[WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign

[Steven]

Navigating through pages on each board (e.g. General, Skins) is not easy. Looks like the only way to go to the previous/next page is clicking on a page number on the top of the page. I'd suggest put another page number buttons on the bottom as well.

Ok, i will add it. To be honest i actually removed it since i thought one at the top would be enough.

please do as thats the one thing that is annoying when browsing through posts.

[AvikB]

I meant "view all add-ons" section in the user's dashboard. If you have uploaded more than ten add-ons, no way to know download count of the others except top ten.

That was the idea. I didn't thought it would interest anyone. Specially i don't want anyone to get depressed by their download count. For example some add-on gets higher download count and some don't which might cause negative effect(i am not sure anyway, just my guess) :S

[redwing]

Can't speak for others, but to me it's very useful info for thinking about how to improve it, etc. If no technical issues here, I'd like to see all counts.

[AvikB]

So either that dark theme or all-bright theme? Is it possible to turn off the avatar image as a view setting?

For now, yes. I will introduce a much more compact theme. For now you can turn off the avatar from your forum setting. But it won't reduce the post height. I will look into it, it seems like a bug.

Turning off the avatar still has no effect on the post height. I think it might be a good idea to introduce a (separate) compact theme as you said before.

yeah it seems so. a lots of people don't like spaced out things(i get it). I will add support for compact theme. There will be two catch(for now on atleast)
- it won't be default, you will have to set it like the dark theme.
- NO DARK THEME FOR THE COMPACT VERSION. (i will revamped the theming procedure to sass, until then no dark theme).

[AvikB]

Can't speak for others, but to me it's very useful info for thinking about how to improve it, etc. If no technical issues here, I would see all counts.

ok, this will be introduced in couple of updates later(will make sure everything works fine).
Maybe i could do something like graphs and charts(no promises).

[AvikB]

And a replacement font for the header here please:

I guess i will switch those to verdana in edgy mode. will be fixed in next update.

[AvikB]

The text "Site build with ..." is very dark unless you hover over. I am guessing that is not intentional there?

it seems the forum style is overwriting the color. should be fixed in next update or so.

[AvikB]

I'm not sure how it works but does this site check the version of each add-on and places the ones with the most recent version change at the front of "Recently Updated" add-on list? Currently it seems add-ons with whatever kind of updates just get listed regardless of version change (but I'm not sure as I didn't test version change).
I'd say that's an important feature that could allow people to keep their add-ons up to date without having to check each add-on board regularly.
 

You are right. The recently updates add-on list will contain any add-on that got a any minor update, no version change is checked.
i didn't enforced the version check or even assigning a version on the first place because i HIGHLY doubt most people even knows much about versioning their software, that is why it is left as is. It is mostly for users and addon submitters to know what version is submitted.

Also, consider adding the "Recently Updated" list under every category as currently it's only under "all" category.

That is planned for v2.0. I am still deciding on how the layout should look.

[AvikB]

This has been discussed a lot in the past, and I am not sure what the last consensus on this was, so I'm just gonna phrase this as if this hasn't been discussed before at all. At the bottom on the main forum page, under 'Get the latest MusicBee', the related button directs to a download page that only contains the installer versions. Shouldn't there also be a permanent link to the latest patch? Especially since in the forum the advice often given is: 'download and install the latest patch'.

Well this can be done. But the patch release is also in the download page too. so there is no need for any separate patch button. Right now no patch is not showing in the download page but it is there, it will show up once steven submits a new patch in the dashboard.

[AvikB]

@AvikB, I think I know the answer, but you never know... When I disable having avatars displayed, that will work fine as long as I am logged in. But as soon as I log out, those avatars show up again. Would it be possible to have avatars not showing (by means of browser cache or something) when browsing the forum, even when not logged-in?

isn't that defeats the purpose of login. Logged in user gets more feature to customize. It is how forums work in general.
I think it is possible in theory to remember the choice using cookies but why not just stay logged in?

[hiccup]

Not gonna fix it because can't say what i am looking to fix here ,  If you have any suggestion i am all ear.
Just use the dark theme and be happy. (i never use the white theme)

The only thing I could come up here, is that the same color scheme for the fonts used when browsing inside a topic could be used when browsing by most recent posts. (and decrease the impact of that elephant message# font a bit)
That would make it look something like this.



instead of this:



Yes, it's rather futile, but just a little bit more pleasant on the eyes and gives slightly more focus on the message itself.
And indeed I predominantly use the fantastic dark theme, but sometimes when the sun shines bright I turn to the light theme...

[AvikB]

If i can make a suggestion: On the Forum Home page could those topics that have posts for the current day show "Today" in a different color eg "Today" That way it is immediately obvious which forums have a new post.

you mean on this page? http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php
because right now unread post is colorful like this:

[hiccup]

isn't that defeats the purpose of login. Logged in user gets more feature to customize. It is how forums work in general.
I think it is possible in theory to remember the choice using cookies but why not just stay logged in?

I understand, no problem.
It feels odd to stay logged in at sites when I am not doing any activity there.
Also I see nobody else staying logged in permanently, so I'm not alone in that.

[AvikB]

Not gonna fix it because can't say what i am looking to fix here , If you have any suggestion i am all ear. Just use the dark theme and be happy. (i never use the white theme)

The only thing I could come up here, is that the same color scheme for the fonts used when browsing inside a topic could be used when browsing by most recent posts. (and decrease the impact of that elephant message # font a bit) Yes, it's rather futile, but just a little bit more pleasant on the eyes and gives slightly more focus on the message itself. And indeed I predominantly use the fantastic dark theme, but sometimes when the sun shines bright I turn to the light theme...

I will make some changes to reduce the # color and font but won't change the header color to the light ones. It looked too washed away.

[AvikB]

I understand, no problem. It feels odd to stay logged in at sites when I am not doing any activity there. Also I see nobody else staying logged in permanently, so I'm not alone in that.

If you checked "Stay Logged in" when signing in it does not mean that it will show you always online but rather it stores some data on your pc(mostly cookies) to identify you when you open the website again and log in you automatically. there is no harm, no one can see you online and no reason to do it.

I stayed logged in permanently on every site. unless of course i am using a public computer rather than my own pc(in which case don't stay logged in permanently)