Its been commented that the forums are messy looking & tough on the eyes. I'd have to agree.
Imo the forums would look so much cleaner if the Tags could be placed as headers instead of off to the side. So say on your forums there would be a header of Support & underneath it would be 2 dozen posts or so. I've made my Tags & sub tags to further separate (in an effort to keep things clean & not jumbled) however the current forum set up thwarts my efforts.
Making the tags as headers would defeat the convention and direction that thread tags are supposed to take us. If you wish to only see posts of a certain tag, it's just a matter of selecting the radio button for the tag.
I'm looking at your current tag setup, and I have a few suggestions to make things a little clearer for you.
Having a single category for tags is unnecessary and adds to unnecessary clutter. right now you have 2 categories with 1 tag in each: Public and Officer. I suggest you simply remove the category from the Public tag. I also suggest you rename the "General" tag to "Officer" and remove the category from that as well.
The purpose of the tags is to show everything at once, to allow a total overview of the forums, and if desired, to allow people to only show posts of a certain tag if that tag is selected at the top.
I know it's a little weird at first, coming from the standard forum concept of having multiple forums, but one thing that's pretty much never going to happen here is adding support for multiple forums. I know it's a bit hard-headed because multiple forums have been requested in the past, but I GUARANTEE that this is the superior approach, and although this is currently the only site in the world utilizing a forum system like this (as far as I know), once this starts to have a little more market penetration, it'll start to gain momentum, and you'll see clones of type of functionality. It's different though, and as such, it'll require a little time for people to get used to it. Those who've adapted openly admit that they can't stand going back to the traditional approach.
---- The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
I'm curious though, how are the forums hard on the eyes? It might have to do with the fact that you don't have alternating colors for the rows on your site. I always suggest implementing an alternating color scheme on the thread list. It definitely goes a long way to making the forums more readable.
---- The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
There are people that do not like the look of these forums and those of us who do. I keep having the same conversation and people jump on both sides of the fence. The only argument that I have heard that I agree with is that there is a lot going on on the screen.
---- Eleipher, The Warlock Extraordinaire The New Beginnings Thorium Brother Hood Guild Webmaster
--
Eleipher, The Warlock Extraordinaire The New Beginning Thorium Brother Hood
There are people that do not like the look of these forums and those of us who do. I keep having the same conversation and people jump on both sides of the fence. The only argument that I have heard that I agree with is that there is a lot going on on the screen.
---- Eleipher, The Warlock Extraordinaire The New Beginnings Thorium Brother Hood Guild Webmaster
Yeah, I admit it's a hot topic for argument, I've been through my share of arguments with my guildies as well. Different things are always opposed at first, but if you look around the web, the concept of "tagging" is taking over EVERYTHING. Look at sites like ebaumsworld, del.ic.ious, even google video, you'll see "tags" popping up everywhere. It's the direction of the web. While this version of "tagging" is a little different from the approach where everyone defines their own tags, it's modified to be "tagging with security," thus only allowing officers to see "Officer threads."
I also realize that potential customers might see the forum design and scowl, leaving forever, but I believe so very firmly that this is the ultimate approach.
And yes, there is a lot going on. I'm looking into allowing guilds to use images for the tags to help to minimize clutter.
---- The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
well I guess I was pretty convoluted in my question. Can all tags just group automatically? All officer tags be in one batch, all general in one etc.
---- ~Jaidyn GM TOoJ
Wouldn't you get essentially the same functionality as just clicking the Radio box in the thread tag list?
I realize that right now, your forum is pretty small, but when you've got several thousand posts, sorting on tag would mean you'd have to click several times (find which page you need to go to) just to get to the posts for a specific tag somewhere in the middle.
---- The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
Well for myself I will prune when needed so I don't think volume will be an issue. Sorting is great of course but some would like to see the categories grouped at a glance, it's an aethetic thing I know.
Thing about sorting is this; People post & decide what goes where themselves & not everyone chooses the same tags for similiar posts. So I think that is the concern my officers had.
The only complaint I get from people is that they don't like clicking a Category/Group then choosing a Tag under that group when making a post. It made is nice for sorting but ultimately they said it was pain to post in as they had to make more selections just get the post where they wanted it.
---- Warlock - Lord Templar
-- Six Demon Bag Jack Burton: Hey, what more can a guy ask for? Egg Shen: Oh, a six-demon bag! Jack Burton: Terrific, a six-demon bag. Sensational. What's in it, Egg? Egg Shen: Wind, fire, all that kind of thing!
The only complaint I get from people is that they don't like clicking a Category/Group then choosing a Tag under that group when making a post. It made is nice for sorting but ultimately they said it was pain to post in as they had to make more selections just get the post where they wanted it.
---- Warlock - Lord Templar
One of the things to do is to make it a hover-over rather than a click-on. That oughta make it a little more straightforward. Eliminating Clicks is always a good thing.
---- The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
Is there a way to make the unread posts stand out more clearly?
I have been unsuccessful in a way to have unread posts show in a different color, they just seems to change to bold text which i and my members do not think stands out very well. I have played round with different color types but have not had much luck.
Can anyone offer any aid to something maybe missing?
I'll be adding the ability to modify that color on the color scheme thingy. When the "new post notification" was added, it was just thrown in quickly to get it out there. Now I get to hone it a little.
---- The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
