What do you (dis)like about SFN?

[Sayonara]

It will recalculate all the views etc so if these discrepancies continue then... errrr... we will know that was not it.

[Royston]

Sorry for being a pain, but how long does that take...because it's still the same.

[Sayonara]

Errr, should have been done a while ago.

[Royston]

Errr, should have been done a while ago.

 

Well, thanks for trying...I'm sure I'll cope until you or someone else can figure out what's causing this.

[Klaynos]

I to see 241.

[the tree]

I dislike people refraining from posting because...

- they are afraid of being wrong: Who cares? If what you think is wrong and you post it, chances a good that you'll know better, afterwards. Chances are much smaller if you don't post and hope to get it right from the other replies.

- they think someone else could explain better. a) what if everyone thinks so? b) how you´re gonna learn explaining stuff to others when you're not trying? c) again: who cares?

I appreciate it when people make a sincere effort but also put in a disclaimer, admitting that their answer isn't likely to be perfect and that it'd be a good idea to wait around for a more complete one.

[xnebulalordx676]

time outs from the sign in that was only a half hour ago.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

You'll want to check the Remember Me box. Otherwise vBulletin does weird things with your login.

[Tsadi]

Is there any little problem with SFN you think needs to be solved? Something we could do to make SFN better? Something we could change? Give you a foot massage? Anything?

 

Post your ideas here if you have any.

 

 

How about being ignored? I've sent three messages to different administrators, and still nothing

 

I think he was a physicist...

 

 

Only one of the best

[insane_alien]

Tsadi, contrary to all the evidence available, most of our administrators have lives external to SFN and may be to busy to respond to every single person who sends them a PM with in the same day/week/eternity

[Phi for All]

How about being ignored?

We could do that.

 

[elevator music]

 

 

 

[/elevator music]

 

Oh, that's not a suggestion, is it? You want to be responded to, I get it.

 

I don't have the phenomenal cosmic powers of an admin, but I may be able to help. Either tell me what you need here in the thread, or PM me with the problem. I'll do my best.

[ParanoiA]

Looks like this thread is a little dated, but I'll assume it's still a bit relevant.

 

I love SFN just the way it is. No changes necessary. The staff is cool, the members are interesting, it's great. Of course, this is coming from a guy who could eat hamburger helper for 50 years and never get tired of it.

 

I probably fall in that category of people who won't post if I feel like my question is "stupid". Sometimes I overcome this, as evidenced in the speculations forums. But mostly I just look around the threads and find my answer through someone else's question and reply and leave my actual posting in Politics and General.

 

I'm not a scientist, just an interested observer of scientists and science so I'm glad you all don't mind guys like me on your site... <pause for awkward presumption>.

 

Oh, and I like the blue. This the easiest forum on the eyes, that I've run into.

[Genecks]

I think the forum needs a new color scheme, such as black and blue. It needs something with black.

 

NOTE: I have made this suggestion for the past three years or more.

[D H]

I think the forum needs a new color scheme, such as black and blue. It needs something with black.

The text is black, the background is light blue -- in the forums proper, that is. What exactly are you asking for? Does what you are asking for make sense from a human factors POV (readability, comprehensibility, "easy on the eyes")? Light-colored text on a black background is hard to read for people with astigmatism (half the population; it gives them headaches). A lot of websites are incredibly hard to read because the page designers don't know a thing about human factors.

 

This forum is for the most part fairly easy on the eyes. Some places where it isn't:

• The blue text-on-blue background of the search results is a bit hard to read (too little contrast).
  
• Identifying the Administrators with red letters against the dark blue background of the banner literally hurts the eyes (avoiding red on blue at all costs is very basic human factors stuff).

Edited January 2, 2009 by D H

[Genecks]

Yes, go ahead and disarm my statement by stating the obvious while not allowing enthymatic understanding to occur. We'll get a lot done this way by calling me an idiot.

 

I'm asking for the option for individual users to use a scheme. Make it an option in the user settings. A lot of other boards have such an option.

 

And whatever to people disliking white text on black. Maybe people are scared of DOS.

 

I would prefer the text to be white. The light blues to be grays or light blues. The regular blues to be blacks.

 

I disagree about your views on readability. I think white text on a black background brings out the text. I think the lightness of the current forum colors makes a person more alert. I find it annoying, because it's like looking at a lightbulb for too long.

 

Basically, I want SFN to look like a person from the gothic subculture.

Edited January 2, 2009 by Genecks

[Phi for All]

We'll get a lot done this way by calling me an idiot.

I think you're being overly sensitive.

 

Basically, I want SFN to look like a person from the gothic subculture.

I think you're being overly insensitive.

