Let me start off by saying that we're like everyone else - we're having to learn as we go along on this. So, expect a lot of answers like, "Well, I don't see that feature in the software, but we'll keep looking."
I'm going to try and address all the questions to date in this thread in this post. So, here goes:
However, I would like to make a suggestion: please remove the sidebar. It's a message board, not a social networking site (on that note, what's the 'friends' feature?...is that a default with IPB now or is that an add-on?), so I really don't get the "status updates" and "top posters" thing. Even if the sidebar only appears on the main page, and not any of the subforums, I feel it's adding extra little gadgets of marginal utility and serve only to take away from the feel of HB and its function as a message board.
You can turn that off, as kansas husker noted. There is a small "x" above it, on the right. Just click it. If you want it back, there is a small arrow pointing to the left.
I also think the new "sign-in" status box, the gray box with the dropdown menu on the top right of each page, is another one of these widgets. It looks pretty nice, but it's also a little distracting, being so large and "in your face", when the acknowledgment of whether or not we're signed in is of very peripheral utility to the end-user. As in, it's good to know, and it should exist, just not in such a bold and forward way...should be much more subdued, IMO. And furthermore, things that are actually of much greater utility to us: the links to "settings", "messages" (a link which also tells us how many unread messages we have), etc, are hidden away and we now have to access a dropdown menu to even see them. So from both a visual and user interface standpoint, I'm finding the dropdown box questionable.
This is one of those "can't see an option to do it, but we'll keep poking around."
oh! another suggestion. When viewing a forum, I think there should be a LOT more contrast between the background color in the cells for the forum topic and the border lines dividing two topics. I.e, the background is now a very light grayish, while the borderlines are white. I think a dark gray borderline or something would improve the look a lot. I don't know, it just doesn't feel right visually with such subtle distinctions between forum topics.
Agreed. Just need to find a way to do it. In the old Board, there were some visual cues that made it easier. On this one, it appears to be all CSS editing - and there's a lot of CSS to go through.
* EDIT: oh, another thing! Something about the viewing posts looks strange to me...I think the fact that our username is a part of the darker gray background row with the post # in it, rather than in the white side section, along with the fact that the side section is too wide (considering how little information it contains and how secondary that information is to the post content). I think the username should go right on top of the other information on the side.
Again - can't see a way to do that, but we'll keep checking.
Ah, also, in the post title, the subtitle text is too dark. A paler, lighter gray would still give it contrast to the main title...but it's really poor contrast with the red right now. Red is a hard color to pull off in website designs
Agreed. Like the background color, we'll have to figure out in the CSS where that is and see what we can do.
But I found something else bothering me. Sorry, being picky. But I do spend a lot of time reading the board and I think this would make it a lot more comfortable...maximum contrast for important text, as in the posts and the thread titles...I think it should be black on white. Being "almost" black on "almost" white is kind of odd, especially since it doesn't seem to correlate with any color scheme. Even then I would say black on white is best. It seems like themes use these "almost" color choices just to be able to say "hey look, it's not boring old black and white." But that's also the best color for reading. Having dark blue text is just kind of uncomfortable, especially on light gray background.
Another CSS issue. We'll keep poking around.
Is the information like Sigs/avitars/saved PMs/saved web addresses in our personal file pages lost forever?
There are some things that each user will have to update or add; the new software doesn't exactly "map" to the old information, I think.
Someone needs to bring the "return to top of page" button back to the forums..... It takes forever to scroll down to the bottom and then have to scroll all the way back up the the top just to read one post and then go somewhere else?
Working on it. As Husker_Power noted, the "back to top" button is at the very bottom of each thread, on the left.
Can there be a horizontal line under the pinned posts? I keep thinking that those are the newest.
Not seeing an options for that. There are a couple of such things that now appear via a word rather than a visual cue. Still looking for a way to toggle that.
Any chance we could get the old setting back where you select a forum from the drop-down and it automatically goes there, rather than having to click the "go" button?
And is it possible to get a Go To menu on the top of the screen, so you don't have to scroll all the way to the bottom to navigate? That's been a pet request of mine for a while now. Is this even possible with this software?
Looking for that option as to the "Go" button. Same for the "Go To" option. Not finding them, if they are present.
