Web Design Forums.net, version 5

[filburt1]

Forum Home (http://www.webdesignforums.net/forumhome.php?)
Today at WDF (http://www.webdesignforums.net/index.php?)

I completed this upgrade last night. It was in development since February 2005 and is the 14th of all the internally-considered design candidates. What makes WDF unique from other vBulletin installations?


Dramatically updated style. The most obvious change is the altered style. It is designed to be visually attractive, rely heavily on CSS, and put important information in accessible areas. The top of the page received considerable attention; a main goal was to create a very attractive header that didn't consume so much space that it pushed the rest of the content down. If you're a WDFplus member, you don't see the AdSense ad, making the header even lower-profile. There are also tweaks like unread PM counts showing up next to the Private Messages link and a search field on every page--without the need to click to find it first.
W3C compliancy. Every page on WDF v5 is W3C compliant in terms of markup (XHTML 1.0 Transitional) and style (CSS versions 1 to 3). The design was recently introduced so some pages aren't yet compliant, but I'm working on it. Standards compliance is important and forces browser developers to provide a uniform rendering model for pages.
Improved stock features. Reputation is one greatly enhanced feature. You don't need to leave a comment at all in most cases for leaving reputation; just click a button and it immediately applies it for that post. Reputation data is aggregated and provided as a summary of the user's reputation; for example: http://www.webdesignforums.net/wdf_viewreputation.php?u=1 . The private messaging user interface was updated to greatly increase its understandibility (be honest: how many of you actually knew what that psuedo-progress bar meant at first?). The WYSIWYG editor's interface was cleaned up and even takes on the colors of the user's system, making it appear to be a system component rather than a web page component. There are countless other improvements; browse around to see updated forumdisplay, forumhome, showthread, postbit, and other templates that were rewritten 100% from scratch.
Completely new features. WDF v5 introduces many completely original features. Just a few of them:

The WDF Notifier and Notifications: Available to WDFplus members, an application for Windows 2000 and XP sits in your system tray, quietly listening for events on WDF. When one occurs (for example, a new private message or announcement), a balloon pops up with clear details. Clicking the balloon opens your browser to the appropriate page for details. Learn more (http://www.webdesignforums.net/wdf_notifs_about.php). Screenshot:

http://www.webdesignforums.net/images/notifier.jpg (http://www.webdesignforums.net/images/notifier-big.jpg)

RSS feeds. The feed aggregator is completely rewritten. It now generates RSS 2.0-compliant feeds for not only specific forums and the entire site, but also for individual threads. Post contents are displayed in the description rather than statistics. The RSS feeds are generated using domxml (for PHP 4) and dom (for PHP 5).
Site of the Month. A fully automated "Site of the Month" contest has been developed. Users can submit sites of their own creations, moderators approve or reject them, and members vote for them. The system automatically determines the winner at the end of the month, restarts the contest, and puts the winner on WDF's home page for the next month. Learn more (http://www.webdesignforums.net/wdf_sotm.php).
Today at WDF. When you first visit WDF's home page (http://www.webdesignforums.net/), you see "Today at WDF." First and foremost, don't think of it as a portal. Instead, it displays today's (and the current time's) notable discussions, including "Today's Featured Posts" as selected by moderators, recently posted unanswered questions, an overview of your reputation, and other information such as site-wide statistics. There is a very clearly-labeled "Enter the Discussion Area" link provided at the top of the page.
How's My Site?. WDF has a forum named How's My Site (http://www.webdesignforums.net/amp_quot_hows_my_siteamp_quot__86/) where users post threads asking for reviews of their site. Previously, users were asked to rate sites using the thread rating system, but this didn't give a fine level of detail. Users would also forget to add their site's URL. The new system provides ratings on five separate criteria, links to W3C validation services, and still allows users to comment via replies. Adding a site URL is also enforced to users can't forget to add their URLs. The information is aggregated both on the page itself and on forumdisplay on a normal 1 to 5 star rating. (note that few threads have the rating box yet as the upgrade was only completed just a day ago; new threads will have rating boxes)
Search engine optimization. At the end of every page generation, a script searches the page for thread and forum links, and converts them into a flat file emulated format. Threads become prefixed with their forum name, and all URLs then end with ".html" to trick some search engines that the page is static, not dynamic. The great part is that no effort is required to make these links. Simply outputting showthread.php?t= and forumdisplay.php?f= is sufficient; the script will convert links by itself.

