying if there were five or more of them on the same page.


This is what I've come up with for now (note I don't distinguish "popular" threads as it just adds to the chaos imo - at least for now):


Threads with no new posts are distinguished by color and are all solid:

- Standard thread with no new posts (whether popular or not)
- Announcement thread with no new posts
- Sticky thread with no new posts
- Locked thread with no new posts


[Edit: These changed from the original post]
Threads with new posts are distinguished by color and are either solid green (for standard threads with new posts), or with a cute little green LED next to them. Thus, green indicates "something new" regardless of the type of thread:

- Standard thread with new posts (whether popular or not)
- Announcement thread with new posts
- Sticky thread with new posts
- Locked thread with new posts


Thoughts? Comments?

[vinylrake]

I am not viewing images at the moment (being at a training class and borrowing internet access so trying to keep a lower profile) but as far as flashing things go, in general, the slower the flash the less annoying a graphic is. In fact if you REALLY want to have something be unobtrusive but still distinct - go for a pulse effect e.g. slowly cycle from dark color to light and back again or even from color to black repeating ad infinitum.

Of course if you are already doing this, feel free to ignore.

Also, if you don't have software that will do that kind of visual effect automatically drop me a line - I've got lots of old school 3d and 2D graphics/animation programs that I am sure can do just about anything like that fairly automatically - much easier than manually creating 30 frames by hand just to see what something looks like.

[Baak]

VR: I'm concerned too much pulsing will have Frum stuck on the main page staring and drooling. He'll never get past it.

When you get a chance, check out the images here and see what you think.

I have one other thing I'm going to try with a solid-but-tiny green light combined with the special ones to show "new post in special thread". Will give it a whirl tonight and see how it looks.

[Frumius]

Whoa, I was looking at the nice new dots out there and almost didn't make it in here.

Nice.

[sillek]

I like the graphic. Nicer than those big RDF balls which are much better suited for red dwarves' midnight snacks.

How about if new posts had the bottom half of the circle filled in with green ? Or had a green ring around them ?

I can deal with flashing..it's fine. I'd just rather have something else if something that looks good is found.

[Baak]

I like the graphic. Nicer than those big RDF balls which are much better suited for red dwarves' midnight snacks.

How about if new posts had the bottom half of the circle filled in with green ? Or had a green ring around them ?

I can deal with flashing..it's fine. I'd just rather have something else if something that looks good is found.

On my list of potentials is a ring, a smaller green LED in one corner (possibly overlaid on the edge of the original LED), and 2 or 4 smaller green LED's in opposite corners. When you mentioned the ring again it has spurned me on to try it again.

I'll see what I can come up with, as ideally I'd prefer them to all be static (non-flashing) since you have to wait for them to flash to know there is new information.

One of the most annoying things imo about phpBB2 is the way the display of these things is so heavily embedded in the PHP code (via templates and definitions) - the original dimensions of the display images are "fixed" a bit, so I'm trying to use the same dims as the original template.

We'll see what I can come up with - excellent ideas/feedback everyone!

[Baak]

Ok, I've come up with the new ones which appear in the list above (since they were pointing directly to them).

I think this will work for now. Let me know what you think.

Note: You may have to refresh/reload the page to see the new ones.


Also note that "Locked" (red) forums/threads are still readable - you just can't post new stuff in them.

[Two Saks]

I can't wait to see a new post in a locked thread. That symbol looks like it's used in traffic interesections on Hell's ninth plane - red? green? ::CRASH::