Forum width

Debido · January 05, 2015, 06:33:32 PM

Got to thinking today (bad thing

) but generally speaking with all of todays different devices for people to look at a forum, whats a good width to go with? I know 90% is the default but just wondering what most everyone has their forums set to? Another reason im asking is i saw mine on a 800x600 screen today and all the ads i have on the right side of the forum were almsot impossible to see unless you scrolled way over.

Antechinus · January 05, 2015, 08:27:52 PM

There isn't a "right width". No such animal. There used to be, but it went extinct along with the dinosaurs.

Debido · January 06, 2015, 12:19:02 AM

so you saying set it to whatever and forget it?

Antechinus · January 06, 2015, 12:39:00 AM

Well, try to pick something that you think will annoy the fewest people you care about. If your membership is mainly desktop users, pick just about anything reasonable. If it's a mix of desktop and mobile users, you're basically screwed without a responsive site, so yeah pick just about anything reasonable.

Debido · January 06, 2015, 12:50:33 AM

How you make SMF responsive no matter what type device views it? Or is that even possible? Im old scholl and dont have a smart phone or tablet and never will, I am on a 21 inch screen pc.

Antechinus · January 06, 2015, 03:10:53 AM

You do it by basically rewriting the whole SMF front end. The problem is that SMF 2.0.x is basically a pre-responsive thing, in that it was conceived and largely developed before browsing on phones became a significant factor. A few people have had a crack at doing responsive themes. I'm in the middle of one myself but it's still WIP.

There's this one on the theme site: http://custom.simplemachines.org/themes/index.php?lemma=2728 That looks pretty clean but I haven't tested it.

I know Mick G was playing with responsive too. Runic is looking after Mick's themes now, but offhand I don't know which (if any) are responsive: http://custom.simplemachines.org/themes/index.php?action=profile;u=395458

If you want to run ads down the right side it can get tricky. The thing is that responsive design/coding relies on media queries detecting the width of the screen. If you take something that was designed to handle a bare forum, then start chucking in extra columns inside the screen, it may cause layout problems. Best bet is to find a theme that claims to be responsive, then give it a test run and see if you like the way it behaves.

Debido · January 06, 2015, 04:59:16 AM

sounds like no easy way for now, are all forums basically like this nowdays?

Antechinus · January 06, 2015, 05:28:15 AM

Well all the newer versions are being designed to be responsive from the start, if that's what you're asking. All the older versions are much the same (ie: not responsive) AFAIK.

Gwenwyfar · January 08, 2015, 01:20:48 PM

If you're going to make it fixed width I find that between 900 and 1100px works well. It is a comfortable size to read in and fits pretty much any modern monitor. I just leave the responsive bit to anything under that amount and add more things to really large screen sizes to fill the empty space.

(Or you could just make it a % width, but I don't personally find it a good idea for most sites since it makes things harder to read with everything being all over your entire screen. But you could put a max-width and % at the same time, too.)

Antechinus · January 08, 2015, 02:10:10 PM

Yeah I tend to use a max-width with %. I have no idea why some nutters like chasing sentences for miles. If you just want comfortable reading, a content area around 800px wide is close to perfect. This is well-known basic typography but it gets ignored all over the place.

Gwenwyfar · January 08, 2015, 03:12:26 PM

Yeah, that size is pretty good for the content. Having it larger would be mostly to leave space for a sidebar if there is one.

I have no idea why some nutters like chasing sentences for miles.[2]

Antechinus · January 08, 2015, 03:30:18 PM

I think they get scared that they'll seem inadequate if their page doesn't fill the entire screen. Either that or they have a thing about not scrolling, and fail to realise that reading is quicker and more comfortable if you scroll occasionally instead of having to chase sentences (probably because they've never tried it).

Debido · January 08, 2015, 04:59:14 PM

Ive been reading about that tapatalk deal but am unsure of that, is that a short term solution?

Also someone please answer what is that WAP2 link in the footer area? Sorry to be uneducated about something that I prob should be with.

Gwenwyfar · January 08, 2015, 05:11:39 PM

QuoteI think they get scared that they'll seem inadequate if their page doesn't fill the entire screen. Either that or they have a thing about not scrolling, and fail to realise that reading is quicker and more comfortable if you scroll occasionally instead of having to chase sentences (probably because they've never tried it).

Yeah. What I find odd though is that whenever I bring the topic with some friends/people I know that have very large monitors, just to ask what they think of sites too wide and such, they never answer... I already find it bad on mine and its not that big

Can't help with tapatalk, I know little about it myself, but it has been removed from the mod site here due to not updating it for SMF, no?

About WAP, click it to see

Its basically a stripped out version of the forum.

Debido · January 08, 2015, 08:09:21 PM

I did click on that link and just wondered what its actually there for.

I did google it and its wireless appication protocol. lol that tells me i still dont know what its used for on the forum.

Antechinus · January 08, 2015, 08:11:31 PM

It's simplified forum for old phones which could access the web, but couldn't do all the smart stuff.

Debido · January 08, 2015, 08:20:00 PM

Quote from: Antechinus on January 08, 2015, 08:11:31 PM
It's simplified forum for old phones which could access the web, but couldn't do all the smart stuff.

thank you that explains it!

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Forum width