Rant: I hate the Forum Home, it sucks.
- Thread starter Digital Doctor
- Start date
jmurrayhead
Well-known member
Wasted space, indeed. Because every forum home should be crammed pack full of text and hover-overs. So let me ask you...how often do you use that Last poster, last reply information on the forum home? Be honest. The ONLY reason I even go to forum home now is to see which staff and members are online. The rest of my time is spent in 'New Posts' for that kind of information. I know several others have said that in the past.
Adam Howard
Well-known member
Good eye .... My anti-spam / anti-adware / anti-tracking plug-in was blocking them. Gravatar is blocked by it. Upon white listing NodeBB, that was solved.
But as @Shelley has pointed out... It's still missing a lot that I would expect to see on forum.
jmurrayhead
Well-known member
I imagine you would expect to see all that since it's never been changed in over 10 years...
Shelley
Well-known member
I use the last poster area all the time. It's the second most active link I click after new posts on forum home. If I'm having a debate I know will get a reply chances are the link in the last post area is the link i click (infact, I just clicked it now to reply to you).
jmurrayhead
Well-known member
Like I mentioned earlier, different people - different tastes. The "New Posts" link does all of that for me. Chances are, you have a better chance of getting to your debates more quickly from "Watched Threads" and "New Posts" than in the last post area on an active forum. That certainly doesn't make the grid layout of NodeBB, as you put it, a "pile of horsepile with extra helping of flies".
Adam Howard
Well-known member
Shelley
Well-known member
Here's a better example imo http://www.rpdom.com/
Alien
Well-known member
What would be sort of cool, is if you have a dedicated photos forum you could have one of these tiles show random photos from that forum.. Sort of like the random photos live tile in Windows 8.
Nothing revolutionary to stick in a sidebar, but interesting in the tile-based layout being discussed where it appears among all the other like-sized tiles.
Nothing revolutionary to stick in a sidebar, but interesting in the tile-based layout being discussed where it appears among all the other like-sized tiles.
jmurrayhead
Well-known member
Perfect way to prove your point, Adam.
jmurrayhead
Well-known member
Yes, I mentioned that in an earlier post (regarding Miner's original Metro theme). Even there, however, I see a lot of noise that is removed with NodeBB's implementation. Honestly, I don't think there's a place for a forum home as it stands these days. People care about activity --> 'New Posts'.
Alien
Well-known member
Good example, but could use tweaks to make it less busy at start and there is too much white space. I would love to drag some elements around, but i'm useless.
I think that could use some scrolling in with some additional details (i think people are interested more in the last poster information/date/avatar and less about the total amount of threads/posts in there until hovered).. Not sure...
HenrikHansen
Well-known member
It is still a mystery to me that no one releases styles likes this for sale
jmurrayhead
Well-known member
Some one did. Miner. But he is out of the business for the time being.
Shelley
Well-known member
You're absolutely right, that is really my own opinion since I think that particular layout is beyond bad and does nothing for me other than keeps me guessing and wondering why they wasted so much space on and in that area.
jmurrayhead
Well-known member
What space is wasted if there is nothing else meant to be put there? That's the point I'm making. There are more appropriate and easier places to get that information like "New Posts", "Watched Threads", and the actual thread listing in each forum.
Shelley
Well-known member
Your not making any point. If you are debating on what ifs, then show me a layout? I'm posting primarily and only by that horsepile example DD posted.
Alien
Well-known member
If you want to go all out, make it configurable/savable.. You can put any of your favorite forums where you want them, stick a photos forum where you want it to scroll that forums photos, a stats tile to stick anywhere you want if you care about that stuff, make it up to the member to configure the landing page.
To minimize the code necessary, just keep empty boxes with the elements (sort of like Wordpress sidebar selections in the AdminCP) and make a dedicated area inside the UserCP/Settings to scroll things around and save them. Then the index only has to read your preferences (if you make any).
To minimize the code necessary, just keep empty boxes with the elements (sort of like Wordpress sidebar selections in the AdminCP) and make a dedicated area inside the UserCP/Settings to scroll things around and save them. Then the index only has to read your preferences (if you make any).
Alien
Well-known member
Oh, and of course any add-on author can create a simple tile (latest photos from Chris Deeming's XMG = check).
You could also have a latest poll tile that could look pretty attractive.
All that stuff would take much more coding than just general layout changes though, but it's fun to fantasize about.
You could also have a latest poll tile that could look pretty attractive.
All that stuff would take much more coding than just general layout changes though, but it's fun to fantasize about.
jmurrayhead
Well-known member
In fact, I AM making a point. But if it eludes you, I don't know how else I can explain it. Not sure about the "what ifs" you're referring to, either. NodeBB's design, in my eyes, is nice. Not everyone will like it and that's not a problem either. Calling it a pile of horse ****, however, is a bit much. I guess I'll just leave it at that.
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