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Front Page Layout: Old vs New (Poll)

Which design and layout is better?


  • Total voters
    65

Lord of Riva

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Strap Yourselves In Pathfinder: Wrath
Which element is too small again, and which one looks blurry?

The descriptions you have now colored blue. Since you have not changed the size it seems to be something that the contrast between the white and the background color did.
Ergo, the blue colored font looks very good now. No further complaints.

Twiglard said:
They can be removed at any time, but I think they make a page more lively and friendly.

I know this is a subjective matter but they are irritating. I am not sure why it would matter who made a specific post when it should be information contained within that matters, i am not deciding if something is relevant or interesting based of who wrote it, so why show who did?

Readability wise they do the same thing that old ads did in the 90-2000s my eyes are irritated by something that looks interesting but has no inherent value. The topics name and last activity is what is interesting the avatars detract from that in my perception.

Twiglard said:
They're not important enough with horizontal space constraints, when the space is better spent on the thread title.
I am not married to them, but the old design had something distinct and sharp about it. I really liked the way things were clearly seperated from each other and it helped making relevant information clear, it was less searching and more knowing where to look.

Since it's all the same now, I am scanning the whole paragraph all the time.

EDIT: And now threads and Messages have returned, why?
 
Last edited:

Twiglard

Poland Stronk
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Alright, trying to find any middle ground with the layout was a mistake. If all fanciful elements like the avatars or stat columns are gone, then it can be made to look condensed like the old layout and still be legible.

But the forum list is essentially a greeting card to any accidental visitors. So there might be some wisdom in making it look less spartan. Worse, there's no clear consensus that the index must be redesigned unlike how it was with the thread layout and the thread list layout.

I can make it look exactly as it did before the move to XF2 as long as someone from the staff wants it to. But the circumstances aren't clear enough for me to act on my own initiative.

But it looks fairly similar as long as the screen resolution is low enough:
1655554393800.png

The biggest issue I have with the new look is this:
9VDUFWe.png
It does not look sexy at all!
It looks less legible when these two columns are collapsed below the description. Then you have four elements all competing for attention: forum name, description, stats and subforum list.
 
Last edited:

Gargaune

Magister
Joined
Mar 12, 2020
Messages
3,136
I'm gonna kingcomrade this one, the old layout was a little nicer, but the new one's still "the Codex" and the differences aren't worth agonizing over. Especially given how little time you'll spend on the base forum listing anyway, though I can see the driveby visitors argument.
 

Taluntain

Most Frabjous
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Your Mind
The only differences are:
Font
Padding
The information present (avatars, thread count, message count)

If the old or the new is better, it's important to identify why.
According to the poll results so far, the majority doesn't give a shit and we're wasting time. Amazingly, I'm in total agreement with that.

hrm yes, that isn't true anymore? Even if a lot of people do not care there is 15% actually liking what you guys did. "I do not care" is not a vote in your favor.
Padding
Colors (sharper contrasted bar for the categories. it just kind of flows together now, when it was distinct before.)
Font (may be the alignment?)
Useless information with too much space or odd place (Avatars, threads and message counts)
Also the Boxes on the right made it a lot more readable

are the problems for me, since DU asked for specifics. Don't get me wrong I am also in the "I do not care" (that much) crowd but I reiterate what I said before: You are trying to sell your own subjectve opinion as fact. It isn't, I am well aware that my taste is my taste. I am also in favor of the update in general, technological improvements are welcome.

But who are you doing this for? For yourself? Because that's what I am reading.
Read the other thread from about https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/better-than-the-test-site-blander-than-the-past.143436/page-41 onwards. I've explained everything a dozen times already.
 

Taluntain

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Alright, trying to find any middle ground with the layout was a mistake. If all fanciful elements like the avatars or stat columns are gone, then it can be made to look condensed like the old layout and still be legible.

But the forum list is essentially a greeting card to any accidental visitors. So there might be some wisdom in making it look less spartan. Worse, there's no clear consensus that the index must be redesigned unlike how it was with the thread layout and the thread list layout.

