New Sidebar Layout

[GrnEyedDvl]

But sidebars aren't why we are here. I get it, seriously, I do. You have an expensive site, and this is a way to better handle the ads, probaly get more clicks, and force the modding troglodytes to see that a lot more is going on in TWC than what we see in our own little worlds.

In my opinion its a better way to handle everything, not just ads. If it was only about ads I would have stuck the 160 wide skyscrapers in and walked away.

But even with all of that, if there's a way to minimize the size of the sidebar without degrading it's overall purpose (informational, nothing more), than you should DO that. You don't make the sidebar look nicer at the expense of actual forum content.

I have done that, except for enabling the option to altogether remove it.

And we still haven't received a response on the requests to make the sidebar applicable to forums and not threads. Is that impossible, defeats the advertising function, or something else?

I have responded to that at least 3 times. Its not my fault you haven't read it.

Post #87 in this thread would be the most recent response to that, but there are numerous others as well.

It's not minimized, it's just not maximized. It's around 525px wide, and it's not impossible to prevent: just use min-width in your CSS to force certain elements to be at least a certain width.

I am not going to go from this project to reworking every single css file on vBulletin. There are hundreds of them.

[Kull]

In my opinion its a better way to handle everything, not just ads. If it was only about ads I would have stuck the 160 wide skyscrapers in and walked away.

Thanks, but I wasn't referring to a binary world of sidebars yes/no - you've made it abundantly clear they are here to stay. This is what you said:

I can make it narrower and use skyscrapers instead of square ads, but then I think the amount of info you can put in the rest of the sidebar suffers. For instance, you wouldn't be able to read the entire Poll question, or it would be broken up into different lines which may or may not look right depending on what word was the last on the first line.

The bolded part is the issue. If the sidebar must stay, fine. But I guarantee you the vast majority of us don't care if the "sidebar suffers" a little. We are already "suffering" degradation of the information display in the areas we actually come here for. All things being equal, shrink the sidebar. Please!

I have responded to that at least 3 times. Its not my fault you haven't read it.

Post #87 in this thread would be the most recent response to that, but there are numerous others as well.

So you have. Mea culpa. Apparently the explanation disappeared in the "wall of text" that now comprises almost every post in every thread. Another benefit of the sidebar. Even short posts look like the output from a Russian novelist.

[Yayattasa]

Use a wider resolution, an give us an actual use for the horizontal scroll bar in this forum layout, is that possible?

[Emperor Hantscher]

I'm getting the impression this sidebar is not debatable, however I think it should be able to be minimized or once inside a thread have the ability to open "A reader" that makes posts go fullscreen. I'm sure I will get used to it, I use a wide screen TV as a monitor so really it makes no difference to me. I cannot imagine what it is going to look like on my cell phone when I'm checking TWC on the toilet at work tomorrow though......

[GrnEyedDvl]

Use a wider resolution, an give us an actual use for the horizontal scroll bar in this forum layout, is that possible?

What horizontal scroll bar??

I'm getting the impression this sidebar is not debatable, however I think it should be able to be minimized or once inside a thread have the ability to open "A reader" that makes posts go fullscreen. I'm sure I will get used to it, I use a wide screen TV as a monitor so really it makes no difference to me. I cannot imagine what it is going to look like on my cell phone when I'm checking TWC on the toilet at work tomorrow though......

Because you did not read the thread. Its disabled on mobile devices.

Really guys I am willing to talk about anything, but I also really get tired of repeating myself. If you aren't going to bother to read the thread then why bother posting?

[Yayattasa]

What horizontal scroll bar??

I mean the browser one. You leave the new sidebar kinda "hidden", far to the right. (But somehow the new ad must always appear, or not?)

[Emperor Hantscher]

What horizontal scroll bar??



Because you did not read the thread. Its disabled on mobile devices.

Really guys I am willing to talk about anything, but I also really get tired of repeating myself. If you aren't going to bother to read the thread then why bother posting?

Yea sorry I didn't have a ton of time to read all six pages, read the first two and posted. I'm on my mobile now because I would not have been able to sleep wondering how my bathroom break is going to affected tomorrow. And really, you have been around this long and you haven't accepted the fact that nobody reads the whole thread before posting! Thx dvl, I appreciate all the work you do here, I love the new M2 theme.

[SturmChurro]

Yeah, I do not like it. I don't mind it too much on the forum index, but anywhere else it feels very cluttered, as said before. If it was only on the index, I would be fine with it. That is just my opinion.

[webba84]

How about disabling it, or shrinking it to tower ad width for forums or threads with more than a certain number of posts (say, a number that will see the main content of the page appear longer than the sidebar?)

That way it will appear frequently and in most parts of the site but will not get in the way of big threads or complicated posts.

