Author Topic: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign  (Read 551767 times)

AvikB

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Is there any possibility of putting All Unread Topics as a link on the main forum page?  That's the one I use the most.

if you mean this:


it is already available.

AvikB

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Another medium sized update. This update is completely focused on the forum.

Here is what is NEW:
New editor for the forum. (YAY!), to be fair the current forum does not show any option and pretty bare-bone. And with SMF 2.0.11 the code has significantly changed and i have to rewrite the styling. AND with this upgrade they made it difficult to reorganize or make the editor the way you like(which was extremely easy in the previous version! bummer).

I decided to use SCEdit for the forum and here is how it looks:


Now by default the quick reply editor box SHOULD show at the bottom(can any one confirm? you will need to sign in before)

also the loading sign is less ugly now.
Some enhancement to the dark theme as well.

There are few weird bugs, well atleast for me. The editor on the test website works well, but not so well on my local test machine! :S
Be sure to check it out, also if let me know if you guys have any suggestion.

hiccup

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Now by default the quick reply editor box SHOULD show at the bottom(can any one confirm? you will need to sign in before)

Yes, the quick reply editor shows.

Using the dark theme: when you click 'quote', the text in the editor window is almost as black as the background and therefor unreadable.
If you hover-over with the mouse, it gets light and you can read it.

hiccup

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There are currently two home buttons and two login buttons with no indication on the difference. (web vs forum).
I think it would be good to indicate that.


hiccup

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Just my personal opinion:

I am not very enthusiastic about people using smiley icons, all kinds of colorful fonts, etc. in forum posts when they don't serve an additional and specific purpose.
Very incidentally there might be a good reason to add a smiley (for example to show a remark was meant humorous, which might otherwise be misunderstood.

I am very afraid that making it so easy to insert those smileys, font sizes, colors etc. by presenting them by default, will quickly lead to a forum that might better suit Walt Disney.
Personally I would hide it.
Deep.

Alumni

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Will the new forum support avatars? Not that it's a big deal, but would be nice.

AvikB

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There are currently two home buttons and two login buttons with no indication on the difference. (web vs forum).
I think it would be good to indicate that.



well both do the same thing. the web and forum login is the same.

as for the home button, i am looking for a way to change them. Maybe in next update.

AvikB

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Will the new forum support avatars? Not that it's a big deal, but would be nice.
I hope so. As for testing it is now enabled. but the final decision will be Steven's.

phred

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I am very afraid that making it so easy to insert those smileys, font sizes, colors etc. by presenting them by default, will quickly lead to a forum that might better suit Walt Disney.
Personally I would hide it.
Deep.
+10000000
Download the latest MusicBee v3.5 or 3.6 patch from here.
Unzip into your MusicBee directory and overwrite existing files.

----------
The FAQ
The Wiki
Posting screenshots is here
Searching the forum with Google is  here

AvikB

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I am not very enthusiastic about people using smiley icons, all kinds of colorful fonts, etc. in forum posts when they don't serve an additional and specific purpose.
They do serve a purpose. Like the font size, you can use bold font and a slightly big font to mark important things. Also colors add the readability and please eyes(unless someone write the whole forum in red ofc)

I am very afraid that making it so easy to insert those smileys, font sizes, colors etc. by presenting them by default, will quickly lead to a forum that might better suit Walt Disney.
Smileys were always there by default, they don't pose any threat. as for font size and colors i am not too keen on hiding them.
If anyone abuse them anyway mods can warn them and on repetitive behavior ban them.

On the other hand i can reduce the number of colors showing as option in there, as well as fonts. But hiding them won't benefit anyone, specially if the user knows those bbcode they can use them.

Personally I would hide it.
Deep.
Options are always good. Specially announcement thread, readme thread, even bug report thread, addon submission thread really need these to make the content popup, while being distraction free.

Maybe we can create some community guideline(which i doubt ANY ONE READS).

AvikB

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Now by default the quick reply editor box SHOULD show at the bottom(can any one confirm? you will need to sign in before)

Yes, the quick reply editor shows.

