Screen real estate use

mrjeeves

z201205

It's so big because you use such a small phone.

Modern phones have large screens, meaning this isn't an issue.

It's not an issue for me.

z201205

I'm using a Moto G6. It has a 5.7" screen. I would not call that small. I can only see 4 threads in announcements:

Looking at https://www.dpreview.com/forums, you will see their forum is a lot more screen real estate friendly. Eg https://www.dpreview.com/forums/1002 and scrolling down a little, you see a lot more thread titles:

mrjeeves

endorphin z201205

To be honest, this is a possibility.

Dark mode development is complete from my end, and I'm looking for a new project. (Before you ask, we've got to

Dark mode is going to be an option in user settings, like notifications and privacy, so it's always possible to just add another item to that (like a slider) to control Flarum's "compactness".

Does this sound good to you guys?

endorphin

z201205 yes I agree, there is a lot of white space; it's a pity we can't choose to switch to a more utilitarian view as an option (akin to text only vs html but not as drastic). The forum layout seems to be more suited to the helpees', rather than to a helpers', viewpoint, which I suppose is understandable.

There were some improvements made when Flarum was first introduced https://community.giffgaff.com/d/33032314-revised-discussion-list-layout-now-on-the-preview-site/ but nothing else since.

z201205

mrjeeves so it's always possible to just add another item to that (like a slider) to control Flarum's "compactness".

Does this sound good to you guys?

That sounds great.

endorphin

mrjeeves it's always possible to just add another item to that (like a slider) to control Flarum's "compactness".

That sounds like the bee's knees but I suspect it won't be easy! 🙂

Make it so!

mrjeeves

endorphin

It would be fairly simple (final words!). I can just repurpose the dark mode extension and modify it for spacing/padding instead. The main framework is there and ready.

stephenpperry

z201205 I like the forum space and size it’s very easy to read and very easy to focus

z201205

stephenpperry that's why it'd be good to have an option. Clearly you're happy with the way the forum is presented at the moment. Others, including me, would like less scrolling and better use of screen real estate.

endorphin

mrjeeves I'll take your word for it. 😮

@ianmorland do you have any thoughts on this?

z201205

mrjeeves that'd be a great birthday present! 😂 No rush: you have to the end of the month 😂

mrjeeves

z201205

It's manageable. Just need permission from @ianmorland 😛

endorphin

mrjeeves Just need permission

I bet you're prototyping it now! 😮

z201205

Any news? Birthday has long gone ☹️😂

mrjeeves

z201205

Whoops I forgot 😛

Been working on other things like task lists, better list styles, dark mode, other random fixes, etc.

I'll set a reminder.

endorphin

mrjeeves slacker! 😃

mrjeeves

endorphin

I would say it's because of my personal life, but I think we can all guess that would be a lie! 😅

Ask about it on preview so Ian can give his views 😛

z201205

Having been asked to raise an issue on flarum, I note their forum’s thread list is a lot more screen real estate friendly. See their feedback tag:

I can barely get half that number on giffgaff:

It also looks like when visiting one of threads, screen real estate usage is better too.

harrrrrry

z201205

As your image shows, Flarum’s own forum has a much more legible typeface and some but not all of the space problems stem from that. Note how flarum’s image can be more easily read, even though giffgaff’s takes up more space.

Sadly, giffgaff is stuck with that silly, washed out looking font due to a bad design choice in the branding rules. The first thing I did when I saw giffgaff’s implementation was to change the main body font to Arial with some user css in Stylus.

mrjeeves

harrrrrry

I much prefer using font-weight: 500 on .Post-body 😛

It’s much easier to read that way (plus slightly decreasing line height).

z201205

harrrrrry so how do I do that on opera mobile?
The other thing I noticed is that the black header (where the tag name is) is taller on giffgaff’s site compared to flarum.
I wish there was a way of reverting to flarum’s way of displaying these pages: I’m sure that could be done with a thin skin to use giffgaff’s colour scheme.

z201205

mrjeeves plus slightly decreasing line height

Ironic that someone involved in the flarum’s deployment has a tweak to improve screen real estate use. 🙂 Shame we can’t all deploy such changes on mobile.