[Theforum] +1/-1 Author Info Blocks

Madhu Menon webguru at vsnl.net
Sun Dec 9 22:49:44 CST 2001


At 05:06 AM 12/10/2001, Michele Foster typed these words:
>(1)  Author's block of info as displayed .. photo if one exists, plus number
>of articles written average rating and total number of ratings.  This block
>of info is styled using the sidebar class.

+1 to concept.

I feel, however, that there are just too many numbers aka stats out there 
and some of them don't even mean much to me. For example, "Last login" is 
surely a waste of prime space. Oh yeah, I expect to hear an argument right 
now about how it indicates "community involvement", but it doesn't. Logging 
in doesn't mean I did anything.

I feel the only stats that should remain are:

User since
Articles written

and *maybe* "average rating", but Adrian has pointed out earlier on thesite 
that pre-judging the worth of an author may discourage readers from reading 
his or her other articles. I agree with that view.


>(2)  Author's bio and other articles .. located at the end of the article,
>before the rating bar.  Again, this info is styled using the sidebar class

Again, I heartily vote +1 on the concept. I'm patiently waiting for this 
before I write another article for evolt. (I'm not kidding.)

But I don't like the design implementation. I would prefer getting rid of 
the dark background and the borders. (Frankly, it's a little too brooding 
for my taste.) Why can't we just set it to the same type size that it is 
right now, and leave it at that? Or add line borders only for top and 
bottom. Doesn't box up the content, and doesn't distract either.

Madhu

<<<   *   >>>
Madhu Menon
User Experience Consultant
e-mail: webguru at vsnl.net





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