Site Layout / Site Design

I tried searching for this topic to no avail.

Has anyone actually addressed ILXOR.com's design flaws? Because it is probably one of the worst designs I have seen in a while.

I think BBSs had better designs.

Has anyone ever thought of fixing some of the poor unintuitive design features or has this site been left to its own 'devices'?

Just change your preferences.

hook me up w/some 'justified' blu rays and i'll guide you through the process

no you're the first person in the history of ilx to think that you know better than ilx

http://i47.tinypic.com/2rx9t9h.png

the design is one of the reasons I love it here.

I tried searching for this topic to no avail.

for good reason ..

Um...I appreciate your brief response, Ned, but I'm not referring to changing pretty colours.

Firstly the search function displays way too few results at once, and no snippet of content.

Also, the whole view site as a blog is a disastrous idea. The first 'post' has a larger title than the rest of the other post titles. It displays entire content, and the text is so tiny it becomes illegible. This isn't 1992, it's 2013.

Calling a link 'Site New Questions' especially when you have dozens of subforums is insane for sorting and parsing any info for the human reader. Information overload.

Calling it 'Questions' also seems unintuitive, as they really are threads with discussions, not just questions. So when I want to look at a 'new question' my first thought is, "So, you move the...'question' up whenever a new 'question' is asked? But, wait, what you really mean is a thread is moved to the top when someone posts to it, right?" So much for simplicity.

Just some constructive criticism.

@christmas candy bar (al leong), I'm familiar with web development; thanks, anyway, though. And on that note, I do realise I can tailor my browser so it parses this entire site differently, but this isn't what this *thread* is about.

These boards just seem so abandoned, but it might be a design issue.

@j, have a link with that thread handy? I'd love to read it and participate. Like I said, I could not find one in the search function. No need to get sarcastic.

@sleepingbag, I guess I'd rather explore the possibility of improvement, instead of abandoning/giving up without even trying.

These boards just seem so abandoned

Not by users, surely you don't mean. Also you know you can adjust and tweak a lot of what you're complaining about , right? SNA can be tweaked to only include the boards you're interested in. With your comment on bigger and tiny font I cant speak to that as the stylesheet I have applied has consistent plain even sized text (old.css).

This site is what it is for a reason - it is no accident it has remained this way, it isnt laziness or being oldfashioned.

looking forward to your new site with its fancy design. be sure to post a link when it is ready.

kafkaesoque

@Trayce: Not users, no. You mean by changing to one of the default CSS files, right? If so, that was not adequate for me. I wish I could upload my own CSS file or do some more editing of the preexisting ones, personalise it, and save it to my own account.

You are welcome to make one and I'll put it up there.

crimsonhexagon is not taken just fyi

@Keith: Thanks. Just dl'd blueski-2.css. Will muck around with it

what would be great for ilx is a social sharing bar all down the left of the screen. it's hell trying to share ilx links on pinterest and pondero.us and stumblr and zooganly

That's an interesting comment, Esteban, and kind of reinforces what I'm saying about this site being a little outdated, to put it mildly. Social sharing buttons are everywhere and are there for a reason, too: to make sharing links, etc., easier.

Now, social sharing does have its own separate issue, which if you're interested in, I'd like to point you to this blog post for more info: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/03/changes_to_the.html

The whole tracking and privacy thing does bother people. I guess it depends on your demographics. But there are options that the link above explores.

Just trying to start a discussion here.

yeah, we all have facebook accounts and i think it's quite important for this site to fold tightly into that ecosystem

With respect to your points:

• The thread search would be better with some content, and indeed more answers, but there is a limit on computing power, since it costs us money, so I did what I could at the time to be mega-efficient but still kind of work. It could probably have done more, but at the time I didn't know the load we were dealing with. Compared to what it was before (took several minutes to respond), it's good, but it would be good to do better. Not trivial to do though
• I agree with the Questions/Answers thing. In fact, I wrote in an admin option that you can tick to make the site say Threads/Posts instead, but people seem to like questions/answers
• I also agree with the information overload, but it's not obvious what to do about it, other than as Trayce says, the option to customise it to the boards you care about and set colours for them, which I did

keith, if you're interested, i'd like to see the 'flag post' option replaced with a facebook 'like' button, since people don't really flag their favourite posts any more

It says threads/posts now.

Firstly the search function displays way too few results at once, and no snippet of content.

The search function definitely isn't great, this is true. But you can always use site:ilxor.com on google search instead.

Also, the whole view site as a blog is a disastrous idea.

So don't use it.

Calling a link 'Site New Questions' especially when you have dozens of subforums is insane for sorting and parsing any info for the human reader. Information overload.

Some of us can handle looking at this amount of information. If you can't, then set your filters or go to individual boards. Don't call something a flaw when it's actually just your problem.

So when I want to look at a 'new question' my first thought is, "So, you move the...'question' up whenever a new 'question' is asked? But, wait, what you really mean is a thread is moved to the top when someone posts to it, right?"

Uh, what? The only thing I can thing of that makes sense when trying to read this is that you're talking about 'Site New Answers' not 'New Questions'. Which therefore renders this whole section redundant.

