ZA Furries

Discussion thread for http://forum.zafur.co.za/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2337

Please post ideas here, and criticism of ideas. Or, if you feel that no changes are needed, please state this.

Hey Auric, just as sites and stability go, the current site does weird things but only when I'm browsing on my S4. The font sizes change depending on how much is typed ( the length of the comment ) it's pretty fun cause I've never seen any other site do that. Anyone else noticed it?

i like the topics and i think its a great idea for others, i personally wouldnt join it, not because i dont like it, i think its great, but as long as its focused on RSA furries..meh

If its worth anything, i think the artwork gallery is a huge topic that needs a lot of improving, if it includes music (even though music isnt looked at in an artistic form anymore ) it would be pawsome as well, but thats what i think *bucks shoulders*

Yeah mobile support seems very lacking, these are screenshots from my HTC One using FireFox:

What do you mean by mobile support? I've browsed the forum on my phone (using Opera Mini) and I don't recall running into any features that don't work. I'm able to zoom in to read, although it doesn't resize the page automatically. I'm not sure why you've got all those different font sizes though. I'd be more worried about getting the features working than aesthetics.

Rakuen Growlithe wrote:What do you mean by mobile support? I've browsed the forum on my phone (using Opera Mini) and I don't recall running into any features that don't work. I'm able to zoom in to read, although it doesn't resize the page automatically. I'm not sure why you've got all those different font sizes though. I'd be more worried about getting the features working than aesthetics.

Why bother with CSS at all, let's just all stick to HTML.

A responsive design would be nice, I guess.

I am unhappy about the websites friend and foe system. (ignore list)
I would suggest a way to block people so they can’t see your posts + topics (and vice versa).
Sort of like Facebook or better

This minimizing of peoples comments is not doing it for me.

Splicer-Fox wrote:I am unhappy about the websites friend and foe system. (ignore list)
I would suggest a way to block people so they can’t see your posts + topics (and vice versa).
Sort of like Facebook or better

This minimizing of peoples comments is not doing it for me.

Not sure that would work in a forum. It works fine for Facebook because you Facebook is your Facebook. The entire point of a forum is that it is for public discussion. Even if you have a problem with a certain not everyone else does. Others might appreciate their posts on topic (even if it's a reply to you that you can't see). And, if topics were hidden, we'd have a rather cumbersome situation of five or six different posts all asking who is on Steam because some people wouldn't see the topic that someone else posted and vice versa.

Haha.. May sound silly.. But A LIKE button could work.. :3

What about automatic scaling of images that cause the page to be wider than the screen? For example this page causes problems on my 1024x1280 screen (crappy old 3:4, I know).

Leeward wrote:What about automatic scaling of images that cause the page to be wider than the screen? For example this page causes problems on my 1024x1280 screen (crappy old 3:4, I know).

That's actually a problem due to how Valerion added the image. If they are uploaded to the forum instead of just linked then they are automatically resized.

I don't mean as in resize the image file itself, simply resample it in the page source. For example: If I'm not mistaken it should preserve the aspect ratio if you only specify one dimension.

If you upload to the forum it creates a thumbnail which I think is only 400 pixels on the longest side. So if you see MontgomerySeven's post here: http://forum.zafur.co.za/viewtopic.php?p=39539#p39539 The thumbnail is 158x400 but if you click on it, it opens an 815X2069 image.

If an image is added to a post by linking off site then there isn't a thumbnail and it can start messing with the forum width. I went looking in the forum settings but I can't see a simple way to have the forum alter linked images. For now, it's best to upload the image to the forum rather than linking to it.

Sounds to me like it's a valid redesign idea then
For the future of course, it's not a major issue right now.

I have another minor change idea: page icon? See here the distinct lack of icon as opposed to the other websites: It could be some sort of simplified version of the site's paw logo?

I agree. That blank page up there is so lacklustre. :/

From comments made by admins on other forums, I assume this is probably more trouble than it's worth, but if it isn't, it would be quite nice to have strikethrough and spoiler tags.

Leeward wrote:I have another minor change idea: page icon? See here the distinct lack of icon as opposed to the other websites:

It could be some sort of simplified version of the site's paw logo?

I agree it would be nice to have a picture for the site. The current logo, as is, shrunken down to size would probably be good enough.

A workaround solution to spoiler tags: is to set the colour of the words to black within the full editor.

FaanVolla wrote:A workaround solution to spoiler tags: is to set the colour of the words to black within the full editor.

Background colour text is the usual way spoilers are hidden anyway, if not collapsed.

Okay I have another idea because I noticed a tiny detail that doesn't bother anyone else again. It occurred to me that the smiley faces are meant for a white background, so on a black background one can notice that they're a bit "dirty" with white pixels around the edges. I'd be willing to clean them, unless nobody is really bothered by it.

Or as an alternative, why don't we make/get furry-themed smileys? That would be cool.

Maybe a live chat bar? Something like those you find on some anime-related websites.

RoySnow wrote:Maybe a live chat bar? Something like those you find on some anime-related websites.

I agree with this wholeheartedly.

I think it would be great if the contact section of a user's profile included more sites, or ideally, if you could add your own.
Some popular sites that should probably be listed:
Steam
Skype
Facebook
Twitter
Deviantart
FurAffinity
SoFurry
Inkbunny
Weasly

IRC username would also be nice, seeing as we have an official channel.

Also, a minor nitpick: When someone sets their orientation as "bi-mostly straight", there is a lack of capitalisation.

MontgomerySeven wrote:

RoySnow wrote:Maybe a live chat bar? Something like those you find on some anime-related websites.

I agree with this wholeheartedly.

A built-in IM on Zafur would basically mean that the rest of the site would be neglected.

Another suggestion would be full unicode support. Whenever I try using the furry emoticons in the unicode database, the site comes back with an error report.

CourteousCastellan wrote:Another suggestion would be full unicode support. Whenever I try using the furry emoticons in the unicode database, the site comes back with an error report.

ZAFur doesn't even have a favicon yet, the simpliest of changes... I don't think unicode support would ever happen at this rate.

Is there any way we could increase the image upload size limit from 1MB to 2MB? Or even just 1,5MB?
Every time I have to re-size a 1,08MB picture for the forum I die a little bit inside.

Contrast wrote:Is there any way we could increase the image upload size limit from 1MB to 2MB? Or even just 1,5MB?
Every time I have to re-size a 1,08MB picture for the forum I die a little bit inside.

I have run into that problem so many times. At this point, I just link photos from Photobucket.

Contrast wrote:Is there any way we could increase the image upload size limit from 1MB to 2MB? Or even just 1,5MB?
Every time I have to re-size a 1,08MB picture for the forum I die a little bit inside.

I have changed that setting.