Why not use a newer forum style.

by asklon, Tuesday, February 12, 2013, 20:28 (4306 days ago)

I was wondering why DBO doesn't have a forum like ABO, a phpBB style forum. Would it not be easier to follow?

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Why not use a newer forum style.

by katancik ⌂ @, Portland, OR/ University of Texas, Tuesday, February 12, 2013, 20:30 (4306 days ago) @ asklon

I think most of us like it this way!

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Why not use a newer forum style.

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Tuesday, February 12, 2013, 20:33 (4306 days ago) @ katancik

I think most of us like it this way!

Part of it, at least, is that a lot of people like the threaded titles that it normally displays. There may have also been technical reasons or what not, but I don't know about those.

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Why not use a newer forum style.

by JDQuackers ⌂ @, McMurray, PA, Tuesday, February 12, 2013, 20:39 (4306 days ago) @ asklon

Basically, this discussion

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Why not use a newer forum style.

by bluerunner @, Music City, Tuesday, February 12, 2013, 20:41 (4306 days ago) @ Ragashingo

I find this style much easier to follow, especially when separate discussions branch off in a thread.

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Why not use a newer forum style.

by JDQuackers ⌂ @, McMurray, PA, Tuesday, February 12, 2013, 20:45 (4306 days ago) @ asklon

I had an answer for you, but it got caught in the spam filter.

Apparently linking to the HBO forum counts as spam, maybe? Either that or I accidentally words

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Why not use a newer forum style.

by uberfoop @, Seattle-ish, Tuesday, February 12, 2013, 20:51 (4306 days ago) @ asklon

Threads can branch naturally without people trying to get words in edgewise across multiple lines of discussion shoved into a single chain.

I've seen forums that use a "newer style" but want bungie.org-like levels of branchability, and they wind up with these weird discussions about whether it's appropriate to push certain groups of posts to certain new threads and places. It works, but it's a bit of a mess and takes more mod effort. Better to just cut out the middleman and use this format.

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Why not use a newer forum style.

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Tuesday, February 12, 2013, 20:59 (4306 days ago) @ uberfoop

Yeah. Around HBO and now here you won't get those "you're posting in the wrong thread" or "we need to split / merge these threads" type situations. It does take a while to get used to though. I remember I lurked HBO's forums for a long time, back in the early 2000's, just trying to figure out how conversations worked in this structure.

I do like this one's ability to do a php-ish style display when you want it. I find myself using the normal view to pick off an odd reply here or there then switching to the "whole thread" view if a new big thread manages to crop up between visits.

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Thank God we're not.

by Kermit @, Raleigh, NC, Wednesday, February 13, 2013, 04:27 (4305 days ago) @ asklon

It's the main reason I'm not much of a HaloGAF guy.

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Thank God we're not.

by Revenant1988 ⌂ @, How do I forum?, Wednesday, February 13, 2013, 06:14 (4305 days ago) @ Kermit

Agreed.

Not that they'd let me join anyway >_>

I agree with Blue. This style is easier to follow. The ONLY thing I don't care much for is the color scheme (just my preference. Everything else is pretty nifty!

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Thank God we're not.

by bluerunner @, Music City, Wednesday, February 13, 2013, 07:09 (4305 days ago) @ Revenant1988
edited by bluerunner, Wednesday, February 13, 2013, 07:13

I agree with Blue. This style is easier to follow. The ONLY thing I don't care much for is the color scheme (just my preference. Everything else is pretty nifty!

If I could make it a blue and silver color scheme I would be in hog heaven.

Well, it kinda is, but more so. And no more purple for the links. Purple is the worst color in the world. Besides orange.

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Thank God we're not.

by Revenant1988 ⌂ @, How do I forum?, Wednesday, February 13, 2013, 07:37 (4305 days ago) @ bluerunner

Blue and Silver were my High School colors.

I like Purple.

Orange can go though, it acts like it own the place everywhere it goes.

Thank God we're not.

by NsU Soldier @, Washington, Wednesday, February 13, 2013, 09:40 (4305 days ago) @ Revenant1988

Orange can go though, it acts like it own the place everywhere it goes.

Namely 'cause it does.

