Quick Poll!

[superheroine]

Alright, guys, I'm trying to make sure we have a layout that works best with more people to tide us over until a better solution:

Take a look and navigate around both paradisa and paradisalogs for a few moments. Check out threads and look at layouts. Comment around (haha, make some CR!) and see which you like better. Paradisa is currently set up with Aquatic Somethingorother and Paradisalogs is set up with iPad Somethingorother.

From what I can see so far:

Aquatic DOES have navigation/linklists, but the comment threads are forced to be narrower due to the sidebar.
iPad DOES NOT have navigation/linklists, but the comment threads span the entire width of the page.

BOTH allow everything we used before; icon selecting/dropdown, previewing, plain text boxes, etc.

I'd like to know which is more functional, so I can get both comms on the same page and ensure this whole fiasco is as manageable as possible for our players.

[Poll #1804926]

Comments

[encryptedlock]

If we could get the sidebar onto the other side it wouldn't be too much of a big deal, but I know my conversations tend to get really long in the main comm so the more it can expand out to the right, the better off I'd feel.

That said, I like the actual feel of aquawhatsit better....

[superheroine]

I'm trying to figure that out! There's options for a sidebar in the customization and I can toggle the calendar on and off with it, but for some reason, the linklist and blurb don't go.

I like the feel of Aqua more but I also find it v. hard on the eyes.

[molotov]

I only have one tag to answer right now, and it's in a post without a bunch of threads, so I have to ask:

Do either of the layouts allow you to remain in a thread after commenting? Or is that pretty much just gone?

[huntersdaughter]

I have tested almost every layout by opening the speed-dating log, pulling up a thread, and replying to it. None of the layouts hold their sub-thread locations that I have found.

[boylolita.livejournal.com]

Aquatic is pretty and it definitely looks more like the old design, but the sidebar ruins it for me entirely. I'm only twenty-something comments into a thread and
I'm
already
reading
like
this
.

My vote is definitely for iPad. The comment pages are just way more functional without a sidebar taking up a fourth of the page.

[wolfuncaged.livejournal.com]

I like the look of Ipad a lot more, it's less painful on the eyes. But the lack of a sidebar puts me off somewhat. As someone who browses utterly by comm, not having easy links to the ooc, logs, etc makes playing more awkward - that said, I can just...idk make a bookmark folder for them all, so it's not the complete end of the world.

+1

[lord-wizard.livejournal.com]

This, pretty much.

[punk-emperor.livejournal.com]

Can I say other? Both of the styles you've listed have the threads disappearing off the page without scrollbars.

I've been using a layout called Drone (apparently it's based of Magazine by Lucent) on one of my paid accounts and while it still has that awful problem of popping you out of threads and back to the first page of comments when you leave a comment, what it does do, is let you customize the colorscheme pretty well. The layout is kinda close to the old-style (including scrollbars for long threads) and I've got the colors pretty close to the old-style on Kanji's journal, but his isn't a paid so I can't do the "view in my style" thing to make a decent screencap to show. If you make the sidebar color the same as the background color, it doesn't look like there's a sidebar at all.

The most annoying thing is that it won't show icons on journal or community view. Still, it might be worth checking out?

[superheroine]

Do you have a link to it?

[punk-emperor.livejournal.com]

Does this work? http://www.livejournal.com/customize/?layoutid=15&show=

The one I'm currently on is bottom left.

Also, switched to paid trial and took some screencaps of the comm and a big post. The lilac is a me thing, and like I said can be customized pretty easy.
what the main comm looks like (http://i337.photobucket.com/albums/n362/realisticfakefish/paradisacomm.png)
part of post and uncollapsed thread (http://i337.photobucket.com/albums/n362/realisticfakefish/paradisauncollapsed.png)
how a long, collapsed thread stretches (http://i337.photobucket.com/albums/n362/realisticfakefish/paradisacollapsed.png)

[superheroine]

Hmm! I had looked at that before, but had skipped over it because my preview of it *hadn't* shown the old-style comments. Interesting. i think it's doable, though perhaps kinda uglier.

[punk-emperor.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it makes the comm itself a little ugly (and I wish it showed userpics), but it's the closest I've found to the old-style comments and I'll take functional over pretty in this case.

Also someone on my plurk just linked me to this (http://stoppedhiding.livejournal.com/1903.html) which might be even better? I haven't checked it out yet.

[chartharsis.livejournal.com]

Right now I'm leaning toward Aquatic because, barring the fact that we lose some page width, it's actually pretty close to the old look. The second custom style that Kanji-mun linked looks pretty good to me, too, but it means an awful lot of rooting around in code for you guys, and if that's going to be more pain than convenience, I can certainly work around and live with Aquatic.

.... That being said, I do have new shiny Dreamwidth accounts for everyone in case the worst should come to pass, too.

THANK YOU for working on this, especially since I know it's your last week as a modly mod.

[lawfulwright.livejournal.com]

-nthing the iPad one.

But mostly -nthing the fact that I'll hitch up my characters and follow Para to DW if it should come to that.