Total members that have visited the forum in the last 24 hours

[Ronin Storm]

A quick one to help me out in some future development planning...

There is, in the side bar (at the bottom in Amber), a block called "Total members that have visited the forum in the last 24 hours" showing, well, just that.

Do you read it? Regularly? Sufficiently regularly that it'd piss you off it it were "collapsed" by default?

By collapsed I mean the effect that is achieved by clicking the little minimising button in the top right of the block's title bar. You can still expand the block to read the contents, but it'd take up less screen real-estate by default.

Poll away!

[Piacular]

It adds so much colour to the front page! (Well, it does on Blue2 [Scaling] :p).

Plus, its nice to be able to spy on people at a glance... Passive observing if you will ;).

[pHatBambi]

I only use it rarely. So it's fine to have it collapsed.

[Edit]

Scratch that it is useful. Keep it!.

Sorry being an idiot today.

[elDiablo]

Seconded. Same for me!

[Piacular]

Does that mean you've voted incorrectly?

What a numpty :p.

[Ronin Storm]

Does that mean you've voted incorrectly?

In the 2-series templates there is a "Withdraw Vote" option.

[pHatBambi]

I have sorted my vote.

[Macca]

I don't think it's that important tbh. I'll admit it's quite handy if your wanting to see who's active - very useful for the gathering of peoples join dates - however I have to admit that that was the first time I used it, and even then its not the most accurate way to tell if people are active.

I don't see any problem with it, especially if you can maximize it to see it again, and Piacular adding more colour to the front page is a jesse reason :p.

[Piacular]

Pfft, you can live in monochrome land if you want Macca but primary colours stimulate the mind!

Not sure what the says about moderators ;).

[Ronin Storm]

but primary colours stimulate the mind!

If there were Blue2-derivative templates that were more colourful, would you change your vote?

[Piacular]

Erm, no... Why? Are you trying to buy my vote? :p.

Blue2 is nice and calm. All yellow might be a bit garish. Green & red could be okay. How about a crazy collage of each colour that's so horrible it's great? Like Austin Powers Love Bug (http://inroad.kruse.com/images/pics/2000/AUBFALL00/1478.jpg) :D.

Looking at your poll options again, you've got what are essentially 3 nays and 1 yay! How about a "I don't use it often, but it's reassuring to be able to see it there" option, or something to that effect :).

[Gopha]

I often use it to see when someone was last online

[Wraith]

I tend to glance at it when I first log on out of idle curiosity (aka nosiness), but it wouldn't really bother me if it went.

Wraith

[SgtSafety]

Id like it to be kept. Brightens it up but also keeps you informed on whos been on incase your lookin for someones who rarely is on. Its like tracking animals. You see they have been on recently so you hope you can find them :)

[Ronin Storm]

Looking at your poll options again, you've got what are essentially 3 nays and 1 yay!

2 yays, 1 nay, 1 don't care, surely?

Polls are designed to get an answer that is useful to the person asking (I assert). The only answer that concerns me, in the poll, is "don't collapse that block". I offer a just-past-middle ground answer to gauge if people mostly don't care or really don't care, but my hope from the poll was for everyone to say "hey, it's bollox, get rid of it".

Guess I won't get what I hoped for. ;)

That's a useful answer too. Means I need to do some more thinking.

[Ronin Storm]

Thank you for all the feedback so far. Feel free to keep voting but this one's already shown its true colours, so to speak.

I was wondering about reducing the quantity of stuff in the sidebar so that I could slot in, say, a block that displays the last 5 or 10 posts from forums you're subscribed to... or any manner of other content. The consensus appears to be that the block does have use and a good portion of people would be sad to see it hidden away.

May need to come back to this again, but for the meantime I can give it some more thought.

[Piacular]

How's about putting in the recent post list anyway? You could place it above who's been online recently.

I feel the side bar is too empty! With threads that stretch down for a good ol' distance there is a lot of wasted space on ye right edge. How about a poll to see which things you could easily implement on the sidebar people would like?

[Ronin Storm]

I feel the side bar is too empty!

With screen sizes being so varied and that first screen impression being pretty important, I want to try to make sure that as many useful things appear at-a-glance as possible.

How's about putting in the recent post list anyway?

Very likely I will. Just looking at the options.

[Piacular]

With screen sizes being so varied and that first screen impression being pretty important, I want to try to make sure that as many useful things appear at-a-glance as possible.

If we assume the most common resolution is 1024x768 (which I'm using at uni), right now from the top of the page I can just about see the bottom of the Currently Active User list. Those 4 boxes seem to be the most important to appear as a community, so I suppose you wouldn't change them.

My first glance is going to be in the default skin, standard amber. I can't even see the side bar with that, all the info is collected down the bottom of the page.

Currently my THN front-page (Blue2[Scaling]) goes down twice as far as the side bar does, that's oodles of space for fun information.

You sneaky monkey, you've changed the default skin to Amber2 (which shows the sidebar), while I was creating this post! :p

[Fi$hy]

I run at 1280 x 800. I've got plenty of space, perhaps even another bar of info could go in on the left side?

