Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Some times it just feels like the message is of secondary importance.
I suggest we cap the avatar column to a smaller width, by either using a smaller fond for text, or setting a line length that is capped at x caracters (less than now).
rrr...
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Am I dreaming, or is it fixed?
rrr...
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If you are surrounded by rare and valuable stamps, then you are still dreaming...
Psst -- nobody wake him up!
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Is your browser set to full screen, or have you tried zooming out to make the page smaller?
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Yes 'rrr' you are right about this Avatar taking more than necessary space, almost 25% horizontally and vertically it is a waste of space for a one line response. I've been meaning to talk about this with Tim (our resident Wizard) but was searching for the best possible solution before mentioning this.
The Avatar on the LHS is a personal statement, picture, URL of the member and must be there. Most of the members are easily identifiable by just looking at their Avatar so it must continue to be there but the space taken can be tweaked some, maybe if Tim will try experimenting by placing this at the top of the message we can get some more space on screen. Also it would be nice if the member's country name also appears beside the name/nick on the Avatar, it is just an idea - let Tim mull over it 
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Saleem or rrr,
Could you please take a screen shot (Print Screen), save it as an image file (jpg) and send it to me so I can see what you are seeing?
Regards ... Tim.
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Tim: when someone posted under his avatar a link to a webpage that went http//www.etc..... for 40 or 50 characters long, the presentation of the avatar and the message were occupying virtually 50% of the width of the page each. Splitting the link into two lines seemed to have resolved it. I don't know if it is an inherent system problem, or my PC misbehaved, because I have not seen such a drastic visual problem again, although it does seem that the horizontal space reserved for the avatar on the LHS is a variable. It would be easy to test.
rrr...
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3r is correct in his observations. Whatever length info is under any one avatar pretty much dictates the width of the entire avatar column for all the posts on the page. So if they have a long URL, the avatar column gets quite wide.
Not everyone is like me: no avatar, no links, no quotable quotes...
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Well, Kim, you can't get much for a penny nowadays.
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This is a browser compatibility issue. In Firefox, a URL will not line break and therefore cause the table column width to expand beyond the defined width of 170 pixels and take the space needed from the 530 pixel message column. If something large (like a photo) is placed in the right column, it will expand as well to fit the image.
If you look at any page where Michael78651 has posted (where hasn't he?!?) in Firefox, you will see the left column has expanded and the right column has shrunk to accommodate his URL on one line. If you view the same page in Chrome, Internet Explorer, or Safari, you will see that his URL breaks after the question mark and does NOT cause the column width of the left column to expand.
If someone can show me a page with a long URL without a question mark I can see if the other browsers line break it as well.
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Well, I am mortified by that, Lars! 
One thing that can be done is lower the font size for the left column. I don't think it is necessary to have it at the size it currently is. The text on the postings is more important.
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A simpler solution:
If it bothers you, quit using Firefox!
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At https://bitly.com/
you can create a tiny url without even registering on the site, like this:
Before: http://www.bidstart.com/shop.php?userid=101871
. After: http://bit.ly/16cqhjv
Tedski
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Tedski,
I won't click on a tiny URL. I don't trust them because they cannot be easily authenticated. I am very careful what I click on to avoid malicious links. I also don't like obfuscating the destination. It's nice to be able to see if I'm going to eBay or BidStart or wherever.
As a practical matter, it makes little sense to make several people alter their URLs to fix what is a bug in Firefox. The other browsers work just fine.
Lars
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Another simple solution -- limit the left-hand column to user name, avatar, and date/time of post and display the personal statement (life philosophy, website, etc.) with the message footer at the end of the post.
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I have thought about this and have come to the conclusion that "WE" the users of SOR have to do this and give a respite to Tim. How we can do it? It's simple, just remove the long lines of URL and statements from below the Avatar and place them at the signing off message at the footer. Avatar and nicknames are not the problem, they just occupy about 10% of the screen at the left side. I'm going to try it myself now - let's see who races me to be a distant second 
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Okay, I edited my web page link by deleting the "home page" URL and adding it as a footnote; however by doing this, I lost the hyperlink to my store URL. Not sure I like it this way. Sorry folks, I'm switching back.
