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Posted by: dazarobbo
StatusOther than being another place to click on to access the topic (and that's even a bit misleading on topics without an icon), these have no other use. As far as what they indicate, only locked topics have (and should - more on this later) have any useful indicator to them.As a general response to this entire section, I must disagree entirely. While you provide a good point as to the majority of the icons having little use, I feel that it adds a good deal of uniqueness to the site. Many other forums have Hot Topic indicators and I can't see the icons having a negative influence on the site. I would, however, be perfectly fine were the images of the icons changed in accordance with the look of b.next.
TitleObviously keep this, but make two changes:
1) Allow other character sets to be input; and
2) Keep a character limit, increase it, but don't truncate the string. Wrap it around to a new line.
Possibly make the font larger too.Again, wouldn't mind if certain factors such as this were changed in accordance with the new look.
Reply counterAs odd as it might sound, I think this can contribute to determining whether the topic is worth clicking on (plus, it's always an interesting statistic). Definitely keep this, but maybe move it from the line where the title is displayed and/or decrease the font size.Personally, I think the reply counter could be moved directly to the left of the icons (or replace them depending on your opinion on the icons themselves).
AuthorWhile I can't exactly explain why, I think it is useful to see who has posted a topic from the forum page.No argument here.
Date postedAgain, I have no justification for keeping this here other than it being useful information. However, PLEASE CHANGE IT TO RELATIVE TIME! A rollover which displays the full local date and time would be brilliant too.Seems like a good idea to me, except that assuming that relative time was listed, the rollover to show local time would be unnecessary. That would, however, be an attractive addition within the thread itself.
Who replied lastThis I do not feel is useful enough to warrant it existing on the forum page. That is to say, in the context of viewing the forums to look for topics, whoever posted last is irrelevant.Yeah, it's not exactly necessary by any means, but without it people such as yourself would be quoted a tad less often. If space allows, it, I'd vote to keep it simply because it's been there for so long now.
Date of the last replyConsidering that the forum is sorted chronologically by default, this isn't really all that useful (especially when I can just go into the topic and look at the last reply). The only time this might be useful is if you could sort the forums by different criteria (eg. reply count, etc...).
If it were kept, do the same with the date posted and change it to relative time and include a local timestamp on rollover.I vote to keep it for the sole reason of it linking you directly to the last reply. It's a very convenient add-on. I also think that it should be aligned to the right of the "Status-bar" or what have you. This would be for organizational purposes as well as visual appeal.
Pager linksI've honestly never used them because I don't find them all that useful. I wouldn't miss them if they disappeared.Can't say I've ever clicked on Page 2 out of 3 before. Not exactly needed, so I wouldn't care if it was removed or not.
Hopefully that explains some of my justifications for wanting the forum topics to change. Now onto posts within topics.
AvatarSorry to disappoint, but as far as what people should be focusing on within the topic, it shouldn't be the avatar. It is too prominent and takes up too much space when it is alongside a post. Given the [current] size of the area where posts are displayed, having the avatar there takes up about a fifth of the total space.
I think it should be removed completely, shrunk considerably (eg. 45x45, 32x32), moved above/below the post, or added dynamically/on-demand as a panel that appears when rolling over the username.Again, I must pull the tradition card. The Avatars are just too awesome, unique, and special to give up. I can't see how moving them elsewhere would change much, and shrinking them would just make them look bad. The sound of a rollover button that would display the avatar sounds like it may look cool, though. The avatar could easily be moved into the More drop-down box assuming that it is left there.
UsernameYes, keep this. Although what if its position were changed? Beside/below the post contents?It's place at the left of the titlebar is already optimal, however I wouldn't object if the titlebar itself was changed be aligned with the top of the post and to encompass all 670 pixels across the post.
TitleExcept for administrative titles (Employee, Ninja, etc...) and perhaps an indicator for who the OP is (a nice little addition IMO) titles are kind of silly and a waste of space here. I don't really care if they continue to exist, but I don't like the fact they exist in a context where they have little meaning and are bigger than the actual post text. Having them in the panel I was talking about might look nice, and would be appropriate if I cared to learn more about a specific user.I see them to be fine the way they are. They don't really provoke any true elitism, just sarcastic, good willed behavior between members of different titles, which is actually a good thing seeing as it helps to tie together the community. The thought of a higher title also serves as a motivator for [most] members to be on their best behavior. I do like the sound of having OP indication within threads. Perhaps white text over the username as opposed to blue?
Message user linkVery rarely will I use this since I can click someone's profile then hit send message. In that respect it's redundant (and it seems more intuitive to initiate sending a PM from a profile page anyway).Groups linkSame as the above.Assuming that space allows it, may as well leave it in for the convenience factor.
More/Signature arrowWhile the contents of the box that appears as a result of clicking the arrow isn't shown by default, the contents of this box are redundant since I can click a user's profile and get the same information. Again, this information might be more appropriate if displayed in a dynamically added rollover box.This sounds good.
Post buttonsI don't really see any other way these could be displayed. Although, what if these were fixed to the browser window while scrolling through a long post?Hmm, sounds like that might interfere a bit with the post itself. Also seems like it might be a bit complicated what with all the different layers of buttons for each individual post.
TimestampObviously this should stay, but with a few changes:
1) Inclusion of relative time (eg. "10 minutes ago", "3 months ago", "4 years ago", etc...).
2) Inclusion of an English-like timestamp. That means a timestamp like "Today at 5:01 PM", "Yesterday at 11:35 AM", for any recent timestamps instead of what we currently have "10.01.2012 11:17 PM PDT", because if I look at that on its own I don't know whether it's the 10th of January or the 1st of October. Older timestamps should have something like "Wed Oct 17 2012 at 2:44 PM". Structuring and displaying a timestamp in this way is readable by everyone, regardless of their locale.
3) LOCAL TIMESTAMPS! Or at the very least set to UTC. This is VERY important.Having it be changed to either relative, local, or GMT (possibly with rollover options) sounds like a much needed improvement in my opinion.
Wow, that took longer than I expected to type...
[Edited on 10.27.2012 1:02 AM PDT]