Tweaks to the forum appearance?
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I agree that these aspects are secondary to content quality, but content quality is somewhat irrelevant to the discussion, and the post composer works independently from the result. The appearance for reading can be improved without interfering with that of writing.
These topics sound superficial, but I find interesting how details of a website affect its visitors. Since it's a health forum, with members possibly not functioning optimally, any tweak must count. They would be final adjustments relative to the early format. I'm reposting them here for Bradley to gauge preferences.
Regarding fonts, it's telling that avid book readers favor seriffed fonts almost unanimously, just as the majority of websites oriented towards literature (an everyday example would be Substack).
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I think that the intention was to recreate the appearance of old paper. In this case, observe that the interior tends to be spared of degradation and the borders seem closer to Firefox's sepia than the artificial color in use:
Not even book antiquaries adopt it:
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Thanks for your effort at improving the style and appearance of the website. Any change done has to come from a conscious critique aimed at making the viewing experience best for members and visitors alike.
No doubt the serif fonts are better than sans serif fonts, so I would welcome that change.
I'm glad though that the site is already well designed to start with and that it started generally off the right foot. Gone are the frontier AOL days where ransom notes are the norm, and the use of boldface is commonly mingled with typewriter era habits of hurting the eye with underlines. Nor are rivers visible anymore where large loose spaces interrupt the flow of readability.
It is just much easier to design a website these days, for visually pleasing templates are available to save us from designing from scratch, and designing it is reduced to making judgment calls based mainly on taste preferences and small tweaks.
Like a few others here, I can say I like the soft hue of the pastel background as it is easy on the eyes, and as I write this, I can't help but state what I take for granted in its absence. There is less glare which is often what I see in a white background.
I have no qualms myself on the choice of blue that contrasts well with the beige background. There is good contrast that needs no tweaking to further enhance.
If someone's vision has an impairment that requires more contrast, modern devices give him the option of tweaking his display for much improvement contrast. There are many other ways to customize the display for a user's situational context. But I don't have to say more as this may just be staying the obvious and no insult is intended.
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remove all the unnecessary subforums. Really drives down activty
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Could we not incorporate wallpaper on the sides like this:
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@Uncover said in Tweaks to the forum appearance?:
Could we not incorporate wallpaper on the sides like this:
Beautiful but not advised. Why? => too long to load the page.
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@LucH Good point I didnt think of that. Is this website builder we use slow? There are some ways to tweak picture to become lighter. I wounder if the pic would look to shitty. Maybe use backgrounds similar to danny roddy, they would still look nice even with some noise and size reduction over them. They could be really small pics in terms of size then.
In my work I sometimes lower a 20 mb picture down to under 3 but it still looks ok especially if it has not to many different colours in original and if its a pic that doesnt need as much color fading etc to look nice. Also if noice and removal of some of the image structure dont ruin the picture. So a 6 mb picture could become really small so it should be possible
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@Uncover said in Tweaks to the forum appearance?:
Is this website builder we use slow?
It's fine for me. 1or 2 seconds to load the main page.
I have a medium speed connection: wired connection and 4 G (wifi) on PC.
But many people surf with a mobile. Must be taken into account in some countries.
A rough drawing might be suitable because very light in pixels. Mind with bright colors.
Having a contest would be fine: share first ideas / propositions and then put 3 options to the vote.
Keep in mind the end-purpose: light to load. -
@LucH I wounder if this website builder can have wallpaper on pc and no wallpaper on mobile, that could be very good in this case
Contest as in light in terms of filesize nice looking wallpapers? That could be cool
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@Uncover said in Tweaks to the forum appearance?:
I wounder if this website builder can have wallpaper on pc and no wallpaper on mobile
Technically it's possible to have two different pages to be uploaded but it's a young forum. Wait and see
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@LucH What website builder is this?
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I have noticed that search "in titles and posts" is now the default instead of "in titles". Definitely an improvement.
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Another new tweak is that it is now possible to upvote a response.
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@DavidPS yes! This makes the forum more engaging in my opinion. People who might be reluctant to post a comment can still be part of it.
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@brad
I think another good feature would be if it was possible to embed videos (for example for threads liek this one: https://bioenergetic.forum/topic/107/bioenergetic-music-music-theraphy/101). It would suffice if you could embed HTML code if it isn't possible in a direct way. Don't know if it's possible with the forum software, though. -
@Luke Check it out. Youtube Video
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The embedded videos aren't working for me. Do they work for others?
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@NoeticJuice said in Tweaks to the forum appearance?:
The embedded videos aren't working for me. Do they work for others?
I only see the frame. If I click the play button, nothing happens.