Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

See room for improvement? Tell us about it! And if you encounter a problem with the board, please let us know.
User avatar
Valerion
Alpha Wolf
Posts: 2803
Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2008 8:50 pm
Gender: Male
Sexual preference: Gay
Species: Werewolf
Region: Gauteng
Location: ::1
Contact:

Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#1

Post by Valerion »

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.
User avatar
Helios_phi
The depraved
Posts: 2247
Joined: Thu May 23, 2013 9:00 pm
Gender: Male

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#2

Post by Helios_phi »

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?
[REDACTED]
User avatar
Sunny Fox
Posts: 387
Joined: Fri Nov 09, 2012 9:50 pm
Gender: Male
Sexual preference: Gay
Species: Silver Fox
Region: Gauteng
Location: Fourways
Contact:

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#3

Post by Sunny Fox »

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*
Yes it is true ^^, i was passed through this odd configuration of a human and for many years have pondered..believed that i am a therion, but i lurk in this furry fandom for it is a good way to stay close to my fox corporeal *giggles* so my "sojourn" is an aeon ^,..,^

Furaffinity
Furrbook
Steam
Dota2
Skype Ask me ^^,
Whatsapp: ask me ^^,
User avatar
Fluke
Tyrant's Eye
Posts: 1564
Joined: Mon Sep 20, 2010 12:47 am
Region: Other

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#4

Post by Fluke »

Yeah mobile support seems very lacking, these are screenshots from my HTC One using FireFox:
Screenshot_2014-01-22-19-39-23.png
Screenshot_2014-01-22-19-40-14.png
User avatar
Rakuen Growlithe
Fire Puppy
Posts: 6718
Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2008 2:24 pm
Gender: Male
Sexual preference: Bi
Species: Growlithe (pokemon)
Region: Other
Location: Pretoria
Contact:

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#5

Post by Rakuen Growlithe »

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.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”
~John Milton~
User avatar
Fluke
Tyrant's Eye
Posts: 1564
Joined: Mon Sep 20, 2010 12:47 am
Region: Other

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#6

Post by Fluke »

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.
Flaxney
Posts: 842
Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2011 1:22 pm

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#7

Post by Flaxney »

A responsive design would be nice, I guess.
User avatar
Splicer-Fox
Posts: 1956
Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2010 12:38 pm
Gender: Male
Sexual preference: Bi
Species: Fox fennec springbok thing
Region: Gauteng
Location: Thailand
Contact:

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#8

Post by Splicer-Fox »

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.
User avatar
Rakuen Growlithe
Fire Puppy
Posts: 6718
Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2008 2:24 pm
Gender: Male
Sexual preference: Bi
Species: Growlithe (pokemon)
Region: Other
Location: Pretoria
Contact:

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#9

Post by Rakuen Growlithe »

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.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”
~John Milton~
User avatar
FurnixWolf
Posts: 104
Joined: Thu Feb 06, 2014 12:26 am
Gender: Male
Sexual preference: Gay
Species: a Thibrid Wolf, Dragon, Husky
Region: Limpopo and Mpumalanga
Location: Naboomspruit
Contact:

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#10

Post by FurnixWolf »

Haha.. May sound silly.. But A LIKE button could work.. :3
Offers a hug and cookies.. Giggles..

MY WEBSITE LINK : FURNIXWOLF
MY FACEBOOK LINK : FURRBOOK
MY FUR AFFINITY LINK : FUR AFFINITY
I do have telegram
Twitter : @FURNIXWOLF
ORIGIN : FURNIXWOLF
STEAM : FURNIXWOLF[/color]
Leeward
Recalcitrant Ruminant
Posts: 7036
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:23 pm

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#11

Post by Leeward »

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).
User avatar
Rakuen Growlithe
Fire Puppy
Posts: 6718
Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2008 2:24 pm
Gender: Male
Sexual preference: Bi
Species: Growlithe (pokemon)
Region: Other
Location: Pretoria
Contact:

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#12

Post by Rakuen Growlithe »

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.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”
~John Milton~
Leeward
Recalcitrant Ruminant
Posts: 7036
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:23 pm

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#13

Post by Leeward »

I don't mean as in resize the image file itself, simply resample it in the page source. For example:

Code: Select all

<img src="path" width="(maximum post width)">
If I'm not mistaken it should preserve the aspect ratio if you only specify one dimension.
User avatar
Rakuen Growlithe
Fire Puppy
Posts: 6718
Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2008 2:24 pm
Gender: Male
Sexual preference: Bi
Species: Growlithe (pokemon)
Region: Other
Location: Pretoria
Contact:

