Two Forum Questions/Suggestions

[sfarson]

- For just about every vBulletin site in existence one can <mouse over> a thread subject and read the first few sentences as a preview. It is a great feature. Helps give one a sense whether or not the subject is worth clicking or not. With so many vague subject headings it helps speed the site up by not clicking then waiting for the thread to load... and then regret doing so. Curious why this nice feature is turned off while it works so well at all the other vBulletin based motorcycle sites.

- Another unique configuration here... no image posting. Usage of the [img] tags are disabled? Rarely do I see this abused with NWS or huge images. With the vast majority having broadband, seeing images helps take the site beyond a text (zzzz) only place. Curious why this also is a unique config when it isn't at any other motorcycle community I know of.

Nice community here. A couple of config changes could enhance it if not bring it up to the capabilities/features found at other motorcycling forums.

[abtech]

I think inline images kill the threads and look like crap whenever I see them. It takes 5 PgDns to get past the inline images and signatures on half the sites I see.

[luvtolean]

Originally Posted by sfarson

-- Another unique configuration here... no image posting. Usage of the [img] tags are disabled? Rarely do I see this abused with NWS or huge images. With the vast majority having broadband, seeing images helps take the site beyond a text (zzzz) only place. Curious why this also is a unique config when it isn't at any other motorcycle community I know of.

To say I hate images in sigs is an understatement. Makes every thread look like a damned pop up got past my filters. It's enough to stop me browing other forums.

Welcome to the site though, hope to see you post more ideas in other threads, whether we agree or not.

[ND4SPD]

Originally Posted by sfarson

- For just about every vBulletin site in existence one can <mouse over> a thread subject and read the first few sentences as a preview. It is a great feature. Helps give one a sense whether or not the subject is worth clicking or not. With so many vague subject headings it helps speed the site up by not clicking then waiting for the thread to load... and then regret doing so. Curious why this nice feature is turned off while it works so well at all the other vBulletin based motorcycle sites.

- Another unique configuration here... no image posting. Usage of the [img] tags are disabled? Rarely do I see this abused with NWS or huge images. With the vast majority having broadband, seeing images helps take the site beyond a text (zzzz) only place. Curious why this also is a unique config when it isn't at any other motorcycle community I know of.

Nice community here. A couple of config changes could enhance it if not bring it up to the capabilities/features found at other motorcycling forums.

Great questions/suggestions.

- I've generally found this feature to be beyond annoying and also noticed it to be a performance hit on the server. I'm certainly not opposed to enabling it and letting the community decide whether it's a good option to have or not.

- Inline images are a double edged sword. If done right it can add a lot to the appearance of the page - can't say I've seen too many examples of this. Unfortunately on the other side of things, it's a huge pain. While a majority of people do have access to broadband we get a decent amount of dial-up users still, not to mention the gaining popularity of cell phone browsers. There is also the discrepancy in screen resolution between all of our visitors and potential visitors. If someone inserts a 1280x1024 image it throws the whole screen out of whack and looks terrible. There are a lot of people with a screen resolution of only 1024x768 still, even some 800x600. There is no way that 1280x1024 image will fit on their screen, letalone the rest of the post that the image was inserted into. So while it eliminates the need to click on attached images/thumbnails it turns the viewing experience into a scrolling marathon for a large majority of users.

vB does have a new image viewing capability called Lightbox but there are some bugs with this feature for Firefox users. We do not have this enabled since over 30% of our visitors use this browser. Once the issue is rectified we will turn this on to further enhance the site.

I hope this addresses your concerns, feel free to ask any further questions.

Thanks!

[ConqSoft]

Sounds familiar....

[luvtolean]

Originally Posted by ConqSoft

Sounds familiar....

Well, you did spoil us too.

[CBR929RE]

I HATE both of those features. I can't remember if it was this site or fbo where it was discussed and the majority of users didn't want either because they are just huge annoyances.

it drives me up a fucking wall see a tagged image in everyone's signature.

[ND4SPD]

He's not talking about signature images like our sponsors have(look at abtech's sig). He's talking about inserting full size images into posts.

[SheepOfBlue]

We already have an article preview feature all threads with sheepofblue in them are good threads sfarson. Oh and welcome

[CBR929RE]

Originally Posted by ND4SPD

He's not talking about signature images like our sponsors have(look at abtech's sig). He's talking about inserting full size images into posts.

yeah but don't some people also add in images that way in their sigs on other sites?

[SomeStrangeGuy]

Inline images would be ok if limited to a certain diminutive size, but thumbnail is fine with me.

Signatures, not sure where they were mentioned or if this is just burbling to the top - but I think they should be line and character limited, with no images allowed.

Thread mouseover - this is a feature I actually don't mind, and find myself using it on other forums. The trick should be to build a 200msec delay in it or something so it doesen't constantly popup on a scrollover.

[sfarson]

Yeah, I'm not talking about sigs... just the ability to place a small inline image, like a pic of a race bike, or a road. And the <mouseover> subject text capability is a very usable and helpful feature.

[ND4SPD]

Originally Posted by CBR929RE

yeah but don't some people also add in images that way in their sigs on other sites?

Yes and as long as I have anything to say about it that will never happen here.

[ND4SPD]

I enabled the thread preview feature for the time being. We'll see what everyone says after some time behind the wheel.

[sfarson]

Thanks for the thread preview feature. Very handy and can minimize needless click on threads.

Steve

[bwhip]

Originally Posted by sfarson

Thanks for the thread preview feature. Very handy and can minimize needless click on threads.

Steve

- just be careful with spoiler threads....

[slickwill]

I find myself doing more and more PDA browsing and definitely appreciate the no IMG's.

I'm 50/50 on the preview feature. Don't really care either way but haven't had a chance to test it with my PDA. If it slows things down then I'm voting no.

[RedRider]

The thread preview isn't a bad feature to have. I can live with or without it...

[abtech]

It's vBulletin's version of ToolTips. Get rid of it.

[OSIRIS]

I like the thread mouse-over

[CBR929RE]

Originally Posted by abtech

It's vBulletin's version of ToolTips. Get rid of it.

was that the shit with the little annoying as hell paperclip?

[abtech]

Originally Posted by CBR929RE

was that the shit with the little annoying as hell paperclip?

Similar, but the Visual C++ library has a "mouse over" tool tips function that provides for a balloon with a couple of lines of text when you hover over an engaged region. Several programs (BackupExec comes to mind) would drive you nuts when moving from item to item with the annoying balloons that covered the information you needed to read. I turn it off as soon as I see it.

[CBR929RE]

Originally Posted by abtech

Similar, but the Visual C++ library has a "mouse over" tool tips function that provides for a balloon with a couple of lines of text when you hover over an engaged region. Several programs (BackupExec comes to mind) would drive you nuts when moving from item to item with the annoying balloons that covered the information you needed to read. I turn it off as soon as I see it.

macs used to have something similar to that. I think it was just called balloons. hated those things.

[NorthernRR]

Thanks for the mouse over, I like that.

[RedRider]

Can't you make the thread preview (mouse over) user selectable through the CP?

[ND4SPD]

I haven't figured out how to do it yet. It's not a standard option.