First, the hyperbole that has often been posted here is not helpful. It goes both "sides" and is a
strawman. Similarly, the
appeals to authority (that the devs chose it so deal with it) don't really add anything. By definition, we made every single decision in XenForo and there are plenty of things that have been adjusted based on feedback
Second, while "it can be changed" is a valid point, independently it's not a good argument. It can be changed relatively simply and that is something to note, but doesn't really say anything about the validity of any choice and thus is not a particularly useful point.
So with that in mind, I did actually mention the reasoning in the initial HYS:
Considering the importance of types of information that we display (by default) in the message user info, the online status probably doesn't even rank -- but of course, it was a commonly requested element. I can't say that I see a really compelling reason for the online status to be there. I mean, I can see a little bit of value from it, but the forum concept is designed around asynchronous discussion and discussion involving multiple parties. In the base case, a user would normally be notified in some way to a response to them.
(It's also worth noting that, unlike in a chat program where you maintain a connection to a server, the online status indicator doesn't necessarily mean that the user is actually still online. I've probably gone offline while thinking about/drafting this post.)
So, the design was to make it available but not throw it in your face. To let you access it if you need it, but to not draw too much attention
. I've seen some examples of really significant banners (over the avatar, full width banners like the "staff member" one, etc) that really don't fit the goal of being understated and significantly over value the information, IMO.
So what other options are there? (Focusing solely on the dot implementation.)
- Somewhere around the avatar but not over it -- this feels like it's quite noticeable and IMO, not really nice looking anyway. It is probably better to put this in the upper left corner than the upper right. In general, it just seems a little ... off to put it there.
- Before the username -- moving it here has the disadvantage of shifting the username back and forth. Additionally, it's not particularly uncommon to use the username CSS to add an icon before the username so this would just double that up. It does also reduce the usable width for the actual username and this area is fairly tight.
- After the username (inline) -- this eliminates the issues with the username moving and the username CSS icon, but it does mean that the online icon moves about based on the width of the username. It does also reduce the width available to the username (potential situation where just the online icon wraps). This doesn't feel horrendously intrusive with a smaller online indicator, but would need more experimenting.
- After the username (right aligned) -- this looks "detached" from a short username and just a bit random. With longer usernames it would interfere unless there was some extra margin applied, so it does have the same width reduction as the others.
So just to be clear, the main issues with the version over the avatar seem to be that it can be too understated depending on avatar, that it can be faked, and possibly general aesthetics for some people(?).
I've mentioned my opinion on banners but are there any other alternatives worth considering? (Somewhat rhetorical as there would be.
)
Just as a final point: there are plenty of things XF gives you choices over, but there are also plenty of things where it's opinionated. This won't change and clearly there will be decisions you don't agree with. It doesn't mean our decisions are automatically right, but disagreement doesn't mean they're automatically wrong. To get a package that works how you want 100% of the time would require a few more zeroes be tacked onto $140.