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#14

Post by Rakuen Growlithe »

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.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”
~John Milton~
Leeward
Recalcitrant Ruminant
Posts: 7036
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:23 pm

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#15

Post by Leeward »

Sounds to me like it's a valid redesign idea then :D
For the future of course, it's not a major issue right now.
Leeward
Recalcitrant Ruminant
Posts: 7036
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:23 pm

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#16

Post by Leeward »

I have another minor change idea: page icon? See here the distinct lack of icon as opposed to the other websites:
Screengrab of tabs and nav bar of Chrome
Screengrab of tabs and nav bar of Chrome
It could be some sort of simplified version of the site's paw logo?
User avatar
Contrast
Necrotic Neurotic
Posts: 4696
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2012 8:06 am
Gender: Male
Sexual preference: Straight
Species: Necrobat
Contact:

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#17

Post by Contrast »

I agree. That blank page up there is so lacklustre. :/
Read my novel on: SoFurry | Fur Affinity | Deviant Art
CourteousCastellan
Posts: 198
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2014 6:12 pm
Gender: Male
Region: Gauteng

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#18

Post by CourteousCastellan »

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.
User avatar
Faanvolla
Plaas Brak
Posts: 1961
Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:55 am
Gender: Male
Sexual preference: Gay
Species: Dog (Vampire)
Region: Western Cape
Location: Stellenbosch
Contact:

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#19

Post by Faanvolla »

A workaround solution to spoiler tags: is to set the colour of the words to black within the full editor.
Seize the day, not your bearings.
Steam, Rockstar SocialClub, Uplay, Battlenet: Faanvolla#2539, Telegram: @Faanvolla
Switch Code: SW-0054-4917-1029
DeviantArt,Furaffinity,SoFurry, Weasyl, FurryNetwork
ProfilePic by hanimetion
Leeward
Recalcitrant Ruminant
Posts: 7036
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:23 pm

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#20

Post by Leeward »

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.
Leeward
Recalcitrant Ruminant
Posts: 7036
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:23 pm

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#21

Post by Leeward »

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.
User avatar
RoySnow
Posts: 25
Joined: Thu Sep 19, 2013 2:36 am
Gender: Male
Sexual preference: bi-mostly straight
Species: Cervine
Region: Northwest and North Cape
Location: Moonbase/ Potchefstroom/ Vereeniging

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#22

Post by RoySnow »

Maybe a live chat bar? Something like those you find on some anime-related websites.
Hoe ouer hoe kouer.
User avatar
Sev
Superbike Snow Leopard
Posts: 6596
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2014 9:27 pm
Gender: Male
Sexual preference: Gay
Species: Snow Leopard
Region: Western Cape
Location: A Twisty Road

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#23

Post by Sev »

RoySnow wrote:Maybe a live chat bar? Something like those you find on some anime-related websites.
I agree with this wholeheartedly.
CourteousCastellan
Posts: 198
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2014 6:12 pm
Gender: Male
Region: Gauteng

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#24

Post by CourteousCastellan »

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.
User avatar
Fluke
Tyrant's Eye
Posts: 1564
Joined: Mon Sep 20, 2010 12:47 am
Region: Other

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#25

Post by Fluke »

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.
CourteousCastellan
Posts: 198
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2014 6:12 pm
Gender: Male
Region: Gauteng

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#26

Post by CourteousCastellan »

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.
User avatar
Fluke
Tyrant's Eye
Posts: 1564
Joined: Mon Sep 20, 2010 12:47 am
Region: Other

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#27

Post by Fluke »

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.
User avatar
Contrast
Necrotic Neurotic
Posts: 4696
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2012 8:06 am
Gender: Male
Sexual preference: Straight
Species: Necrobat
Contact:

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#28

Post by Contrast »

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.
Read my novel on: SoFurry | Fur Affinity | Deviant Art
User avatar
Sev
Superbike Snow Leopard
Posts: 6596
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2014 9:27 pm
Gender: Male
Sexual preference: Gay
Species: Snow Leopard
Region: Western Cape
Location: A Twisty Road

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#29

Post by Sev »

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.
User avatar
Valerion
Alpha Wolf
Posts: 2803
Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2008 8:50 pm
Gender: Male
Sexual preference: Gay
Species: Werewolf
Region: Gauteng
Location: ::1
Contact:

Re: Ideas for ZAFur website redesign

#30

Post by Valerion »

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.
Post Reply