[Sebidee]

Would it be possible to personalise what we see? So that we have boxes for specific forums of our choice?

[Melooo182]

How it is right now


Proposal with sizes edited


could it be made like this?
is just a little bit of post space gained but i think it makes the difference, i also reduced a bit the bar but i think that by at least taking over that gap between the new bar and the posting area, as well as shrinking a bit the borders on the forum member info it would look better.

[Ishan]

New sidebar.css needs to be more fluid as per relevant resolution, like for tablets it needs to be worked using media queries. Like for example width 800, you guys could use:

<link rel="stylesheet" media="screen and (min-device-width: 800px)" href="sidebar-800.css" />

could be done in the same sidebar.css if we don't want to create separate files. For higher resolutions we could also design it to be more slim.

[GrnEyedDvl]

Would it be possible to personalise what we see? So that we have boxes for specific forums of our choice?

Not without a bunch of custom hooks. But you already have this function through the thread subscription.

How it is right now


Proposal with sizes edited


could it be made like this?
is just a little bit of post space gained but i think it makes the difference, i also reduced a bit the bar but i think that by at least taking over that gap between the new bar and the posting area, as well as shrinking a bit the borders on the forum member info it would look better.

The ads wont fit in that, and if I put the 160 wide ads in that they would look like crap. The bar needs to be scaled to fit the ads, whatever size ad is in it. If we use the narrow ads, then the information in the blocks will get squished.

New sidebar.css needs to be more fluid as per relevant resolution, like for tablets it needs to be worked using media queries. Like for example width 800, you guys could use:

<link rel="stylesheet" media="screen and (min-device-width: 800px)" href="sidebar-800.css" />

could be done in the same sidebar.css if we don't want to create separate files. For higher resolutions we could also design it to be more slim.

It shouldn't even show on tablets now.

[ahowl11]

Okay I was cool with it at first, but even with PM's it's there.. It's on every users profile page too. Idk man, but that's too much in my opinion.

[Ishan]

Not without a bunch of custom hooks. But you already have this function through the thread subscription.

The collapsible function for boxes is there but i don't think we can make it an exception for ads, so either none of them are or all of them are collapsible.

It shouldn't even show on tablets now.

Thanks.

Okay I was cool with it at first, but even with PM's it's there.. It's on every users profile page too. Idk man, but that's too much in my opinion.

Anyways this will be good for TWC in the end and if a single member finds even one of the boxes useful to him then it would be worth it. Right now it looks bad because none of the content is to our taste and we're just not used to it right now.

But have to say, for lower desktop resolutions like 1024x768 it's completely intrusive and simple unbearable. Not a problem for me since i use widescreens.

I think the main question remains whether we want them to displayed everywhere. We have following areas in vbulletin.
- Forum main
- Subforums
- Threads
- Post Preview when using advanced mode.
- Social groups section
- User control panel, private messages etc.
- User profiles, visitor messages etc.

I think this should be put everywhere except when viewing threads or using visitor messages. Like say I'm viewing Thema Devia, i should see the sidebar but not when i'm reading a thread inside Thema Devia.

I think it's possible but because of the restrictions of ads it's not possible because they need to be visible all the time to comply with their terms.

[Melooo182]

The ads wont fit in that, and if I put the 160 wide ads in that they would look like crap. The bar needs to be scaled to fit the ads, whatever size ad is in it. If we use the narrow ads, then the information in the blocks will get squished.

Ok, but what about the gap between the posting area and the bar, as well as forum member/poster info rectangle borders?

[Petrucci]

I don't like it either.
This is kind of decision that affect all TWC users,so IMO all users should have vote whether they like new sidebar layout or not.
I suggest new TWC referendum about this issue. Who is with me?

[IZob]

I think I can get use to it. But the buttons and input fields (like 'quick reply') could use a larger margin from the left hand side of the page.

Also would it be possible to do something like this?



CSS says yes

[Kahvipannu]

But you already have this function through the thread subscription.

This. I already have customizable track threads and forums etc option, which is really, really good. And the best part, optional. And it doesn't get in the way of things.

I'm going to be totally honest, I do not like the side-bar at all. It shrinks everything up, and since I have for years now used ranked up ammount of posts shown per page, there is a ton of dead-space on the right side.

Please atleast consider removing it from the actual threads. Atleast it wouldn't be on the way most of time.

if a single member finds even one of the boxes useful to him then it would be worth it.

I have to disagree. Putting in optional features I would agree with that statement, but not something that affects every single member.

[Modestus]

New Side-bar so that is what I was trying to get rid of I assumed I had changed my settings by mistake.

I don’t like it, when I read a thread and scroll down just a little bit as you do all I am then left with it is a blank side which makes the posts themselves looked squashed.