*As I am not asking questions strictly pertaining to a function of this board I thought this forum to be the correct one. Mods feel free to deport it if necessary.
Ok, in your opinion what do you like/dislike about the new look of the boards. If we could make this thread an informative one as well as a fun thread maybe it’ll help in the transition to the new SDMB look. From my own perspective here are a few I thought of:
Color and spacing: I liked the grey of the old boards and the yellow envelopes indicating active or inactive threads. This light blue will take some getting used to, but it’s not all that bad in my opinion.
Thread proximity: I liked having the htreads a little closer together, as well as having the thread starter in a separate column. This made for an easier read.
Overall Feel: I like change and progress as a whole. This change of look will take some getting used to, but I’m excited and hopeful.
I was under the impression this look was temporary.
I don’t see anything about it to like. The colours I don’t care about. The manner in which threads are displayed is vastly inferior, as I can see only a third or what I could see before. This problem is repeated in every view; because everthing’s in a narrow column, a quarter of the screen is wasted in grey space on both sides and I have to scroll up and down constantly to see everything. (I’m in 1024x768, fwiw.)
There isn’t nearly as much functionality when reading messages. I don’t see anything good about it at all, at this point; it’s much harder to read, especially at the forum level, where I can see maybe 10 threads where before I could see 30. Hopefully the usability and width problems will be corrected; someone else said this is just the out-of-the-box look.
Oh I did not realize this was the out of the box look and not the final product…this raises my optimism…
I did find out that if you hover near a thread title a small note pop-up appears giving the first few paragraphs of the thread…thats nice, especially for those not using cable or DSL.
The glass is half full, the glass is half full, the glass is half full !!!
I’m with RickJay - the narrow column really is annoying. 1/2 my screen isn’t being used, and I can’t see nearly as many thread headings as I could before.
I like that it says “vBulletin” at the top of every page rather than “StraightDope”.
My nosey coworkers were starting to think that I really liked to frequent a page about marijuana usage.
I generally like it, except for the oft-mentioned width problems. I’m running at 1600x1200 and the narrow column down the middle is seriously horrible. Out-of-the-box or not, is it that much to ask in this day and age that everything have dynamic dimensions!?
The smileys are a bit weird, but the width of the reading page is OK. I don’t like the monochrome look too much, but I suppose I could get used to it. I also don’t like the fact that the reply box isn’t just “there” at the bottom of the page. All in all, I didn’t see anything wrong with the old version, but the new version should be ok as well. In time.
Well, the smilies seem to have overcome their shock from the move and are back to their old selves!
I think as the SDMB-specific things get implemented the board will more closely resemble it’s former self.
Things that I am waiting for:[ol]
[li]Fix the width problem[/li][li]Reduce the username sizes[/li][li]Bring back location!!![/li][/ol]
The width thing isn’t a problem for me, I’m using 800x600, but it’s a surprise to me the sizing isn’t dynamic, I can see that would be annoying. I kind of like not having the extra username column–on a long post, it’s wasted space–and really don’t mind the username size. I kind of like it, actually.
The colors look odd, and I think I’d prefer the old color scheme back, but I could get used to this, I’m sure.
It would be nice to have location back.
I love the popup thing, though it only works sporadically for me (I’m using Opera) and oddly when it does work it’s when the mouse is just above the thread title, not on it. This is not an insurmountable difficulty, though. Heck, as long as the Dope is up and the hamsters breathing, I’m happy.
It lets you choose brightness levels.I switched it to bright (from the default VB style)-and like it.Threads stand out more,for me.
Also to reply to a specific post click reply ** at the bottom of the particular post ** The qoute vb code is entered automatically.
The reply link at the very bottom of the threads just moves your post to next in line.
Another thing it’s much easier for me to preview the post in this screen.Having said that I’ll click submit,feeling confident I haven’t misspelled or had a case of dyslectic keyboard.
I’m waiting for the Powers That Be to go through all the customization; I know how difficult this sort of transition is, and I appreciate all the hard work, so I’m going to be patient and not complain too much.
That said, my top priority items to fix are as follows:[ul][]formatting width of reading area; I have a big screen and the middle-column format wastes a lot of space[]lack of instant-reply feature at bottom of thread is sorely missedliked the old user-information stuff, including “location” and “web link” and everything else that isn’t there any more[/ul]I suspect a lot of this will have to wait, though, until the indexing is complete, which is a bastard and a half to babysit. So I’m just going to let this be my only comment on the upgrade, followed by a big “thanks” to everyone busting their hump to get it done.
:eek: :o ;j -You don’t have to be Jewish—
