New forum layout

[Ghaznavid]

May I inquiry why it was decided that the forum should go from a liquid design that filled the whole screen to a fixed design with a meager width of 980 pixels?* Resolutions tend to go wider not higher these days. So adopting a design that fails to make use of it and instead adds brrroooaaaddd white borders around the site content seems like step backward.
I also find the title bar animation replaying itself every time I call up a new page somewhat irritating.

I admit I would have rather gotten the search function back instead of useless eye candy and functional regressions.


* To add injury to insult you also set the table width directly in the HTML instead in the CSS where it belongs. So even using a custom CSS to override the table width restriction is not going to work. Sorry, that's simply bad design.

[batesmotel]

I have to agree with Karsten with giving a thumbs down on the new changes. The page layout looks terrible on a wide screen and the constant popping up of the header just looks dumb.

Chris

p.s. I'm even willing to forgive the continued lack of the search function if you will roll back the eye torture!

[IainMcNeil]

Thanks for teh feedback. The problem with the old style is that is appears diffferently on each size of monitor. As you are widescreen you would never have seen the issues on normal screens or on mobile devices. We had to make these changes to allow the vast majority to see the page the way it was designed. There used to be all sorts of text overlaps with proprtional frames. Unless we have a completely different version for widescreen this is what we have to do for compatability reasons!

I'm sure the title bar animation could be turned off if it is that offensive but I just dont notice it

[timmy1]

Ian

'I'm sure the title bar animation could be turned off if it is that offensive'

Please to God do it as soon as you can and get JD to announce it on the FoG Yahoo group. That is where I will be until it is fixed. It is driving me to distraction and giving me a headache.

I also agree that the search function would have been a much better use of valuable programmer time.

[Ghaznavid]

Thanks for teh feedback. The problem with the old style is that is appears diffferently on each size of monitor. As you are widescreen you would never have seen the issues on normal screens or on mobile devices. We had to make these changes to allow the vast majority to see the page the way it was designed. There used to be all sorts of text overlaps with proprtional frames. Unless we have a completely different version for widescreen this is what we have to do for compatability reasons!

I'm sure the title bar animation could be turned off if it is that offensive but I just dont notice it

Honestly that might have applied to the Slitherine website, but not to the forum, the layout here was pretty simple. I've used it on small resolution devices with no problems.
It's also no excuse for writing the table width directly into the page HTML instead to define them in the CSS. The way you do it makes it impossible for people to modify such key details with Stylesheets of their own (something that is often done by handicapped people to improve readability of a site for them). It's just a bad idea (and bad style) no matter how you look at it.

Also, since I've a a reputation as nitpicker at stake ...
Your problem is not screen resolutions. Every Webdesigner worth his salt should find it easy enough to create a fluid design that works for all resolutions in all modern browsers. Your problem is that pretty outdated but still surprisingly common piece of crap called Internet Explorer 6. Creating a fluid layout that work on IE6 as well as all other browsers is the tricky part. Personally I wouldn't bother for most Websites, but for a commercial website like yours it's probably necessary to support it for another year or two, sadly enough.
Still nothing that has to affect the forum IMHO.

[IainMcNeil]

We will make the forum wider but it is the next step. For now it has to match the new design

[pipfromslitherine]

I had major text overwrite issues when trying to view the foums on my iPod with the old layout. Agree that a lot of work is added by the 'standards' used by all the various browsers...

Cheers

Pip

[MrsWargamer]

No complaints, but, I am not getting any response from selecting View New Posts since last visit function up at the upper right.

Mark all Forums Read is actually the only thing working currently for me.

Using latest Firefox here by the way and Windows 7 64 if that helps.

[timmy1]

Ian

Thanks for fixing the scrolling header so quiclly but now something has occurred to the window frame size - it no longer fits but is about 25% wider than before - have to scroll left and right every few seconds. Any chance of fixing that soonish?

Regards
Tim

[IainMcNeil]

What page do you mean and what browser are you using?

[pipfromslitherine]

It seems to happen if you aren't running the browser using the full size of the screen. It's fine if I have it nearly the full screen width, but if I resize the window it ends up too wide for the window.

Cheers

Pip

[IainMcNeil]

The window is now 938 pixels wide so as long as your display can handle that you should be ok. Try again and see how it feels. I'm not sure what else we can do to improve it as it is a balance. Each change improves things for one setup and worsens it on others

[timmy1]

Iain

Thank you. Whatever you have done it now works perfectly for me.

Really appreciate the speedy response.

Regards
Tim