Cheers,
Peter
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Look at this page in Internet Explorer, or Chrome, or Safari. It works fine! It's only Firefox that has a problem, and it's not that big of a problem. Unless someone uses an extremely long URL this is really a tempest in a teapot. I build web sites for a living and deal with browser compatibility issues on a regular basis. There may be a simple fix, and if so the webmaster will likely incorporate it, but this isn't something worthy of more than a cursory search, in my humble opinion.
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tomiseksj, your solution would work very well. If the webmaster were to make such a change, I would like to suggest a signature block that includes name, quote, and URL.
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Could someone please take a screen print of the problem and send it to me? I'll then be able to come up with a fix for it.
Regards ... Tim
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Screen shots sent.
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This is a non-issue for me with a 27 inch screen but it does seem cramped with my 17 inch laptop screen; personally, I dislike IE and do not use it, and find Firefox superior to Chrome; that's just my opinion, so if this were an issue for me, switching from FF is not a solution.
" I would like to suggest a signature block that includes name, quote, and URL. "
I agree this is the better solution, as long as the URL hyperlink is active in the footnote. As a web designer, I'm sure you agree that this is preferable to having a user highlight and copy the URL to use it.
Cheers,
Peter
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Thanks for the screen shots Lars. I'll take a look at it.
Regards ... Tim
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Peter,
Absolutely, URLs should be clickable, and in my humble opinion, when going to a different web site, should launch a new window so you can navigate around and just close that window to get back to where you were instead of clicking the back button a bunch of times.
Lars
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Lars, I absolutely agree with that, about opening a new window. My default now is to always right click to open in a new tab or window.
Of course, we could just use SAFARI (I had to channel Dave Bennett here, for old times sake).
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With some Avatars associated with long sentences, or webpages or ?? I have noticed that the space left to read the messages is now crowded to the RHS in a much narrower box.
Some times it just feels like the message is of secondary importance.
I suggest we cap the avatar column to a smaller width, by either using a smaller fond for text, or setting a line length that is capped at x caracters (less than now).
rrr...
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re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
Am I dreaming, or is it fixed?
rrr...
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this post
re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
If you are surrounded by rare and valuable stamps, then you are still dreaming...
Psst -- nobody wake him up!
Login to Like
this post
04:47:50pm
re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
Is your browser set to full screen, or have you tried zooming out to make the page smaller?
Login to Like
this post
re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
Yes 'rrr' you are right about this Avatar taking more than necessary space, almost 25% horizontally and vertically it is a waste of space for a one line response. I've been meaning to talk about this with Tim (our resident Wizard) but was searching for the best possible solution before mentioning this.
The Avatar on the LHS is a personal statement, picture, URL of the member and must be there. Most of the members are easily identifiable by just looking at their Avatar so it must continue to be there but the space taken can be tweaked some, maybe if Tim will try experimenting by placing this at the top of the message we can get some more space on screen. Also it would be nice if the member's country name also appears beside the name/nick on the Avatar, it is just an idea - let Tim mull over it
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re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
Saleem or rrr,
Could you please take a screen shot (Print Screen), save it as an image file (jpg) and send it to me so I can see what you are seeing?
Regards ... Tim.
Login to Like
this post
re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
Tim: when someone posted under his avatar a link to a webpage that went http//www.etc..... for 40 or 50 characters long, the presentation of the avatar and the message were occupying virtually 50% of the width of the page each. Splitting the link into two lines seemed to have resolved it. I don't know if it is an inherent system problem, or my PC misbehaved, because I have not seen such a drastic visual problem again, although it does seem that the horizontal space reserved for the avatar on the LHS is a variable. It would be easy to test.
rrr...
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this post
re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
3r is correct in his observations. Whatever length info is under any one avatar pretty much dictates the width of the entire avatar column for all the posts on the page. So if they have a long URL, the avatar column gets quite wide.
Not everyone is like me: no avatar, no links, no quotable quotes...
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10:52:30pm
re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
Well, Kim, you can't get much for a penny nowadays.
