Vertical vs. Horizontal

[Pete]

A member asked if I could change the format of the Forum so that we use the "phpBB" format of havening the poster name and most controls on the left side.

I tried it, briefly, and determined that there was too much wasted space.

However, he's right that it does look more "familiar" and I could probably allow taller avatars.

Soooo, let's poll to see what the masses think:

* Vertical: phpBB sample image (http://www.saxontheweb.net/images/phpbb.jpg)
* Horizontal: vBulletin sample image (http://www.saxontheweb.net/images/vbulletin.jpg)

(EDIT: checked and it's an either/or thing :))

[cmhbob]

Is this something you can tweak without having to buy a skin?

I posted earlier about the Aria skin in another thread. Money is tight, but I'd be willing to split the cost with someone on that skin, if you like it and having it would help in any way.

[Pete]

Unfortunately, according to what I've read, no.

The Horizontal vs. Vertical can be set up ONLY one way or another, as of this point. Reference: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=130725

It's possible that vBulletin 3.1 will have this feature or somebody has sufficiently tweaked vBulletin to make this work, but the problem with tweaks is that they have to be reinstalled when we upgrade to a new version of vBulletin. I want to make life easier for me, not harder :).

[Pete]

Mmmm. "saxpics shouldn't be allowed to do polls" is now in the lead. I hope y'all know I can find out who voted that way!

[Vortex]

I like it the new way. Seems more efficient and a bit easier on the eyes.

[kcp]

One more "saxpics shouldn't be allowed to do polls" Woohoo!! :toothy7:

Seriously, when I was browsing the forum earlyer today, one page refreshed with the vertical display...probably while you were doing some test. Anyway I thought it was neat looking. And of course, you know that I'm gonna vote for whatever will allow larger avatars :)

[Morry]

I like it just the way it is. Seems like an efficient use of mouse clicks to navigate.

[Pete]

One more "saxpics shouldn't be allowed to do polls" Woohoo!! :toothy7:

Seriously, when I was browsing the forum earlyer today, one page refreshed with the vertical display...probably while you were doing some test. Anyway I thought it was neat looking. And of course, you know that I'm gonna vote for whatever will allow larger avatars :)
Yeah. I tested it for a couple of minutes. The extra space was very apparent to me. Might just be the background. Dunno.

You see, the idea behind the current avatar size is that you don't want it really taller than the purplish box that has your username, etc. in it because if the avatar is WAY tall, that purplish box gets way tall and thus you have lotsa dead space.

Now, if you use the "phpBB sytle" for posting, your avatar and other user utilities can be in a box so tall, you have lots of wasted space in your post -- see http://www.vbulletintemplates.com/mods/showthread.php?t=7616.

Finally, if the avatars are way too tall and the person viewing the forum's got a small monitor, he's going to turn off the graphics in his User CP, so he won't see ANY of Kim's artwork.

BTB, one of the good things about having avatars offsite is that if someone's got an annoying avatar, you can block all images from that website if you use Mozilla, Netscape or Firefox.

Anyhow, please forgive. I'm attempting to convince people to keep vBulletin style. Defeating the idea of doing poll. I'll go to my room, now.

[kcp]

Either I'm not sure that we're talking about the same thing here or that I am not understanding everything correctly... a few posts further above you provide a link to an example of what the vertical display looks like - Well what I saw today it didn't look like that.

The display was horizontal except that the box where people's user name is, was vertical on the left side of the main text area. Anyway I saw that for like 2 seconds so maybe I hallucinated that :drunken: - I don't wanna drive you nuts either, you already worked hard enough on the forum.

[Pete]

You're not nuts -- I didn't post a picture of what I did, I just posted a picture of a phpBB post. I just wanted to make it easy on folks and say "phpBB style" vs "vBulletin style" because that's how THEY think of it ...

[kcp]

Okay... now I'm really confused. But it's okay. I think I'm gonna read-over again everything here and find what it is that I must have missunderstood.

[Bill Mecca]

I like it the way it is, horizontal... hate all that wasted space in the post area.

and I'm undecided if saxpics should be allowed to poll. :confused:

[Merlin]

I like it the way it is right now.

By the time the poll's finished, everyone will be used to it.

[jazzbluescat]

I say go with vBull because it looks OK and the other wastes space.


[BTW, where's the 'Saxpics shouldn't be allowed to get near women?' :D ]

[Pete]

[BTW, where's the 'Saxpics shouldn't be allowed to get near women?' :D ]
My wife might have a problem with that quote. Remember: she happens to TEACH karate.

[Pete]

Well, it's 67% like the vBulletin style and 17% like the old style, out of 34 voters (the remaining percentage voting that I shouldn't be allowed to do polls. Too bad. I'm still a-gonna do 'em :tongue1: )

I'd call that fairly definitive, but I'll definitely leave the poll here. If there's a drastic shift in the future, we'll change the format. If it gets close, I might change it for a day or to to see how y'all feel.

[saxmanglen]

As I continue to get used to the new format, I think it's good. Keep it as is. In six weeks we'll all forget about the old thingy, Ph..................what?