InformAction Forums

Why do the Smilies appear to be slightly oval (as if tamped at the head).A new forum with a totally different look eh? Does Registration remove the need for CAPTCHA?

nagan wrote:Why do the Smilies appear to be slightly oval (as if tamped at the head).A new forum with a totally different look eh? Does Registration remove the need for CAPTCHA?

Totally different, I wouldn't say so.
Most stuff is at the same place and works the same.
Yes, registration removes the need for CAPTCHA.

Yes, phpBB3 smilies are really ugly !

Same place?

Thread is on the left, member info on the right. That's opposite .

nagan wrote:Why do the Smilies appear to be slightly oval (as if tamped at the head).

TheFreeDictionary wrote: point·y-head (point-hd)
n. Slang
An intellectual.
pointy-headed ad

What's that?

I guess if it were really that critical to you, you could import your own. However, when I try this, I get error message,
"It was not possible to determine the dimensions of the image." I've tried adding [img width=xx height=xx etc., but maybe I have the syntax wrong. Any help on how to do this?

therube wrote:Same place?

Thread is on the left, member info on the right. That's opposite .

Giorgio is catering to Arab, Hebrew, and Persian speakers. You got a problem with that?

therube wrote:Thread is on the left, member info on the right. That's opposite .

Yes, it's not common, but I prefer it this way on a tech forum, not that I had anything to say about it. Actually I prefer it this way on any forum that is focused on information rather than personality. This isn't a social networking site.

Personal information on the left, including avatars, is distracting. The only thing I always want to know right away is the author and time of a posting, and that information is already right there on the left side. Contact and personal details are neatly tucked away on the right, where they can easily be ignored but are available when wanted.

One of the first things I do after I register for a forum is disable viewing signatures and avatars in the board display options. Sigs interrupt the flow of information too much, and avatars on the left are too distracting. Since they're on the right in this forum, I'll consider turning them back on.

IMHO.

Alan Baxter wrote:

therube wrote:Thread is on the left, member info on the right. That's opposite .

Personal information on the left, including avatars, is distracting. The only thing I always want to know right away is the author and time of a posting, and that information is already right there on the left side. Contact and personal details are neatly tucked away on the right, where they can easily be ignored but are available when wanted.
Sigs interrupt the flow of information too much, and avatars on the left are too distracting. Since they're on the right in this forum, I'll consider turning them back on. IMHO.

IMHO as well (= agree 100% on all counts). No need to re-enable for moi's sake, like that matters.

Why Weren't You Successful With The Arabs?

BTW, I find the member info on the left more beneficial to me. Far easier for me to pick up the avitar & or name. I seem not to get it from the post itself. Find myself reading a post, then after the fact backing up to see who posted it rather then looking to the right to find the information .

Not reading many web boards - - but belonging to a few usenet boards - - I find that strong presentation preference appears to be a feature of fora in general.
The eye tends to begin on the lhs of a dead tree page, and in a terminal, so it sort of feels natural to have the text lh justified here.
The only thing I can't abide is anything moving on a page where I'm trying to absorb text.
NukeAnythingEnhanced is my friend for those flickering smilies - - which I keep enabled in case I don't understand one's character form in a post.

I'm sad to think that this place isn't a social one to some degree, Alan Baxter. Or maybe you mean this isn't a place where images are predominant?

therube wrote:BTW, I find the member info on the left more beneficial to me. Far easier for me to pick up the avitar & or name.

Of course. Basic information technology. There is a one-to-many relation between member and posts (for most members), i.e. the member information is more significant, and you expect to find it at the beginning, i.e. at the left, just as you expect to find the headline at the top. Anything else is disturbing.

Nan M wrote:The only thing I can't abide is anything moving on a page where I'm trying to absorb text.
NukeAnythingEnhanced is my friend for those flickering smilies - - which I keep enabled in case I don't understand one in a post.

I deal with that by setting the image.animation_mode pref to once. I use the replayanimations extension for the rare occasion when I want to see the animation one more time. Not marked compatible, but it works in Fx 2 and 3. I use MR Tech Toolkit extension to make it compatible. http://replayanimation.mozdev.org/index.html

I'm sad to think that this place isn't a social one to some degree, Alan Baxter. Or maybe you mean this isn't a place where images are predominant?

It's gratifying to see the forum become somewhat social at times, but I'm not talking about images. I have avatars and sigs disabled, so I never see them anyways. I mean this forum is primarily about information, not personalities. In a forum which is predominantly social, then the first thing someone cares about is who the message is from. In that case it makes sense to have the user info on the left, where the eye starts reading.

That said. I understand that many forum users are used to having that info in the left column, and find having it somewhere else jarring. I adapt to wherever it is, but I was pleased to see it on the right side for a change.

therube wrote:Why Weren't You Successful With The Arabs?

LOL !

therube wrote:BTW, I find the member info on the left more beneficial to me. Far easier for me to pick up the avitar & or name. I seem not to get it from the post itself. Find myself reading a post, then after the fact backing up to see who posted it rather then looking to the right to find the information

Lundholm wrote:Of course. Basic information technology. There is a one-to-many relation between member and posts (for most members), i.e. the member information is more significant, and you expect to find it at the beginning, i.e. at the left, just as you expect to find the headline at the top. Anything else is disturbing.

The logical fallacy of argumentum ad hominem suggests that a post should be judged strictly on its merits, not on who posted it, though of course that is useful secondary information. Therefore, therube's process (read the post, then back up to see who read it) is less likely to contaminate our first impressions of the post with the fact that we like member X and don't like member Y.

Nan M. wrote:I'm sad to think that this place isn't a social one to some degree, Alan Baxter. Or maybe you mean this isn't a place where images are predominant?

I can't speak for Alan, but what I got from his message is that this is primarily a tech support site, not one where what matters is how many "friends" you have listed, how many people have signed your guestbook, etc. We're all somewhat intellectual by definition (anyone who graduates from OOB IE is above the norm already), and, I hope, come to respect each other, and perhaps consider each other friends, although differences of opinion are omnipresent. But I think Giorgio kindly donated his bandwidth and server capacity to get better support for NS, in the face of complaints that the single MZ thread was just too long to follow (40-60 pages), rather than to meet new people. But you can be my friend, Nan. xoxo.

So NOW, can anyone help me with my issue in importing smilies, somewhere way up above in this thread? Thanks!

I was composing and editing my post while Alan posted his, which explains the overlap of content.

Nan M wrote:The only thing I can't abide is anything moving on a page where I'm trying to absorb text.

Alan Baxter wrote:I deal with that by setting the image.animation_mode pref to once. I use the replayanimations extension for the rare occasion when I want to see the animation one more time. Not marked compatible, but it works in Fx 2 and 3. I use MR Tech Toolkit extension to make it compatible. http://replayanimation.mozdev.org/index.html

I'm with Nan -- hate to see distracting stuff moving when trying to read. In addition to setting Alan's image.animation_mode pref to none, I also toggle browser.blink_allowed to false. "Much* easier reading.