...and much more. The WDF v5 upgrade is the result of over 11 months of work. Browse around, and you'll see something new every time.

Did I mention that not one vBulletin file has been edited?

[Chris M]

Very nice looking filburt - I'm interested to know how Turtle Dollars have been converted to reputation... Have they?

Chris

[filburt1]

Very nice looking filburt - I'm interested to know how Turtle Dollars have been converted to reputation... Have they?

Chris

Not yet. I need to determine how to value them towards reputation.

[siNix]

yes its cool, but i should have done it different

[filburt1]

Also just added the ability for members to dispute reputation they've received and moderators can accept or reject the offer. If they accept it, the reputation is removed, and if they reject it, then the reputation remains and cannot be disputed again.

[vBTotal]

Great work!

[Beermonster]

I wouldn't mind the generic avatar hack, I've not found it, have you or are you going to release it?

[Princeton]

I just took a quick view of the site and these are the FEATURES THAT STAND OUT

The "How do I" messages on QUOTE, PHP, HTML, etc code blocks.:up:
The avatar right above the quickreply. :up: It's personal and it makes me feel like posting. :)
The "help text" throughout the site.:up:

NOTES:

There is no way to get to the "portal" page. (If there is I can't find it).
Most users have 1024x768 and higher, but a large minority have 800x600. I have a 1600 resolution; but, I like to work with my screen split in halves (800). eg. surfing with 2 browser windows
Don't like the left column "empty space"

I believe the space could be utilized better.
The 'earth image' draws the focus away from other parts of the site.

Although it has it's faults, the most usable forum design is one that is not changed from it's default. (millions of people are familiar with it)

Overall, great job! :up:

[filburt1]

I wouldn't mind the generic avatar hack, I've not found it, have you or are you going to release it?
Sorry, I've licensed it exclusively to another site and cannot redistribute it.
I just took a quick view of the site and these are the FEATURES THAT STAND OUT

The "How do I" messages on QUOTE, PHP, HTML, etc code blocks.:up:
The avatar right above the quickreply. :up: It's personal and it makes me feel like posting. :)
The "help text" throughout the site.:up:

NOTES:

There is no way to get to the "portal" page. (If there is I can't find it).
Most users have 1024x768 and higher, but a large minority have 800x600. I have a 1600 resolution; but, I like to work with my screen split in halves (800). eg. surfing with 2 browser windows
Don't like the left column "empty space"

I believe the space could be utilized better.
The 'earth image' draws the focus away from other parts of the site.

Although it has it's faults, the most usable forum design is one that is not changed from it's default. (millions of people are familiar with it)

Overall, great job! :up:
1. "Today at WDF" link in the top block of forums.
2. That was a design consideration I made that the majority do use 1024 x 768. It gave me much more freedom than the restricted 800 x 600 resolution.
3. It's occasionally used for breakout information like post numbers.
4. It's a point of the design (although not to draw away attention too much).
5. I strongly disagree with default layout usability. With DHTML menus all over the places, divs nested within divs nested within tables, inconsistent layout and wording, and features in every conceivable location on the page, it is extremely confusing for new members, I would venture.

[Tony G]

Style wish, I like it and don't like it. The way you've organised your forum tables is ugly. Mainly because the forum name/description is too spaced out and you've shoved all the info in the corner. It just doesn't even out for me. You need to balance out where you put the info and that. It would look better if you put the post/thread info somewhere on the left side to fill up all the wasted space by the forum name/description bit. I really like the image background where the last thread posted info is though, that's really nify and nice looking. :)

The header is nice, but I think you could do something that stands a bit more out with the 'Web Design Forums.net' part of the header. Maybe if you made the text in that image bigger and extend the header down your page a bit, it would look better. But not that much bigger. Just enough to make a difference.

Forumdisplay is good. I like how you have the first part of the post showing underneath. But it can look a little too wordy for a list of threads in a forum..

Footer could use some improving. It's unorganised and really ruins the style as a whole. If you want your style to look good, make all of it look good.

Hope I helped. :) It's awesome that you did all of that without editing a file.