May I also ask, whether that the average voter is making the distinction between the "currently active users" bar and the "users in the past 24h" bar?

[Ronin Storm]

perhaps even another bar of info could go in on the left side?

I don't think we can go there on two accounts.

1024px width is the maximum we're going to be supporting in Fixed templates for the next while and then some. Those at Uni, those at work (naughty monkeys that you are ;) ) and those with lesser computers may well be forced to resolutions of 1024x768 and so that's the maximum we can realistically support for the moment.

The current sidebar is around 180 pixels, leaving 800 pixels for the main content. A loss of a further 180 pixels, leaving 620 pixels for the main content is really too squashed for reading the forum at anything like a sensible font size. Looked at another way, one third of the screen (assuming 1024 width as indicated above) would be sidebars. Too much priority to persistent content, not enough on specific content.

(Sorry, I hope that didn't come across as "that was a dumb idea" as it wasn't, just one I've already considered and discarded!)

distinction between the "currently active users" bar and the "users in the past 24h" bar?

The poll is about the second. Currently active users is a block of very high importance as it indicates that you aren't the only person here. It's a critical community piece and I feel very strongly that it needs to be on the first screen impression at 1024x768.

For testing I use Firefox's cunning web developer extension to force my browser down to the right size as if I were viewing on a 1024x768 screen. Actually, I lie... not just for testing, I usually browse THN in that format.

[BiG D]

Currently active users is a block of very high importance as it indicates that you aren't the only person here.
Unless you're me, who is always around when the forum is empty :( ;)

Worth noting as well that I sometimes have 3 or 4 toolbars + tabs at the top of my firefox window, so my screenspace is less than most. Depending on how many events there are, and how many people are online, I can generally see the whole Currently Active Users panel.

[Ronin Storm]

Currently my THN front-page (Blue2[Scaling]) goes down twice as far as the side bar does, that's oodles of space for fun information.

Mmm, sure, though if you hit a smaller page then the bar overlaps the content by about a million miles. That said, those pages are very much the exception. The full length of the page is driven by the bar that is longest, whichever it may be.

It seems to me that the best position for a "Most Recent Posts" block would be directly beneath "Currently Active Users"... close enough so that you can see it exists without supplanting potentially more important information.

On the Blue2 series I am (in my madder moments) wondering whether there's something we can do about the logo...

[Ronin Storm]

I sometimes have 3 or 4 toolbars + tabs at the top of my firefox window

Absolutely, though because you've chosen a few more toolbars you've done that knowing that it'd be at the expense of page browsing real estate. It's all pretty rough, but what can be pulled up probably should be pulled up.

[Macca]

I think that the problem is people think that it will be taken away for good, might be an idea just to clarify that it will not be taken away and simply minimised, so that anyone can see it if they want, its just a case of an extra click.

I think a "recent post" bar would be much more useful than the "recent member 24 hour" bar thats there presently. I know myself that I used the "recent post" bar a hell of a lot on the old forums and would be useful here too.

[DeZmond]

I think that the problem is people think that it will be taken away for good, might be an idea just to clarify that it will not be taken away and simply minimised, so that anyone can see it if they want, its just a case of an extra click.

I think a "recent post" bar would be much more useful than the "recent member 24 hour" bar thats there presently. I know myself that I used the "recent post" bar a hell of a lot on the old forums and would be useful here too.

Not a bad idea. I know that I use "Current Active Users" more than the total members who have visited the forum in the last 24 hours. An interesting point here is that if the block is removed you can cut down on server bandwidth and page loading times for people on slow connections!

So... yes. Bring back the recent posts block. If there is no such existing vB mod (although I'm certain there is) you could stick in an RSS feed parser and link it to the RSS2 output from these forums. A bit like what I've done with comedy.

[Taffy]

I don't use it very often, but:

My watch goes down to 2000 feet. I'm never going to go down to 2000 feet, but it's ice to know that it's okay if I drop it in the sink

To translate, unless it's hogging huge amounts of bandwidth (which somehow I doubt) then we may as well keep it. It's useful if you wanna check up on people and slap them for not being regular THNers :D

Plus what piacular said, it's colourful :)

[Macca]

Its not really the point of keeping it. It's still going to be there no matter what (just minimised). The debate now is whether a "recent topics" bar - see the bottom left hand corner of the old forums - would be a greater asset than the maximised "active 24 hours user menu".

[pHatBambi]

Can it not be toggled so that it becomes a user preference?

ie. If I set it to minimised it will always be minimised when I join the site using my login.

If you could do that then I wouldn't mind if it was minimised as a default as I could just set it to be expanded and leave it at that.

[Ronin Storm]

Can it not be toggled so that it becomes a user preference?

It does appear to remember the state it was last in, actually. That's rather interesting... probably set in cookies...

Does it remember for you too?

[DeZmond]

It does appear to remember the state it was last in, actually. That's rather interesting... probably set in cookies...

That would be the logical conclusion - the whole point of having the things customisable is that you don't have to look at things that would otherwise fill your screen. If it's in the cookies then it shouldn't be too difficult to tie into a user option. Or indeed, could simply make such a thing redundant.