Improve readability of the forum

[kandamrgam]

If this has been discussed before please ignore this, I couldn't find anything in my search.

This forum is amazing and offers a much needed alternate take on hi-fi. But I find the forum itself very hard to read with its wall of text.

Because of the layout. It's much easier to parse text when the horizontal length is limited. Say 120 characaters per line or so. This is something forums like audiogon and head-fi does better. For e.g. see the screenshot of a post from head-fi:

Keeping ads around was a clever to minimize horizontal space. I think I understand ASR will not do ads, but the left and right side could have an empty column in my opinion, like audiogon.

Inviting opinions.

 

[RayKay]

If I narrow the width of the screen displayed by my Firefox browser it automatically decreases the number of characters per line and reformats the sentences and paragraphs.

 

[JustJones]

Here's a screenshot of Audiowoogon. I'm not sure what you’re talking about it looks pretty much like here. Words and stuff. Names have been wiped if this shouldn't be here mods please delete.

 

[RayDunzl]

Don't see a problem.

Text realigns with window width.

I'd go after the folks that don't know what more than one paragraph is.

 

[Pe8er]

Your overall point is valid - to optimize readability of longer passages of text, it is recommended to limit line width to a certain number of characters (on desktop it's usually between 50 and 75) so that human brain can follow the story line by line with ease.

At the same time, the examples you provide weaken your proposal. Huge red ads on the sides at Head-Fi are comically bad for readability. And then empty space on the sides over at Audiogon (which is visible only above a certain browser window size) is nice for people who have similar needs to yours. Others might point out it's a waste of space.

ASR's design is fluid in the sense that line width changes, depending on how wide is your browser window. This type of design caters to wider audiences because it's up to you to optimize your reading experience.

Play with how big your browser window is, change text size, change the theme. If you find ASR a valuable resource, 10 minutes spent on customizing your reading experience for your particular needs will be worth it.

 

[voodooless]

but the left and right side could have an empty column in my opinion

Seems to be plenty

You'll find that the amount of text-walls at ASR is substantially lower than other audio forums anyway. Spewing subjective nonsense usually takes a lot of words

 

[bluefuzz]

Say 120 characaters per line or so

Optimal readibility for 'immersive' reading is ~55 – 70 characters. If you want shorter lines or better readability then make your browser window narrower and or the font bigger (Ctrl + in most browsers). Many browsers also have a 'reader mode' that removes distractions and sets a good readable line length. It's always possible to set a custom user stylesheet for any site if you really want to go to town ...

 

[DonH56]

Most all browsers have zoom features to enlarge the text size, overall magnification, or both.

Chrome has a Zoom feature (bottom of the snip) from the three-dot selector at the top right:

And under "Settings" you can change the font size as well as zoom:

 

[DVDdoug]

I think it's fine. I do have a slight zoom in my browser.

I'd go after the folks that [d]on't know what more than one paragraph is.

I second that!!!

I probably use too many paragraphs.

Once I replied to one of my sister's emails with, "Do you know what a paragraph is?" (She does but she was being lazy). I've probably prefixed or postfixed that to a forum reply once or twice too.

 

[danadam]

Because of the layout. It's much easier to parse text when the horizontal length is limited. Say 120 characaters per line or so.

I have a bookmark with the following javascript code:

javascript:(function(){var newSS, styles='body { width: 65em ! important; margin: auto !important } '; if(document.createStyleSheet) { document.createStyleSheet("javascript:'"+styles+"'"); } else { newSS=document.createElement('link'); newSS.rel='stylesheet'; newSS.href='data:text/css,'+escape(styles); document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(newSS); } })();

It reduces the width from this:

to this:

Not that I use it on ASR, other than the embeded youtube links, I don't mind the default width.

 

[mhardy6647]

My guess is between the individual choice of browser and device (and possibly even OS), it's an impossible/unanswerable question or situation.
I mean... this is what I see.

It looks fine to me.

 

[BlackTalon]

View attachment 436010
Seems to be plenty

You'll find that the amount of text-walls at ASR is substantially lower than other audio forums anyway. Spewing subjective nonsense usually takes a lot of words

Your comment had me up out of my seat, dancing and snapping my fingers. It's like someone removed a veil of misunderstanding from my brain I did not even know was there. The pace, the clarity, the haunting decay of the word 'words'... Who knew my $200,000 worth of understanding gear could be improved so much by something that was free??? And the icing on the cake was when my mother-in-law stuck her head out from her kitchen 178 miles away, and asked me if I had real people in my basement listening room for once. If you could bury your comment in a small box filled with dirt I would gladly pay at least $3,000 to add it to my system. Bravo!

