Forum Appearance

Moderation
1

Dear All,

I am struggling a bit with the appearance of the forum, and judging from some of the comments I’m not the only one. It’s too dark to be able to distinguish buttons very clearly, for a start, and doesn’t seem to conform to different screen widths - you need to reduce it to 75%, and the text is small enough already…

It looks as though we have a couple of theme options within the Moderator Dashboard. How would people feel about changing to the default Vanilla theme (which still appears to leave our Snuffhouse header intact) and seeing how that goes?

2

No problem from me, the fact that everything is wider than my screen is annoying! Also, I agree it does appear too dark, thread titles are too dark to read for me sometimes.

3

Hey guys, I just received an email from Mark about the site looking like shit. We do not have much time to spend on it, so I am going to re-engage a coder with Vanilla experience to do it for us.

What I need before I do that is a detailed spec list to pass to him. So please can you list EVERYTHING we need changed, with as much detail as possible so there is no confusion or disappointment, nor mission creep.

Many thanks,
Dave

4

OK. I have made two basic changes - both available from the Moderators dashboard, and both reversible at the click of a mouse.

  1. I have changed the theme to +Baseline from Bittersweet. It doesn’t look very nice, but it cuts out the problems of black-on-black text and the width of the window.

  2. I have changed the landing page from Recent Posts to Categories (as it was in the previous incarnation).

Dave - problems raised so far have been:

a) visibility - the theme on the old board was a pretty good compromise between those who found bright backgrounds difficult and those who needed contrast to be able to see the text.

b) Window width - even at full screen the page was wider than the average Joe’s computer screen and needed to be shrunk to about 75% to fit.

(Changing the theme has dealt with b), and I certainly find it easier to see as well, but YMMV on that one.)

c) Lack of functions. ‘Like’, ‘agree’, ‘insightful’ and the quote function have all been mentioned.

5

@MrSnuff there are a couple of volunteers in this thread - Jari_T and markstinson - who sound as though they might be able to help.

6

A few more I have picked up from the boards and myself. Accented letters e.g. Umlauts don’t work, PMs aren’t gettig through, when people are quoted with the @ symbol they aren’t getting the notifications.

7

Ok…Keep them coming. I wonder if it is possible to create a snag list that we can just add to? Maybe on google keep?

8

Hi all

I am trying to get a consensus about site modifications.So far, we have lightened up the background to basic white. This has helped with readability but may be a little stark. What we need is your input in order to move forward.

 I know I have to bring someone in to handle the module installations as my attempt to install a plugin failed. The learning curve is too steep for me right now. So, we will be getting a new programmer’s insight into the mix and see what we can get done.

Please give your input to the Snuffhouse snag list found here. Just click into the SNUFFHOUSE WISHLIST box and click on + List item and just type away. Easy peasy. Your input is much appreciated here. And again sorry about these delays, we are going to make it right.

Best regards

Pat

9

Pat - I don’t know why, but the link you have posted above doesn’t seem to take me anywhere except the Keep startpage - I can’t see a snuffhouse wishlist box anywhere. What am I doing wrong?

10

The page doesn’t even load for me, I will try on my computer later as it may just be my iPad.

11

Some people are reporting that they have to change their passwords every time they log on, can we add it to the list?

12

The link should work now. We have added all your email addresses as shown on snuffhouse.

Thanks

Pat

13

Pat,

Take a look at http://snuffhouse.com/discussion/10478/vanilla-plug-ins-that-would-restore-forum-functionality#latest

May I suggest that you get in touch with Mark?

14

I communicated with Pat by email about themes on the message board, and she suggested that we post a discussion asking for input from the members.  That discussion is located here.

Thus far, folks seem to be leaning toward allowing members to customize their experience by providing them with at least two themes they can individually choose for themselves.  A dark theme and a light theme, since there seem to be fans of both.  I’ll test a plug in that will allow this to happen.  The current theme would be the light theme, and I would need to find a dark theme and customize it with a Snuffhouse banner at the top, etc. 

The other thing I asked about in that discussion string was the landing page, which is currently set on Categories rather than Discussions.  I know the old page had a Categories landing page, but thus far everyone that has commented has said they browse from a Discusions view, and not the Categories view.  At least one sets his bookmark to the Discussion view, just to circumvent the Categories view.  Personally, when I come to the board, I immediately click on Discussions and browse from that view.  More and more message boards are using a Discussions landing page because it tends to get comments on every post, regardless of the Category the post is hidden within.  In Categories view, the posts within “less exciting” Categories can get bypassed.  The Discussion view also more closely match what people experience in social media, which makes them comfortable.

What’s cool, is the Discussion page is sort of the best of both world.  The Discussions page can have all the Categories listed in the left-hand sidebar, allowing those that do use the Categories to easily browse a Categories-view right from the Discussions page.  The flip-side of this, namely browsing Discussions directly from the Categories page is not possible.  If we made this change, I would also add a Categories link to the top menu, for additional ease of accessibility.

Another benefit of using Discussions as the landing page, is that it would help with mobile browsing.  Currently, the mobile experience is all about Categories, with no option to browse by Discussions.  To see all the newest discussions and comments while on a mobile device, you have to click into every Category individually.  There is a work-around currently available, but it is a pain in the but.  You have to scroll to the bottom of the page, click the “Desktop Version” link, and browse a desk-top version of the message board on your mobile device.  Even then, the Categories page comes up first, and you have to click into the Discussion view.

We’ll give the discussion about the themes and landing page a little time for more comments.  Perhaps someone who browses from the Categories page will eventually come forward. 

What do you all think about it?  I’m not absolutely married to the idea.  I just want the board to closely match how the members actually use it.  How do you guys use it?  Do you browse from the Categories page, or click over to the recent Discussions page?

Mark