FA Project: UI Overhaul

[leeter]

A few things that may or may not be well received:
1. use asp.net as it's currently the fastest thing on the net and precompiled and can be run on freeBSD using mono
2. vectorize all non-user created graphics including banners, this makes these much smaller and reduces bandwidth load and puts the load on the client machine
3. normalize the database as much as possible without being lossy say third normal form, yes this means you'll have to do more joins in queries but overall it will increase the flexibility of the database and should ultimately make it faster.
4. use precompiled views when ever possible inside the database, because they're precompiled they run MUCH faster than straight queries and will increase overall response time.
5. rename all pictures using a unique id in asp.net this is a GUID, this provides a nice name for the picture on the disk because, overall people are not creative and are very likely going to reuse names. Resave the originals as png's to disk, NOT in the database, and create a thumb at upload time, saved also to disk as a jpg for ease of bandwidth.
Thats all for now take what you will

 

[Theyain]

Lets see, here are a few that may have already of been mentioned, but I'm going to mention it again.

Sometimes when I log on, I see I have a new comment on something. Well, If its on something that has a TON of comments, I find it a pain in the tail to try and find that person's reply amongst all the others. So I suggest making it so that when you click on the link in the CP that says the name of the submission, it brings you to the comment. I mean, we already have links to the comments, why doesn't the system just use those links?

I suggest making an option that allows a person to see a thumb image instead of the flash right when they go to a submission that is a Flash Animation. That way if someone goes to a flash submission just to see a certain comment or two, they don't have to worry about using up bandwidth or lagging their computer (mind you that would have to be an older computer) or some such because there is a flash animation in the page.

I hope that makes sense ^^;

EDIT: I also suggest making FA Open Source if it isn't already. It would easily and greatly beneifit FA.

 

[StormKitty]

Sorry if this has been brought up before...

Would it be possible to have the option to display friends' new journal entries in a format similar to the friends page on LiveJournal? Basically it would display up to 20-50 entries at a time, from all friends in the order listed on the user's User control panel display, without comments but with a link to view journal entries individually with comments. This would make it much easier to clear out a backlog of new journal entries from all my friends.

I currently have >1100 friends' journal entries on my UCP screen, way too many to have to click each one individually to see if it's something interesting. I could cover a lot more of them a lot faster with an option such as described above. As it stands now, I have little choice but to nuke the list, unless there's already a feature like this I don't know about. It would also help if it were possible to sort the entries by username, since it often tends to be the same friends whose entries I am most interested in reading. I think others have suggested the option to friend someone's gallery only, not their journal - that too would be useful in keeping the list manageable in the future.

 

[Krazy3]

Tops on my list would be the ability to edit comments on the main site, and see who has favorited your art.

 

[AnonIhmus]

I have a couple ^^

**Moar stats... Somewhat like they have on DurrviantArt with Most Favorited, Most Commented On etc.... Not all watchers respond to "What do you like best" journals, so it's hard to get an idea of what my watchers like and want more of...

**Can you put the PMs link up with the rest of the message ones so I don't have to go to control panel for it? Or make the control panel be a drop down menu up there in the top corner?

**Groups would be awesome! That way people can join it and the GROUP gets updated when artists post stuff -there- instead submissions box being FLOODED.... (For instance in the Hurt Me critique group we have to watch the artists to get HM updates.. It would be nice if I could just click "New Group Submissions/Journal/Whatever" and instead of seeing -everything- all those arists post, I'll just see the things they want critique on..... I won't hold my breath, I imagine it would be a PAIN to put into place, but it would be SO COOL..

**Nuke Journals Option Plz?!?! I miss a day and it takes me two hours to delete the old and irrelevant journals every some-odd of them at a time TT_TT

**If not a "delete" comment, how about "hide" comment feature? If that would be easier...?

**Animation option besides FLASH... I can't list my animations as such because I don't use flash and you only have Flash Animation option....

I'd just like to take this time to say I'm not bitching about the above- I just love the site and want it to be the best it can be, so if my suggestions would help, that'd be cool. ^_^

Color Combos~(Main & Details/Highlights)
Silver and Black
Green and Orange (Think Jagermeister, heh)
Brick Red or Crimson and Black
Any color with White
Country Flag color layouts (Though that would lead to a LOT, so maybe not a good idea, lol)
Self-Choose color scheme? List three drop-down menus where users pick their own color scheme?

 

[Aquacoon]

A collaboration system would be nice. That way artists would essentially share faves and comments, though I don't know if you could literally do that. Maybe all it boils down to is a colaboration button or notice.

