confusing forum layout?

[Loney 97]

It looks like this is a place where a newbie is really needed, so I'll post. I don't think the forum is too complicated; after about ten minutes you're already used to it. One thing that is kind of weird is there's lots of places where it seems like you can't start new topics, that could be confusing to people just arriving. Another thing is the way that the avi and all the stuff surrounding it is set up; why is the username so small? I think that that is one place that could be improved. Other than that, it looks like a great site!

[DanP740]

It seems to me that if people don't know where to post, they're just being lazy and not actually reading the forum section descriptions.

[American Eagle]

It looks like this is a place where a newbie is really needed, so I'll post. I don't think the forum is too complicated; after about ten minutes you're already used to it. One thing that is kind of weird is there's lots of places where it seems like you can't start new topics, that could be confusing to people just arriving. Another thing is the way that the avi and all the stuff surrounding it is set up; why is the username so small? I think that that is one place that could be improved. Other than that, it looks like a great site!

This right here is the best post in the topic.

[bookworm]

Bookworm, the reason for having one forum for anything non-AiO was to keep the focus on AiO.

Like I said, I understand the purpose, but I think you went about it wrong. To emphasize AIO discussion you can expand on the AIO forum categories, as you have done, and also have general categories to streamline the rest of the threads. You don’t have to divide only AIO threads and toss everything else into a void.

One thing that is kind of weird is there's lots of places where it seems like you can't start new topics, that could be confusing to people just arriving.

Like where? The only one I know of is City Hall. The others are clearly marked as locked and for archival purposes only.

Another thing is the way that the avi and all the stuff surrounding it is set up; why is the username so small?

What do you mean?

[DanP740]

"Username being small" most likely depends on the style you're using, unless you prefer all names to be this big.[/exaggeration]

[Loney 97]

"Username being small" most likely depends on the style you're using, unless you prefer all names to be this big.[/exaggeration]

Is the username supposed to be only as big as all the rest of the text? I think that makes it kinda hard to tell people with the same avi apart, like Joy & Woody. . .

[Woody]

We don't have the same avy anymore.

[DanP740]

People rarely have the same avvy as someone else, so it's rarely an issue.

[Loney 97]

People rarely have the same avvy as someone else, so it's rarely an issue.

I guess; but still, that's one thing that could be changed. . .

[Woody]

The only time people have matching avys/sets is election time, it's just a way of showing support for your team.

[Tea Ess]

City Hall
Are you new in town? Unfamiliar with what to do first? Pop in and take a look at several helpful guides to get you settled into your new home! You'll also find Mayoral announcements to keep you abreast of the latest developments

^it's right there in one of the first forums. It's not as if it's hard to miss.

Oh, I could navigate fairly easily throughout the general board and its forums, however, the Welcome/Goodbye thread evaded me for quite some time. This was primarily due to confusion between 'City Hall' and 'The Steps of City Hall', along with far too many announcements and headers within the forums, in my opinion.

Bookworm, the reason for having one forum for anything non-AiO was to keep the focus on AiO.

Like I said, I understand the purpose, but I think you went about it wrong. To emphasize AIO discussion you can expand on the AIO forum categories, as you have done, and also have general categories to streamline the rest of the threads. You don’t have to divide only AIO threads and toss everything else into a void.

Firstly, it is hardly a void. It is normally kept in good order by us moderators. The public can easily navigate and find the threads they were looking for. New people often are slow to sort through all of the threads, but that is a price we are willing to pay.

As for streamlining 'the rest of the threads', the question lies in dividing the rest of the threads. Since the creation of the board the administrators have added three subforums to the General Discussion, all to to many threads of the same topic or genre. Current Games contains all of the games (count to a million, pop in your head, rate the avatar, ect.). The church forum holds all topics concerning religious subjects and the like. The gallery has all of the threads about user's personal works.

As for the rest of the threads, they are not easily divided into different groups. Because the current subforums seem to be working well, we will continue in the same direction, adding new ones when we hit a good number of relatable topics.

As far as I know, the administrators have no plans or desire to add new forums. The board was completely created for AiO. General Discussion was not intended to be a focus of the board, just a place for anything other than AiO. To add anything above that, besides for organization, would be to some extent encouraging discussion the board wasn't designed for. If the members want extended General Discussion, they can come here.

[snubs]

On SS, I honestly just noticed the General Discussion forum a few days ago.

[Aaron Wiley]

On SS, I honestly just noticed the General Discussion forum a couple few days ago.

And we don't have a problem with that at all. General is supposed to be more of an afterthought, and we'd rather new users focus on the AIO portion of the site first anyway.

But I definitely agree with T.S. on the board being harder to navigate for new users. You have a lot more forums on the board, which makes the whole thing look a lot more overwhelming.

I also dislike the general formatting of the posting itself. It looks a lot messier...

EX:
ToO post format
http://i.imgur.com/Bt3O1.png

SS post format
http://i.imgur.com/OLDI7.png

[snubs]

On SS, I honestly just noticed the General Discussion forum a few days ago.