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Think of the NMs! Think of the NMs! *NM*

by ZackDark @, Not behind you. NO! Don't look., Wednesday, February 13, 2013, 14:04 (4305 days ago) @ asklon

no need. empty msg: no preview speech bubble. look left ->

by scarab @, Wednesday, February 13, 2013, 15:20 (4305 days ago) @ ZackDark

well there wasn't until I edited my post

by scarab @, Wednesday, February 13, 2013, 15:24 (4305 days ago) @ scarab

Never mind. Even a refresh will display the bubble.

Ignore scarab, his dementia is kicking in.

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Thank God we're not.

by SonofMacPhisto @, Wednesday, February 13, 2013, 16:27 (4305 days ago) @ NsU Soldier

Orange is amazing. Disagree? PISTOLS AT DAWN.

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Thank God we're not.

by bluerunner @, Music City, Wednesday, February 13, 2013, 18:17 (4305 days ago) @ SonofMacPhisto

Orange is amazing. Disagree? PISTOLS AT DAWN.

So be it. LET'S DO THIS.

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Hmmm...

by ZackDark @, Not behind you. NO! Don't look., Wednesday, February 13, 2013, 19:43 (4305 days ago) @ scarab

My line of thought was that, had we the forum style the OP was suggesting, there would be no way to NM.

Am I wrong?

Thank God we're not.

by NsU Soldier @, Washington, Wednesday, February 13, 2013, 19:49 (4305 days ago) @ bluerunner

Orange is amazing. Disagree? PISTOLS AT DAWN.


So be it. LET'S DO THIS.

Fellows! Let's settle this like civilized gentlemen.

Rocks at midnight.

You want advice from someone who is demented?

by scarab @, Wednesday, February 13, 2013, 23:16 (4305 days ago) @ ZackDark

Does that make sense to you? :-)

I got all confused. Listen too much to me and so will you. I'm having a day, week, month...

Thank God we're not.

by thebruce ⌂, Ontario, Canada, Thursday, February 14, 2013, 06:52 (4304 days ago) @ bluerunner

Well, it kinda is, but more so. And no more purple for the links. Purple is the worst color in the world. Besides orange.

I miss not having the visited links immediately turn :visited. Sometimes I open multiple comments in multiple tabs and read through them. Returning to the main list, they're no longer highlighted visited without refreshing. *sadface*

no need. empty msg: no preview speech bubble. look left ->

by thebruce ⌂, Ontario, Canada, Thursday, February 14, 2013, 06:54 (4304 days ago) @ scarab

Empty msg? This alert:

- No "message" tex't has been entered

Why not use a newer forum style.

by thebruce ⌂, Ontario, Canada, Thursday, February 14, 2013, 10:51 (4304 days ago) @ asklon

Just to note, I've used the Firefox Stylish plugin to make a couple esthetic customizations for myself, so far... including:

body { font-family:arial,sans-serif!important; }
#content p, #content ul, #content td { line-height:1.2em!important; }
ul.thread { margin-bottom:0.2em!important; }
div.posting { padding:7px!important; background:white!important; }

- Dropped the Verdana. It's a wide font, and I like packing things in :)
- As above, reduced the spacing between lines of text
- Removing the spacing between threads (back similar to the HBO appearance)
- Popped the comment block out from the light blue background; sometimes it's hard to tell the comment text from the rest of the page

Ooh, you're a CSS ninja?

by Arithmomaniac ⌂ @, Thursday, February 14, 2013, 12:21 (4304 days ago) @ thebruce

Thanks for the CSS. Every bit of help for the upcoming Forum Enhancer style (eta: next week) should help.

Touch/Mobile devices?

by GeekInABox, Cleveland, Ohio, Thursday, February 14, 2013, 12:30 (4304 days ago) @ asklon

I'm glad we still have a threaded view ... I agree that's the way to go.

My only minor complaint or suggestion for improvement is that my fat almost-40 yr old fingers still struggle to hit the correct links when viewing the forums on a mobile device.

Any thoughts to an 'adaptive/responsive design or separate style' that is more fat finger touch friendly when viewed on a smaller screen or mobile device?

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Touch/Mobile devices?

by bluerunner @, Music City, Thursday, February 14, 2013, 13:00 (4304 days ago) @ GeekInABox

There's a little button next to the preview button for the first post of each thread. If you hit it you can see the entire thread with the replies indented. If you're looking at a post within a thread, you can open up the entire thread on one page by clicking the "Open in thread" button in the upper right corned. I've found these to be really helpful while reading on my phone. Otherwise I have the same problem of clicking links above and below the one I want to click.