It'd be nice to friend people, without actually watching them, or maybe simply to be able to filter things based on what people submit. Like only watching people for art, or only for journals. Or is that already out there? The only problem I could see with making that distinction, is it would validate watching people for purely social reasons. For the most part that's good, but it also will lead to alot of drama and attention whoring.

Gallery scrolling, ie next or previous buttons when viewing a submission [okay granted I'm stealing that from Y!Gallery].

In fact, Y!Gallery. Do that. That's an awesome system. I'd love to see extreme filters, at least for a couple of more serious fetishes that cause alot of drama. Like cub and gore and stuff like that. that does bring up a large list of problems though, like what classifies something as an extreme fetish, and how to enforce the labeling of such things?

As for colors, Id like to see a brown or sepia type. Brown, dark brown, light cream, and maybe some orange, or green or blue to add contrast.

I have a hard time finding a way to make journals sometimes. I'm not sure why, but it's like the button I have to press to get to it seems a little obscure.

Also, you have to go through notes one at a time to delete them, if I'm not mistaken. A select all, or check box selection feature would be appreciated.

OH, and I think it would be nice to have a check box when submitting something to lable it as gift art recieved, so that people who are posting art that they recieved as a gift to their gallery, won't have to explain that when they post it.

I'm sure alot of these ideas are really out there or too hard or expensive to do, but I just figured I'd throw it out there in case it sparked something better.

 

[Aquacoon]

Just for the record, I vote AGAINST a hide comment option. As far as I have seen, it leads to a lot of bullshit [see deviant art]. It sounds like a good idea for people getting harassed, or if someone makes a mistake on a comment, but often times it's used by people who do harassing, or do something really stupid or mean, and then try to hide it later. People shouldn't be able to just 'undo' being an asshat. as far as keeping a lid on the drama, it should be up to an administrator to lock or hide comments that come from drama.

I must stress though, that I'm not trying to put down anyone who suggests this idea, I certainly see the merit in that sort of function. I just know that it's easily abused.

 

[Aquacoon]

Oofah! I forgot one! Be able to reply to shouts instead of having to shout back and forth.

yesyesyesyesyesssssss! I agree. D:

 

[Eevee]

but often times it's used by people who do harassing, or do something really stupid or mean, and then try to hide it later. People shouldn't be able to just 'undo' being an asshat. as far as keeping a lid on the drama, it should be up to an administrator to lock or hide comments that come from drama.

Or tell an admin that someone was an asshat? The point of hiding comments rather than deleting them is so owners and admins can go back and look at them later, as well as to reduce the amount of babysitting admins have to do.

 

[jayhusky]

I also suggest making FA Open Source if it isn't already. It would easily and greatly beneifit FA.

I'm not speaking on behalf of the team here but voicing an opinion.

If FA were to be open source this could possibly benefit FA but could also not benefit FA.

 

[Kimmerset]

If these haven't been brought up yet:
- Some sort of wrapping feature when it comes to comments to avoid obscene page-stretching
- Limit the use of emoticons in comments, not just FA icons.

Yeah, the hide comment feature would be nice.

 

[Stryke]

Probably already been said, but selectable colour schemes (like choose your own colour)? Because sometimes people want variety, and that's a quick, easy way to ensure that.

 

[lolcox]

Probably already been said, but selectable colour schemes (like choose your own colour)? Because sometimes people want variety, and that's a quick, easy way to ensure that.

Or, you could just, uh, write your own style if you're using a decent browser, since we know that there's no plan for them to do anything with extra styles.

*shameless self-promotion*

 

[Nicolii]

Might have been mentioned already.. too many post to read through them all. But here it goes anyway.

Some sort of way to link pictures in a serries/comic. For example I draw a comic over the summer, and everytime I add a picture it goes into my gallery. A fox comes along and sees my comic on page 12. Now he has to go dig through my entire gallery going back and forth to find page 1 and watch the comic in order. I know that i can just add links into the comment of each picture but it is time consuming and it would be cool if FA had a way to simplize the idea.

Anyway thanks if you read through that... sometimes my brain just works on auto pilot.. the above could sound like lunacy... I like shorts... their fun and easy to wear.

 

[TakeWalker]

Might have been mentioned already.. too many post to read through them all. But here it goes anyway.

Some sort of way to link pictures in a serries/comic. For example I draw a comic over the summer, and everytime I add a picture it goes into my gallery. A fox comes along and sees my comic on page 12. Now he has to go dig through my entire gallery going back and forth to find page 1 and watch the comic in order. I know that i can just add links into the comment of each picture but it is time consuming and it would be cool if FA had a way to simplize the idea.