And we don't have a problem with that at all. General is supposed to be more of an afterthought, and we'd rather new users focus on the AIO portion of the site first anyway.

Though, I'm sure it was just me. Because it's definitely not difficult to find. I just wasn't looking for it.

I also dislike the general formatting of the posting itself. It looks a lot messier...

EX:
ToO post format
http://i.imgur.com/Bt3O1.png

SS post format
http://i.imgur.com/OLDI7.png

Grayscale3.0 looks at lot better when it comes to side profiles.

[Knight Fisher]

What really annoys me with the SS layout, is the ten posts per page setup. Really annoying if you're reading a thread.

[snubs]

What really annoys me with the SS layout, is the ten posts per page setup. Really annoying if you're reading a thread.

I don't like that you cannot click on the member's username within a thread, and it's very hard to tell which page you are on because the page number does not highlight.

[bookworm]

But I definitely agree with T.S. on the board being harder to navigate for new users.

But T.S. said it was not hard to navigate, so you are actually disagreeing with him.

You have a lot more forums on the board, which makes the whole thing look a lot more overwhelming.

‘Larger’ vs. ‘overwhelming’ is a subjective comparison. I agree our layout is longer (obviously, since we have more categories set aside as their own forums), but your smaller layout is the one I find overwhelming. Overwhelming to me is not dependent on the size, but on the organization. If I went to your site to discuss a particular non-AIO subject, I would be at a complete loss as to how to proceed. Because there is only one General Discussion forum with anything and everything just tossed in there, it would take a considerable amount of time to determine if there was already a thread on this subject, having to look through everything in there with no rhyme or reason to their content.

I also dislike the general formatting of the posting itself. It looks a lot messier...

EX:
ToO post format
http://i.imgur.com/Bt3O1.png

SS post format
http://i.imgur.com/OLDI7.png

The “excess data” you refer to in your screenshot does not appear when I browse the site, because I use a theme that doesn’t show all that.
You can’t use theme-dependent points as arguments against the site; that’s why there are different themes to choose from. So you can use one that fits what you want.

[Aaron Wiley]

But I definitely agree with T.S. on the board being harder to navigate for new users.

But T.S. said it was not hard to navigate, so you are actually disagreeing with him.

Sorry I didn't mention which board I was talking about, I meant the ToO is harder to navigate, or at least, it was in the beginning. I have a better handle on things now, but the whole layout still feels kind of messy to me.

‘Larger’ vs. ‘overwhelming’ is a subjective comparison. I agree our layout is longer (obviously, since we have more categories set aside as their own forums), but your smaller layout is the one I find overwhelming. Overwhelming to me is not dependent on the size, but on the organization. If I went to your site to discuss a particular non-AIO subject, I would be at a complete loss as to how to proceed. Because there is only one General Discussion forum with anything and everything just tossed in there, it would take a considerable amount of time to determine if there was already a thread on this subject, having to look through everything in there with no rhyme or reason to their content.

But, as you'll notice, we just don't have as many none-AIO related topics. That makes them easier to keep track of. We do have a few sub forums in there that we've created entirely based on what seemed to be needed. There were a lot of topics flooding the general discussion a while ago that were simply about various works user's had created, so we put up "The Gallery" subforum, and since then there hasn't really been much need for other sub forums. Like we've said several times, the focus of the site is to talk about AIO, the general discussion is more of an afterthought. We made modifications to it when they're needed, but there hasn't been a lot of need for change in that area because people seem to be able to find their way around it just fine.

You can’t use theme-dependent points as arguments against the site; that’s why there are different themes to choose from. So you can use one that fits what you want.

Yes, I think I can. It's not general knowledge that you can change your "style" on any given message board, so most users (especially new ones) don't know how to do this. I'm basing my arguments on the default settings, because that's what most users are going to be seeing, especially when they first join.

What really annoys me with the SS layout, is the ten posts per page setup. Really annoying if you're reading a thread.

I don't like that you cannot click on the member's username within a thread, and it's very hard to tell which page you are on because the page number does not highlight.

I agree with both of the first two arguments here and I'm going to go try to fix both of them right now, haha. As for not being able to click people's names, we have a little button that says "" which does the same thing.

[snubs]

Since we are talking about different styles/layouts...I took the liberty of taking screenshots of each style so you all could compare the different layouts. They are in order of Index, Profile, Post.

Just click to enlarge the image.

____________________________________________________________

"autumn"






____________________________________________________________

"BlueToO"






____________________________________________________________

"CatsVille"






____________________________________________________________

"Chrimbo"






____________________________________________________________

"Grayscale3.0"






____________________________________________________________

"GreenTea"






____________________________________________________________

"Springo"






____________________________________________________________

"newToO"






____________________________________________________________

"odyssian"






____________________________________________________________

[Aaron Wiley]

Thanks snubs,

I actually just went through them all yesterday to see what kinds of options there were. I liked green tea the best, but I left it on blue ToO for some reason anyway.
20 posts to a page on the SS now, and we're working on the page highlight thing. Thanks for pointing those out guys.