Design Changes

[Adam]

In an attempt to make the site easier to use and to make the forum appear more streamlined, I've tweaked all of our forum skins just a little bit to reflect the following changes:

1. Smilies Moved Below the Editor

With the new layout, users will have a 10% wider post edtior. See the screenshot below for more details.

2. Posting Rules Moved Below the Editor

Rather than showing these at the bottom of every "showthread" page, they will now be displayed below each post editor. Futhermore, the "Posting Rules" tables have been made much smaller, and they will no longer appear on the "forumdisplay" page.





3. Forumdisplay Footer Shortened

I've changed several things on this page. First of all, the "Users Currently Browsing this Forum" table as well as the Forum Jumpbox will no longer be visible to guests. I've completely removed the "Posting Rules" table as I felt it was redundant, and I also moved all the thread sorting options to the top of the page.

These changes will reduce the number of database queries per pageload by up to 2, and they will also make the footer appear much more tidy! Also, the thread sorting options will never go unnoticed again! They should prove useful in the contest forums as well as in the knowlege base.

Before:



After:

(Top)


(Bottom)


4. Header Made Smaller

I've reduced the height of the page header on both the green and the red skins by 10 pixels to reduce scrolling.

5. Forum Info Table Removed

By popular demand, tables such as the one below have been removed from all forumdisplay pages. They will still appear for site guests, but not for members since it is probably useless to everyone who's not new to the site.



The removal of this box reduces scrolling by 50 pixels, and it also saves 1 database query per pageload.

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I hope everyone enjoys these changes, and I'm looking forward for some feedback!

[mtnbearhug]

Mo,

Thanks for the improvements!!!

They look really nice. With streamlining everything and removing some material it should help loading times as well!!!

I really like the smiley bar underneath. It makes a huge difference with the "white space" room !!!

Great job!!!

Kim

[Eaglerapids]

Very nice Mo, I like the changes

[gpaual]

way to go Mo.........!.....your dedication and work on the site is impressive indeed........

[christinelandon]

Clean, attractive design. I've not had much trouble finding things, figuring out how they work, and participating. Since I once coded in HTML and JavaScript, I appreciate the time you've put in to mastering the vBulletin tools and very much appreciate what you've provided the Pentax community. Bravo, Adam!

[JCSullivan]

Old thread Christine.