Re: Simplify the post area
Reply #10 –
ehm... actually what I posted fits better a 1028x768 than what we currently have, but heh.
And Spuds said he likes what I posted.
I like to learn from smart people that have successful products, so the attached is WordPress posting interface at 1024x768: not one, but two side bars! And still you need to scroll just a little bit to add tags. Of course adding new categories would push further down the tags screen, but then you can collapse anything and have everything on one page. And when you resize to 800 or less some parts are moved below! <= responsive!
That may be an option too, though the reason I added them there is because these buttons are something completely unrelated to the "post" action, also someone mat want to create addons that add stuff to that list of "additional actions", and use the area next to the posting buttons could become more difficult (in terms of positioning, think about adding three or four more buttons, the two sets may end up clashing).
But it's an option, and a valid one.
Maybe the shortcuts link could act as separator:
| |
| textarea |
| |
----------------------------------------------------------------
| load drafts | add poll | whatever button |
shortcuts: shift+alt+s submit/post, shift+alt+p preview or shift+alt+d save draft
| post | preview | save draft |
Let's put it another way: anything that is not on the same screen is not used by the vast majority of the people. So, if the checkboxes are not on the same screen as the textarea, most likely they will never used, so it's just a waste of space keep them.
So, about removing checkboxes:
Notify me of replies. <= sort of useful I think
Lock this topic. <= useful (even though every time I want to post a locked topic I forgot about the check and come back to lock it later)
Return to this topic. <= this should be removed IMHO. There is already a setting, give the option at each post level is kind of overkill to me.
Sticky this topic. <= same as "lock"
Don't use smileys. <= this is a pain IMO. It requires an entire column in the db for what? I don't think it's worth the hassle, but more feedback is very welcome.
Move this topic. <= never used, reasoning of lock and stick may apply.
Approve this post. <= should be useful.
That leaves notify and approve. Of course that is what *I think, but I'm just me and so not really a representative sample of the forum population.
That said, notify is not really that important either
Even the message icon could go somewhere else (and honestly the subject too, how many times you change the subject of a message while replying?).
emanuele is too tired for re-reading the post...sorry.