 

[amirm]

I enlarged the width a couple of years back to allow the Review Index to be more legible. At the same time, it allows larger graphs to be posted without them being resized (which makes them soft). The default was lower resolution, going back to days that people had limited resolution monitors. This is why some other forums are using narrow widths.

 

[kemmler3D]

Good advice here to zoom or narrow your window.

Also a good reminder to aim for brevity in comments, and use line breaks every 3 lines or so for legibility.

 

[AnalogSteph]

One thing I'm doing on my own (very text-heavy) pages is varying the paragraph line-height according to screen width available using CSS3 media queries:

@media only screen and (min-width: 120em), only projection and (min-width: 120em) {

/*...*/
p, li, td, form, dt, dd, td, th { 
     line-height: 2em;
    /*...*/
     }

@media only screen and (max-width: 120em), only projection and (max-width: 120em) {

/*...*/
p, li, td, form, dt, dd, td, th { 
     line-height: 2em;
    /*...*/
     }

@media only screen and (max-width: 83em), only projection and (max-width: 83em) {

/*..*/
p, li, td, form, dt, dd, td, th { 
     line-height: 1.6em;
     /*...*/
     }

@media only screen and (max-width: 49em), only projection and (max-width: 49em), only screen and (max-device-width: 49em) {

/*...*/
p, li, td, form, dt, dd, td, th { 
     line-height: 1.4em;
     /*...*/
     }

@media only screen and (max-width: 34em), only projection and (max-width: 34em), only screen and (max-device-width: 34em) {

/*...*/
p, li, td, form, dt, dd, td, th { 
     line-height: 1.3em;
    /*...*/
   }

Actual respective content area width is 100em, 72em, 51em, <=48.6em and <=34em, respectively.

Thus a small screen can still fit a decent amount of text but your risk of losing your line on a wide screen is much reduced.

 

[kandamrgam]

If I narrow the width of the screen displayed by my Firefox browser it automatically decreases the number of characters per line and reformats the sentences and paragraphs.

This is not practical, because I have many tabs opened from other sites and I will have to keep switching the browser window sizes when I switch tab. Or have a dedicated window for ASR, all which makes it a hassle.

Also, implementing something like that will help visitors in future.

 

[kandamrgam]

Here's a screenshot of Audiowoogon. I'm not sure what you’re talking about it looks pretty much like here. Words and stuff. Names have been wiped if this shouldn't be here mods please delete.


View attachment 435997

Not sure where you are getting it from, this is how it looks for me.

Should I mask the names? These things are already in public domain.

 

[sigbergaudio]

This is not practical, because I have many tabs opened from other sites and I will have to keep switching the browser window sizes when I switch tab. Or have a dedicated window for ASR, all which makes it a hassle.

Also, implementing something like that will help visitors in future.

Use the zoom feature. It is site specific, so if you zoom on ASR, it will not zoom other sites. Ctrl+ to zoom.

 

[LTig]

One thing I'm doing on my own (very text-heavy) pages is varying the paragraph line-height according to screen width

This is the correct way. Typography standard is that the longer a line the bigger the distance between the line must be, so that the eye doesn't go amiss when it jumps from the end of a line to the begin of the next line.

 

[Berwhale]

I have a bookmark with the following javascript code:

javascript:(function(){var newSS, styles='body { width: 65em ! important; margin: auto !important } '; if(document.createStyleSheet) { document.createStyleSheet("javascript:'"+styles+"'"); } else { newSS=document.createElement('link'); newSS.rel='stylesheet'; newSS.href='data:text/css,'+escape(styles); document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(newSS); } })();

It reduces the width from this:

View attachment 436126

to this:

View attachment 436127

Not that I use it on ASR, other than the embeded youtube links, I don't mind the default width.

Very useful, thank you!

For anyone wondering how to use the JavaScript, there's an explanation of how to create bookmarklets in Chrome and Firefox here: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/what-are-bookmarklets/