[WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign

[hiccup]

And to possibly prevent some confusion when discussing this, there is a  ...but the attention is first and mainly drawn to: - the very large and bold post # - the bold header - the buttons at the top right And finally to the message itself (which should be the most prominent in my opinion)...

Just use the dark theme and be happy. (i never use the white theme)

b.t.w. the same goes for the dark theme. The message itself gets the least attention.
I would suggest:



instead of:

[hiccup]

When hoovering over a skin thumbnail on the 'skins' page, the thumbnail darkens, and a heart and a number (likes) for that skin shows.
Personally I am not interested in likes there very much.
I would find it much more useful if at hoover-over you would see an enlarged and more detailed view of that skin.

[AvikB]

When hoovering over a skin thumbnail on the 'skins' page, the thumbnail darkens, and a heart and a number (likes) for that skin shows. Personally I am not interested in likes there very much. I would find it much more useful if at hoover-over you would see an enlarged and more detailed view of that skin.

detailed screenshot on mouse hover always represents the issue of bandwidth. For people with low bandwidth will suffer. Even now loading a screenshot by clicking on them takes some time on 60KB/s.
The rating system is there for people to express their thanks(instead of go to forum and say thanks which is really not efficient) quickly. Also it helps people choose popular and most loved add-ons.

[hiccup]

When hoovering over a skin thumbnail on the 'skins' page, the thumbnail darkens, and a heart and a number (likes) for that skin shows. Personally I am not interested in likes there very much. I would find it much more useful if at hoover-over you would see an enlarged and more detailed view of that skin.

detailed screenshot on mouse hover always represents the issue of bandwidth. For people with low bandwidth will suffer. Even now loading a screenshot by clicking on them takes some time on 60KB/s.
The rating system is there for people to express their thanks(instead of go to forum and say thanks which is really not efficient) quickly. Also it helps people choose popular and most loved add-ons.

That's good to consider, but when you look at the current situation realistically, almost anybody landing there will want to see better detailed images of the skins they consider to download.
For that, currently you will have to first click the thumbnail, which opens another webpage, and then click the thumbnail again to get a detailed view. I am guessing that will take at least as much bandwidth, and is certainly more cumbersome.
(and as a side-note on this, could you make the thumbnail on the right side of that page also clickable to get an enlarged image?)

Would it perhaps be an option to make it so that when you click on the thumbnail, you get an actual size screenshot, and when you click on the name of the skin and/or creator, that gets you to it's homepage?

[AvikB]

That's good to consider, but when you look at the current situation realistically, almost anybody landing there will want to see better detailed images of the skins they consider to download. For that, currently you will have to first click the thumbnail, which opens another webpage, and then click the thumbnail again to get a detailed view. I am guessing that will take at least as much bandwidth, and is certainly more cumbersome. (and as a side-note on this, could you make the thumbnail on the right side of that page also clickable to get an enlarged image?) Would it perhaps be an option to make it so that when you click on the thumbnail, you get an actual size screenshot, and when you click on the name of the skin and/or creator, that gets you to it's homepage?

i guess you have a point. I am putting this on my todo list. But since this will be a semi major change on the layout it will arrive with the next major update. Don't expect too soon.

[AvikB]

an update is sent to Steven[update is live]. most of the issues are fixed. ofc if i missed some feature let me know.

As for the home page image a lots of debate has been going for quite some time. The only reason i went with the current image is because it blends well with the color scheme. The previous ones had lot more contrast or the image quality was not very good or a lots of dark spot.
I think we might do a poll to choose a new image for the home page, that way every one gets to vote for their favorite ones and can not complain later.

- Also regarding the compact theme, i have made the forum a little bit more compact.
- the stat count is removed(not the bottom one) as hiccup and others requested.
- another pagination bar is added when browsing posts
- Fixed the styling scheme for sticky post as per hiccup's mockup.
- edgy fonts are fixed.
- When sending an PM "(No Subject)" shouldn't show anymore.