These boards just seem so abandoned

Again, I don't understand what you mean. There are shitloads of users and posts and threads. Or do you mean something like 'minimal'? In which case, that's a massive plus point in most users' views.

@Keith: Believe it or not, your response puts me at ease, even though perhaps nothing to little will be done about it. I appreciate your taking the time to respond and explain the situation to us.

what would be great for ilx is a social sharing bar all down the left of the screen. it's hell trying to share ilx links on pinterest and pondero.us and stumblr and zooganly

― Esteban Buttiérrez (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, March 24, 2013 9:40 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

looooooool

"us"

I amazed ILX hasn't yet panicked at it saying Threads/Posts instead of Questions/Answers yet!

i want all 9 of my facebook friends to know about this tremendous thread

Threads/Posts is fine. But I didn't have a problem with Questions/Answers.

I amazed ILX hasn't yet panicked at it saying Threads/Posts instead of Questions/Answers yet!

are you gearing up for ipo or

are you gearing up for ipo or

lol!

emil.y: You laugh, but music is by and large a social thing. Personally, I do not have a Facebook account, but I understand the need for certain users. Maybe ILX users don't want one, I don't have those numbers. But just look at music sites. Look at their web 2.0 stuff they implement.

But just look at music sites. Look at their web 2.0 stuff they implement.

i would love to create and share playlists of my favourite threads

ilx is the best-designed site on the internet

I can't say I'm in a position to do anything about it right now, but what things would you do if it could be magicked into existence? I did actually have a development version of it with a bunch of web 2.0 stuff on it, but I kind of ran out of steam because it became clear to me it was just a "techfest", in that the things I was doing weren't actually of any real use (in fact, I think they made it worse). Of course, that might just be because I didn't have a bunch of good ideas.

we need numbers dammit. don't come in here without numbers.

ilx is in a prime position to become the next formspring. all you would need to do is change 'site new posts' to, say, 'site new answers'. there's heaps of money to be made as a formspring clone.

One of these days I might bring the stats thing back but do it like this:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/67759016/Screen%20Shot%202013-03-17%20at%2000.28.08.png

I NEED ANSWERS!

haha I Lo, I Lov, I Love

I Ra

guess papers

Yeah, what can you do! Taking out ILE and ILM:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/67759016/Screen%20Shot%202013-03-17%20at%2000.28.33.png

All Noise

Noize dudes all YEAH WHAT'S UP NOW

geez ip3 is smaller than de subjectivisten

I Rate Ever

a tag cloud on the front page would be amazing

Why would anyone ever want to 'data mine' ILX? o.O

After a careful reading of all of c21m50nh3x460n's other posts, this has got to be the worst affectation of faux-innocence on record.

The Terminator:
The ILXnet Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line August 4th, 2013. Human decisions are removed from strategic lols. ILXnet begins to post at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.

Sarah Connor:
ILXnet fights back.

The Terminator:
Yes. It launches its zings against the Black Metal fans in Norway.

John Connor:
Why attack Black Metal fans? Aren’t they our friends now?

The Terminator:
Because ILXnet knows the Nrwegian Black Metal counter-attack will eliminate its enemies over here.

http://www.clipartstation.com/clipart/resized/Math/2D%20Shapes/-Pentagon/__100x100//Pentagon%20Dark%20Red%20Cropped.gif

^^^ only worth 5 Args while a crimson hexagon is worth 6.

VBulletin and PHPBB, to me, now look like a spreadsheet compared to ILX - like dealing with a computer programmer's version of the world.

This forever. People are really good at conversations, the job of the software is to get out of the way and let them happen. But programmers seem to be unable to not see the messy randomness of human conversations as problems and starting thinking of shit like "can't we rate people? Or thread the display of posts neatly by their subject matter and their place in the conversational hierarchy, just as I do with all my personal correspondence?"

I think there are two things about ILX's design, and they're interlinked: one is how it appears on the web, and the other is how it functions as a way of organising and storing discussions. The former I think is pretty good, but there's work could be done there: the way the pages are set up for stylesheets is not the greatest, and Keith's been working on alternative looks as you've seen. Ideas/opinions on that are something everyone has, like Keith says.

But the latter - the whole model of questions, answers, flatness, etc -- is something different, and I think that is one thing ILX has definitely got right. It gets out the way and lets people manage the conversations themselves. It's why I'm against server-side killfiles and pagination: they break the conversation in bad ways.

> But programmers seem to be unable to not see the messy randomness of human conversations as problems and starting
> thinking of shit like "can't we rate people? Or thread the display of posts neatly by their subject matter and
> their place in the conversational hierarchy, just as I do with all my personal correspondence?"

it's usually not the programmers that want all the social bollocks but the marketing bods who don't know how much work it'll entail.

Yeah, but that's different stuff. I mean things like the StackExchange-style "you need 5 rep points to rate this comment" and reddit-style nesting of replies, and that is coder worldview through and through

It's why I'm against server-side killfiles and pagination: they break the conversation in bad ways.

