Get rid of dropdown menus?

submitted by [deleted] from self.IdeasForSaidIt

These dropdown menus might look tidy, but they mean an extra click! I got this idea from the "below tabs links" that are on this page: https://saidit.net/subs/mine/ Anyway, here's the proposal.

User page before: https://i.imgur.com/upZxMx5.png

User page after: https://i.imgur.com/llwC1Cn.png

Sub page before: https://i.imgur.com/1tOhxqJ.png

Sub page after: https://i.imgur.com/JHguezF.png

This is just a quick mockup. I'd like to see these links scoot up a bit, and maybe for that dotted border below them to go away.

all 31 comments
sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun

[–]fred_red_beans 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think it sounds good, easier to see the options there without having to click in the first place.

[–]Drewski 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

This is a good idea.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

/u/magnora7 /u/jasoncarswell whatcha think?

[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I like it! Go for it if you like it!

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Love it.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Do users frequently use this sorting feature?

Presenting all of the options can be useful to severely inexperienced netizens, but it may appear nominally more cluttered.

Especially, if the screen is already busy.

Sometimes, less is more.

Conversely, each and every non-submission page on this site has dozens of links, so what's a couple more links going to hurt.

Overall, no prob.
If you like the change, then go for it.

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I look at is as more of a change for experienced redditors who do use those links, to save them a click. I use them a bit, but maybe they are seldom used.

But yes, good point, this would be introducing more visual clutter. Thanks for the feedback.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I look at is as more of a change for experienced redditors who do use those links, to save them a click.

It's interesting that you state it like that, because it's probably overlooked by new/infrequent users.

Reddit's decision to minimize that icon button was probably an intentional pre-filtering of content.
Improved content availability is a positive feature, so this idea is a net positive change (+).

Good call!

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I would use them more for sure. I often forget about these options.

SaidIt is already way less than other forums.

I'd rather have the options and if people want to create minimalist CSS themes I'd be happy to support them and even help. Like the day/night theme I'd love to see a more/less thing.

Sometimes less is more. Sometimes more is more.

Size and placement matters.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I change the "sort-by" often and this expanded design is helpful. However, I think it is better for the dotted border to stay because the overall layout is more clear to the eye on first sight that the posts start from there and the "sort" option is a different section. It is clearer for the eye in overall design.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Sold, the border will stay.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 3 fun1 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

I just wasted a few minutes looking for the "dotted border" on my 90% browser in my crappy left monitor until I sized up.

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (18 children)

I love it.

I'd love to see more options too (ie, inversed options: oldest, coldest, etc, perhaps just indicated with ↑ ↓ arrows).

Is it worth reconsidering the titles?

new | hot | top | insightful | fun

vs

date | hotness | popularity | insightfulness | fun

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

"New" and "Date" mean the same thing with little to no difference in our context, so I think either one is fine.

"Hot" is already sending the message and it is shorter than "hotness" so it is better to stick to "Hot".

Top/Popular - Some more words we could consider- Votes, Points, Favored, Boosted

"Insightful" is shorter and gets the message across so I think it is better for it to stay.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Shorter is better except "date" imo. I like "points" and "favoured".

I'd be even happier with icons.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Yeah, "Points" feels most accurate because it literally means what it is supposed to mean.

Icons would be cool; they convey the message with minimum use of expression.

I made a sample design for the sorting icons: https://imgur.com/OVnrvR4

PS: I don't have commercial license for the software to make them for actual usage.

[–]JasonCarswell 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Those are fantastic!

Maybe /u/magnora7 and /u/d3rr would like them.

If we can't find usable icons to use I can emulate those icons and build them as SVGs so they scale everywhere, like in mobile mode, and maybe in future preferences folks can set their size, colours, etc.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Thank you. I tried to add color but I could not think of a palette that suits each and all of them while not attracting too much attention to them; and maintain decent overall look of the page.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (12 children)

Sup stranger! Ty for the feedback. I'm open to renaming but I'm not sure if you could get a consensus on that. Yes yes, consensus is not always the way to go.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (11 children)

I just flew in from Langley where I was doing a 2 week infiltration refresher course and updated all my James Bond gadgets, and boy are my arms dealers tired.

Truth is my back still kills but it seems like it's getting better. I thought that before. Maybe it's the Universe making me quit my SaidIt addiction. I've been working on a longer post for the last couple weeks when I can sit and think. I'm glad that I think better now and gladder when it's almost pain free at times.

My views on consensus:

  1. Ask as much as possible, especially if it's perceptible or impactful or in doubt. Don't expect great feedback.

  2. If the response is lackluster or ambiguous then justduet and provide a keep-or-revert date (ie. week-long trial) while asking again for feedback.

  3. Revert back if necessary.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (10 children)

Hahaha worst joke ever, I love it. Sorry about your back man, I hope you get it squared soon. Maybe sleeping on the floor would help. Good thoughts on consensus.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (9 children)

I have a semi-urgent issue.

Viewing and editing wikipages works but saving wikipages seems to be a problem. Obviously comments save.

https://saidit.net/s/SaidIt/wiki/edit/jasoncarswell

https://saidit.net/s/GlossedOver/wiki/edit/index

Fortunately the seasonal thunderstorm has passed today but there's another tomorrow and if my power goes so does whatever work I did.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

Backup to disk asap! Copy and paste that sucker.

Good report man, it's indeed broken. Priority #1 for me. Hopefully it will be fixed tonight at some point.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

After I commented I tried it in K-Melon and found the same problem so I'd saved it to a text file.

Glad you're on it. Thanks. I was using it before no prob. I don't recall doing anything to break it but if I did I'd like to know so I don't do whatever it was again.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

It's a weird out of memory on the OS level issue

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Is it fixed?

I had another idea. Maybe my wiki page was too long?

If you ever do add display limits and character counts there are a few other places this would be good, ie. all the fields in the sub settings. I feel like there was another place but if there was I forgot.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Fixed.

If you ever do add display limits and character counts

Everything does have a limit at the end of the day. It's like server-side though, so you have to submit a gigantic wall of text and get an error to find out that there are limits. It would be cool to publish all of these limits somewhere I guess.