View Submission Shakeup

#1

OK: I officially hate what happened to the submission's text, scroll or not. :(

It looks worse then amateurish, a page glued together where we want to show off all the content in the minimum space possible. Please, please, please change this thing at least, it looks terrible. Blank space is a very important part of the design, it helps to organise the page and make the content stand out; you also see the general principle (there's a menu on the left, a menu on the right, the content is in the middle, easy). Aside, the text jumping from one line to another completely different line is ugly, and once it is wider it does not look really good anyway.

*pulls on a mask and breaths oxygen intensively for a while*

OK, I am calm now. :|

Sorry for putting it down but it looks... oh, well, I said it already a few times. I don't know much about design, but this looks like a clear NO.

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I have founded this thread because of the changes on the whole display of submissions. Let's try to find something positive:

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The View/Hide Stats switchlink looks interesting! Put it below the submission type info. You could make 'lightweight' themes that skip and/or hide some parts of the Citadel interface.

If there is a way (that may be hard I know), it's table should have a "fixed width" - I do not mean to set it outright, but I would want to prevent that the page changes its layout if you click the link. The page should stay the same, just the stats will hide or return.

:shock:
Ohhhhh... now I see what you could have wanted: if the stats are minimised, there would stay quite a large free space in the page. The box with the submission categorisation could handle something to make it more important - maybe we could keep the vote... or put there something else.

(Side note: put there the Gold Submission thingy, it really belongs there and should be shown always. Of course most of them won't have it. And Quest note, if any. Or even a link to the Quest?)

Hm, hm, hmmmm... we ought to turn it around a few more times in our heads. View/Hide Stats looks like a neat option, but the design consequences it seems to call forth seem like too much (at least for me).

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The width of the summary should fit to the width of the content bloc. If the summary is too short, it looks strange. Case in point: http://216.246.15.73/content.php?node=2397

Re: View Submission Shakeup

#2

Ok, picked up the bottle, shook it, and lets see how it settles this time. Not sure if I got all of your suggestions but let me know what else I can mess with. I made a couple other changes that might be obvious.

http://www.strolen.com/content.php?node=2308

That link shows the replies inside a scroll. There is only one but you get the point. It blended in too much without the color, but not sure I like it but ran out of time. (Actually your link has a couple replies as well)

Oh, justified text or not justified text. Only the submission is justified at the moment but can be removed with a keystroke.

Re: View Submission Shakeup

#3

Hmmmm... I could start nitpicking it to death (and probably will later :twisted: ), but I have to say I LIKE IT!

A bar of a slightly different color for the stats, no border that parcels it up, like that. Nested comments look also good. I started even thinking that we could do something like that for the regular comments+nested comments, but I guess we should make this one shiny first (seen Serenity yesterday... it starts to show :) ). 'Course I want to hear the opinion of others, too.

I better refrain from further requests. Only this: put User Submitted Scroll Listings on the left. Try the username in bold. And... enough for now. ;)

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We also ought to work a little on the Contents, but that has really time.

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This I call an improvement. Opinions? AG? MH? Others?

Re: View Submission Shakeup

#4

Updated. Got rid of the justified text too, just because.

Still a bug with the + and - for some reason.

Re: View Submission Shakeup

#5

Okay, in theory it is all okay... a couple of things though...

I like the lines to demarcate between submissions and submissions replies. The change of color is less useful for me, especially when I am using the low graphics view.

I like small indents for replies. (I still want lines, but okay)

Everything should have an identifier [2308#11968|text] XP: [ + - ] , even replies to comments. People are going to want to reference them, just code it now and save yourself hassle later.

I want scroll format and comment format to be the same. It keeps the site format consistent.

Also I think main post comments should be at the bottom of the scroll and codex.

Re: View Submission Shakeup

#6

The code for reply identifiers are in there, just removed. I haven't seen anybody really link to comments let alone reply to comments so doubt the necessity of it.

Main post comments are at the bottom of the scroll, not the codex yet....not sure how viable that will be in the short term as it will require me to rewrite a page but I do understand the need for it but that will take time.

I somewhat disagree about the sameness between the scroll and comment format, they serve completely different purposes so linking them through format seems unnecessary, but will see if we can get them a little closer. Only because I feel the scroll should have a more easy, readable flow to more feel like a continued submission whereas comments should have more of a forum statementy type format because that is what they are. I am just letting them both happen as I get suggestions so will continue to act on any thoughts.

Re: View Submission Shakeup

#7

Umm, not quite it. :)

Please, return the regular comments to their original shape. The search continues.

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Aside: with transition on a new host we seem to have taken on a load of special characters. Along with some posts, there is also the user "Mikhal, the ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‹Å“Zafla" (for instance here).

Re: View Submission Shakeup

#8

The code for reply identifiers are in there, just removed. I haven't seen anybody really link to comments let alone reply to comments so doubt the necessity of it.

[1669#13633|Here is one]. I have done it a couple of additional times, linking things to random villages or such. The more we do it, the more people will do it (they see it.. go "oh, good idea" and do it themselves.)