[AvikB]

for the people who are saying there is too much wasted white space, can you post a screenshot as i am certainly not seeing it

New

It should be more compact with the update i just pushed, but i am never going to make the forum THAT compact, it feels too congested.

And a replacement font for the header here please:

Fixed.

for the people who are saying there is too much wasted white space, can you post a screenshot as i am certainly not seeing it

http://www.bluesbeatradio.com/mbee/beeforum.jpg

A lots of people seems to complain about white space. Right now the threaded posts look like this:


But there are no WASTED space in there, everything is calculated. For example there seems to have a little bit of space at the bottom, right?
NO. If you hover over mouse on the posts important things like Flags, quickedit and last modified date appears. They might be hidden but they do take those spaces to hide.

Also even if a post is one liner, that does not mean the post will have smaller heights. The post height depends on two thing, the post itself and the amount of info about poster showing in the side. 

With this post i hope i made myself clear about the whitespace issue.
With the latest update i actually removed some unnecessary padding which should satisfy most people.

As for creating a separate compact theme, i have decided not to. The main reason is maintainability. Also with the latest update is not needed anymore. Give it a try and let me know if it suits you or not.

[AvikB]

At the risk of revealing that I am not a smart as I don't think I am not: I struggled a few times finding how to adjust my forum preferences. I just found out why that is... When hoovering over the round 'little guy' icon, immediately the dropdown menu opens. I am expecting to be able to click the 'Hey, username' entry there to enter the settings page. But that does nothing. I just now found out that you need to click the icon itself, and not the menu that opens. Feels a bit odd. Would it be possible to make the username clickable for this purpose?
 

Fixed.

[AvikB]

Why no responses from the OP? At least you can tell us when you will be available. If you can't find time at all, then say so. We can look for a volunteer to fix this site. Regarding home menu,
1. "Register" menu would better be located just next to "Login". It's not easy to find when you look for it. 2. Instead of Register, having "Wiki" & "Latest Patch" (that will jump to the Steven's first forum topic) menu in there would be more useful. 3. There's no current time being displayed. Like the previous site, consider displaying current time somewhere on homepage.

Register button in the navbar Will be implemented in next update.
Current time? why do you/anyone even need that? your pc shows it in the taskbar.

[hiccup]

an update is sent to Steven[update is live]. most of the issues are fixed. ofc if i missed some feature let me know.

Great, great, great.

I was only wondering about the cut-off topic descriptions here.
Perhaps the now gained space allows to show a bit more of those titles?

[redwing]

Current time? why do you/anyone even need that? your pc shows it in the taskbar.

Why would I ask you to display my local time? Don't you get what I meant was current forum time?
Why? To make sense of the forum time instantly without having to check world time.

[AvikB]

Current time? why do you/anyone even need that? your pc shows it in the taskbar.

Why would I ask you to display my local time? Don't you get what I meant was current forum time? Why? To make sense of the forum time instantly without having to check world time.

But you can set time offset in your profile setting, which will convert the forum's time in relative to your local time. That way you won't have to look for world time.

[AvikB]

an update is sent to Steven[update is live]. most of the issues are fixed. ofc if i missed some feature let me know.

Great, great, great. I was only wondering about the cut-off topic descriptions here. Perhaps the now gained space allows to show a bit more of those titles?
 

those are hardcoded into SMF core. I will see what i can do without making any huge modification.

[redwing]

As for the home page image a lots of debate has been going for quite some time. The only reason i went with the current image is because it blends well with the color scheme. The previous ones had lot more contrast or the image quality was not very good or a lots of dark spot.
I think we might do a poll to choose a new image for the home page, that way every one gets to vote for their favorite ones and can not complain later.

Good idea. How do we go about this? Will you set up a separate topic for that?

[AvikB]

Good idea. How do we go about this? Will you set up a separate topic for that?

yeah i suppose. I am going to find the list of the images proposed here to create a poll.