[ParanoiA]

I would prefer the text to be white. The light blues to be grays or light blues. The regular blues to be blacks.

 

I think white text on a black background brings out the text.

 

I agree. I've always designed my site with white text on black background. For some reason it does seem easy on the eyes, while not looking so generic and uninteresting. But I have no idea about the rest of the human population. Maybe we're a minority here.

[DJBruce]

Personally I like the light blue background with black text. Also personally I find websites that use a dark background colors (black) with lighter text colors (white or even worse neon colors) to be harder to read.

[D H]

Yes, go ahead and disarm my statement by stating the obvious while not allowing enthymatic understanding to occur. We'll get a lot done this way by calling me an idiot.

I wasn't calling you an idiot, I was asking you what you meant by "It needs something with black." Since the forum does have "something with black" (the text), that is obviously not what you are asking for.

 

I'm asking for the option for individual users to use a scheme. Make it an option in the user settings. A lot of other boards have such an option.

You are asking for more skins, in particular, a gothic skin. That may or may not be reasonable request; Cap'n Refsmmat is the one who can answer that question. (Depends in part on how much tweaking he has to do to the skins.)

 

I disagree about your views on readability.

Those aren't just my views. They are the results of several studies. Some well-written blogs on this topic: http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200608/light_text_on_dark_background_vs_readability/ and http://www.joedolson.com/articles/2006/08/on-the-readability-of-inverted-color-schemes/.

 

I really like the background (cork?) on the first of the two web site cited just above.

 

 

That said, some human factors studies on readability are <choice word deleted>. For example, Readability Of Websites With Various Foreground / Background Color Combinations, Font Types And Word Styles, which found that italicized green Times New Roman on a yellow background offers the best readability. Riiight.

 

 

Basically, I want SFN to look like a person from the gothic subculture.

Please no.

 

 

---

xxx[/hr]

 

Off-topic:

enthymatic understanding

New word! Unfortunately, I couldn't find a definition in any online dictionary or in my big fat old-fashioned unabridged dictionary at home. I did find enthymeme (an argument containing a hidden premise) and enthymematic (in the form of an enthymeme). From use in context (here, here, here), it appears "enthymatic" means "enthymematic". In which case, isn't "enthymatic understanding" a bit of an oxymoron?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

A new color scheme would require first finding colors that actually work, then re-doing all the assorted vB icons and buttons to match it. Dave would have to do the latter, as I suck at that.

 

On the other hand, if there's a style on vBulletin.org you particularly like (take a look around there) I can install it in about five minutes.

 

D H: I'm going to see if there are colors for administrator usernames that work better. Are the ones for resident experts and mods okay?

[D H]

I'll take a look, but later this afternoon/evening. I'll even look out for a goth version.

 

---

x[/hr]

 

I've poked around some. I didn't see anything that grabbed me. Most have too many adornments, goofy fonts, goofy color schemes: Too much pizazz with too little thought regarding readability and understandability.

 

OTOH, genecks might like this or this.

[Genecks]

blackknight: http://vbskins.com/theme/blacknight.html

 

That looks excellent.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I've poked around some. I didn't see anything that grabbed me. Most have too many adornments, goofy fonts, goofy color schemes: Too much pizazz with too little thought regarding readability and understandability.

Yeah, that's the way it tends to be. My approach to this theme was to worry less about colors (dave did the icons and colors, anyway) but instead focus on streamlining the layout so what you want to see -- posts -- is the focus.

 

Most vB styles you see (including the default one) feature random information like the number of posts a user has at the top of each post in its own bar (see it here). I said "nobody cares" and feature only the username and date, sticking all the other information at the bottom of posts where you can find it if you actually care.

 

If there are any other ways I can make the style better for readibility, I'd love to hear them. I think style is a big part in how people perceive a forum and in what makes it seem conducive to conversation.

 

I'd also appreciate it if everyone would take a look at my experimental style and comment on the changes I've made in that. I think it's rather cool, but then I might just be warped. (Perhaps "might" isn't the correct word there.)

 

blackknight: http://vbskins.com/theme/blacknight.html

 

That looks excellent.

If that's your final answer, I can install it for you.

Edited January 3, 2009 by Cap'n Refsmmat

[Sayonara]

D H: I'm going to see if there are colors for administrator usernames that work better. Are the ones for resident experts and mods okay?

 

Staff are now "tagged" with ranks under their avatars, so we might as well get rid of the colours for usernames on posts.

 

Or will that also remove the colours at the bottom of the forum overview page?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

That would, unless we do some very clever CSS-ing. I'll see if I can do that.

 

I don't think the rank under avatars is quite blatantly obvious enough though. We might still keep staff italicized or something.