New Sidebar Layout

[GrnEyedDvl]

Another site that uses right sidebar advertizing.

And also uses half the screen available. TWC uses far more available screen than they do.

[webba84]

Reading threads is so much better the way it is done now! Thank you very much for considering all the options, and for listening even to people who may not be showing enough empathy or respect for the amount of work you put into the site.

I was looking around various websites and I noticed some have a horizontal bar of 3 medium rectangle ads directly below the content (for example http://pvponline.com/comic/2014/09/12/a-real-peach)

Perhaps that would be a good way to get ads and new functionality onto showthread and newthread?

edit - Thanks also for the data about the advertising, fascinating stuff!

[GrnEyedDvl]

Reading threads is so much better the way it is done now! Thank you very much for considering all the options, and for listening even to people who may not be showing enough empathy or respect for the amount of work you put into the site.

I always do though we get accused of ignoring things all the time.

I was looking around various websites and I noticed some have a horizontal bar of 3 medium rectangle ads directly below the content (for example http://pvponline.com/comic/2014/09/12/a-real-peach)

Perhaps that would be a good way to get ads onto showthread and newthread?

That's pretty ugly. In my opinion that's just greed, stacking them all up like that in one place is also probably counter productive as far as clicks go, and providers generally like to have some of them "above the fold" so to speak, visible without scrolling down.

[webba84]

That's pretty ugly. In my opinion that's just greed, stacking them all up like that in one place is also probably counter productive as far as clicks go, and providers generally like to have some of them "above the fold" so to speak, visible without scrolling down.

Well, they dont have to all be ads, the middle one could be a poll, for example, but I take your point. You could possibly split both the ads and additionally functionality between a tower sidebar and a medium rectangle horizontal bar at the bottom, even to my uninformed mind that seems like a lot of work though. Personally, Im happy to accept any number of ads to keep TWC well in the black but I really do respect your willingness to listen on this.

[makanyane]

I actually didn't mind it on the threads... but seem to be definitely in the minority! It made the width similar to news websites which is the other thing I tend to read, and generally they only use half the screen width for the main text column to keep the line length more readable. If you're stuck with a small pc/laptop monitor though it's probably different...

Have answered on the other thread that MoN's problem with the text clipping on the EDU tutorial is actually to do with having [code] tags inside [fieldset] tags which mangles the ability of the text to fit the screen size, and looks like it can be an issue without the sidebar (depending on content and screen size).

Did wonder if you could get a users latest subscribed threads with replies to populate a box? I know it's available from 'my account' but it'd make it seem a bit more customised towards the users interest areas, (and save switching from forum index to account view) which might make people like it a bit more where-ever it is.

[Rex Inanimatus]

Not a fan of the new lay-out, but I really dislike is the popular searches phrases under the search bar. I won't repeat what it's showing right now but it has nothing to do with this forum, so please reconsider that space.

[MasterOfNone]

Yes, I suspected that Mak - but the reality is that tutorials etc. like this exist and need to be referenced and I can only edit my own...

Large width for complex posts (used by modders more, I guess) is valuable...

Quote Originally Posted by MasterOfNone:
I like it now (off showthreads) - but if it has to be re-instated then perhaps a review of the left-hand column (it's got better)? TWC is quite profile-focused - awards, rep, etc. and yet the graphical representation of those (really not-very-important) things wastes quite a bit of space below. It could probably, with small text and icons, be about 40% narrower.

GED said: If I remove some of that I will catch more hell than you can imagine.

YOLO

[Ishan]

YOLO

GED and his tech staff will be crucified because some mightn't understand...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Antiokhos Euergetes]

I like it, but it seems I am a minority. But that is okay. What is there to complain about? It has new and information without the need to go hunting, when you go into a specific forum it does not follow you

[Kahvipannu]

What is there to complain about? when you go into a specific forum it does not follow you

It did a bit earlier That is where all this fuzz came about. But yeah, at its current state, I see no problem with it personally. More coverage to adds, without taking away functionality of threads.

Also, those comparisons to other sites, I think most will agree they look very un-appealing and un-practical, confusing and distracting. TWC is above that, that is one thing I personally love about it. But if it is necessary to have such things to keep things running, it is hard to argue against it. Only way is try to reason a compromise.

[Diocle]

I don't want to be part of the process Petrucci, the decision is taken by the site Admins and this is their right, I want just to express my humble opinion: the right side-bar actually is a right side-crap, it's annoying, meaningless and even pretty disturbing ...

