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Geek Culture / Some quick forum feedback needed

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Richard Davey
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Posted: 18th Mar 2004 14:44
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Hi all,

I'm in the final stretch for the Apollo upgrade (well, it's more like a total re-write) but have one question that I'd like some comments on for now:

Which profile layout do you prefer?

1. WowBB / VBB style

Go to this page:
http://www.wowbb.com/forums/forum7/21.html

On the left-hand Author column click on a users name (like Curiousity [sic], or Aycan). See the little window that appears with the functions on like View Profile, Add mana, etc?

Also vBulletin does something similar:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=97979

Click on the Authors name (rick, okrogius, etc).

Would you prefer something like that (thus reducing the amount of "clutter" on-screen) or something like this:

2. PHPBB style

Here: http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=181936&sid=192cc6edb3f9c9af43795805d573c97a

Notice the way the profile options (pm, www, aim, yahoo, etc) are all little buttons at the bottom of each post - this is the way Apollo works at the moment.

So - which do you prefer? Or do you have any other suggestions (if you do, post URLs or screen shots showing how it will work).

Cheers,

Rich

With our species on the edge of extermination,
with no prospect but a horrible death,
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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 18th Mar 2004 14:47 Edited at: 18th Mar 2004 14:47
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I would go for the former option. It looks nice & slick...


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Robin
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Posted: 18th Mar 2004 14:49
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I like the first one Wow BB - i like the little menu - keeps it hidden unless you actually need it.

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adr
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Posted: 18th Mar 2004 15:01
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WowBB looks cluttered, vBulletin is difficult to read, but PHPbb looks is easy to read and uncluttered. Nice sleek design - oh wait - the way the current one works!

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And IMHO, the current forums certainly ain't broke.

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Richard Davey
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Posted: 18th Mar 2004 15:13
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adr - I'm talking specifically about the profile window that appears, not the rest of the design.

vBulletin is a mess, you're right, but that is because of the imposed fixed-width imho. There's just too much stuffed all over the place. But again, I was talking more about the way you get to someones profile than anything else.

I will be ready for some public testing of the new forums soon, see if you can find any bugs before I make them live.

Cheers,

Rich

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BatVink
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Posted: 18th Mar 2004 16:35
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I like the pop-up profile options, it also fits in with your current menu style. I would prefer this.

However...the pros for the phpBB style is that it's "standard", people are familiar with it. It would probably suit the hard of thinking, it's surprising how many people don't look behind what is presented to them.

Looking forward to the upgrade!

BatVink (formerly StevieVee)
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Damokles
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Posted: 18th Mar 2004 17:33
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I like the profile window of WowBB, because you sirectly see what it is, because of the icons. On vBulletin, you have to read it first to notice what it does.

But I think the rest could sty in phpBB style, especially the WEB and EMAIL buttons


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the_winch
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Posted: 18th Mar 2004 17:52 Edited at: 18th Mar 2004 17:54
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I prefere the way it is now, mostly because you can see if someone has a website/email etc. without having to open a menu.

As long as the menu links work like normal links so I can open them in a new tab in firefox I am not really bothered.
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Mussi
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Posted: 18th Mar 2004 17:57
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Quote: "I prefere the way it is now, mostly because you can see if someone has a website/email etc. without having to open a menu."

Exactly



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Martyn Pittuck
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Posted: 18th Mar 2004 18:20
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Personally i would not want to have menus popping up as i scroll down the page or move the mouse around while reading.

Thats how i found the vBulletin menu, i click the link and did not read the text u wrote...

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IanM
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Posted: 18th Mar 2004 20:29
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I like the style of the WowBB menus, but they hide the options. Unless you know that they are there, you're not going to be able to find them, which is not good for newcomers

How about making it optional via the profile?

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Teh Go0rfmeister
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Posted: 18th Mar 2004 20:42
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first one

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Rob K
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Posted: 18th Mar 2004 23:47 Edited at: 18th Mar 2004 23:47
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Earlier versions of VBB looked fine, but the latest one is absolutely awful - the huge name headers take up far too much space - why can't they just stick the names at the side like everybody else.

The WOWBB system is quite nice although I'm pretty happy with the way Apollo works at the moment, but it would have to be implemented better than they have done. The first item appears to drop the list down (good ) - but when I click on other names lower down in the thread, the menu pops up (rather than down), even if the name is write at the top of the page when I click on it.

Like Ian said, optional would be a good idea.

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Mattman
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Posted: 19th Mar 2004 00:06
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I like the pop-up thingy. vBulliten sux! what poor creature attempted to make it?
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Wik
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Posted: 19th Mar 2004 03:30
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Hmmm...It doesn't work in opera (wowBB)


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Posted: 19th Mar 2004 12:26
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They do say that they'll be doing a Mozilla version...


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Richard Davey
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Posted: 19th Mar 2004 14:07
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Ok, thanks for all your comments guys. I have decided that clicking the username to get that pop-up/down menu just isn't intuiative enough. However what I'm going to do is display the most common options (web/profile/email) the way they are at the moment and hide the rest unless you click a small arrow to display them. This works on Opera/Firefox/IE and any browser that doesn't handle it will just show the icons anyway.

Cheers,

Rich

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Dave J
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Posted: 19th Mar 2004 14:15
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Well if someone's looking for a user's email, ICQ or what-not, don't you think they'd click their name to go to their profile only to find that it's a menu showing it? That's certainly what I'd do if I didn't realise it was a menu.


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David T
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Posted: 19th Mar 2004 19:16
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Popup option definately.

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Shadow Robert
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Posted: 20th Mar 2004 06:31
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i like how both VBulletin and WOWBB both do this profile access;
however i don't like thier profile screens at all, i prefer InvisionBoard's actual profile pop-up.
It's small, neat and doesn't give you pages of useless data.

i'd say style wise, go with something that would fit apollo's style that you going to be putting up.
VBulletin seems to have Mac-Style dropdown where as WOWBB has OfficeXP-Style.
I don't think either style would fit here.


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TheAbomb12
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Posted: 20th Mar 2004 07:34 Edited at: 20th Mar 2004 07:36
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Like the second one.

vbulletin

Amist the Blue Skies...
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Damokles
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Posted: 20th Mar 2004 08:39 Edited at: 20th Mar 2004 08:40
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The emoticons could be in a pop-up such as wowBB


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Damokles
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Posted: 20th Mar 2004 21:37
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I would suggest one official list like in this thread, but not as a simple post, but like a special profil ... And you could access to the list easily for every member.

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David T
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Posted: 20th Mar 2004 22:46
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Emoticons in popup, now that's genius

"To do is to be" - Descartes
"To be is to do" - Voltaire
"Do be do be do" - Frank Sinatra
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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 20th Mar 2004 23:44
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I like WowBB as a complete package. Everything about it is nice. The menu system is nice, if that's all you want to know, but also the metal buttons, and colours are nice. I'm not interested in web pages etc. I sometimes look at a profile, sometimes code, and I would use manna if it was available. The web pages seem to be commented on too much, and cause a lot of spam.

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David T
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Posted: 20th Mar 2004 23:49
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Just looking at it now, I have to say the tabs in WowBB are vile

"To do is to be" - Descartes
"To be is to do" - Voltaire
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Richard Davey
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Posted: 21st Mar 2004 05:30
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WowBB looks ok, but it costs money, doesn't have half the features of the new build of Apollo and I can't see the code to know how optimised the SQL is or how well written the PHP is. Anyway, enough on this...

Cheers,

Rich

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