Dev Blog - Visual Overhaul To Page Headers · 4:34am Dec 17th, 2014
This is a dev blog, and is about features that are being worked on, not currently on the site
Ever since Fimfiction was first created, we've had banners at the top of every page. I think they're nice, and they add some prettiness to every page. However, they also add 175px of vertical space to every page. 175px of space that isn't used for actual content on every single page. Not to mention the fact that they use a lot of bandwidth, are specific to MLP and create colour issues with the rest of the page. It's been my intention to remove them for a long time, but definitely part of what stopped me doing it for so long is the inevitable outcry from people who seem to value that 175px of pony art over 175px of content. Still, things must be done, and so I'm working on a total rework of page headers to give them actually useful content.
Here's an example of a chapter page. We now get the story itself where the header would be, giving us useful information about the story if someone goes ahead and links a chapter page instead of the story page itself. This means we can save the space that would be taken up by the story name above the chapter itself, and move the chapter selector into the chapter too.
The other big change you can see here is tag colours. Long term, when we have thousands of tags, colours are just not feasible. Nor is the requirement for character tags to have images. Both of them have to go. Here you can see I distinguish between tag types with difference colours, which still makes it easy to see what genres the story has at a glance, for example, as well as keeping the visuals uncluttered and avoiding a situation where we have a huge mess of colours.
I'm a little unsure on the glassy effect in the header, where the cover image is shown as blurred and low opacity in the background, but it's something I'm experimenting with.
I'm also trying to get as much information out of that gaudy chapter toolbar as possible, and moving them into more intuitive locations that avoids the need for it.
Wait, did you just implement that?
Or is it a new/upcoming thing?
Because that looks damn spiffy and I want it!
~Skeeter The Lurker
THANK YOU
this really needed to be addressed
2658701 No it's stuff I'm working on. Otherwise it'd be a site post.
But, I like the banners!
Custom tags, now I can have a parody tag.
Dear god
Fimficbooru
Planning on branching out?
2658703
What do I have to do to accelerate that feature?
~Skeeter The Lurker
2658709
OHGOD.
...Maybe it won't be too bad...?
~Skeeter The Lurker
In any case, I personally have a style that removes the headers, so... yeah.
Boo! Bad form, my good sir! Why not make this an option, as some of us quite enjoy the banners!
As much as I do like my Pony banners at the top of my pages, this looks really good, and I can't wait to see it implemented!
(Custom tags; now that is a mega-good idea! Me likes muchlies1)
Thanks for the head's-up, Knighty. I'll be keeping an eye out for the new stuff.
This looks great; I'm looking forward to it.
Since you're getting rid of the character image tags and replacing it with just their names, are you going to put back the Twicorn tag?
Seems promising enough. Plenty of additional things that can be done with this, too. The banners would still be around, though? Just not in the chapters themselves?
Edit: -.-
You're either really brave or really foolhardy for taking away these long-standing features, knighty. I hope for your sake it all works out.
Looking forward to this.
I would still like to have the banner on the front page or something like that.
Most of the updates so far have been for the better in my opinion (barring the loss of bookshelf filtering on mobile), so I'll remain optimistic about future developments.
2658719
It looks like the banners will still be there, just not on the story pages.
I'm alright with most of these changes, but that bit about losing images on character tags doesn't make any sense. Why would they have to be cut?
But... Art is pretty, and it makes the things it's next to look pretty...
Words are dull to look at. Colors are nice...
I think I might just....enable adblock...
no i wont but....wait, was there supposed to be a point to this....eh, just the brony gamer and his shenanigans amirite?.....who am i...
2658709
I'm all for custom tags, but it devolves to this... Actually, you know what?
Hey knighty, any chance in the future—perhaps sometime after this next update—we can blacklist some custom tags, but not site ones? I can already foresee stories with tags like "scat" or "foalcon" and I'd honestly rather never see such stories.
Also, I find it slightly disconcerting you have "MLP: FIM" as a tag there. Isn't that redundant given the, well website's purpose? Or is this alluding to something?
2658783
I can think of a lot of people that want an MLP:EQG tag.
2658790
2658783 don't forget crossover docs. They could be tagged with their sources.
I actually wouldn't mind that. At all.
I'd much rather keep banners than the alternative :/... Let's me keep my experience semi-unique... Besides, I like my LyraBon having a day off banner...
I really like the way that looks, especially how each type of tag has its own color. Though I suppose Flare is right and you should have a "FIMFiction" banner on the main page, just for kicks.
I kinda like the banner change, but as it was stated earlier, perhaps make it an option to see the new banner, see the old banner with pictures or another option to cut them completely.
I can see tags getting way out of hand and possibly redundant, and I generally just glance over tag colors to see what a story is about. Being able to block tags is a good idea, and I believe it had been around for a little while a couple years ago. I don't exactly look forward to sorting through hundreds of tags to find a story I'm interested in. And for the MLP:FiM tag, that doesn't mean that we will get other stuff here too, will it?... As long as it stays to ponies, fine.
