Improvements to the site - layout, design etc.

[ninwa]

Need more banners telling me I won something.

I love winning

I changed your custom title, I hope that's an acceptable alternative

[ninwa]

i know we've discussed it before, but i really liked having +/- votes on all boards. maybe we can bring them back, but only votes on non-opinion boards count towards respect? because atm, the only way to agree or disagree with someone's sentiment/argument is to have a whole other post, and its pretty unnecessary imo.

Not going to happen. This risks having people's opinions hidden by downvotes, which completely defeats the purpose of the debate threads.

[charmanderp]

i know we've discussed it before, but i really liked having +/- votes on all boards. maybe we can bring them back, but only votes on non-opinion boards count towards respect? because atm, the only way to agree or disagree with someone's sentiment/argument is to have a whole other post, and its pretty unnecessary imo.

Then what you have is people downvoting posts just because they disagree with them superficially, as opposed to the quality of actual discussion, whether or not you agree or disagree.

[alondouek]

i know we've discussed it before, but i really liked having +/- votes on all boards. maybe we can bring them back, but only votes on non-opinion boards count towards respect? because atm, the only way to agree or disagree with someone's sentiment/argument is to have a whole other post, and its pretty unnecessary imo.

lol can you imagine what the election threads would look like? your points are valid, but as charm said, the voting will be excessive and completely superficial (like Reddit), as opposed to voting up posts that are genuinely helpful.

[abeybaby]

When we used to have them, I only ever saw down votes when someone was rude or purposely inflammatory. Down votes weren't used to just say 'I disagree', but up votes were used to say 'I agree', which I think is much better than a whole extra post

[charmanderp]

I only ever saw down votes when someone was rude or purposely inflammatory.

I do think this is a good way to discourage people from making such posts. Just concerned that it might be easily extorted, too.

[datfatcat]

Need more banners telling me I won something.

I love winning

Yes there should be some competitions (like photography, essay writing....the list goes on and on)

[pi]

Yes there should be some competitions (like photography, essay writing....the list goes on and on)

Why?

And winners getting what? xD

I wouldn't mind custom titles or something, but I also wouldn't like people "wasting" their time doing random stuff when they could be doing more productive things either

[JellyDonut]

I changed your custom title, I hope that's an acceptable alternative

I would have also accepted charlie sheen of an or #winning. But that's cool

[ninwa]

Yes there should be some competitions (like photography, essay writing....the list goes on and on)

Essay writing and similar more academically inclined competitions actually sounds really good! I'll keep it in mind for future when we can afford to give out prizes

[datfatcat]

Why?

And winners getting what? xD

I wouldn't mind custom titles or something, but I also wouldn't like people "wasting" their time doing random stuff when they could be doing more productive things either

I want to have a custom title one day

[Alwin]

== warning massive post ==

So I'll put this here first, my proposal thingo

Okay, so I actually had a bit of time on my hands so I decided to play around with colours and placement of the home page - as well as spamming laser with my questions (thanks laser!)

I've only had limited experience with web design shamelss advertising :P but I came up with a couple of suggestions:

1. How about just the one navigation bar with all the links there, rather than 2 separate ones. From the menu bar there would be drop down links etc etc like the current design. Also, I found in the source code/site resources there was an unused icon, so I just used it as an icon for the chat link btw, I played around with the colours so it looks a bit 3D-ish, not much practical use but I got bored


2. Child board drop down links, as suggested by laser. There are a number of ways this can be done, but personally I like the transpancy/opacity thingy since it looks the nicest. I would also suggest to the admins or natmods, maybe split up grouped boards like the Mathematics/Science/Technology one into separate ones: Mathematics || Science || Technology || English Studies || etc etc
It would also make dropdown links (if you choose to use them) shorter & better


3. General layout, I moved around with and shortened a bit. Rather than the one column, I spit it in two preserving all the major details of Title, Mods, Last Post but not the number of posts and topics. Maybe if everyone agrees with Laser's idea of getting rid of the "last post" then it should go, but imho I think it should stay coz its fun to browse them as a form of procrastination HAHA.
Also, I put the "info centre" and "stats" at the top, because when I talk to friends who don't use AN much, they always say how they don't know how to get back to their topic / post. After a while, I guess, they'll get used to the site, but it'd be nice if there was a link on the homepage every user's most visited/viewed
Also, with the expansion + collapse, I don't really like how the page has to refresh each time I press it.. just a personal view


Also:
I really like the idea of tagging with the opt-out, I wouldn't be abused and could be useful. Maybe stop the pms I get sometimes, where people ask me a question, wait a bit for a reply then when i doesn't come they post it on the boards. SORRY IF YOU'RE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE, I'm just a slow replier

With the prize things for competitions, how about a 5% or 10% on AN study guides which can be transferred to friends / family eg a single special use code. I always see 10% discounts for AN guides when they're just printed, so it would be a pretty good prize without much loss for the AN company!

Hope you liked.. some of my ideas   +thanks for bothering to read this HAHA

[ninwa]

Oh my god, I love this drop down idea!!!

How would it work for a mobile site though?

[Alwin]

Oh my god, I love this drop down idea!!!

How would it work for a mobile site though?

very badly

I don't have any experience with making mobile sites, so you might have to ask someone else

[Kuroyuki]

Oh my god, I love this drop down idea!!!

How would it work for a mobile site though?

What about having like a + or - button at the left hand side of each bar.  Then when you click it it drop downs the links?  It's been done effectively on other mobile forums.