I would prefer more delineation like in Vincent, but in the light theme. I like lines and tables, not swathes of white with doohickeys hanging in space. YMMV.
I have my text size set at Normal, which actually works pretty well for me with my eyes and progressive lenses. Perhaps my browser is enlarged. I’m not getting lots of white space on the sides, the width is fine. I would prefer less white space between posts, which would be okay if there were lines or maybe the alternating shading of the old board.
On my phone, I’m running the mobile version offered in the three bars menu (“hamburger” menu). Curiously, it doesn’t show as an option on my desktop, just my phone. Anyway, it works pretty good.
I’m adapting to the scroll slider instead of pagination, but have yet to see how it works out in really long threads.
IMO, this site is not ‘text-heavy’ compared to, say, a newspaper. There’s clear space next to everyone’s avatar, clear space at the bottom of each post where the reply links are, clear space between posts, and often a lot of the “text” on screen is quote boxes which I’d skim very briefly, since I already read them. For instance, if I scroll down just beyond your post, my screen will fit the next two posts - under 150 or so new words. That’s really not much for a page of text - a book has 300 or so per page.
I’m aware that narrow-screen as been the orthodoxy for … what, about ten years or so now, I think? Because I can remember hating it everywhere I met it for ten years or so. I’m unlikely to change now!
The exception seems to be academic papers, where they rarely do anything of the sort, and actually that would be heavy because they ARE cognitively demanding . Go figure…
Is there a theme that removes EVERYBODY’S avatar from my view, like we had with the vBulletin software (IIRC, that was a preference we could select)? As a matter of principle, I don’t want to demand that the option of having an avatar be taken away from Dopers who are afflicted with the poor judgement to want one. But I WOULD like to be able to make them begone from my sight.
Also, is there a final word yet on the question of whether we will ever be able to go back to having threads exceed 10 kiloposts?
Also, kayT is right. We need our location fields back (with the individual option of whether to populate it).
That’s an argument to use multicolumn text, not to have a huge amount of completely empty space. Yet you mostly see sites doing the former instead of the latter.
All it does is make it look like your site was designed for a smaller screen. My usual solution is just to zoom in, like I would on an old 800x600 site. If the text is too large, I can reduce it–but I find that font sizes these days seem to be made for bigger screens than I have or would ever want. (I don’t like having too much screen filling up my field of vision.)
OK, did that. But I already had a location in my profile and it didn’t transfer over here with me, apparently. If that is the case for everyone, maybe that should be looked into as to why it didn’t, or else people should be advised to add it to their profiles if they want (and also how to do it as it takes a bit of digging to find where to post it).
One thing I’d like to see added to SD Light: underline hyperlinks. Right now they’re barely discernible from regular text, and unless a link is Oneboxed, often the only way I know it’s there is if somebody else has already clicked it so it shows the little gray click-count icon (which itself is not all that visible).
Onebox is a little brash in its styling, but overall I like it.
Multi-column formatting makes sense on paper, where you want readability but don’t want to be wasteful of surface area. It makes no sense on a computer screen were acreage is basically free.
Agreed. I demonstrated somewhere recently, much to my own horror, that I could link to some of Giraffe’s animated smilies, a few of which worked. I sure hope nobody gets any ideas.
No, not if they do it right. You would do what you do on paper–split on per page basis. Here you might also do a per-post basis. Though they could do what you said, and just have a quick button you click to jump you back up to the top.
Still, okay. Maybe you don’t like this particular idea. It really was just an example–I was taking what they did in print. But you can also fill up that space with tons of different things. Move the meta info stuff over, you know, like the title, the buttons, the username. Put that column of “suggested topics” on the side instead of the bottom. Have a drop list of the entire forum for quick navigation.
There are just so many other, better options than the default single column of text in the middle of the screen, so I don’t think it’s actually about some study. I think it’s just not designing for larger, wider screens. They expect people will zoom in.
Many people use phones or tablets with narrow screens today. You have to provide for everybody.
I have a wide screen, and I don’t see any problem with the current design. The white space is fine. I hated the long lines of text on the old board. Two columns would be irritating.
I’d like a theme that reproduces the SDMB look as it was a year ago (I don’t see other people’s avatars unless I want to, f’rinstance; and pagination; and spoiler boxes that are actual BOXES).
AFAIK, the ONLY thing that needed fixing was the 502/504 errors. If we could get a theme that only fixes THAT, I’d select it in a heartbeat
I have a wide screen. I’ve never used all the width – it’s annoying to have really wide windows. Especially really wide blocks of text. I am typing this as I watch my partner play my hand in bridge on-line. (I’m the dummy.) I like having multiple screens visible.
. Go figure…
I sure hope nobody gets any ideas.