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Touch/Mobile devices?

by stabbim @, Des Moines, IA, USA, Thursday, February 14, 2013, 14:14 (4304 days ago) @ bluerunner

Related: It used to be that most Android devices had a clickable trackball or trackpad, which was fantastic for hitting non-finger-friendly links on webpages - you could move the selection around between different links and then click on the one you actually wanted. Unfortunately, nothing in the last year or two has had that - it was phased out in favor of having as few buttons on the face as possible. :(

Ooh, you're a CSS ninja?

by thebruce ⌂, Ontario, Canada, Friday, February 15, 2013, 06:28 (4303 days ago) @ Arithmomaniac

Thanks for the CSS. Every bit of help for the upcoming Forum Enhancer style (eta: next week) should help.

Well, thanks to Firefox's very easy development tools, locating and altering inline element styles is crazy simple. And being a web app developer has its benefits =P But anyone can learn css/html basics; makes life so much easier these days!

Touch/Mobile devices?

by kapowaz, Friday, February 15, 2013, 06:39 (4303 days ago) @ GeekInABox

Any thoughts to an 'adaptive/responsive design or separate style' that is more fat finger touch friendly when viewed on a smaller screen or mobile device?

I wrote a user stylesheet for HBO's forum back in the day, which I still use — I'm sure it'd be possible to create something for DBO that had a go at improving the legibility / layout for touch devices via media queries etc. I'll have a play with that …oh I don't know, probably sometime in early 2014 but hey, I'll see what I can do :)

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Chrome for Android: here to save the day!

by JDQuackers ⌂ @, McMurray, PA, Friday, February 15, 2013, 09:43 (4303 days ago) @ stabbim

One of my favorite features of Chrome for Android is that if you hit a "link dense" part of a web page it will give you a little popup zoomed display so that you can hit the correct link.

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Chrome for Android: here to save the day!

by stabbim @, Des Moines, IA, USA, Friday, February 15, 2013, 10:03 (4303 days ago) @ JDQuackers

Sounds great. I'll have to give it a try. I'm just so heavily invested in Firefox's sync for bookmarks/passwords and such now that I hardly ever touch Chrome. Sometimes I wish Chrome just sucked so it wouldn't be such a dilemma for me. :P

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Chrome for Android: here to save the day!

by JDQuackers ⌂ @, McMurray, PA, Friday, February 15, 2013, 11:09 (4303 days ago) @ stabbim

I'm the same way with Chrome's synching ability :)

I know mobile Firefox is awesome, but I'm so heavily invested in the Chrome/ChromeOS/Chrome for Android space that it's hard to break free!

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Chrome for Android: here to save the day!

by bluerunner @, Music City, Friday, February 15, 2013, 11:30 (4303 days ago) @ JDQuackers

I swapped over to chrome on my phone, but it's doing weird things with the links to the posts. They're all different sizes. Some are normal sized, but some are very tiny right below them. Others are big like I'm zoomed in on them. What's causing that?

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Chrome for iOS

by Xenos @, Shores of Time, Friday, February 15, 2013, 12:53 (4303 days ago) @ JDQuackers

Chrome for iOS does this also. Very helpful

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Chrome for Android: here to save the day!

by JDQuackers ⌂ @, McMurray, PA, Friday, February 15, 2013, 12:56 (4303 days ago) @ bluerunner

It seems to happen to all replies on a thread starting 7 levels deep (heehee).

I tried both Chrome and Chrome Beta on both a phone and a tablet... all the same results. Not sure why it's happening, but it definitely seems like either the browser or the stylesheet is somehow shrinking the text to try and fit it all onscreen. If I rotate the tablet to landscape, the text increases in size, but is still noticeably smaller than the normal subject lines...

Why not use a newer forum style.

by kittens ⌂, Portland, OR, Saturday, February 16, 2013, 00:55 (4303 days ago) @ asklon

Yeah, I gotta say, the format is one of the main things keeping me from using the forum. It's a bummer, cause the people seem pretty cool. I understand yall not wanting to change things, though.

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