• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Regarding scrolling and whitespace

Febs

Febs

May 7, 2007
3,979
2,943
Philadelphia, PA
www.jumpcitymusic.com
#1
One of the most frequent complaints I've seen regarding the new forum is that there is too much whitespace, and that, as a result, there is far more scrolling necessary to read a thread than under the old software. I'm not convinced that is actually true.

I'm attaching three screen captures of a thread that I selected at random. The first screen capture is from the old site, captured from web.archive.org. The second screen capture is from the same thread, using the TalkBass Retro theme. The third screen capture is from the same thread, using the the TalkBass 2014 default theme. I did my best to align the top of the screens in the same spot for each capture within the confines of the different layouts.

As it turns out, the old style TB displays the least amount of information for this particular thread. Both themes of the new forum displayed more information than the old TB, and -- surprise -- the TB 2014 theme displayed even more information than the TB Retro theme.

Both themes in the new forum leave a significant amount of whitespace under the post as the result of the avatars and other information being on the left of each post, rather than above the post. But the old forum left a significant amount of whitespace on the left of, and above, each post. At least with this one example that I picked completely at random (my only criterion in selecting it was that it happened to be the first thread I found using web.archive.org), the newer styles are different from the old in the location of the whitespace, but they are not worse in terms of the amount of scrolling necessary to view the thread.

(1) Old style TB

scroll - old TB.PNG


(2) TalkBass Retro theme

scroll - TB Retro.PNG


(3) TalkBass 2014 default theme

scroll - TB 2014.PNG
 
#2
My only "gripe" with this (and a very, very minor one) is the white space at the very top. The logo is enormous and makes that entire top section not flow very well. Also, from an analytics prespective, that's a terrible use of potential revenue generating space, but that's another story. My only suggestion would be to make the TalkBass logo much smaller (half or more). Otherwise, I think the space is used pretty well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: paul
#3
Febs said:
One of the most frequent complaints I've seen regarding the new forum is that there is too much whitespace, and that, as a result, there is far more scrolling necessary to read a thread than under the old software. I'm not convinced that is actually true.

I'm attaching three screen captures of a thread that I selected at random. The first screen capture is from the old site, captured from web.archive.org. The second screen capture is from the same thread, using the TalkBass Retro theme. The third screen capture is from the same thread, using the the TalkBass 2014 default theme. I did my best to align the top of the screens in the same spot for each capture within the confines of the different layouts.

As it turns out, the old style TB displays the least amount of information for this particular thread. Both themes of the new forum displayed more information than the old TB, and -- surprise -- the TB 2014 theme displayed even more information than the TB Retro theme.

Both themes in the new forum leave a significant amount of whitespace under the post as the result of the avatars and other information being on the left of each post, rather than above the post. But the old forum left a significant amount of whitespace on the left of, and above, each post. At least with this one example that I picked completely at random (my only criterion in selecting it was that it happened to be the first thread I found using web.archive.org), the newer styles are different from the old in the location of the whitespace, but they are not worse in terms of the amount of scrolling necessary to view the thread.

(1) Old style TB

View attachment 410454

(2) TalkBass Retro theme

View attachment 410453

(3) TalkBass 2014 default theme

View attachment 410452
Click to expand...


Thanks for the comparison! :)
 
#4
Selta said:
My only "gripe" with this (and a very, very minor one) is the white space at the very top. The logo is enormous and makes that entire top section not flow very well. Also, from an analytics prespective, that's a terrible use of potential revenue generating space, but that's another story. My only suggestion would be to make the TalkBass logo much smaller (half or more). Otherwise, I think the space is used pretty well.
Click to expand...

Good suggestion, I'll look into this and also need to make a high-res version of the logo for retina displays.
 
#5
Cool! Like I said, it's a minor gripe and easy enough to scroll past. But, if I can get away with less scrolling to get to content, all the better :D Otherwise, I think this is great, especially now that I can get back on at work >.> As always, if I can do anything to help, just let me know (I'm pretty sure you know how to reach me :P) Thanks, Paul!
 
#6
If you look a the relative size of the post from jastacey (a one-liner) in new and old formats, you should see the issue that people are complaining about.

The box at the left that contains the users avatar and stats puts a limit on how small (vertically) the post will go.

Not bothering me too much but from what I've read from others, that looks like the complaint to me.
 
#8
BigBeatNut said:
If you look a the relative size of the post from jastacey (a one-liner) in new and old formats, you should see the issue that people are complaining about.

The box at the left that contains the users avatar and stats puts a limit on how small (vertically) the post will go.

Not bothering me too much but from what I've read from others, that looks like the complaint to me.
Click to expand...

Understood. I'm not disputing that there is more whitespace under shorter posts in the new styles. However, look at the first post in each of my examples, from Tim1. The actual text of post itself is approximately the same size in each example, but the old site put a header on each post that took a significant amount of space, even for users with no avatar, and that header took even more space for users with avatars. Moreover, although it's now shown in my example, the old site put signatures underneath each post; the new site puts signatures within available white space. The new site also shortens long quotes, which the old system did not do. Finally, as you yourself noted in another thread, the "like" system eliminates the need to quote an entire post just to add a "+1." So while there are undoubtedly some threads where there was less scrolling on the old site (i.e., threads with many short posts from users with no avatar and no signature), I'm not convinced that on the whole, there is more scrolling on the new site.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back