Lack of interest [Suggestion] UI/thread overview: make the sticky/locked/redirect-icons fade in (like the rss icons)

[Grover]

Since a picture says more than a thousands... :

I just realized something when using XF for the thousands time:



In the current state your eyes are distracted too much by those icons, especially when you use a small browser window. The focus should be on the thread titles, not the icons that tell me (often for the thousands of times) that a thread is sticky or locked.

My suggestion is this: wouldn't it be a good idea if the presentation of these icons on thread overview follow the same path as the rss-indicators do on the forum-overview:



You see how clean the forumoverview looks on XenForo? One of the ways they achieved this is by displaying faded-out images of the rss-icon. They will only become more strongly visibly when you mouseover the forumtitle-cell, which makes perfect sense. I love XF's UI!

So, why not follow the same great approach on thread overview where we even have more icons (and depending on your setup/forums sometimes those icons can populate the overview heavily)? Making them faded-out by default gives us not only consistency, but -this is the goal- a cleaner thread overview in the end.

Hopefully XF can pioneer in this. The more (too) visible indicators on a forum screen, the more I hate such a forum package. Seeing and using the outstanding XF interface for the first couple of times made me realize this even more...

 

[Forsaken]

Yes, this could be a thought behind it indeed.
 
The same could be said then when it comes to the RSS icons. That's why I keep asking the question (which no-one has answered yet ): 'When do you actually look at those icons? How often do you actually look at these icons? What purpose do they serve?'.

And rightfully so!

Harder? Why? In fact, when you would highlight them on mouseover (again... like the rss-icons), they become even more noticeable!

Yes, I follow that thought . I rest my case now... people can quibble further.

The RSS icon is of lesser importance then thread icons. If a user is going to use RSS, they are going to click the RSS button, and subscribe; not everyone does this. However, with thread icons, they are things that tell you about the thread, meaning that they have to be apparent from the beginning (At least in my opinion), so it makes more sense to -not- use opacity to lower the amount that a user can pick them up visually. It becomes counter intuitive at that point.

I do not always track a list of threads with my mouse, I usually read and see which I'll be reading, and which I won't be reading (Mouse above or below the the thread). Also, take into account larger screens (I use 1600x900), unless I actively look to the right, I usually only see them out of the corner of my eye, even if the icons change opacity, there is a chance that I'll miss the change slightly, in which case the purpose is defeated.