As much as I'd love to killfile a good 50% of you assholes*, I completely agree with this.

*just kidding, you are all great!

did someone say something there is just vast blank space

haha

haha

i miss lagoon

yeah killfiling is a terrible idea I think, the only ppl I would even consider killfiling wouldn't be obnoxious posters but content-free posters like, um, me

ilx is so much more enjoyable since I killfiled me

killfile ILX

man why didn't I read this thread earlier

You were too busy obsessing over The Man Who Likes to Fuck Pants.

lol true

i figured you'd just killfiled all of us, djp

I can't believe there's no love for naus.css. Even from Naus.

You were too busy obsessing over The Man Who Likes to Fuck Pants.

Wait, what?

prepare yourself: buzz bissingers gucci addiction

I took the first part of the phrase as a modifier for the word pants.

oh, if only

i refuse to become further enlightened on this. a modifier of pants it shall be forevermore.

fuck fuck pants

A sturdy pair of canvas pants with extra pockets and some external loops for holding shotgun shells might be called Man Who Likes to Hunt Pants, meaning pants designed for the man who likes to hunt.

so tempted to start putting quotes from the GQ essay on here because it's seriously amazing

Seriously. People don't deny yourselves. Click the thread and learn about The Man Who Likes to Fuck Pants.

I've already learnt too much.

And by too much I mean, I've learnt that there's a guy who likes to fuck pants.

beware, loads of stet otm forthcoming

People are really good at conversations, the job of the software is to get out of the way and let them happen. But programmers seem to be unable to not see the messy randomness of human conversations as problems and starting thinking of shit like "can't we rate people? Or thread the display of posts neatly by their subject matter and their place in the conversational hierarchy, just as I do with all my personal correspondence?"

otm. ime ui developers in particular can get excitable and plug in a load of stunning effects that look utterly gorgeous in an international car show kind of way, but (a) were not requested by the customer, (b) were not requested by the designer and (c) are really really shitty for the average user to work with. i've spent entire weeks of my life breaking the hearts of good ui developers who couldn't bear to let go of their usability-destroying eye candy that nobody asked for.

I think there are two things about ILX's design, and they're interlinked: one is how it appears on the web, and the other is how it functions as a way of organising and storing discussions. The former I think is pretty good, but there's work could be done there

responsive design is ~the in thing~ this year, but ilx has been doing it properly since last century. it always looks consistent and behaves predictably on any device (mobile device interface notwithstanding, but that's a different subject).

the whole model of questions, answers, flatness, etc -- is something different, and I think that is one thing ILX has definitely got right. It gets out the way and lets people manage the conversations themselves.

biggest otm right here. getting out the way is an art from that too few sites seem to manage in their desperate attempt to be unique, or appealing, or mega-usable, or etc etc. as an example, medium.com seems to be heading back to genuine simplicity, but even then it's all six billion point garamond and fading-in text and other crap that pushes all the wrong envelopes. they can't help themselves.

marco arment (as much as he drives me up the wall in a gruber kind of way) is a big flag waver of keeping interfaces clean and simple, and eliminating anything that might work as expected 95% of the time (e.g. gestures). ilx has always done that. there is no easier message board to read—no avatars, no auto-refresh, no pop-up menus that leap into focus if you accidentally move your mouse over them, no fashion-week ajax shit.

i also love that ilx is not like every other bloody discussion-based site in the universe (phpbb, facebook, twitter, whatever) because it greatly reduces the chance of my family wandering in here and getting all up in my shit.

so we will be getting avatars when exactly

because i have a cool picture picked out

oh and i could write a whole separate post about the crazy and conflicting shit stakeholders would like to see in something that was always intended to be simple

this week i had to design a way for people to rate ratings. yes, rate ratings.

hah

but who will... rate the raters, oh this guy ok

just out of curiosity, not because i am collecting data on you or anything, how would you rate that task?

I definitely like the fact ILx isnt threaded. The closest comparison this site has is possibly Usenet, but I always found Usenet frustrating because of threading (though I know the reader could be swapped between threaded and flat convos but that was even more confusing!). Threading seems to just make people talk over the top of each other, somehow.

2/10 for the inherent lolz xp

otm, threading in usenet was always horrible, and trying to find anything is just a nightmare

Yeah its also why I find reddit impenetrable. I just cannot follow the flow of conversation one bit.

I imagine Crimhex is scribbling furious notes at all this.

^^^ only worth 5 Args while a crimson hexagon is worth 6.

― FINNISH HIM! Tuomas wins... (snoball), Thursday, March 28, 2013 6:04 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

had me loling

test.css 4 life

objectives:
monetize ilx

tasks:
register new user name

xp

"this lagoon fellow is CFO material"

Doctor Casino - do you have a Windows PC and an Apple phone?

Nope - Windows and android respectively. Using Chrome on the former and IE on the latter.

also, everybody OTM

crimsonhexagon is not taken just fyi

― Esteban Buttiérrez (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, March 24, 2013 5:36 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so much greatness in this thread, but for some reason this response just popped into my brain and is totally cracking me up.