Highlighted Stories

[onions]

we now have the ability to highlight stories on the front page. you should see boxes spread across the top below the ad banner. this allows the more important stories to stay stickied to the front page for a bit more longevity. it'll show the five most recent highlighted stories.

this has been tested across all three themes, the latest versions of firefox, chrome, safari, and IE.

and of course, there is a display issue with ie: the ellipsis (...) don't render the background color when the title of a post exceeds the containing space. i'm looking into a fix.

[that guy]

Overall I love this and it's nice to see something fresh like this but if I had one 'druther it'd be that it conflicts with the S@H banner above. I'd rather see one of those new boxes be a full time S&H banner and ditch the one above. Just my 2 vents.

But otherwise... LOVE IT

[onions]

that's a pretty good idea. i was debating on the positioning of the highlighted stories versus moving the ad, getting rid of the ad. i might be redoing the entire right side bar anyway, so maybe the banners will find a home there.

[hassmyster]

Overall I like the new banner on top really is nice...

[Andi]

Why? It makes the forum page so small!

[bigospedros]

hmmm, half my screen is now effectively titles ... i'd prefer a max 30% ish, and the old title pic and the ad was just about at that limit.

[onions]

to make things more persistent across different parts of the site. i realize it pushed things down a bit but that was something i was willing to accept. i hope it's not too much of an inconvenience.

[that guy]

to make things more persistent across different parts of the site. i realize it pushed things down a bit but that was something i was willing to accept. i hope it's not too much of an inconvenience.

Persistent is what it has become, consistent is probably what you were after......

[Solo]

Three things:
1. Using flickr deeplinks for the images and not having it link to the photopage is against the TOS over there, and you might be putting people's accounts at risk if loading them at the top of every page draws too much bandwidth. So, don't do that.
2. I'd rather see those highlight images be focused on details intentionally or at least the full image scaled down instead of just centered and cropped as the page loads. I... think I just nominated myself to help make thumbnails for the highlights.
3. Otherwise, I love it. The added space at the top of the pages isn't even remotely a chore to scroll past and it makes the forum and main site feel much more integrated.

[bigospedros]

Am I imagining it, or did the site used to freeze the picture and menu bar at the top of the screen when you scrolled down ?

[onions]

Three things:
1. Using flickr deeplinks for the images and not having it link to the photopage is against the TOS over there, and you might be putting people's accounts at risk if loading them at the top of every page draws too much bandwidth. So, don't do that.
2. I'd rather see those highlight images be focused on details intentionally or at least the full image scaled down instead of just centered and cropped as the page loads. I... think I just nominated myself to help make thumbnails for the highlights.
3. Otherwise, I love it. The added space at the top of the pages isn't even remotely a chore to scroll past and it makes the forum and main site feel much more integrated.

yeah, might have to use the "featured image" field and upload something locally to work out the flickr issue.

[onions]

So this is what their community guidelines says:

Do link back to Flickr when you post your Flickr content elsewhere.
The Flickr service makes it possible to post content hosted on Flickr to outside web sites. However, pages on other web sites that display content hosted on flickr.com must provide a link from each photo or video back to its page on Flickr.

Now, the images used in the boxes lead to articles that do contain the links back to the original flickr page. so am i still in violation of the TOS? conundrums conundrums.

[Solo]

I'd call it a grey area. Plus, even if it were solidly against the TOS, the account holder isn't the one violating it... we are. So I don't really think they'd delete any accounts over it. But they might. </tinfoilhat>

[that guy]

Just as an aside, is there any way to put a 'log in' or "view your posts' on the home page, maybe over by the most recent forums or something? I toggle between the news page and posts so often and I always have to click on some random link just to get to 'view my posts' area. Or am I just 'tarded and there's something I'm missing on the home page that keeps me from having to click a random link just to log in?

[AbstractedIdeal]

*cough cough* browser bookmarks *cough*

[that guy]

*cough cough* browser bookmarks *cough*

yeah yeah....but I hate having multiple bookmarks for a single site. It's more of an 'ease of use' situation. I shouldn't have to bookmark multiple pages on a site to toggle back and forth in it. Clearly I'm alone on this though...

[AbstractedIdeal]

Personally, I use an RSS feed to keep up to date with the front page, which saves me having to toggle back and forth.

If that doesn't appeal to you as a solution, all the major browsers are capable (sometimes with the help of a browser add on) of modifying the content of websites you visit, making it trivial (if you know a little bit of JavaScript) to add your own 'Log In' or 'View My Posts' button.

For Firefox, you'll need Greasemonkey but Wikipedia has a list of alternatives for other browsers.

[that guy]

OK, now that's more useful. I'm geeky and more computer savvy than average but have honestly never done that but will certainly look into it. Guess that's what I get for being old school geek, and not new school geek. gorram it's hard keeping up, and I'm not even 40....

[Robzula]

If I need to switch between a couple of pages, I just use different tabs. This seems a little too obvious an answer to me, so maybe I'm not entirely clear on what you're asking... Or maybe it's just a case of "one man's obvious is another man's obscure" (totally coining that phrase).

[Robzula]

2. I'd rather see those highlight images be focused on details intentionally or at least the full image scaled down instead of just centered and cropped as the page loads. I... think I just nominated myself to help make thumbnails for the highlights.

I agree with that point. While it's pretty clear what I'm looking at in those little boxes with the way it is now, it just doesn't look all that good.

Also, I think putting the highlighted stories bar above the LEGO ad would look a little smoother by giving it a sort of slope. Plus, the big banner and the highlighted stories bar have the same style to them with that red outline which looks like it's interrupted by the LEGO ad.

As an aside: Ace, I love the amount of attention and care you put into this site.