# Forum now all screwed up?



## Johndoemanny34362 (Jan 7, 2006)

What's with it now? Avatars are missing, the width of the forum is so small i have 60% grey screen on both sides of it, and all the text and posts/advertisements are all crunched up. It looks sloppy and cramped now. What happened?


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## fryke (Jan 8, 2006)

The missing avatars might just be an error that's being worked on, but the "cramped" new look certainly pleases my eyes. (There's another thread about the new look in this forum.) Oh! And my avatar's here, I see... Maybe have to look in your profile. Set it again...?


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## nixgeek (Jan 8, 2006)

If you want to set the user information back to the way it originally was, you have to go into your profile and select the "Legacy view."  I set it to this and I'm much happier.  I hope it doesn't disappear anytime soon.  As for the compressed look, I don't mind it much either.  It was rather annoying to have to go all the way across the screen on my iMac 17" to read the posts.  This makes it much nicer.


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## Johndoemanny34362 (Jan 8, 2006)

Thanks nix. It gets annoying on my 20 inch monitor to have it all so small and the forum navigation put on to two lines.

However, legacy view changes nothing. What else is it?


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## ScottW (Jan 8, 2006)

SuperTyphoon - The vertical vs horizontal layout control the layout of posts. The new default is horizontal, the username, and userinfo are located in a horizontal section above the post, vs on the left side (vertical) beside the post. Going to a horizontal view allows text to go across the full width of the smaller width layout, vs an even smaller width of the vertical post format layout.

While I enjoyed the wide layout more, the smaller width layout is more practical for a majority of the users and is easier to fill the space of a page from a design perspective.

Aside from maintaining two themes, it will not be possible to make all people happy.  Maintaining two themes is a nightmare, but the good news is, when I rebuilt the site back in November, I built the site to support site-wide themes, not just in the forums. While it matters nothing to you now, it may provide a glimpse of hope for the future. 

Scott


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## fryke (Jan 8, 2006)

Automatic width would be the answer. Believe it or not.


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## mdnky (Jan 8, 2006)

Not really...fluid layouts are a royal pain in the behind to sometimes and can be horrible for usability (line lengths in particular).  That's why I generally do nothing but elastic designs (kind of the best of both worlds).

SuperTyphoon:  One option for you is to not maximize your browser.  Remember this is a Mac site and maximizing program windows isn't a very 'Mac thing' to do.  ((Windows even allows you to run IE at less than maximized.))


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## Johndoemanny34362 (Jan 8, 2006)

I use Firefox anyway but of course i know that in Windows! Still making the window smaller, in addition to being annoying, does not it bigger, but just more cramped.


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## nixgeek (Jan 8, 2006)

I have to be honest that I also have my browser show up fullscreen.  If it wasn't so much that Mac thing to do, then GarageBand wouldn't do it either, but I guess it's dependent on the application.  While I still believe that Macs apps don't really need to maximize fully, I usually set it that way if I don't have to copy anything to the desktop.  Besides, if you still have the Dock visible it will only mazimize to the  end of the Dock, which is fine since that leaves you with a little space onthe bottom to drag any files unto.


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## Mikuro (Jan 8, 2006)

fryke said:
			
		

> Automatic width would be the answer. Believe it or not.


Hear hear!

I don't maximize my browser window. I keep it about 1000 pixels wide. Any smaller and normal sites screw up. All I can say is that big gray buffers at the sides are _not cool_. It'd be better if were left-aligned, IMO.


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## kainjow (Jan 8, 2006)

fryke said:
			
		

> Automatic width would be the answer. Believe it or not.


Can't agree more. I think macosx.com is the only forum I visit that has a fixed width. But it looks good now though.


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## Thank The Cheese (Jan 8, 2006)

mdnky said:
			
		

> Not really...fluid layouts are a royal pain in the behind to sometimes and can be horrible for usability



I don't think the W3C would see it that way


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