New Thread and Forum Icons in Default style

[Michael Morris]

Ok, they're gone now.

 

[cybertalus]

My problem with the icons has always been that they are trying to communicate too much information in a single icon. I may be forgetting something but with a single icon the board is trying to tell us:

• If the thread has new messages
• If the thread is a "hot" thread
• If I've posted to the thread
• If the thread is closed

That's a lot of information to cram into a single icon. It's no wonder really that the icons are hard to understand.

But then that's why I use the PHB style. That style gives me new threads in bold, and I can generally live without the rest of the information the icons are trying to impart.

As for the new icons themselves, the blue ones on the forums page look VERY nice. The ones for the threads themselves don't seem any better or any worse than the envelope ones.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

I think the globes look kinda cool, but I do have one question. The boxes on most of the globes are exactly the same whether I've posted to it or not. If I could differentiate a little easier that would be swell, because right now I'm going by name and thread starter instead of a visual icon.

 

[Fast Learner]

Short of a revolution, we will all be herded along to all the fancy stuff till all the fancy images and rollovers make it a 15 minute load time for those of us on dialup.

Unless your browser is incapable of caching, the icon changes will make the site load ever-so-slightly-slower once or twice.

 

[mmu1]

I intensly dislike the new icons - they look fuzzy and garish to me.

That aside, my practical complaint is that I'm absolutely unable to keep track of threads I posted to so far - everything seems to have a little box in the corner... The old envelope with a big black dot in the middle was a lot easier to notice.

Edit: Ok, after multiple refreshes, things do make more sense.

However, there's still a big problem with telling which threads you posted to, because a "new" or "hot" thread icon looks identical regardless of whether your posted to it or not - they alwas have the white box on the bottom.

 

[haiiro]

The white box in the "hot thread" icons is the same as the white box that demarks "you have posted in this thread". But I have not posted in those threads.

This one has been bugging me all day -- I thought it might just be me. The nice thing about the "little dot approach" in the old icons was that nothing else about the other icons shared that element -- it was instantly recognizable. On the faster-moving forums (like GD) in particular, I found it to be a very useful tool.

Spoony, I like a lot of the new changes (particularly the 1-shot sigs and collapsible main page menus), and I'm happy to give the new icons a chance. The white box aspect, though, I think needs to be revisited.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Yeah - there need to be separate icons for:

Hot thread, no new posts, you have posted
Hot thread, no new posts, you have not posted
Hot thread, new posts, you have posted
Hot thread, new posts, you have not posted

Only threads you've posted to should have the white box.

And I'll echo the confusion about the new posts and no new posts. Under the envelope system, the colour/no colour immediately distinguished new posts; it was the shape that indicated a hot thread.

Now, we have a no-colour icon indicating new posts, and a coloured icon indicating a hot thread with no new posts... and it's awfully confusing.

Especially since the colours of the new posts and no-new-posts versions are so similar

Can we have the shades of yellow representing "New Posts" and "Hot, New Posts", with the shades of grey representing "No New Posts" and "Hot, No New Posts" to more closely approximate what people are used to?

(And finally, I agree about the arrows for Go To New Post and Go To Most Recent Post - they work better than the mini-globes.)

-Hyp.

 

[Umbran]

Can we have the shades of yellow representing "New Posts" and "Hot, New Posts", with the shades of grey representing "No New Posts" and "Hot, No New Posts" to more closely approximate what people are used to?

There's some sense to that, in more than just what we are used to. In a mostly grey and black scheme color jumps out at you as something important. Grey fades, and fails to get attention. At the moment the "hot thread, no new posts" icon catches the eye more than the "non-hot, but with new posts". For me, at least, it would make sense to have threads with new posts be more eye-popping than those that don't.

 

[Hypersmurf]

At the moment the "hot thread, no new posts" icon catches the eye more than the "non-hot, but with new posts".

Yeah, and it's driving me nuts

-Hyp.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

OK, I just came back after a couple of days and noticed the changes. I agree the colors need changing. When I saw a page it was alternating yellow and white globes and the first reaction was I haven't read any of these threads why are some marked read and others not. Hypersmurf is right. The colors should represent new stuff and white/grey representing no new stuff. It is confusing and goes against general board logic.