New forum style - ugh!

[Shenanigunner]

Gotta say, I really, really don't like the new forum style. Too big and spread out, with fonts that are peculiarly hard to read. Forums shouldn't try to mimic social media look and feel; anyone who can't cope with the relatively text-dense layout of forums needs to, well, learn to cope.

 

I appreciate the effort and the maintenance and moderation effort and absolutely everything that's gone into Homecoming... but could we go back to a somewhat tighter, easier-to-navigate and -read theme/style/layout for the forum?

[Shenanigunner]

...and sorry, didn't see the feedback forum. It's kinda buried. 😛

 

[Apparition]

Modern forums (WoltLab Suite, Xenforo, and Invision Community Suite are the big three), all look and function for a modern web environment, which includes mobile devices.  Like it or not, most web traffic these days is on mobile devices.

 

One forum I admin has dozens of users signing up every day.  One of the reasons I consistently see for why they've signed up is because we use modern forum software (Xenforo), that looks and reads great on their smartphones and tablets in comparison to other related forums that still use old forum software meant for desktop computers.  Meanwhile, those other forums that still use old forum software meant for desktop computers are consistently seeing less and less traffic.

 

It's just the reality of the web in 2019.  Instead of asking the masses to adapt to us, we've had to adapt to the masses.

Edited July 27, 2019 by Apparition

[Sunsette]

...I actually find this forum style much easier to read on my desktop, too. Better contrast, better post spacing. 

[GM Capocollo]

3 hours ago, Shenanigunner said:

I appreciate the effort and the maintenance and moderation effort and absolutely everything that's gone into Homecoming... but could we go back to a somewhat tighter, easier-to-navigate and -read theme/style/layout for the forum?

It's not really something we can "go back" to, since the old theme is pretty tightly integrated with Simple Machines Forum, the previous forums software.  IPB has its own set of defaults that'd require a lot of work on a custom theme to mold into something resembling SMF.

 

We've been adjusting the current theme to find a nice balance between IPB's preference for wide-open margins everywhere and SMF's extremely text-dense style.  (Posts used to have a much larger minimum height, paragraphs had a full extra linewidth of space between them, avatars were something like 200x200.  It had a whole lot of unused space.)  I don't think we're ever going to get back to the platonic ideal of the SMF layout, but we are trying to find a nice balance between information density and concerns like platform-agnostic design and ease of use/accessibility.

[Shenanigunner]

Okay. I'm a dinosaur. Roar. 🙂

 

[justicebeliever]

I was really taken aback at first Shenanigunner, and I thought the same thing, "Man, I must be a dinosaur"...

 

But over the last few days, I've come to enjoy the new forums more and more.  Give it time?  It'll never be the same, but then nothing ever is

[_NOPE_]

Change is hard, but always worth it. 

[ed_anger]

19 minutes ago, The Philotic Knight said:

Change is hard, but always worth it. 

🙄

 

[justicebeliever]

30 minutes ago, The Philotic Knight said:

Change is hard, but always worth it. 

That's what I told my wife after gaining 30 lbs...And the one time I crashed my company's ecommerce engine during an update...

 

Neither of them bought into this...can you speak to them PK?

[Apparition]

This seems appropriate.

[_NOPE_]

1 hour ago, justicebeliever said:

That's what I told my wife after gaining 30 lbs...And the one time I crashed my company's ecommerce engine during an update...

 

Neither of them bought into this...can you speak to them PK?

They just didn't find the opportunity in the change. And they were poorer for it! 

[Rodumas]

Nah, it's the better choice, this forum style. Much cleaner too.

 

[Hyperstrike]

13 hours ago, The Philotic Knight said:

Change is hard, but always worth it. 

Tell that to someone carrying a chest-burster around....

[Williwaw]

... I think I mainly just want a black-text-on-a-white-background skin.  Something about the combination of this color and style hurts my eyes in a way the old forums never did.

 

(Also, the whole site now feels very sluggish)

[nihilii]

15 hours ago, The Philotic Knight said:

Change is hard, but always worth it. 

Possibly the most destructive piece of conventional wisdom of these times. Progress, progress, we must move forward... all the way to the edge of the cliff, and beyond. :)

The sluggishness has definitely decreased my enjoyment of the forums. Probably for the better, I spend too much time on here.

[GM Capocollo]

40 minutes ago, Williwaw said:

... I think I mainly just want a black-text-on-a-white-background skin.  Something about the combination of this color and style hurts my eyes in a way the old forums never did.

 

(Also, the whole site now feels very sluggish)

[Shenanigunner]

A light theme as an option helps. I like dark themes on most things, but anything text-heavy and needing continual focus is easier to read dark-on-light. Please, do continue the effort to match the light theme to the dark.

[Zepp]

Actually, research suggests that reading white (or light) on black (or dark) improves retention and reading speed. It also prevents migraines.

[Apparition]

1 hour ago, Zepp said:

Actually, research suggests that reading white (or light) on black (or dark) improves retention and reading speed. It also prevents migraines.

Yep.  Whenever given the chance, I always read light on dark.  I have my Amazon Kindle inverted like that.  So much better.

[Williwaw]

Light-on-dark was fine on the old forums, but for some reason, not on this one.

[Shenanigunner]

2 hours ago, Zepp said:

Actually, research suggests that reading white (or light) on black (or dark) improves retention and reading speed. It also prevents migraines.

Well, depending on about ten factors overall. As W noted, the new format was peculiarly hard to read while switching to a light format improves things a lot.

 

(Publication designer, publisher, web designer, font maven... all fussy about readability. 🙂 )

[_NOPE_]

Dark text on light backgrounds gives me a headache. I guess I must be weird and backwards, but it wouldn't be the first time. 

[Moka]

I like the new forums. They feel shiny and I get little beep boop for notifications. 

[Sunsette]

36 minutes ago, The Philotic Knight said:

Dark text on light backgrounds gives me a headache. I guess I must be weird and backwards, but it wouldn't be the first time. 

I find it depends a lot on screen brightness settings.