Anyway thanks if you read through that... sometimes my brain just works on auto pilot.. the above could sound like lunacy... I like shorts... their fun and easy to wear.

It's already implemented. [#, #, #] where the #'s are replaced by the submission's number (from the URL) will give you something that looks like << PREV | FIRST | NEXT >>. You can leave one out (if you don't have a next chapter, say) by replacing the # with a dash. Check yak's journal mainsite once FA is back up to learn about all this kind of thing. :3

 

[Zeraph]

So, just adding my voice.
Add plants to the species? 8D

 

[Firehazard]

I liked the suggestion about users creating their own schemes that would apply when they're logged in. If the stylesheets are split up into two files, one for colors and background images and the other for element positioning and sizing, it would be totally doable! Each user could be allowed to upload one CSS file, that would be saved as [username].css, along with a set of small images. Then that style would be added to their list of available themes. If we can ensure security somehow, we might even add the option of making their theme shareable so the good ones can be enjoyed by everyone.

And along similar lines, THANK YOU DRAGONEER for speaking out against the human rights atrocity that is custom userpage designs. The sheer number of idiots who think this is actually a good idea is truly frightening.

The Watching/Watched By lists... rather than popping up new windows (a crapshoot in today's world of popup blockers and new-window-equals-new-tab browser settings) for the full list, how about a Javascript based thing that has that pane slide "open" to show the full list. If it's really long, maybe make page turning buttons that change the data inside the pane. And then if you want you can "close" it.

Along these lines, allow me to mention, if you're not already aware: There is a free library of Javascript scripts called Prototype that lets you do all types of crazy crap with animation and such. My company recently started using them in our sites, and the coders who work with it say it's made complex animations a snap. And it's also designed from the ground up to be cross-browser compatible! Might be worth looking into.

 

[Rabbyadam]

Hmm... a color scheme... I'd say, for the primary color, a nice, cool, metalic blue. the secondary color, a smoky deep bluish-purple, and for trim Gold or electric blue.

 

[muddypaws]

I liked the suggestion about users creating their own schemes that would apply when they're logged in. If the stylesheets are split up into two files, one for colors and background images and the other for element positioning and sizing, it would be totally doable! Each user could be allowed to upload one CSS file, that would be saved as [username].css, along with a set of small images. Then that style would be added to their list of available themes. If we can ensure security somehow, we might even add the option of making their theme shareable so the good ones can be enjoyed by everyone.

And along similar lines, THANK YOU DRAGONEER for speaking out against the human rights atrocity that is custom userpage designs. The sheer number of idiots who think this is actually a good idea is truly frightening.

The Watching/Watched By lists... rather than popping up new windows (a crapshoot in today's world of popup blockers and new-window-equals-new-tab browser settings) for the full list, how about a Javascript based thing that has that pane slide "open" to show the full list. If it's really long, maybe make page turning buttons that change the data inside the pane. And then if you want you can "close" it.

Along these lines, allow me to mention, if you're not already aware: There is a free library of Javascript scripts called Prototype that lets you do all types of crazy crap with animation and such. My company recently started using them in our sites, and the coders who work with it say it's made complex animations a snap. And it's also designed from the ground up to be cross-browser compatible! Might be worth looking into.

I like your suggestion about the Watch Lists. I don't mind new windows opening up, but if I recall, the list did open along the side of the main window once before. I've found both methods convenient, but I like the latter.

What would be useful for me are basic are instructions (basic to follow) on how to customize our pages. That would be great!

 

[humbuged]

Being able to put up polls would be nice

 

[TheComet]

One quick thing, if you decide to change the color scheme, make sure it's colorblind friendly

I'm still angry at that one guy who changed his site's layout to black bg with red text, I couldn't read ANYTHING.

 

[keeshah]

How about a listing of everyone who has an account on FA?

Don't know how many times i've found someone on here, an never knew they had an account here.
It would be great to have a list to scroll through an see if i'm missing anyone i should be watching..

 

[jayhusky]

A user listing would be nice, kinda like the memberlist of a forum, But imagine looking throuogh 150,000 names and finding a good 31,000 are banned/abandoned/double ones.

 

[WolfoxOkamichan]

User groups... and the ability to group your works in folders and stuff.

 

[jayhusky]

Now that is a good idea and I support it because then you can make it easy for people to tell different filters (normal & mature) from each other.