Yeah, I don't think I'm seeing that either.
Honest question Tricky, why are you trying to invent the wheel? Surely there are out of the box solutions to what we need?
...this over the current board?
- 5 votes.
- Voting is public.
- Started by tricky on 5 Mar 2023.
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All out of the box solutions have elements that are sub-optimal. The forum software landscape is pretty bare, and a lot of the options are old, tired (in terms of look and feel, and features), and run on a stack that don't have the greatest longevity (in terms of vulnerabilities, maintenance, complexity).
This is an out of the box solution...I'm just tweaking it for the features that I feel that I particularly need. Technically, and in terms of where it's headed I like this. I just need to get a few wrinkles ironed out.
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The misago author has replied with this. Which is interesting. I quite like the solution, but would like to see a clearer differentiation on the colour of the thread titles.
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- By tricky on 6 Mar 2023, 5:05 p.m..
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- By tricky on 6 Mar 2023, 5:17 p.m..
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I feel like voting no would be churlish, but it's nothing like as nice an interface as the current one. I'm sure I'd get used to it and if it suits you better then I think that's more important than my gripes, but I'm not especially a fan so far.
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The current board is dead. It's a dog on performance, has security issues (insecure images), poor image support, and I find very fussy, with loads of wasted space and poor organisation. It's also almost impossible to maintain.
What would you miss from the current interface?
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Nothing of any huge significance. The current board is much more elegant and uncluttered in its appearance while providing more information e.g. thread starter, last post by etc, but it's nothing that I wouldn't get used to. But put them side by side and one is obviously superior to the other, IMO:
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On the clutter front, to my eye the old ui is more cluttered, and the new one has twice the number of threads displayed for the opening head shot. The categories add some guide as to what to expect, and it's a much cleaner less fussy look. I can totally live with not having it display the thread starter (look at the first post in the thread if you are interested). It also tells you how many replies to date.
YMMV
Critical for me is support for markdown, to make nicely formatted longer posts (that the cleaner look assists with), a form of versioning, a better less temperamental editor, better previews - plus some semi-collaboration stuff, like private threads with invite/remove participants.
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The only thing I really miss is to be able to go straight to the unread posts on a thread on Android.
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On mobile: threads that have unread posts have slightly bolder writing for the thread title. Pressing one of these thread title links goes to the first unread post.
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Ah yes, I didn't realise it went to the last one.
Thanks
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I DGAF about the thread starter, but agree with Russ that, currently, the old one looks better. I don’t think that’s a fundamental issue with the style of the new one though.. rather it’s about design choices. Changing the categories has made a difference.. but, if I am going to be a critic, I’d say that the big red talkback banner looks bad and has no function, as does the text under it. And it’s bright red. The simple text heading, in a more muted colour, on the old site is infinitely better.
I don’t think high contrast flat design is aesthetically pleasing at all.
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Like you, I prefer it without a banner. Like this?
I like that it is more of an absence of design choice. Paint the whole thing grey. It looks much better on mobile, I think, which is increasingly how people consume such things.
...or paint it black...
I've taken to using bromite browser, on android. Which does indeed support a dark mode...and I think that this sparse design works particularly well in that mode. I would argue certainly better than the existing site. There are browsers, I believe, in apple world that support dark mode through the browser. If that's any use.
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I don't think your average or even moderately advanced user is going to use any browser other than the standard ones tbh.
Here's how the forum currently looks on my android FWIW.
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I look at that and I like the look a lot more than the old site. Am I just dead inside?
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Nope. I like it. It's much more modern and feels cleaner/simpler.
Would dark mode be an option through a theme?
misago-project.org/t/using-themes-feature-to-add-custom-css-to-the-site/1150/#post-5461
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I think it definitely looks better with no banner, although this is very much the "fuck off we don't want any new friends" stage of Talkback's life if we go with that because it's a deeply unwelcoming look.