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this post
re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
This is a browser compatibility issue. In Firefox, a URL will not line break and therefore cause the table column width to expand beyond the defined width of 170 pixels and take the space needed from the 530 pixel message column. If something large (like a photo) is placed in the right column, it will expand as well to fit the image.
If you look at any page where Michael78651 has posted (where hasn't he?!?) in Firefox, you will see the left column has expanded and the right column has shrunk to accommodate his URL on one line. If you view the same page in Chrome, Internet Explorer, or Safari, you will see that his URL breaks after the question mark and does NOT cause the column width of the left column to expand.
If someone can show me a page with a long URL without a question mark I can see if the other browsers line break it as well.
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02:16:39pm
re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
Well, I am mortified by that, Lars!
One thing that can be done is lower the font size for the left column. I don't think it is necessary to have it at the size it currently is. The text on the postings is more important.
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this post
re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
A simpler solution:
If it bothers you, quit using Firefox!
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this post
re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
At https://bitly.com/
you can create a tiny url without even registering on the site, like this:
Before: http://www.bidstart.com/shop.php?userid=101871
. After: http://bit.ly/16cqhjv
Tedski
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re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
Tedski,
I won't click on a tiny URL. I don't trust them because they cannot be easily authenticated. I am very careful what I click on to avoid malicious links. I also don't like obfuscating the destination. It's nice to be able to see if I'm going to eBay or BidStart or wherever.
As a practical matter, it makes little sense to make several people alter their URLs to fix what is a bug in Firefox. The other browsers work just fine.
Lars
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
Another simple solution -- limit the left-hand column to user name, avatar, and date/time of post and display the personal statement (life philosophy, website, etc.) with the message footer at the end of the post.
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
I have thought about this and have come to the conclusion that "WE" the users of SOR have to do this and give a respite to Tim. How we can do it? It's simple, just remove the long lines of URL and statements from below the Avatar and place them at the signing off message at the footer. Avatar and nicknames are not the problem, they just occupy about 10% of the screen at the left side. I'm going to try it myself now - let's see who races me to be a distant second
Login to Like
this post
09:39:58pm
re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
Okay, I edited my web page link by deleting the "home page" URL and adding it as a footnote; however by doing this, I lost the hyperlink to my store URL. Not sure I like it this way. Sorry folks, I'm switching back.
Cheers,
Peter
Login to Like
this post
re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
Look at this page in Internet Explorer, or Chrome, or Safari. It works fine! It's only Firefox that has a problem, and it's not that big of a problem. Unless someone uses an extremely long URL this is really a tempest in a teapot. I build web sites for a living and deal with browser compatibility issues on a regular basis. There may be a simple fix, and if so the webmaster will likely incorporate it, but this isn't something worthy of more than a cursory search, in my humble opinion.
Login to Like
this post
re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
tomiseksj, your solution would work very well. If the webmaster were to make such a change, I would like to suggest a signature block that includes name, quote, and URL.
Login to Like
this post
re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
Could someone please take a screen print of the problem and send it to me? I'll then be able to come up with a fix for it.
Regards ... Tim
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re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
Screen shots sent.
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07:52:16am
re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
This is a non-issue for me with a 27 inch screen but it does seem cramped with my 17 inch laptop screen; personally, I dislike IE and do not use it, and find Firefox superior to Chrome; that's just my opinion, so if this were an issue for me, switching from FF is not a solution.
" I would like to suggest a signature block that includes name, quote, and URL. "
I agree this is the better solution, as long as the URL hyperlink is active in the footnote. As a web designer, I'm sure you agree that this is preferable to having a user highlight and copy the URL to use it.
Cheers,
Peter
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re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
Thanks for the screen shots Lars. I'll take a look at it.
Regards ... Tim
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re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
Peter,
Absolutely, URLs should be clickable, and in my humble opinion, when going to a different web site, should launch a new window so you can navigate around and just close that window to get back to where you were instead of clicking the back button a bunch of times.
Lars
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10:57:15am
re: Avatars and related text crowding message field
Lars, I absolutely agree with that, about opening a new window. My default now is to always right click to open in a new tab or window.
Of course, we could just use SAFARI (I had to channel Dave Bennett here, for old times sake).
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