Exciting Updates - Mac-Forums Beta

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There is much to like on here so well done everyone.

At first glance, I think font size within the post is an issue. It may help if you changed the colour of the post header to something more solid, or turn down the brightness of the background because the contrast ratios don't seem right.

The eye is also drawn to a straight line and I'm finding it difficult to assimilate.

Here is an interesting paper to go all techie...paras 4 and 5 on the first page.

http://www.pnas.org/content/82/17/5983.full.pdf

Apart from that it's great.
 
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Looking good

As others have said, I would like to see and easy link to new threads
 

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No problem for me reading the new design but users who have colour blindness may have trouble with all the red. The UK RNIB website has good guidance for website design to avoid such problems.

I'm colorblind, red/green. :Cool: And red is actually my favorite color. I can't speak for the other colorblind users on Mac-forums, but I don't struggle with the colors for the redesign. The color choices are really nice.

But I do at times find sites who have no regard for colorblind users. I do find myself having to highlight text in websites every now and then.
 
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I may be the odd man out on this, but I'll be brutally honest here and say I don't like it. The font is too... I dunno... squarish? Easy to read and sharper than what is in use now, so that is a plus at least. Actually I guess it's the same font, but a tad smaller and fully black rather than grayish? In any event, there's just too much of it everywhere. Or maybe I'm just distracted by it because there's so little in the way of color and graphical elements.

The logo... while updating it is certainly in order, the fonts used are very much boring. That may be the single worst change here.

The red-colored rows that indicate the section title, post count, etc, are perhaps a little too tall in relationship to the font size. Actually the fonts in those red bars seem inconsistent. At the very top, where it says Home, Forums, Articles, etc... that doesn't look too bad for the size. But below, it's either a different font or a smaller one, not sure which, and the letters look a bit too much mashed together.

Speaking of red... there's too much red. Perhaps the forum categories could be changed to a blue color... to match the > icons to the right of each. That would help offset the colors a bit. Or better yet... same color blue as the category titles (General Discussions, e.g.).

Compare the header for this post from the old and new site:

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/ip...at-scratches-iphone-4s-glass.html#post1327708

http://stage.mac-forums.com/forums/...at-scratches-iphone-4s-glass.html#post1327708

On the new site, the background that was red and clearly differentiates one post from the next now is a rather like gray that sorta floats there. I do like the whole "shadow box" look for each post, but I think making the header graphic more solid would help break up what on first glance looks like, I dunno, a bunch of text floating on white background. It looks somewhat surreal, perhaps? Sorry... not sure how better to describe what I'm thinking here. Maybe pin striping just inside the border of each post would look good?

Anywho... those are my initial thoughts.

EDIT: What looks really good is up top... the stylized bar where the name/password fields are. That rocks. In fact, I think using that style, with the light gray background and white pinstripe border on top of the shadow should be implemented more throughout the forum, like for each posting to address the concerns I had. This would add more color (even if it is gray) and some graphical nicety to the whole look here, and some more consistency.
 
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I am happy with the forum the way it is. Easy to read, easy to find everything. Everything familiar and where it should be. I dunno, maybe I'm just getting old.
 
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The first thing that jumped out at me was the logo, I don't like it.
The old one has a glow about it, the new one makes me feel like I'm in a hardware store forum, for some reason.
And maybe the red is a little thick and heavy for me.
I quite like it the way it is actually, but then I'm not a big fan of change unless it is a huge and significant one that vastly and obviously improves things.

I do like the little touch that makes the individual sections on the page look slightly lifted above the background. Looks great that way.
 
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Profile Bar

I don't know exactly how it would look, but if you could make the profile bar in the top right scroll along with the page it might be neat. I don't know if it would be necessary, but worth a shot.
 
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I'm going to chime in but with a different issue from aesthetics. At least for now anyway... This has more to do with functionality. I feel like the order in which the fora are laid out, needs a bit of revision.

I kind of understand having the "switcher" forums near the top, but the rest of it makes less sense to me. The way I'd reorder the forum structure would be something like:

Community
General
Hardware
OS X Software
iPhone, iPad, iPod
Dev Playground

I realize this may seem like nitpicking at first, but the logic behind this applies to when you think about posting a new topic. And in my experience, I'm more likely to want or need to post a new topic in hardware, Software or iOS before the others.

Opinions?

Doug
 

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I'm going to chime in but with a different issue from aesthetics. At least for now anyway... This has more to do with functionality. I feel like the order in which the fora are laid out, needs a bit of revision.

I kind of understand having the "switcher" forums near the top, but the rest of it makes less sense to me. The way I'd reorder the forum structure would be something like:

Community
General
Hardware
OS X Software
iPhone, iPad, iPod
Dev Playground

I realize this may seem like nitpicking at first, but the logic behind this applies to when you think about posting a new topic. And in my experience, I'm more likely to want or need to post a new topic in hardware, Software or iOS before the others.

Opinions?

Doug

I agree - and that's something we can change pretty easily, given consensus amongst the staff.
 

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How about setting up the Buy/Sell/Trade Forum as invisible until a member meets the criteria? Is this feasible or desirable?
 
