Unsolicited opinion

[Margaret CPA in OH]

Big changes on this page again.  Overall gratitude to Eric for continuing his efforts to keep this group together and in touch - seriously.  That said, I am not a fan of this latest iteration of display.  The banner and first few pinned topics more than fill my screen so (first world, lazy me problem, I know) I have to scroll a bit to even see whether there are any new posts. I'm wondering if it is at all possible (I know zip about this sort of thing) to make that top banner much smaller.  I don't even really understand why General Chat has to have that large box when it says immediately above it Home > ATX Community Forum > General Chat.

Just my unsolicited opinion, but this is my home page and I use it every day.

[jklcpa]

I consolidated the four pinned topics here in General Chat into links within one pinned post at the top that will allow more current posts to appear on your screen.   

Edited September 30, 2020 by jklcpa

[Margaret CPA in OH]

Wow!  Thanks for that!  Now I can see the first listed topic so at least I will now know if anything is new.  Thanks again.  I think you must be about the best moderator of any group.  You are always so very helpful in so many ways.  I genuinely appreciate you.

[jklcpa]

You're welcome. Glad it helped, if only in some small way. 

[Eric]

Hi Margaret, I know this has been an issue for you for years.  As design trends change over time in an effort to be more mobile friendly, stacking elements instead of displaying them side-by-side becomes more common.  More white space between elements is meant to make things easier on the eyes--same goes for increased font sizes.

This is experimental, but we'll give it a shot to see how it works out.  I have created a custom theme for the forum that removes some (hopefully not too important) elements and squeezed some things together for a more compressed layout. 

I'm not sure if that's easier on the eyes or not... maybe it works out alright with a magnified screen / lowered screen resolution? I'm happy to have some feedback.

You can switch between the Default theme and the Compressed version at the bottom of the forum (scroll all the way down).  Click the Theme link and choose Compressed.

 

 

[Lion EA]

I just tried Eric's new Compressed Theme. I like it. More fits on my screen. My boards are on the left half of a landscape monitor (with my email on the right half) so this view lets more show. I'm less likely to miss a new thread or a new reply, need less scrolling. I'm going to use this for awhile to see if it's my favorite! Thank you, Eric. And, thank you, Judy, And, thank you, Marilyn, for your unsolicited opinion!

[Eric]

The one useful feature I've noticed that gets removed in the Compressed view is the Follow feature.  There are other ways to access it, but it's not as convenient.  

It will be difficult to strike a balance between removing elements and required functionality that meets everyone's needs, but I'll do my best based on feedback.

15 minutes ago, Lion EA said:

I just tried Eric's new Compressed Theme. I like it. More fits on my screen. My boards are on the left half of a landscape monitor (with my email on the right half) so this view lets more show. I'm less likely to miss a new thread or a new reply, need less scrolling. I'm going to use this for awhile to see if it's my favorite! Thank you, Eric. And, thank you, Judy, And, thank you, Marilyn, for your unsolicited opinion!

Glad you like it!

[Margaret CPA in OH]

Thanks, Eric, for this explanation.  Interesting that you recall my earlier comments - guess I've a reputation and not a good one

I just tried the compressed and definitely prefer it.  I personally won't miss the Following feature as I don't know the purpose and never used it so all good for me!

Um, Lion, I, Margaret, posted the unsolicited opinion but Marilyn is good, too!

[Lion EA]

Of course you did, Margaret. Thank you! That just shows that if I have to scroll, I can miss things. I honestly did scroll up to see who posted that unsolicited opinion, and saw Mar... and forgot the rest of your name by the time I scrolled back down. That probably says more about my short-term memory than it does about the need to do as little scrolling as possible when I'm in a hurry.

And, Eric, I just noticed the Follow topic switch. I just toggled it to see how it'll work.

[Eric]

4 hours ago, Margaret CPA in OH said:

Thanks, Eric, for this explanation.  Interesting that you recall my earlier comments - guess I've a reputation and not a good one

 not at all, I'm glad I could improve the usability for those who prefer a more information dense layout.

