Can we break the forum out of the site design?

[Forboding Angel]

Please?

Forum in site is so 1990s. I don't care about that so much as that having to have it within the site boundries severely limits what we can do with the forum itself and also severely limits the site as well.

[gajop]

The ability to go to the site/wiki from the forum is an essential navigability requirement.

[Forboding Angel]

What does that have to do with anything?

[smoth]

What do you suggest as a replacement?

[AF]

The ability to go to the site/wiki from the forum is an essential navigability requirement.

We already do this with Mantis and you can access that easily from the top nav.

Design wise, a much simplified version of the top header that was full width, with a logo and a link to the main site, probably darker gray and monochrome, and none of the random images would work. All we'd need to do is specify the content width and let whatever is underneath it do whatever it wanted. Some absolute positioning and margin on the body header would mean we could just place a snippet somewhere in the theme for whatever software is used. No PHP, easy to maintain, no menu nav juggling, no spring site background container and weird curved corners etc

[AF]

Here it is if we remove the current top header:



- Fully responsive by default
- Can be put anywhere without needing special PHP templating provisions
- Ultra lightweight
- Significantly faster to render in browsers
- Vastly increased maintainability and reduced complexity
- Works with every piece of web software installed on this server regardless of design
- Serves as a basic design starting point for a header for all pages outside of the homepage, put the nav menu links on the right hand side of the bar opposite the logo, and let the logo serve as a home button

Now of course this kind of header doesn't make sense on the homepage, and shouldn't be used there, but on the forums, Mantis, etc, it's a good way to tie together those sections to say this is the spring website, and this is how you get back to the rest of it

To test this, open up the dev tools and copy paste this into a new element at the bottom of the page:

Code: Select all

<div id="spring-thin-header" class="spring-thin-header">
    <div class="spring-thin-header-contents">
        <a href="/" class="spring-thin-header-logo"></a>
    </div>
</div>
<style>
html { margin-top:48px; }
.spring-thin-header {
    position: absolute;
    top: 1px;
    height: 48px;
    width: 100%;
    background: #222;
    color: #aaaaaa;
    border-bottom: 2px solid #555;
}
.spring-thin-header-contents {
    padding: 12px 0;
    margin: 0 auto;
    max-width: 968px;
}
.spring-thin-header-logo {
    background: transparent url(/images/logo.png) no-repeat;
    display: block;
    width: 50%;
    height: 24px;
    background-size: contain;
}
/* adjust forum header */
body {
padding-top:30px;
}
#phpbb #header {
display:none;
}
</style>

Here's Mantis:



Perhaps with a very subtle background image and a monochrome version of the logo it would look even better and could be made thinner, moving from 48px tall to closer to 32px, but I think it looks great considering it took 10 minutes of kitbashing in a browsers editing tools

[AF]

Here's a version 20px shorter that works better with Mantis:

Code: Select all

<div id="spring-thin-header" class="spring-thin-header">
    <div class="spring-thin-header-contents">
        <a href="/" class="spring-thin-header-logo"></a>
    </div>
</div>
<style>
html { margin-top:28px; }
.spring-thin-header {
    position: absolute;
    top: 1px;
    height: 28px;
    width: 100%;
    background: #222;
    color: #aaaaaa;
    border-bottom: 2px solid #555;
}
.spring-thin-header-contents {
    padding: 2px 0;
    margin: 0 auto;
    max-width: 968px;
}
.spring-thin-header-logo {
    background: transparent url(/images/logo.png) no-repeat;
    display: block;
    width: 50%;
    height: 24px;
    background-size: contain;
}
/* adjust forum header */
body {
padding-top:30px;
}
#phpbb #header {
display:none;
}
</style>

[Forboding Angel]

Here it is if we remove the current top header:

This is an excellent first step! I'm a fan.

[smoth]

I really don't want this change. I like the links being there. I think it is SLOPPIER to have to go back to the main site in order to access the wiki. There, I objected. Feel free to ignore me.

[Forboding Angel]

Dude.... The links would be there, its obviously a navigation bar

[Forboding Angel]

- Serves as a basic design starting point for a header for all pages outside of the homepage, put the nav menu links on the right hand side of the bar opposite the logo, and let the logo serve as a home button

[gajop]

The ability to go to the site/wiki from the forum is an essential navigability requirement.

As I said before and smoth repeats, navigation matters.

I see no benefit to your changes... none that most users will care about anyway.
Losing the navigation links WILL be a problem, so unless you have a solution that offers an exact replacement (and not just an example bar with a link to the homepage), I'm fully against this change.

[Silentwings]

I agree too, removing the site navigation bar is bad.

[Forboding Angel]

Frigging facepalm...

It's obviously a navigation bar.



Good god comeon dude, do we look like bleeding idiots? What the hell kind of site puts you in their forum with ONLY a link back to the main site (Hint, not any good ones)?

This is what I mean when I say short sighted. Also, AF frigging said it was a navigation bar!

- Serves as a basic design starting point for a header for all pages outside of the homepage, put the nav menu links on the right hand side of the bar opposite the logo, and let the logo serve as a home button

Look I don't really understand what the disconnect is here... Things were pretty clear. AF spent 2 minutes making a mockup of what the bar could look like in general (without links, because any bleeding idiot can see that it's a navigation bar), but instead of reading anything he wrote, you only focus on the example image. Fucking hell.

[Silentwings]

It's obviously a navigation bar.

So far you've confused all 3 who replied so repeating the same statement with added smileys is unlikely to make anything clearer.

[Forboding Angel]

Here, does this make it more clear? I'm not sure how much more clear the words "Navigation Bar" can get.

No this isn't necessarily what it would look like, I just hodge podged some shit together for the sake of example:

[gajop]

I'm OK with losing the banner image. How will it work when scrolling?

[Forboding Angel]

I would like for it to stick to the top the entire time, that way there is no need to ever scroll to the top to get to those links. That's my preference. Thoughts?

[gajop]

Maybe that would be good, but it also makes sense to have "Quick Links", "FAQ", "Notifications", etc. the thing that's always on top.

I don't feel strongly about either option. I'd have to wait and try it first.

[Forboding Angel]

Quick links up there would be a nifty thing to have, especially for the sake of "Active topics" cause I use that ALL the time.

Tbh I'm not gonna raise a big stink either way, I would simply like to break the forum out of the site design. It would solve so many background problems.