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Hey guys, i know my account name doesn't have a lot of posts on it and it is rather new but i've been coming to mac-forums for a few years now for general mac questions and id like to say off topic thank you very much for all the help i have received, and back on topic id love to say that i absolutely love the new design.
 
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How about setting up the Buy/Sell/Trade Forum as invisible until a member meets the criteria? Is this feasible or desirable?

I think thats a pretty good idea actually, it would keep down the number of "Why can't I post in B/S/T???!"

However… right now anybody can post in a thread already started and buy or trade something, right?
So unless we want to keep new joiners from buying or trading from the regulars, it wouldn't work.
 
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I think thats a pretty good idea actually, it would keep down the number of "Why can't I post in B/S/T???!"

However… right now anybody can post in a thread already started and buy or trade something, right?
So unless we want to keep new joiners from buying or trading from the regulars, it wouldn't work.

I think it is a good idea, and should be mandatory on any forum. I wouldn't want to buy or sell to a member with zero reputation. eBay reps don't mean much to me either simply due to how horribly the eBay and Paypal system is set up. It's easy to get pushed around if you're the seller, as there are hardly any safeguards set up for them. Whereas the buyer can basically steal anything they want more or less.

I always try and buy from someone close to me if possible, so that I can meet them in person. Otherwise, I only trust their reputation based upon previous transaction history. On some forums, there is a separate section setup for just this sort of thing. The buyer/seller sets up the transaction, and the whole thing gets logged in a forum post. After the sale is finished, both members have an opportunity to give their account of the transaction. This way, other members can see what they should expect.

Doug
 
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Likes:
-The modern look and “bubbly” look
-New “new posts” icons
-New logo

Dislikes:
-The position of “User CP” under the “Forums” tab, I think it should be above “Log in”
-If an image has been attached, and resized by the forum, the post still has the large image under the part of the post that says “attached images”
 

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I think thats a pretty good idea actually, it would keep down the number of "Why can't I post in B/S/T???!"

However… right now anybody can post in a thread already started and buy or trade something, right?
So unless we want to keep new joiners from buying or trading from the regulars, it wouldn't work.

No. The rules have been updated, and the same criteria apply for new thread creators as they do to replies to existing threads.
 
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I belong to tons of forums and one feature that i love when they have it is when they mark( some small smiley size icon or check mark or something) what threads you post in.

Thanks for the input. :)

This actually exists already! Currently on M-F, threads you have participated in are marked with this icon to the left of the thread title, and if you hover over it there you will be told how many posts you have in the thread:
Old layout:
thread_dot_hot.gif


The new forum layout has this feature as well, but it is more easily readable/noticeable!

To help you and people like you further, here's some further advice:
1. Set your default thread subscription mode option to "no email notification" (if you actually want email notices, then choose one of those options): http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/profile.php?do=editoptions
2. Check for newly updated threads here (this is the first place I go to every day when I want to check for new stuff, to see which of my threads have gotten responses): http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/usercp.php
3. Find all threads you have been part of here: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/subscription.php?do=viewsubscription

Hope that helps - I was using forums for about 5 years before I realized you could subscribe to threads to make my own participation easier to follow up on. Before I figured out subscribing wasn't going to spam me with email, I was constantly searching for my own posts to see if my threads had been active.
 
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Regarding Font Size concerns:

All major browsers have a font size setting. The forum will respect your browser settings - you can set your preference in your browser to smallest, smaller, normal, larger, or largest typically. This will help improve the text size across all sites for you.

While this could be implemented in the site, recreating functionality in the site that already exists in your browser may not be the best investment of developer time. I hope this is helpful, and we appreciate the feedback - it is noted. :)
 
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I'm going to chime in but with a different issue from aesthetics. At least for now anyway... This has more to do with functionality. I feel like the order in which the fora are laid out, needs a bit of revision.

I kind of understand having the "switcher" forums near the top, but the rest of it makes less sense to me. The way I'd reorder the forum structure would be something like:

Community
General
Hardware
OS X Software
iPhone, iPad, iPod
Dev Playground

I realize this may seem like nitpicking at first, but the logic behind this applies to when you think about posting a new topic. And in my experience, I'm more likely to want or need to post a new topic in hardware, Software or iOS before the others.

Opinions?

Doug

I agree - and that's something we can change pretty easily, given consensus amongst the staff.

Can you guys earmark this to follow up separately from the redesign? As cwa107 mentioned, pretty easily changed now or later (changes now will be preserved on the redesign launch), and this does not have to be part of the redesign. Once changed however, we should do so in a "final" sort of approach. Changing homepage organization can be sort of a big deal to the search bots and can impact traffic - that is fine, just not something we want to be finicky with changing on a regular basis. We can tune this up though, I agree. :)
 
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Could the red color be darkened just a little bit. I find myself squinting at the new print because of so much of the red fonts
 
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I like the new look, everything looks very clean. The only thing that bugged me when using it was the user control panel. My issues is I was trying to find it I eventually did, but not the way I thought it would be. In the navagation bar, it reads "User CP", to be clear it should read "User Control Panel" Other than that it looks very good.
 

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