 

3 hours ago, Lion EA said:

And, Eric, I just noticed the Follow topic switch. I just toggled it to see how it'll work.

You should have a notification or an email (depending on your settings) letting you know that this post is waiting!

[jklcpa]

Thanks Eric. I'm going to try them both out. I like the smaller header but the crowded listing of posts not so much. I'll probably go with the default and scroll away. Nice to have both choices!

[Abby Normal]

I've used this view for many years and it serves me well... except when I end up in the Drake forum and feel like Dorothy in Oz.

https://www.atxcommunity.com/discover/12/

[Margaret CPA in OH]

Looks interesting, Abby!  I will try that, I think.  Thanks!

[michaelmars]

i find the type and font too small in posts and too light.  i can no longer read the posts without magnifilng the  screen

[Lion EA]

I see gray type on this and some other message boards. I hate it. Too hard to read. And, even enlarging doesn't help that much, because the gray is still gray and blurrier as I enlarge it. I don't know why gray should be the new black.

[Lion EA]

And, how do I stop following this topic. I clicked on the Follow topic button to test it out a few days ago. I unclick it -- move it back from green to gray -- but it now defaults to following and I continue to receive emails.

[jklcpa]

1 hour ago, Lion EA said:

And, how do I stop following this topic. I clicked on the Follow topic button to test it out a few days ago. I unclick it -- move it back from green to gray -- but it now defaults to following and I continue to receive emails.

Maybe you've shut it off successfully because I see that Eric is the only one following this topic, and as far as I can tell, you are not one of the followers of the entire General Chat forum.  There is one follower there that I can't see, so if that is you, then unfollow there too.

If that doesn't work, unfollow, log out, delete your cookies and cache, and log back in to see if that works. 

[Lion EA]

Thank you, Judy. After writing the above, I backed all the way out of this site and of Chrome, too. Now that I'm back on, the toggle switch is back to gray and no longer green. And, I didn't get an email that you'd replied. So, I guess I hadn't logged out before. It's nice to know it works, but this is not a thread I need to know immediately when someone replies.

[Eric]

I didn't see much difference between the default post font color (very dark grey) and black, so I ended up increasing all font sizes across the site to 110% of original size. See the attached image.  Top is default, middle is black, last is 110% font size and black.

These changes have only been made to the Default theme.  "Compressed" has remained with the defaults, since increasing the font size might be at odds with the goal of increasing information density to prevent the need to scroll as much.

[Lion EA]

I see what you mean, not a lot of difference from gray to black. But black plus larger is definitely helpful for these old eyes.

[Abby Normal]

Ctrl+ will increase fonts on almost all websites. In firefox, I was able to change the default increases and decreases (Ctrl-) to suit my liking.

I view this site at 150%.

[Margaret CPA in OH]

Both my monitors are set at 125% in FF.  I still have to increase the occasional site more especially, it seems, when for whatever in the world reason there is white type on black background.  I guess that black background is popular with many people but I find it really hard to read text on it.

[jklcpa]

Yep, my FF setting is at 133% for all pages. Default on the colors and fonts though.  I could still go down to 110 or 120% comfortably though.

[Abby Normal]

I have a custom serif font that I find more pleasant and readable, but some sites use crazy fonts for icons and my custom font makes a mess of those sites.

[Abby Normal]

On 10/6/2020 at 6:57 PM, jklcpa said:

Yep, my FF setting is at 133% for all pages. Default on the colors and fonts though.  I could still go down to 110 or 120% comfortably though.

Just had to go down to 135% on this site because of the new larger default font.

Let me know if you ever want to change the default FF %'s for zoom. These are my what I changed mine to in about:config:

toolkit.zoomManager.zoomValues    .3,.5,.6,.7,.8,.9,1,1.1,1.2,1.25,1.3,1.35,1.4,1.5,1.6,1.7,1.8,2,2.5,3