New Thread and Forum Icons in Default style

[Brown Jenkin]

Other problems:

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.

I must agree with this as well. You have posted to a thread needs to be wholely distinct from anything else.

 

[Fajitas]

As to the icon change, it was a direct response to a complaint filed by MANY people about the inability to tell the difference between the thread icons. For the most part the old ones look a lot alike. The new ones can be differentiated easily - at a glance you can tell what threads are hot, and which ones are not.

My problem is this: I can tell what's hot and what's not, but I can tell that from the # of replies and the # of views. What I can't tell is what's new and what's not, and that's what I want to see at a glance. I don't doubt that this is a functionality change, but frankly, it's focused on the wrong functionalities IMO.

 

[grodog]

By finding more efficient ways to do things I've shaved off about 3 milliseconds / page load. I know that doesn't sound like much, but mulitplied over hundreds of page loads / day it is.

That sounds great, and a good way to implement incremental improvements! I had no idea that you guys were that detailed about things (no offense intended)

As to the icon change, it was a direct response to a complaint filed by MANY people about the inability to tell the difference between the thread icons. For the most part the old ones look a lot alike. The new ones can be differentiated easily - at a glance you can tell what threads are hot, and which ones are not.

While that is true (although I didn't have any problems personally telling them apart before), I now find it quite difficult to tell apart the hot topics vs. the one's that I've posted it. Would there be a way to do something similar to the old bulleted envelope for the "you've posted here" icon, perhaps by modifying the Locked thread bubble? Or, if you inverted the image so that the "been here" box is on the right vs. the left, that might help, perhaps....

I'm sorry if this upsets you, but I was told once by a very wise member of these boards that it is impossible to keep everyone satisfied all of the time. So in this case I'll press forward with what changes can be done to further reduce server load and to improve the functionality of the site.

And that's what this is to me - a functionality change. The old icons didn't serve their purpose of alerting folks to the thread statuses. This, in the default style, is a problem.

This is an admirable goal, and well-worth continuing to strive for!

Now, if you don't like images that much Ryan, switch to the stealth styleset. That mode was specifically designed to produce a minimum of images and shouldn't annoy you as much as the default mode apparently now does.

I'm going to continue giving the new style a shot, just thought I should chime in with my reactions/confusions....

 

[Olive]

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.

I don't like the icons much either to be honest, but the inability to tell if I've posted or not is also annoying me. Sorry Spoony.

 

[DaveMage]

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.

I agree with all of the above 100%.

I can't figure out what the heck I've posted to and I've refreshed my browser several times.

 

[pensiv]

just to throw my opinion into the mix, I'm finding it harder to differentiate between the different icons than before. There seems to be less variation (what used to be folders and arrows is now all globes) and the icons themselves tell less about what they mean than before. Now I either have to memorize the different icons, or mouse-over to read the description text, there is no intuitive element of those icons.

I wouldn't generally make a mention of it. Everything functions, and I've been able to figure things out again, but this is being advertised as a functional improvement, and I disagree completely. It is less functional than the previous state.

 

[Psionicist]

Regarding server load, if you remove all the javascripts each and every page will not only be less annoying (javascripts are annoying), they will also be 31 KB lighter. 31 KB is alot, you can write a real time operating system in less. Think about it, thousands of page loads times those 31 KB...

/clientscript/vbulletin_global.js 17.9 KB
/clientscript/vbulletin_menu.js 13.1 KB

The drop down menus will not work without the javascripts, but that can be solved (lots of other forum software works perfectly okay without dropdown menus).

Oh, and for 56k users, those 31 KB will take 5-10 seconds to download, if they aren't cached.

 

[Benben]

I hate to be another negative voice. I've loved all of the other new functionality changes but the new posting icons just aren't working for me.

A tiny globe for "Jump to First Unread Message" is counter-intuitive. The arrow made complete sense.

It's very difficult to differentiate between the "new posts", and "no new posts" icon. The color switch is too similar for icons that are fundamental opposites. And the white box doesn't make any sort of sense, since it covers "New Posts", "No New Posts", "Closed Threads", and "You have Posted in this Thread".

The blue of the globe might be reflected in the EN World logo but the fade effect used hits shades of blue that clash with the orange text used for links. I'm finding it especially garish on the front page.

This is really nit picky, but it took me a number of views to realize that I was looking at Africa and not some sort of artistic smear on the icons. The globe really didn't resize well at all.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

I have to agree that the inability to tell which threads I have posted in needs to be fixed. This need it's own identifying mark, and if the white box is going to be used elsewhere, make something different for these threads.

I don't mind the new globes, but I did find the old icons easier to recognize at a quick glance. Now I need to memorize which colors mean what, and they all seem to have a little white box. The white box thing is bad.

Also, maybe the New Post globe can be white or blue? Having both new posts and no new posts both be shades of grey does not work.

 

[andargor]

I have to say "me three" to the inability to quickly see which threads I've posted in and which threads are new.

My priorities on functionality is:

1) Follow threads I've participated in
2) Look at new threads

Frankly, I couldn't care less about "hot" topics. I look at the subject, and if I'm interested in the content, I go to it. Actually, once about 30 posts or more are made in a thread, I lose interest...

Right now, I'm using Search to find my threads. I'm sure that doesn't help server load...

I echo the suggestion that a style with all the default settings be created for those people that are resistant to change.

Respectfully,

Andargor