Re: View Submission Shakeup

#9

But to link to a comment's reply? Really? A comment reply shouldn't really be able to stand on its own anyway right? You don't think linking to the comment is enough? That link text is ugly and disruptive which is why I am against the link in replies. At least the replies in the Scroll (which I don't like either).

Re: View Submission Shakeup

#10

Linking to scroll comments is a must, linking to regular comments is... useful. As for linking to replies of comments, I don't really care. Don't want to loose an option to design reasons only, but I think this can be safely skipped.

I would like to suggest that we fine-tune the scroll comments first, and then turn to regular comments. There's bound to be some difference between them, and similarity as well (oh what wise words of me :roll: ). Regular comments will have more stats, the scroll will be more integrated into a post.

The design has still to be tweaked and I hope to find the time to help you with that (AG? Hullo?). Once again, please please return the regular comments to their former shape. They are really annoying to me, and it seems to other members, too. Admins, voice your opinion as well please.

Re: View Submission Shakeup

#11

Okay, my two cents after I skimmed this:

The identifiers, [2308#11968|text], are BUTT UGLY!
They are also very handy, but counter intuitive. I must admit that I never bothered taking the two seconds it required to figure out how they were used. Okay, I have done so now, but you catch my drift...

THE CURRENT FORMAT MUST DIE!

So, if you guys would like it, I could photoshop-conjure some fancy schmancy icons for youse guys, like a smorgasbord to pick and choose from, and Strolen could hide the ugly format behind that icon. (Click the icon and there you go, the address bar now contains the full link to the comment (Cue for Strolen to begin his coding)).

As for the current scroll format: Better than before, but not perfect yet. The spacing is fine, but you need to differentiate the different submissions a little more. At the moment the author's name is boldened, just like the title, and in the same font size too. That is bad. In the case of some posts a certain prominent author's name *cough* Moon *cough* is like a hypnotic charm, repeated over and over until all I can do is to drool and chant his name :p. Well, joking aside: this draws away attention from the title, which is what we really want to know. The author is somewhat less important. I suggest we make the title +1 to +2 font sizes larger than the rest (Word font points). HTML speaking I suggest we do a size +1, or even just an underline. But we need to make it stand out from the author name

And one more thing: I can create somewhat more neat + and - icons too. The current [ + | -]thing sucks.

Re: View Submission Shakeup

#12

Wiki linking [name of what ever] is active on the site... and it works pretty darn well.

Since comments do not have titles, and do not have their own simple ID#, that is the pretty much the only file code for it. And lets face it... comments are not linked all that often. If you are going to do it, you are going to scoop the id# and alter the text to "what ever title you want". Sure you can go look for it, but you know... who needs the fancy smancy click here to get the real stuff pull down ON EVERY POST. Do we need to idiot proof it? (and we all know the idiotproofing is what often creates "complications" down the line...)

I thought we were simplifying things? Am I wrong?

I am not as enamoured by the current format either. Spacing is fine, but you need a stronger break between the different submissions (scroll posts) AND the comments.

....In the case of some posts a certain prominent author's name *cough* Moon *cough* is like a hypnotic charm, repeated over and over until all I can do is to drool and chant his name...
And what is wrong with that! I command all of you to post! NOW! :twisted:

Scroll Posts do not have titles, unless we assign them. Given that sometimes Scroll Posts will have two or three high points, that need their own titles in text. See the forums... how often do people bother to retitle their forum subpost (because really.... that is what a scroll post is)?

Re: View Submission Shakeup

#13

AG - Go to town.

manfred - will return the comments to original as soon as I have some coding time.

In general:

Titles in Scrolls. Up to the author, we can't count on them. I don't want the added complexity of having to code it in because not every scroll is going to need a title either. The HTML is readily available to do bold and underline if the author wishes.

There was a suggestion to bring all the scrolls by the same author together under one overall "AUTHOR" heading so that you don't have the duplication. In this case we will need a graphic icon for a link because if we do have text links to every scroll post that will break up any continuity as well.

Moon, not sure what pull-down idiot proof stuff you are refering to?

Re: View Submission Shakeup

#14

OK, no Title for Scroll comments, it was just an idea anyway.

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Author: if we don't want to bold the name, how about... underlining it? And making it an actual link to the author's profile?

That way the author's name will get an emphasis, but not too great one, and it will make double duty in providing a link. Not a few times in the moving period of V2 I have been searching for the ID of an author. On the downside, it will increase the page even more.

Putting scroll comments from one person together: no. We have several submissions (mostly imports from the elder times) when several people played with their ideas on a given topic, responded and found new aspects, etc. (Garan, New Looks, etc.) This would make a mess of them.

Link icon: possible. We could also choose something alternative like , being a HTML link to the comment itself. Some cryptic word shorter and nicer than the whole [2397#13139|text] thing. (One shortener for now: at least skip the 'text' part.)

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Now that I think of it... if anyone uses for whatever reason the square brackets [ ] , it is interpreted as a link, right? Is there any way around it?

Re: View Submission Shakeup

#15

Mourngrymn - I dislike the look of replies now...