Mouse Hover Topic Preview

[Gridiron]

I appreciate that you guys added a topic preview and that you tried to make it a more advanced feature than most sites, but having to find the image on the far right and then clicking it is no more convenient than actually opening the thread itself.

Sometimes, easy does it. In this case, I'd recommend something similar to vBulletin's topic hover feature.

[Jaggi]

I was actually going to ask how many actually use this, i'd totally forgotten it was added till i noticed it again today. Its a bit hidden and out the way i agree it should be brought to a more obvious location.

[Sefket4]

Would be great if it's hover over instead of clicking the topic preview. Same concept as just clicking the thread.

[NeilC]

Personally, I prefer IPB's implementation of it over the VB version. I like the fact that I quickly use it to see what the first unread reply says (saves me clicking back into a topic to find that the response is just a "LOL" for instance)

[Abomination]

I appreciate that you guys added a topic preview and that you tried to make it a more advanced feature than most sites, but having to find the image on the far right and then clicking it is no more convenient than actually opening the thread itself.

Personally I think it is incredibly important from an information flow point of view. Topics can remain unread until there is enough content to read it. Without the thread preview fascinating topics such as 'OMG check this out!!!' is actually worth reading.

With the simple mouseover the other brand uses only the first few lines of the first post are shown, and no other information such as last reply. The current ips preview actually allows for viewing topics while they occur, without actually reading them, while using VNC. Which is a huge plus. However it will affect how people use a forum and could affect ad revenue if certain pages are rarely opened.

If anything, I would say do both the current topic preview & simple mouseover, possibly a right click anywhere on the topic to get the simple mouseover. Something like that.

[Abomination]

Personally, I prefer IPB's implementation of it over the VB version. I like the fact that I quickly use it to see what the first unread reply says (saves me clicking back into a topic to find that the response is just a "LOL" for instance)

Exactly! The topic preview allows for filtering out replies that don't really add anything of interest. Something the other brand cannot do.

[.Ian]

I was actually going to ask how many actually use this, i'd totally forgotten it was added till i noticed it again today. Its a bit hidden and out the way i agree it should be brought to a more obvious location.

I would doubt many do use it, as the icon itself is pretty much hidden until you hover over it - so unless you know it is there (and on wide screens it is a long way from the topic), you are not going to use it.

[Volstate]

Peaderfi has a mod like this but hasn't updated it to work with 3.1 yet.

[Jυra]

I don't use it, so not seeing it for normal forum browsing is nice.

[Jaggi]

I would doubt many do use it, as the icon itself is pretty much hidden until you hover over it - so unless you know it is there (and on wide screens it is a long way from the topic), you are not going to use it.

its not even the hidden icon, the icon shows on the right hand side while your eyes will be focused towards the left so unless you notice it out the corner of your eye you don't actually notice the icon as the brain doesn't pick up things out of a focus as a priority.

[Tanax]

It is difficult to find if you don't know it's there, yes. But a mouse-over is out of the question for my part. It would just be annoying when you want to click to open the thread it will popup a preview as you mouse over the topic before you can click it.

[The Geek]

I am sure a timed mouse over would be a nice improvement. And I am sure a setting or simple template edit would be able to satisfy everyone else.

Personally I would prefer it to appear after a hover over the title (on a 2 sec delay maybe). Same with member cards. Just haven't gotten round to figure out how to do it yet.

[berries]

I would prefer it if the icon was actually a visible button rather than a hit and miss affair if you just happen to mouse over that area.
It should be visible all of the time and then users can 'use' it or not - least everyone would know the feature exists.

[MissNinja]

I DO like the first post/most recent post aspect of the IPS version of this, and I do prefer that to what vB has. However, the button IS really out of the way, and most people probably don't even notice it unless they know it's there, especially on light skins. If it were more visible and closer to the topic title, it would be perfect.

Honestly, I think that the icon would work best if there was a topic preview button to the left of every topic title (not one that only appeared on hover, one that was solid and always visible). The placement is just inconvenient, and I don't use it as much as I probably would if it were placed somewhere better.