I can make it look exactly as it did before the move to XF2 as long as someone from the staff wants it to. But the circumstances aren't clear enough for me to act on my own initiative.

But it looks fairly similar as long as the screen resolution is low enough:
View attachment 25318
The biggest issue I have with the new look is this:
9VDUFWe.png
It does not look sexy at all!
It looks less legible when these two columns are collapsed below the description. Then you have four elements all competing for attention: forum name, description, stats and subforum list.
Leave the current, it's better for all the reasons you listed and several others.
 

Bester

⚰️☠️⚱️
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Vatnik
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Sep 28, 2014
Messages
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The only differences are:
Font
Padding
The information present (avatars, thread count, message count)

If the old or the new is better, it's important to identify why.
According to the poll results so far, the majority doesn't give a shit and we're wasting time. Amazingly, I'm in total agreement with that.

hrm yes, that isn't true anymore? Even if a lot of people do not care there is 15% actually liking what you guys did. "I do not care" is not a vote in your favor.
Padding
Colors (sharper contrasted bar for the categories. it just kind of flows together now, when it was distinct before.)
Font (may be the alignment?)
Useless information with too much space or odd place (Avatars, threads and message counts)
Also the Boxes on the right made it a lot more readable

are the problems for me, since DU asked for specifics. Don't get me wrong I am also in the "I do not care" (that much) crowd but I reiterate what I said before: You are trying to sell your own subjectve opinion as fact. It isn't, I am well aware that my taste is my taste. I am also in favor of the update in general, technological improvements are welcome.

But who are you doing this for? For yourself? Because that's what I am reading.
Read the other thread from about https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/better-than-the-test-site-blander-than-the-past.143436/page-41 onwards. I've explained everything a dozen times already.
Don't bother reading anything Taluntard wrote, I can sum it up in just a few words: tyranny of the power tripping aggressive minority.
 

Bester

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Don't roll your eyes at me, sweetie. If you were objective, you'd leave two layouts - one exactly like the oldex, the other for nu-males and soyjaks.

Instead you want to shove YOUR version down everyone's throat. That's aggressive agenda.
 

Taluntain

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Lol, sure why not. Twiglard can you just make another couple of child styles for the phpBB2 lovers and strip out everything to make them happy so that we can stop wasting time?

Or just edit the changes into the Small Font styles, everyone using those probably wants this too anyway. They can be called Small Font Retro then.
 
Last edited:

Bester

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Yeah I'm sure Twiglard has got nothing better to do.

I volunteered to make a real retro skin, but DU told me to fuck off.

You guys are a stellar team of admins. "Somebody else do it". Then when nothing happens - "oh well, nobody showed up for it".

I can only hope now that Twiglard wants to spend another couple of DAYS working on something he doesn't even feel strongly about. (or at all)
 

Taluntain

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He's been making changes all week to keep a small number of vocal complainers happy, making a few more at this point won't make a difference, especially to an already existing set of child styles.
 

Bester

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In that case, Twiglard I've got a few old Codex pages saved as HTML, so you can inspect them for style. Let me know if you need them, I can email them to you.
 

mediocrepoet

Philosoraptor in Residence
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I know I'm late to this party, but I voted for the current style because I prefer it. It's fairly slight though and if you pushed me hard enough, I'd switch my vote to: "This is a waste of time". Don't you guys have anything better to do than to whine about the layout of a forum index?


Nevermind, that was a silly question. :smug:
 

Lord of Riva

Arcane
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Strap Yourselves In Pathfinder: Wrath
Alright, trying to find any middle ground with the layout was a mistake. If all fanciful elements like the avatars or stat columns are gone, then it can be made to look condensed like the old layout and still be legible.

But the forum list is essentially a greeting card to any accidental visitors. So there might be some wisdom in making it look less spartan. Worse, there's no clear consensus that the index must be redesigned unlike how it was with the thread layout and the thread list layout.

I can make it look exactly as it did before the move to XF2 as long as someone from the staff wants it to. But the circumstances aren't clear enough for me to act on my own initiative.

