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I like the idea, but on PC the last topic titles seem too far apart from the subforum titles, especially since most of the topic titles are cut off. Maybe move them to the left a little bit.

Testing it out on mobile, though, it doesn't look great, mostly because the last topic titles are center-aligned and ironically too far to the left, so they sorta overlap with the subforum titles to the left and have a large space on the right. Perhaps left-aligning the text of the topic titles might help.

Not sure how fixing one view's problem would affect the other's, though.

I get the idea that you use the forum front page a lot more than most other regulars

That may very well be the case, actually.

I browse solely using the front page too!

I did some work this evening with the subforums...they now display as a list instead of three columns, with the last topic in the subforum over to the right. I tried to include last poster and time as well, but having two lines for subforums just didn't feel right.

I also fixed the time issue!

Let me know your thoughts

If the goal (as stated in the OP) is to reduce the space needed, this seems like a step back? I recall you specifically implemented the condensed subforum layout to reduce the amount of space taken up, so (edit: checked and I misremembered, the change was from a comma list to columns) to go back and also then provide extraneous information seems kinda the opposite of everything you've been trying to do with the other changes.

To be clear the layout seems fine on my screen, it just seems to be running counter to your stated goal.

@taulover: I suppose what I'm trying to do is make the front page easier to read through and understand, and I thought one way to do that was to eliminate the clutter for each forum row to make each row smaller so we can turn some sub-forums into main forums. Even then though, we're going to be left with some sub-forums cause it doesn't make sense to turn rarely-used sub-forums, such as private government areas, into main forums. In those cases I thought it would be helpful to have more information about the last post.

I personally think it's easier to skim through the list of sub-forums with all of them in one column to the left, but I agree with @Gerrick that the extra information on the right doesn't look right. Maybe it's not even needed? It seems a shame to leave all that blank space to the right of the list of sub-forums, but to me it looks more distracting than helpful. =/

I'm curious of what people think of the change I made to how subforums show. It's basically going back to having them as a list of links. My thinking here is that when most of the sub-forums are made into main forums, the ones that are left aren't going to be very active and won't need much attention.

What are your guys' thoughts on this one? Do you prefer them comma-separated like this, the list like it was before with the last post information on the right, or how it was originally with the three columns?

I think if we were able to figure out how to make the previous version (with last thread posted in) look a little better, it would be my favorite. But if no good/easy changes were possible, this version would be my favorite. The three columns version isn't bad, but these two are better, I think.

EDIT: Ooooh, I really like how the dots next to the subforum titles on this version turn orange when there are unread posts in them!

I think if we were able to figure out how to make the previous version (with last thread posted in) look a little better, it would be my favorite. But if no good/easy changes were possible, this version would be my favorite. The three columns version isn't bad, but these two are better, I think.

EDIT: Ooooh, I really like how the dots next to the subforum titles on this version turn orange when there are unread posts in them!

Yes! After I posted that, I played around with Font Awesome some, and the result really improved my feelings about going back to lists. It's a lot easier to skim through and understand which sub-forums have new posts in them.

I think that a list may be sufficient when you remember that most of the active sub-forums are going to be made into main forums and those left are the inactive ones with few posts in them. I imagine these are the sub-forums that will remain:

The Cathedral of the Holy Tuber (under The Wonderful World of Wintreath): I may also add something to have more 'location' subforums in this area.
Overhusen, Underhusen, Private Storting Area, Courtroom of Justice, Private Judges Chambers (under Storting)
Private Cabinet Area (under Frosthold Castle)
Private Op/Admin Area (under Technical)

The average Citizen is only going to see three of those forums. If there's still an issue with being able to skim sub-forums after we make those changes, we can see about going back to the list. I still have the code for it if we end up going back. I just think we should give this a chance.

The design looks neat (but also a bit weird when all the subforums are grey/read). My main concern is that this further divides the look of the front page and viewing a forum, which widens the inconsistency in design between the two when before the two were fairly consistent with each other.

The design looks neat (but also a bit weird when all the subforums are grey/read). My main concern is that this further divides the look of the front page and viewing a forum, which widens the inconsistency in design between the two when before the two were fairly consistent with each other.

Again, presumably we would update those page too in the future. We have to start somewhere.

The design looks neat (but also a bit weird when all the subforums are grey/read). My main concern is that this further divides the look of the front page and viewing a forum, which widens the inconsistency in design between the two when before the two were fairly consistent with each other.

Again, presumably we would update those page too in the future. We have to start somewhere.

That's fair, but that might be very long off in the indefinite future (considering that the action/page buttons while viewing forums still have the previous look while the buttons on the topic view have changed, for instance), so I'm still going to be thinking about how the forum looks overall right now.

@taulover: When we've merged the great things we've done on topic view and the front page into the forum page, it's going to be incredible.

I don't think it'll be that long into the future though, if only because I really want to implement description and information sidebars for each forum like we discussed earlier in this topic.

The subforums listed on the front page show as very strangely large when on mobile with the Force Desktop Version option on.

On the non-dev theme there is an empty "Menu."

One of the last major projects for the forum frontpage was to rewrite the shoutbox. Our current shoutbox is a forum mod created in 2010, and because of that it has a lot of old code and standards. For example, if you've ever seen a notification that Flash was blocked on the front page, it's because the shoutbox used flash to make a sound when someone posted to it (for those who had that option enabled).

The new shoutbox was designed so that it would work with the old shoutbox data, so that we wouldn't lose any history. The biggest change will be that the new shoutbox won't have the formatting buttons at the bottom, but in exchange you will be able to use bbcode to format your shouts as you wish. Additionally, the shoutbox uses relative times now, but you can still hover over a time to get the exact time. The new shoutbox doesn't have some of the more extravagant features of the old one such as a moderation panel, but I don't think these were used anyways.

For now, both shoutboxes are available on the dev skin, but if there are no issues with the new one discovered it will be removed soon.

Additionally, some other minor updates:
-If a member doesn't have an avatar, the no avatar image will now load over https instead of http, fixing the not secure error that a browser would show due to those http elements.
-In addition to the improvements that will be listed in the other topic, the Minecraft status area will show if the third-party Minecraft API we use is down.

It's much cleaner now. I love it.

Just coming back to say, I've gotten so used to the avatars now, I don't even pay attention to them anymore. Lol