... but, as I said, this is just my 'vulgar' opinion as proud member of the TWC's 'vulgus', so, it counts nothing and ... also this is right and in some way pleasing.

[Veteraan]

(...)
It shouldn't even show on tablets now.

It does on Windows tablets. At least the one I'm using which is running on a full Windows 8 OS. 1366x768
Of course that makes it a sort of a PC in a tablet form and that is precisely why I bought it in the first place.

The layout as it is now, has made reading the threads on the tablet slightly better because there is a bit more room for them after removing all the "dead space".
Reading PM's has gotten a lot worse though. Only roughly one third of the screen is used for showing the actual message now.

There are probably not many visitors to the TWC pages who use a Windows 8 tablet to browse this site, so I suspect I will just have to deal with it.

Edit:

Perhaps I'm seeing things, but it looks to me like the "My profile" page has changed a bit (apart form the sidebar of course).
I use the TWCenter style. I have some trouble reading the text in the tabs like "My activity", "Visitors Messages" etc. Was the lettering always in white? I am old, but I don't recall having to put my face closer to the monitor to read it.
Also, wasn't the members rep displayed above the Avatar?

[GrnEyedDvl]

Perhaps I'm seeing things, but it looks to me like the "My profile" page has changed a bit (apart form the sidebar of course).
I use the TWCenter style. I have some trouble reading the text in the tabs like "My activity", "Visitors Messages" etc. Was the lettering always in white? I am old, but I don't recall having to put my face closer to the monitor to read it.
Also, wasn't the members rep displayed above the Avatar?

Ok I see what you are talking about here. There are some things on this theme that are definitely not consistent. For instance go to My Account.

On the left you have My Messages, My Settings, with a dark border and white text.

On the right you have the sidebar with a lighter "header" I guess I will call it and white text.

At the forum view level you have a header color the same color as the sidebar but with black text.

At the thread view level we have a header the same color as the My Messages header but with black text.

I personally do not care which one of those we choose, but the headers and text colors need to be consistent across the entire site. I do not use this theme, but if I did I would prefer the look of the My Messages box. Dark header, white header text, light brown body with black text.

[Veteraan]

Ok I see what you are talking about here. There are some things on this theme that are definitely not consistent. For instance go to My Account.

On the left you have My Messages, My Settings, with a dark border and white text.

On the right you have the sidebar with a lighter "header" I guess I will call it and white text.

At the forum view level you have a header color the same color as the sidebar but with black text.

At the thread view level we have a header the same color as the My Messages header but with black text.

I personally do not care which one of those we choose, but the headers and text colors need to be consistent across the entire site. I do not use this theme, but if I did I would prefer the look of the My Messages box. Dark header, white header text, light brown body with black text.

Yes, that sums it up nicely. Especially the lighter header and white text is very unfriendly to my eyes at least. I agree that the My messages box looks alright and above all, is easy to read.
Did I imagine the rep disappearing from the "My profile" page?

[GrnEyedDvl]

Yes, that sums it up nicely. Especially the lighter header and white text is very unfriendly to my eyes at least. I agree that the My messages box looks alright and above all, is easy to read.

I will work on making that all the same later tonight, and format it like the My Messages section. I am sure someone will raise hell about that because they like xxx better but oh well.

Did I imagine the rep disappearing from the "My profile" page?

Yes you did. That is on the My Account page. I get confused once in a while myself on that. The easiest way for me to remember which is which is that My Profile has public information on it, My Account has private information on it. Rep comments are private.

[webMaster412160]

Well done. This is what is needed to bring the information flow to the spot of attention it needs.

[Melooo182]

Great! now that the main issue was solved (losing posts area) now we can get into details of what is shown in the bar , i dunno if it could incorporate like last threads you've posted in or even your last 5 subscribed threads?

Thanks for listening and considering our opinions GrnEyedDvl

[webba84]

..., i dunno if it could incorporate like last threads you've posted in or even your last 5 subscribed threads?

This would make me happy to see the sidebar! If, when logged in, there was a section for your subscribed threads and section for threads you most recently posted in then it could be very useful for convenient navigation.

[Makrell]

you should add a censor on the search in the sidebar Certain searches are worse than others.



toher than that i think that near everyone searchesfor the great war is cool. can there be added a comma between each searchword? is hard to discern if the final three words are 1 or 3 words.

[Ferdiad]

I kind of miss the sidebar in threads tbh.