I appreciate the effort.

At least that confirms that "technology" was never any reason to begin with. I am basically a newfag it did not bother me that the site looks spartan, heck, I don't even know what it's supposed to mean.

People join a forum because of it's content, not the site layout. So what remains is usability, readability and comfort.
 

GhostCow

Balanced Gamer
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Jan 2, 2020
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3,994
With the latest changes the current layout is fine. I agree that the post/thread counts look kind of shit but overall it's much better than it was last night and it's more than good enough at this point.
 

Twiglard

Poland Stronk
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He's been making changes all week to keep a small number of vocal complainers happy
You may point and laugh at the 'tism, but the 'tism is what kept the 'dex strong. It wouldn't have such prestigious opinions otherwise.
 

Lady Error

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I can make it look exactly as it did before the move to XF2 as long as someone from the staff wants it to. But the circumstances aren't clear enough for me to act on my own initiative.
DarkUnderlord, there seems to be a clear preference among the users to make the front page look more like it was before. Admittedly, just as many do not care either way, but only a small minority actually likes the current front page layout.
 

mediocrepoet

Philosoraptor in Residence
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Codex 2012 Codex+ Now Streaming! MCA Project: Eternity Divinity: Original Sin 2
I can make it look exactly as it did before the move to XF2 as long as someone from the staff wants it to. But the circumstances aren't clear enough for me to act on my own initiative.
DarkUnderlord, there seems to be a clear preference among the users to make the front page look more like it was before. Admittedly, just as many do not care either way, but only a small minority actually likes the current front page layout.

"Either one is fine / this is a waste of time" means why bother doing anything? Therefore, you're looking at a clear minority that actually wants to do anything. i.e. you've lost but you're unable to correctly interpret your own poll.
 

mediocrepoet

Philosoraptor in Residence
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Combatfag: Gold box / Pathfinder
Codex 2012 Codex+ Now Streaming! MCA Project: Eternity Divinity: Original Sin 2
Therefore, you're looking at a clear minority that actually wants to do anything
The clear minority are people like you who actually like the current layout more (13%). 45% is not a "clear minority" by any stretch.
Sure, but you should at least be able to admit that your statement:
there seems to be a clear preference among the users to make the front page look more like it was before.

is misleading at best. Like, I get that you're ESL, but 55% - 45% means, hey, we lost the vote, but do what I want anyway!
 

Narushima

Cipher
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Jun 14, 2019
Messages
2,035
Please stop listening to Lady Error.
Who is she to demand modifications to suit her personnaly, and whoever happens to see the polls and vote (i.e. a tiny portion of users)?
 

Lady Error

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Please stop listening to Lady Error.
Who is she to demand modifications to suit her personnaly, and whoever happens to see the polls and vote (i.e. a tiny portion of users)?
Again, the tiny vocal minority are people like you who prefer the current layout. About half of those polled prefer something more similar to what we had and about half don't care either way.
 

Narushima

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Again, the tiny vocal minority are people like you who prefer the current layout. About half of those polled prefer something more similar to what we had and about half don't care either way.
The tiny vocal minority... You're the most vocal in this whole subforum.

I initially wasn't on board with the redesign, but it was improved, and now I think it's perfectly fine. It's completely pointless to want a perfect recreation on the old style just because you're used to it. You essentially have no argument other than "it looked like that, so make it the same."
 

Lady Error

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It's completely pointless to want a perfect recreation on the old style just because you're used to it. You essentially have no argument other than "it looked like that, so make it the same."
The argument is that it had a better look and feel which many people liked, almost half of those in this poll.

And it does not even have to be a perfect recreation, as I've already said:

It does not have to be a "1:1 exact copy". What we disagree on is whether enough steps towards more of a similar look and feel of the forum as before have been taken. I think that most of the forum is fine now, but the look and feel of the main page can still be improved. You said just as much as well, except maybe you have other ideas on what this improvement should look like.
Even Taluntain agrees that the front page still needs some improvements.
 

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