Raonaild

This thread is a place for suggestions regarding Fan Forum and how we could make it better. Any comments or suggestions are appreciated.

Groundhog

We used to be able to change the background colors on the threads. I much prefer light lettering on a dark background. Less glare and easier to read. Any chance that we would sometime be able to have that capability again? Thanks.

GH

Californian

That's a great idea Groundhog.

I think we should have a movies category. I know we have the forum, but I was thinking that there could be a movie's poll every month people vote on the movies they want and the movies that win get there own board. I think this will get more people to join and more people to get involved. I know it would take a few weeks or months, but I think it will help alot.

Raonaild

I think the main problem with this is that there isn't enough interest in specific movies to sustain a board for very long. We try to avoid opening new boards only to have to close them a short time later because they aren't getting any posts. The only ones that have worked are the big, multi-movie franchises like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.

Californian

oh ok. I understand. I was also thinking you could have a music one, but instead of having people vote on music artists and bands you could make a music category and then make the forums in that category a different genre of music such as, Country,Rap, Latino and so on.

xgirl30

I'd like to have that option too. I've seen some cool forum skins that users can choose on other boards that use Vbulletin and it would be cool to have something like that here. (even as a paid option if it would be too hard on the servers to give it to everyone.)

I also wish there was some way to have the WYSIWYG editor available. It makes posting so much easier.

- cris -

We have a graphics team in Fan Forum that spends a big deal of time to create new layouts and graphics for each board on Fan Forum, and posters are the ones that choose between different options when it comes to choosing the colors/design of the board. I think that's the main reason why Fan Forum doesn't offer such a service. Mainly because not only a lot of effort is put into each separate design, but also because posters are the ones who have the last word as how boards look like.

May I ask what a WYSIWYG editor is? I have no idea

xgirl30

WYSIWYG stands for what you see is what you get. That editor option allows you to see the final formatting of your post as you type it. (you'd see the smilies and links as they will appear in the post not as the code and if you're posting an image you'd see the actual image in the editor window)

That editor is a standard option in Vbulletin as far as I know. I understand that it uses more system resources than the other modes but it would be nice to have.

Chris

You could click 'Advanced' in the Quick Reply box, then 'Preview Post'.

Cereal Killer

- cris -, actually posters don't get to choose the final graphic and colours anymore, the Graphics Team does that in order to make sure that the selected graphic and colours fit into the overall design scheme that they've established for Fan Forum.

Chris

True. Posters at the board are asked for suggestions, and those are considered, but ultimately the Graphics Team decides.

Raonaild

Actually, I don't think it's the case that it uses more resources than the non-WYSIWYG editor, it's a client side feature, doesn't really affect the server. There wasn't any specific reason this feature was disabled, we just weren't using it and you're the first person who's ever asked for it.

I've enabled WYSIWYG editing for the edit window (though not for the Quick Reply or Quick Edit windows), you should be able to enable this in the User CP if you want to try it.

xgirl30

I do that but it's kind of a pain sometimes. (I guess I'm kind of spoiled because the Fuselage and most of the other forums I frequent all have that option available)

I didn't mean for my post to sound like I was disparaging the work the graphics team does. (graphic design is one of my hobbies so I know how much work goes into that kind of thing)
I was just thinking it would be nice to have the option to change the color schemes if they're hard on your eyes.

goodnightboy

Well I'm not so sure about whether that'll happen but the thing is that the genre threads that we have - such as the Country Music Appreciation or Female Fronted Metal (okay, it's sort of a genre thread) aren't the most active around (and for categories like Pop or Rock with many, many artistes it's just easier to have a thread for that particular artiste). I'm sure it could be done, but I'm not sure if the demand for it is there. If there's any general issue in, say, pop music, that you would like to discuss, it's fine to create a thread for it on the Music board

Pav

It works.