The US government sets aside money during each project for beautification. This is the exact same thing. It doesn't add content but in a library the occasional art piece really helps. The statue in front of a building doesn't add to the function of a building and yet a building than has appropriate art or a garden is significantly nicer.
Please keep the art on the page, it makes it feel homey, loving. Yes it isn't words but that is why it is so important, it breaks up the site, it makes it easier on the eyes, for some of us it's even inspiring.
I have the feeling that, to you, this might partially be about changing up the look of the site as much as it is about functionality. After all staleness grows over time and you probably visit the site a lot Knighty. If you remove the art at the top please put it somewhere else, maybe not something as big, but perhaps some art along the side, or removing half of it and place something functional there.
One of the reasons I've always loved the picture banner at the top was that I would always have it set to one picture—not out of a love for the picture itself, but because I liked the colour scheme that came with it. If you do implement this (and I hope you do, because you just stated a lot of good reasons to do it and it looks pretty cool) would you perhaps be able to give an option for a custom colour for the "groups, user, settings, etc." bar? Funnily enough, I think of all the things I'd miss were this to be implemented, I'd miss that most.
2658783 Fanfics of the other generations.
Perhaps an option to switch them out?
Or just have the chapter banner in use while on the specific page, with the art being on the other pages?
I hate when people link pictures with hyperlinks to their story chapter. At least now this will let me know what the hell I get sucked into. xD
But I wish it was more of a dropdown menu style thing. I like my Twilight up at whoever the hell she's looking at header. The colors are just so nice. Not that we're staring at the header for long once we start reading. xD
Great addition!
I like this kind of blog post. Very interesting.
I support this change. (The current headers always did strike me as a waste of bandwidth.)
I would also appreciate the ability to display blogposts and comments using light text on a dark background, similarly to the existing color options for story content. It's easier on both my night vision and my phone's battery.
Looks like a good update. As much as I like the banners, I already run with them turned off on my main reading platforms for more steathy pony reading, so this won't be much of a change for me.
As much as I thought I'd be one of the "let it stay" people I very much approve of this. Are the current headers going to stick around on non-story pages?
dat custom tag tho
at last, we can have Button Mash! :D
2658903 The FiM tag could be used alongside tags for spinoffs, such as EqG.
reasons. As long as it's still on pages like the Bookshelves and whatnot we'll still see it just as often, really.
This could be a handy change, for
I did like being able to set my own header color as opposed to it changing with the banner image, so maybe that could make a comeback?
2658783
Well scat, foalcon, and other major things like that are clearly going to be actual site tags. The plan is for all more major, common element type stuff to get proper site tags, the custom tags stuff is mostly to fill in the small gaps left over. (OCs that rarely show up, for example...)
It looks good. But I personally would still like that the character tags were images, I see it as a little easier to remember what the character looks like then just reading their name.
2659495
I'm not fully understanding this site tag thing. All I want to know is, is there a possibility of an 'Epistolary' tag?
I love em, I write em, I want to find more.
All I can say is that I really, really like this.
On that note... I remember a time waaaaay back when, when I was first around on the site, we had some sort of brown banner that showed the newest stories that had just been released. Granted, it only showed titles, but that's a lot more exposure than most authors can expect now, and i found it useful as I would occasionally see a title that caught my eye and check out the story. As long as we're replacing the banner with content, could we also see a return of a similar feature?
I've always had a love/hate relationship with the banner. On one hoof, I've strongly disliked the space it takes up and how much it distracts from the rest of the page. On another however, it's lead me to discover some amazing artists and their works that I may not have been exposed to before, and on pages where its presence isn't as much of a distraction it does add a splash of beauty to them. I don't honestly know how I'll feel once it's gone. There will be a sense of loss for the art, certainly, but there will also be a sense of relief that pages will be more consistent and functional.
I really do not know. I have strong opinions, but they go in both directions and cancel out to leave me right in the middle of a great big neutral feeling about this. I suppose on balance that makes this ultimately a positive change, all things being equal it adds functionality and reduces clutter and that's something I feel I can definitely support.
Farewell banners, you will simultaneously be missed and not be missed.
Is there going to be a cut between "official tags" and "unofficial tags"? Because I think that the official tags have a lot of value being, well, official; the general genres and suchlike are fairly useful for going through stories, and if people have things which are applied to their stories, they're more likely to use them rather than random garbage.
Now that you say this........
It does makes sense. I'm not angry at you anymore :D
Friends?
Fair enough, that does help in that setting. Still, I will miss those pictures.
Hm, the mobile site is not great. The header takes up a full page. The bar at the top of the story is too narrow for all the icons, so some spill down the page and don't go away when the bar collapses.
Edit: Also, site statistics has two charts without any data.