HTML whizz's and a digital/interactive designer wanted

Dependency on an externally hosted item to be fetched before the page can be rendered.

Banner ads slow the rendering speed and therefore decrease the perceived speed of the site.

Dependency on an externally hosted item to be fetched before the page can be rendered.

Banner ads slow the rendering speed and therefore decrease the perceived speed of the site.

well, no - you would host them, as you would also need them to feature clicktag code so you could monitor number of impressions/clicks etc. if the data size is limited and the banners well implemented it shouldn't affect perceived speed - the banner might load slower than the rest of the page at worst.

anyway, i'm no expert - but a tiny decrease in perceived speed is no reason not to do something. especially if it annoys Hippy.

i'm no expert

Don't do it VB.
I'd much prefer nimhbus donate his body parts to raise funds for the server.

So it's pretty crappy that whilst it's functionally rich the look and feel of this site is at best clunky, and at worst a spaghetti of links which leaves everyone slightly confused as to what they're actually doing.

David, I may be missing something of what you mean by 'look and feel', but I certainly don't find it clunky at all--in fact, it's precisely been the look and feel (as I understand it) that made me like using the site (obviously not content like hippy's posts).

I like the clean, simple, uncluttered look that I think is vastly superior to every forum I've ever seen.

From my perspective, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

(I know that it's fairly predictable that someone would express this opinion, but it's genuinely what I think.)

1) This site uses flow layout rather than fixed, and I would want to keep that.

Oh, so it's really the London Flow-gear and Single-speed Forum? I think we should have been told.

a few banner ads does not make it a commercially driven site - just a sensible one.

i'll just adblock the banners, and then it's pointless

i'll just adblock the banners, and then it's pointless

Well, aren't you the anti-corporate warrior.

NO LOGO dude!

shut up

what happened to us, Gabes? we were brothers in arms, walking up that hill in oxfordshire...

I adblock. I have no problem with it... even though most of the server funds come from adblock.

Anyhow...back to needing a designer please.

We now have 3 HTML people in place, ehren_fried_chicken, BlueQuinn and myself.

So we're looking for a great digital designer.

David, I may be missing something of what you mean by 'look and feel', but I certainly don't find it clunky at all--in fact, it's precisely been the look and feel (as I understand it) that made me like using the site (obviously not content like hippy's posts).

I like the clean, simple, uncluttered look that I think is vastly superior to every forum I've ever seen.

From my perspective, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

(I know that it's fairly predictable that someone would express this opinion, but it's genuinely what I think.)

I don't really settle for "good enough". There is always room for improvement. Whether it be in accessibility, rendering speed, server speed, ease of use.

I loved the social forums bit, to be able to add a feature that allowed people to shape the site as they wanted.

I loathe the header... search is hidden, it should be more visible.

I think when you start a new thread, it should tell you if similar threads exist, and that should be integrated so well that it's not a hack... it's just natural.

I think that whilst the post area is minimalist and nice, that other areas are busy and cluttered... you should be able to choose whether you want the clutter, but default should be minimalist and nice.

The site may be the most usable large forum I know, but that doesn't mean it's the best. The stats may be impressive, but it doesn't mean that there aren't rough edges and details that can't be smoothed out and improved upon.

We all tinker with our bikes, upgrade small things, and get a bit OCD about it, and this is basically the same thing. How to make this site serve us all even better, how to make it even easier to use, how to encourage newbies to search, how to make the content king, how to make it even more effortless for you guys to collaborate on stuff, how to make it more transparent so less bullshit occurs.

I truly think a hell of a lot can be improved, and it can be done in a way that makes the site an even greater pleasure to use. And since I own the site, why not try it?

I figure that I'll set up a second style, we'll work on it in a way that allows people to give us feedback and for you all to see the progress. And the aim will be, to transform the skin of vBulletin into something that really helps improve the forum (and thereby the community) as a whole.

I doubt it will ever be in a state where I think it is good enough. I'm not sure those words exist in my vocab as far as how I approach the things I do. I never stop tinkering and questioning what I've done before.

Not a word about my missing sock. :(

what happened to us, Gabes? we were brothers in arms, walking up that hill in oxfordshire...

Gears would help...
;-/

Thanks, David. Of course I didn't mean that you should stop improving the site! I think it's brilliant the way that you do that, using the 'subtle changes, bugs and feedback' method etc. I was just slightly worried about a wholesale re-design being in the offing--I'm sure you know the kind that I mean.

Good ideas all, by the way. You're right, we don't see people using the search function enough. I like the idea of being able to choose the level of clutter (I'd choose all of it). But even as it is, I just haven't seen another forum that works as well as this one (cough, apart from its dysfunctional denizens ;) ), so well done for all your hard work up to this point!