Do you like the forum description on hover only?

[holder10]

Hi,

the description of forums on the forum list only appears on hover and the forum stats are placed way more prominently instead on XenForo. I'm not sure if this is the right way. What do you think about it?

Cheers,
holder10

 

[Sejper]

But how many people would actually bother with it? Most people don't bother with settings as it is.

The problem with the personal approach is that we would end up with a lot of things as an option in the ACP or the UCP because people like to see things in different ways, and it was that series of options that ended up making vBulletin somewhat bloated; there's practically a switch for everything, even the most trivial of things, when really there shouldn't be.

Right now it's as simple as removing a small bit of line in a template if I remember a post by Kier correctly. If you don't want it on your board, remove it and you're done.

I agree 100% with this post.

 

[mrGTB]

Do you not think though, the last thing most people would want to do is start hacking at the software to remove it, no matter how easy it is to remove. And instead would sooner see the option there to just disable or enable it globally in the Admin CP for everyone, or give members the personal option in their profile settings to change it individually?

I don't think the answer is just to be able to "hack it" out the software.

 

[Floris]

It's a non issue since it's just a template change, you can get the {$string} and place it in a div, with your own classes or not.

 

[holder10]

The point is, that most forum admins don't know how to change the template like this. Even if it's just a line. I don't think making it an admin or user option is a good solution though.

You can advise a template change or make a setting for everything, but I think what's really important is what the default setting is. As it currently looks like, there isn't a clear winner in the poll. :/

 

[Mike]

I'm pretty sure it will be an admin option; it's not far off from having it now. Whether or not it makes sense to you probably depends on how many forums you have, how long your descriptions are, how descriptive/unique your forum titles are, etc.

I'd have to double check this, but I believe you can also have forum descriptions that don't show up on the forum list at all and just at the top of the forum (not a per forum option).

 

[Floris]

in my experience those admins you mention holden make either a support ticket asking where the admin option is, or how to change the template. It's the same trouble to them.

 

[GameR]

Floris, you are right, i know this... Most of the "users" are ask first and you must say: "This is there, first option." "Oh, i do not see it..."

it is typical: First ask, then search.

 

[Lawrence]

I suspect I'll be in the minority here, but I like it. Often the forum descriptions are pretty self-evident anyway, like ...

Introduce Yourself! In this forum, you can tell us something about yourself, and we can offer up an official greeting.
Off-topic Discuss anything not related to The Topic, yep anything at all! Sit back, relax, and talk away!

Certainly agree with this.
Descriptions, IMO, are only for the benefit of new members. Once you know what type of posts are expected in each forum, you don't need the description text in "your face" anymore, regular members stop noticing it after a while anyways.

 

[Grover]

I'm pretty sure it will be an admin option; it's not far off from having it now. Whether or not it makes sense to you probably depends on how many forums you have, how long your descriptions are, how descriptive/unique your forum titles are, etc.

Indeed. Every site is different, so in this case I think it's convenient for it to be an option: thanks!

 

[holder10]

I'm pretty sure it will be an admin option; it's not far off from having it now. Whether or not it makes sense to you probably depends on how many forums you have, how long your descriptions are, how descriptive/unique your forum titles are, etc.

I'd have to double check this, but I believe you can also have forum descriptions that don't show up on the forum list at all and just at the top of the forum (not a per forum option).

Okay, that's better than nothing, thanks.

 

[Forsaken]

Certainly agree with this.
Descriptions, IMO, are only for the benefit of new members. Once you know what type of posts are expected in each forum, you don't need the description text in "your face" anymore, regular members stop noticing it after a while anyways.

I usually make my titles fairly self-evident, though I will worry about communities that keep titles vague.

 

[mrGTB]

I also always try and be descriptive in the Forum Name title to help avoid threads being posted on the wrong forums, but a small description helps further that forum title to say what it should be used for.

Glad to hear that Mike, makes sense to me anyhow. You have to think about people upgrading as well, do you really need people posting support topics because they forgot to revert a template hack back to remove forum description because they forgot they did it?

Admin Option is best solution all round. I don't see the individual user option to set it mattering much at all. Probably should remain an Admin Global option only to be set for everyone.

 

[Alexander]

I think it is neat. But you could add the ability to have the forum description beside the name of the forum. There is quite much space there.

 

[mrGTB]

It does look neat at first, but like most pop-ups I found it quickly became annoying for me, moving your mouse up and down the forums and having one pop-up after the other appearing. Looking at it from the end user perspective on your own XenForo forum, many of your members might feel the same way. So it would be better to offer two options I feel "default static, or pop-up" so the forum owner can decide what best suits their members opinion about it.

I don't think it should be removed as a pop-up choice to use, just add a second static option. Then you have the best of both worlds.

 

[lightbox]

Descriptions, IMO, are only for the benefit of new members. Once you know what type of posts are expected in each forum, you don't need the description text in "your face" anymore ...

100% agree with Lawrence.
Keep things clean as much as possible.

 

[Cezz]

It does look neat at first, but like most pop-ups I found it quickly became annoying for me, moving your mouse up and down the forums and having one pop-up after the other appearing. Looking at it from the end user perspective on your own XenForo forum, many of your members might feel the same way. So it would be better to offer two options I feel "default static, or pop-up" so the forum owner can decide what best suits their members opinion about it.

I think the easiest ways to give your users this option is with two templates... There are a few JS ish options that you could then disable in the "static" theme if that is what you wished...

 

[Sir nick]

I would like to have an option to enable it.

 

[Markos]

No...it's original but annoying me...

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[Anthony]

I don't particularly care for it,

 

[Booth]

I suspect I'll be in the minority here, but I like it. Often the forum descriptions are pretty self-evident anyway, like ...

Introduce Yourself! In this forum, you can tell us something about yourself, and we can offer up an official greeting.
Off-topic Discuss anything not related to The Topic, yep anything at all! Sit back, relax, and talk away!

Can't help but agree with this.