New "homepage thread" format

[MatthewHSE]

I noticed last week that threads featured on the homepage now have some large red italic text to that effect at the top of the thread, and all posts beyond the first one are inset quite a bit from each side of the page. Does anyone else find all that pretty distracting? I've given up on at least three homepage threads I was interested in just because it was too hard to read.

The red text is one thing - but could we please have the same layout format as in un-featured threads? I'd sure appreciate it! :)

Thanks for listening,

Matthew

[Woz]

>The issue is that the subsequent posts are harder to read

Bingo! To the point that when I see this "broken" format I hit the Back Button pronto - not the desired effect at all.

Onya
Woz

[Junanagoh]

I dont think there should be a space between the first and second post either. When I load up that page it makes it look like there is only 1 post on the page.

[isorg]

How about this:

1. Put a little box around the 1st post
2. At the top of the box write a caption like "Featured post" (or whatever...)
3. Put a space between the featured post and the rest of the posts.
4. Slap a nice adsense 728x90 box in this space. I can supply the necessary adsense code for this if required.
5. Leave the borders and indentation around the other posts exactly as they always have been, because you are trying to hightlight the first post, not demote the discussion following it.
6. Have an option for registered users to turn this off if desired.

[bedlam]

I'd just like to chime in on the unusability of the [current] homepage thread format.

I'm running a monitor at 1152 x 864px with a maximized broswer window. This means the lines are quite long, but also that the number of lines on the screen is smaller, and that any given block of text takes up less vertical space than it would in a narrower window.

In spite of this, twice today, I've clicked into homepage threads, read the first post, seen that there were no replies and clicked back before realizing that there were replies but that I hadn't even been able to see the top of the second message because the gap underneath the initial message was so huge (and the initial messages in both threads were very short).

The kicker: I already knew about the new homepage format experiments and I still had problems...

I suggest running future improvements past the usability/accessibility forum [webmasterworld.com] before taking them live ;-p

-b

[outrun]

My screen Size is 1024 x 768 and I have also missed the replies more then once. And just left the thread not knowing there was replys till later. Its probably worse on smaller resoloutions.

[2by4]

I don't like it either, no reason to do it I can see, the red letters make it look like I made a mistake, and the space and non-indentation of the first item make it look like WebmasterWorld made a mistake.

[Powdork]

I don't like the space either.

However, if you would like to put adsense in there instead, your welcome to borrow my publisher id.

If you want to recognize someone for posts that make the homepage, then recognize the poster, not the post (which is how it appears now). Thats what all that info in the profile and along side the posts is for.

[robzilla]

>> The issue is that the subsequent posts are harder to read

> Bingo! To the point that when I see this "broken" format I hit the Back Button pronto - not the desired effect at all.

Same here. It's appalling, in a way. It looks broken.

[keyplyr]

I also dislike the indented Homepage Thread since it looks utterly awful in my customized skin, which I've never been abel to remove so I have no idea what the 'testing' is supposed to look like.

[econman]

The new blue "Featured" format you are testing is an improvement, IMO. Amount of space between the first post and the replies is still a bit larger than necessary to serve the purpose.

[PhraSEOlogy]

If it aint broke - why fix it?

[forex]

If the number of users & guests browsing the forum at any given time is visible, that's helpful.

[afterburner]

what is the test for?

[limbo]

I must admit that I have found this pretty offputting.

I think the font size is too large, the colour's too blue and think the layout method looks broken. If this is a reward for those who have written a decent enough post to warrant homepage inclusion why not do something more subtle for those who care for this sort of thing?

Given the chioce I'd pick an a simple 'rosette' gif or less intrusive subtitle. Or perhaps a complimentary tone for the initial post background colour?

But I have to vote nay on the current one.

[caspita]

The whole idea here is to make the first message of a homepage post something posters will strive to hit.

If you really want to encourage people making super-post and gaining reconigtion out of it, add a counter of how many post have hit the homepage for the poster, then may be give them some stars ranking and people will know even before reding the first post ;-).

Regardssss

[KeithCash]

Looks like everything has been said.

Ditto

Slainte / Cheers

Keith Cash
__________________

[garyr_h]

Firstly, I would like to thank Brett for his last post. I personally love reading everything he writes and find it extremely insightful.

Secondly, I like incrediBills idea. However, I think that would be better served as a customization available a la control panel. It could cause some problems otherwise, pushing other content which may be just as good (if not better) farther down the forum.

Another idea is to take away the right padding of the other posts (while leaving the left padding), and above it write 'Discussion' (or something similar) to fill in the blank space, while still offering the original post its deserved glory.

[RonPK]

Please fix the layout. It is broken.

[Marcia]

I've always liked the simplicity and uniformity of the site as it's been. With the separation and the narrower width of posts after the first it breaks the uniformity (which is a usability factor) and makes the threads look broken. I gave it time to adjust, but it's still jarring.

>>I like moltar's idea of a small icon indicating a home page topic.

Ditto that, but those who click to the thread from the homepage already know it's featured there. A small icon would be even more helpful on the active list, and maybe visibly displayed for those who surf by forum (very helpful for finding quality older threads), rather than the thread itself since not everyone comes to the site via the homepage.

Added:

I'd much rather see little simple indicators here for the high quality threads

[webmasterworld.com...]

It would be very handy for those whose time is at a premium.

[idolw]

can anyone explain the idea of it?

[forex]

Need a "logout" option

[mattglet]

Need a "logout" option

Go here, and go to the bottom of the page:
[webmasterworld.com...]

[forex]

"Signout", Thanks