Using the dark theme: when you click 'quote', the text in the editor window is almost as black as the background and therefor unreadable.
If you hover-over with the mouse, it gets light and you can read it.

any screenshot?

hiccup

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I am not very enthusiastic about people using smiley icons, all kinds of colorful fonts, etc. in forum posts when they don't serve an additional and specific purpose.

I am very afraid that making it so easy to insert those smileys, font sizes, colors etc. by presenting them by default, will quickly lead to a forum that might better suit Walt Disney.
They do serve a purpose. Like the font size, you can use bold font and a slightly big font to mark important things. Also colors add the readability and please eyes(unless someone write the whole forum in red ofc)
Smileys were always there by default, they don't pose any threat. as for font size and colors i am not too keen on hiding them.
If anyone abuse them anyway mods can warn them and on repetitive behavior ban them.

I read many many books and newspapers, all without different sized fonts, funny colors, smileys, giving me perfectly good information.
People should in basics just use plain and understandable language to communicate.

You find they serve a purpose for readability, to me they work the exact opposite, and makes it more difficult for me to quickly get the the gist of the question/message.
I am not saying this to put my foot down or anything, but honestly: the chances that I will answer questions from users that will add those 'funny stuff' to postings will be much, much slimmer than me answering a well written and explained question.

And as my role as moderator, the last thing I am waiting for to have to do is to reprimand users because needless use of smileys, colors, large fonts etc.
Thankfully until now it's not a kindergarten here, and I really hope it stays that way.

Please, of course no offense AvikB, but as you can see I feel quite strongly about this.

Skoop

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Will the new forum support avatars? Not that it's a big deal, but would be nice.
Lord, no. 

If you must, make sure that there is an option to hide them, and sigs, and any other personalization junk.  This isn't 4chan.

AvikB

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I read many many books and newspapers, all without different sized fonts, funny colors, smileys, giving me perfectly good information.
People should in basics just use plain and understandable language to communicate.

You find they serve a purpose for readability, to me they work the exact opposite, and makes it more difficult for me to quickly get the the gist of the question/message.
I am not saying this to put my foot down or anything, but honestly: the chances that I will answer questions from users that will add those 'funny stuff' to postings will be much, much slimmer than me answering a well written and explained question.

And as my role as moderator, the last thing I am waiting for to have to do is to reprimand users because needless use of smileys, colors, large fonts etc.
Thankfully until now it's not a kindergarten here, and I really hope it stays that way.

Please, of course no offense AvikB, but as you can see I feel quite strongly about this.

I do agree at some point. Lets get few fact straight:
Basic and necessary button that are required:
           Bold, Italic, Underline, Strike, image, link, code, quote(I REFUSE TO REMOVE CODE AND QUOTE!, specially typing the blockquote is really not intuitive and painful)

 Left align, center align(used by our addon devs, i don't use it much, but i don't think it will be that much of a nuisance for it to be removed completely)

And there is youtube video(which is new). Since giffy is allowed, i don't think a video will kill anyone. also helpful for tutorial, bug, and maybe some future unknown use.

As for color, i may remove it. since it may be abused. OR we can only show few color options(like red, blue, green, black, and magenta) this colors are used for different info, even on this thread we used them for forum structuring discussion and announcement.

as for font size how about we allow upto size 6 or 5 instead of 7. Removing this completely may not be necessary, but i might do so if really needed.

ofc if someone REALLY WANT TO ABUSE THEM THEY CAN USE THE CODE DIRECTLY!
Last Edit: December 18, 2015, 04:16:39 PM by AvikB

AvikB

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Will the new forum support avatars? Not that it's a big deal, but would be nice.
Lord, no. 

If you must, make sure that there is an option to hide them, and sigs, and any other personalization junk.  This isn't 4chan.

you can already do this by going to your profile and disable avatars and sigs.

But avatar do have benefits, they can be used to identify the post author quickly instead of reading his names.
Ofc we have choices, you may enable or disable depend on your pref.