Forum design comments

[doctor_al]

My $0.02 on the design

In general, it's nice, pretty clean, and pretty well laid out. Maybe we could get a less active (and not so tall) graphic for the Forum pages header (vs the other static or informational pages). At least one that doesn't have flashing and movement, to be honest that's a little distracting (the changing percent, mainly).

The menu bar on the left hand side is great. I wonder if your google ads would fit there? They will likely get lost at the bottom, and make the header kind of busy at the top. Ideally, the top of the menu bar would align with the top of the forum "box", but I can see where that might not be possible.

The part that says "VegasCoupons.com Forum Index -> Off Topic", i.e. the way you navigate back up the tree, if it's not colored, or highlighted somehow, folks may not understand those are links.

[Grant]

Yeah I was thinking about making a small header for the forum instead of the flashing, and because I will have the links in the menu bar to the left, I won't really need them on the top too. Good point. I will play with that tomorrow.

Gregrio also said the the forum is too wide, I can set up the design where people could chose not to have the menu bar on the left which would not make it as a wide. What do you guys think?

al, I am not sure why that I can't get the links to underline or highlight, even in the forum posts they don't underline if you use the URL tags. It is strange.

Plus I am having problems editing users. I was trying to add gregrio's avatar for him, but it is giving me strange errors. Might have to ask in the phpBB support forum.

Very good points Doc.

Yeah Grant anything you can do to format the width to be less would be great. It gets to be tiresome having to scroll over to read the right hand side of the posts.

[GREGRIO]

LOL!.....I had centered the page so I could read without < > to see
who the reply was from....I read Al's, then Grant, then thought...hmmm
...this sounds lik Jean...< back to the Left and yep!................hi Jean!
It is a pain to <> all the time and I still can't get the avatar to work.

[GREGRIO]

I just had another thought too.... NO EDIT FUNTION.
It seems (with this afterthought) I can't just go back in and
use the EDIT...if there is one, I sure can't find it. I need to add
another completely new reply.....

Hi Greg,
Yep....I sure need edit also. Always make a mistake and don't catch it till after I post it....LOL

Spell check is nice also, I'm so lousy anymore I need a dictionary by my side. Of course that's probably why my spelling is bad because I use Word all the time. Kind of like the address books on the phones. I use to know everyone's phone numbers. Now....zilch, nada....LOL

[Grant]

I will turn edit on right now.

I should have the width fixed tonight or tommorrow. I will explain how to set it so the widht is fixed.

Keep bringing the suggestions.


The static pages are going live in the next 2 days, slowly but surely.

[doctor_al]

Grant, as far as the links, I'm guessing that somewhere there is a .css file (cascading style sheet) that sets the link, alink, vlink and hover styles to get rid of the underline (which is default); either that or the style declaration is buried in the board code somewhere. Personally, I think the underline is just one way to indicate hyperlink - having a bold blue would also make it stand out, or putting it in inverse colors (white on dk blue, that sort of thing).

The width works ok for me, but I have my monitor currently at 1024x768, not the 800x600 I prefer. I write my pages (what few I do) to use percent widths instead of static. That also might be buried in the code, although it sounds like you're on it already...

(yay! the edit button works!)

one other thing... folks who get to be board 'regulars' may not check the rest of the site... I see value in having some sort of banner at the top of the forum page that highlights "whats new" in the static pages. Just a thought.

[Grant]

al,

Yeah, phpBB uses percent but at 800 x 600 it still doesn't align properly with the side panel. I worked on another template that 800 x 600 users can use.

Yes, I am going to keep updates in the sidebar, and I will also will be posting in the main forum when there is something new with the static pages. That was a great idea, because like you said when people are always reading the forum, they might be passing the main page and not seeing new updates, news, etc..

I also changed my monitor to 800 x 600 when I was working on a solution, and it is a whole different world! It also should how big that logo is, I have it on the list to shrink that on the forum.

Thanks again for all the feedback, is appreciated. Keep it coming...

As I said earlierl, pages are in being worked on, and there will be a big release once I get them online. :wink: