Hi, in my opinion the modern chaotic forum engine’s interfaces make the mind overhelmed and numb (I have no word to describe it…).
Many good priciples of making clean and reading-frendly UI seems to be forgotten nowadays.
Let’s take classical forum engines as for comparizon - clean, pure, well-organized, no chaos, no-distraction, super-fast in work, no stupid animations, no bliding hover effects etc.
As for me (born in the 80s) modern forums like Discourse or Flarum, have large entry treshold and discourage me from being very active (although I love ClassicPress and I’m used to replace WP Plugins by pure PHP code). I would like to say I’m willingly to share some of my work results to contribute ClassicPress… but… because of low UI I’m considering to build something else - pure and simple as it deserves to be.
Currently - just to make this forum a little bit more readable for me (reducing chaos and mess, nullifying hover effects etc.), I prepared small set of CSS improvements which works on the browser-layer (I use “User CSS” browser extension for it). If anyone would be interested, I can share the code.
Most likely I would see the forum appearance similar classic engines we know from the past (I hope there are more classical UI-lovers here), but of course it’s not possible using only CSS.
Kind Regards, and let’s make ClassicPress even more awesome :))
Forums could be cleaner indeed. But as far as I know it’s a work in progress.
Personally I don’t like the sub categories, it confuses me. There’s categories, sub categories and tags. Too much choice.
And the “New & Unread Topics” block that is displayed underneath each topic has no added value in my opinion.
First off the current forums management was adopted from the original founders of ClassicPress (CP).
Since joining the team, I’ve been working to remove unnecessary categories, flatten categories (remove unnecessary subcategories) and add or remove functionality which improves overall usage based on research against similar projects and other popular Discourse installs.
Trimming the fat off the install allowing for reduced resource requirements and simplifying things is a key principle going forward so topics can be addressed in a timely manner given the current community and leadership.
Long story short, I do share many of the recurring opinions on change, but keep in mind change needs to happen progressively to ensure things are done correctly and given I volunteer my time here and my primary role is SysAdmin my efforts are prioritized accordingly.
There are lots of moving pieces and things happening behind the scenes to make for a better community for all.
Thanks for the feedback, every comment is helpful and contributes to the evolution of the forums and overall site and resources available throughout.
Hi, please appologize me, my intention was not to criticize anyone,
I only said that Discourse itself did not care about good UI principles, however many issues are possible to fix using CSS.
I believe Discourse makes an honest attempt at being modern in terms of what most expect from a platform of this kind and there are definitely things they get right, some they get wrong, many they’re working on and even then each person has their own individual perspective and point of view on what works and what doesn’t.
Bottom line, I value constructive feedback even if it doesn’t necessarily reflect my own point of view. Reading and gaining an understanding of others perspective is critical to both professional and personal growth.
So, no, nothing was taken out of context. Feedback is generally helpful in improving things. Thanks for offering yours. Even if we don’t immediately or ever directly or indirectly implement something suggested, it doesn’t mean we didn’t value the suggestion.
