[RFC] Index tabbed

[DavidIQ]

When I first read and saw this topic I thought you were referring to the indentation, which looks pretty ugly. Having reread this I can see it's about the statistics being in tabs.

Having the info in tabs looks ok I think but it will need to be dynamic in nature and not require full reloads of the page. jQuery tabbification would make that possible. That being said this could simply be an extension that can be easily created and the js loading is already implemented.

[keith10456]

Big +1

Ssssooo much space is wasted with all of the info displayed at the bottom... Especially once the info from mods/ext is added.

[PayBas]

There are alternatives. I personally like collapsible blocks better. Like on one of my sites: http://pbwow.com/forum/index.php

A cookie stores which blocks you want to hide/show by default. So this doesn't require a single click on reload. If you're not interested in birthdays, it will be hidden forever, until you expand the category.

[Pony99CA]

I like the tabs and think that they should be used in the ProSilver style by default. There's no need for an option in the ACP for that feature. If somebody wants the old way, they can use a different style. (Now, if you want an option in the UCP, that would be more appropriate. Let the users choose how they want to view the board.)

Wow, so not only do you think what you like is more important, you also want to "remove" the option for me to change it back.

Regarding "removing" the option, did you read the parenthetical sentences of mine that you quoted? I said to put the user in control, not the Admin.

I don't think that an option to control such a minor feature is worth adding an ACP option for, but maybe you feel that the ACP isn't complicated enough already. If the Admin wants to change the style, he can select a new style. That seemed pretty obvious to me.

If an option is really necessary, it should be a UCP option to put the user in control. What's wrong with that?

I think tabs on the index looks cheap and dated. A better way would be to use a more modern footer with the details.

So how about an example of what you mean? Instead of disparaging the suggestion with "cheap" and "dated", show us something better. A vague suggestion like "a more modern footer" is useless. (Plus, I think that tabs are more modern than big blocks of text.)

I would also make the Statistics tab the first (and default) tab. I think that more people are interested in how many posts and members a board has than who happens to be visiting at that time and whose birthday it is.

Sigh, maybe a first time visitor is interested in how many posts/members a board has.
Regular members don't care about that, they primarily care about who is online or who's birthday it is. When is the last time you looked at the stats here on Area51?

About the same time that I looked at people's birthdays or who was online -- never. But if you can only show one thing, that's what I'd rather see.

Yes, it's more for new users to see how active a board is, but I'd rather cater to new users (hoping to get a new member) than to regulars (who know that the information is only one click away).

Steve

P.S. Have you had a doctor check all of that sighing and eye rolling? It might be something serious.

[Louis7777]

There are alternatives. I personally like collapsible blocks better. Like on one of my sites: http://pbwow.com/forum/index.php

A cookie stores which blocks you want to hide/show by default. So this doesn't require a single click on reload. If you're not interested in birthdays, it will be hidden forever, until you expand the category.

Very good looking, but I'm not a fan of cookies. I prefer to avoid them if I can.

I know a better - in my opinion - implementation to combine who is online and statistics. See the screenshot below. It's from a warez forum (the most popular on the planet + runs on phpBB), so I can't link to it or name it... but I'm giving you that tip in case you want to find the website and see how it works yourself. An obvious downside is that it's not good for multiple blocks/modules.

screenie.png (29.2 KiB) Viewed 888 times

Now see how the above image looks and try to imagine tabs on it. It would look more elegant than the picture that I attached in the first post, right? And it's not far from the style and colors of prosilver.

Plus, I think that tabs are more modern than big blocks of text.

Although I created this topic I'm not a big fan of tabs, so I kinda understand those who don't like them.

However!!! They are indeed more modern than "big blocks of text" and I can't think of anything that is better and that has all the pros that I've listed.

[brunoais]

phpBB 3.1 has one interesting thing called parent themes.
This means that you can make a theme that is simply the parent theme with a very small subset of files replaced.

In this case, you all can make a theme for each one of those cases where you use prosilver as the base and you only change the HTML + CSS + js required for the whoisonline part.
The admin can choose the one(s) he wants for his users and his users can choose the theme version they want.

Isn't that a better option than all this?

[Sumanai]

phpBB 3.1 has one interesting thing called parent themes.
This means that you can make a theme that is simply the parent theme with a very small subset of files replaced.

It is available in version 3.0

[brunoais]

Yeah but not the same way as 3.1. In 3.1 there's the capability of having an infinite sized tree. In 3.0, it's just the parent and child.

[BioLogIn]

-1 as a part of the core. There any many places where phpbb could use tabs and / or collapse areas (like IPB does for example). But having tabs only on footer makes forums look incoherent (to me at least).

+1 as an extension, though.

[keith10456]

There are alternatives. I personally like collapsible blocks better. Like on one of my sites: http://pbwow.com/forum/index.php

A cookie stores which blocks you want to hide/show by default. So this doesn't require a single click on reload. If you're not interested in birthdays, it will be hidden forever, until you expand the category.

This isn't bad either... Especially if something like this be done with jquery as opposed to cookies. One of my main concerns is with more and more Internet use being done on mobile devices, all of that data/space in the footer needs to be tucked-away unless someone chooses to see it.