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Post Icons

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why where these removed?
and using tags is NOT a helpful response.

please add these back.

It's part of the "uncluttering" and cleaner look that IPB 3.2 achieves.

Virtually everything that the topic icons represented are achieved sufficiently by other means. Hence, the topic icons are scrapped.
Thread with new replies? Bold text.
Thread with no new replies? Non-bold text.
Poll? "Poll" label.
Hot Topic? "Hot" label.
Etc.

  • Author

topic icons were used for a variety of reasons including topic solved and stuff like that.
and they are a lot easier to see then present setups.

Topic icons haven't been a feature since the 2.x series. I'm afraid there's no plans to bring them back.

  • Author

was using them on 3.14 and don't remember it being a mod.
maybe were called post icons.


this is NOT the dp31 advanced post icons either and there are no other mods listed for this.

hard to believe they were not a part when I used used them.

They are still in my 3.1.4 board under post options. I do not have any hook for this.

They are called Post icons not Topic Icons.

  • Author

I would edit posts but not allowed to, maybe mod can change title to post icons?

Ah sorry, I misunderstood. Yes those are post icons - the 'topic icon' was the post icon of the first post, and it was shown in forum view, and that's what only existed in 2.x.


why where these removed?


and using tags is NOT a helpful response.



please add these back.



I don't see any point in those icons, they do not provide any information or serve any purpose.
  • Author

well good for you.

  • Author

well they did for me.
hence me wanting them back.

Same here, i use some custom post icons on my board and noticed that this function is removed since 3.2.x
Before i can upgrade i need to find a solution for this.

  • Author

i have not found solution.

The internet is moving towards less text and more graphics, yet ipb loves text...
This was a controversial decision, and a wrong one in my opinion.
Post icons were buried by Rikki (ok, by ipb! lol), but they were never post icons in the first place. I don't think ipb ever understood the concept of a post icon, they were always used as "mood icons", showing the mood of the person who was writing the post and not providing any additional information.
This is one of those things that could have been great, but never was...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxsvdOL66XM

An yes, there are many post icons in the video, you might not like them, whatever, but as admin, you could use as many as you wanted, or add different ones to different forums and so on.

Other forum software does allow this, but hey, I still love ipb. :smile:

  • 3 weeks later...

Any news on this? Maybe a hook to get the post icons back?
I really have to wait to upgrade until i have something simular as the post icons :(

Grtz

I found those icons useless. Even if you change them, text is easier to change.


The internet is moving towards less text and more graphics, yet ipb loves text...




More graphics and less text might look shinier but can be less optimal for many purposes (e.g. SEO, text searching, etc.).


The internet is moving towards less text and more graphics



uh, no it isn't :logik: If anything, with the proliferation of mobile usage now it is going the opposite direction. The increased use of CSS3 also means that many things which were previously done with graphics are now done with plain old text. Then of course there is the fact that the content on an image is not searchable. Let's not forget things like "tags" which are now massively popular as they are controlled by the user rather than being forced from some rigid pre-defined list




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxsvdOL66XM




Oh dear lord that looks atrocious. Reminds me of the days of geo-cities :tongue:


As a user I know that whenever I have seen something like this is always makes the forum look cluttered and seems to add nothing. Also to me it would seem that it would be yet something else that moderators would have to keep an eye on as the apparent use of these images becomes entirely pointless if people don't use the correct image.

I like the post icon...

personnaly i like the way the posts are shown in the 3.2version, simple view without any icons should be more confortable for eyes :D



uh, no it isn't :logik: If anything, with the proliferation of mobile usage now it is going the opposite direction. T





We definitely have 100% opposite oppinions here, mate! :smile:
Just picture yourself using a mobile phone and type some text instead of grabbing an icon and moving it somewhere else to perform a search.
When you do a google search, do you type "images" or do you click on the "images" button?? voila!
A few years ago, you could see the name of the person who'd just posted something on an ipb forum. What do you see now? yeap, you guessed it!! a little facebook picture. Voila again!



Oh dear lord that looks atrocious. Reminds me of the days of geo-cities :tongue:


As a user I know that whenever I have seen something like this is always makes the forum look cluttered and seems to add nothing. Also to me it would seem that it would be yet something else that moderators would have to keep an eye on as the apparent use of these images becomes entirely pointless if people don't use the correct image.





oh dear Lord, how I love your avatar, mate :D
But regardless of your particular tastes, the good thing about post icons is that they offered people the freedom to choose to have them or not to have them. Now that decision has been imposed on webmasters.
  • 3 weeks later...

Belatedly, I agree that although the old post icons were useless as "moods," the way Telemacus2 suggests (which is similar to how Fark and SomethingAwful do it) is the better alternative. I'd much prefer to have that option (even if only as a hook or something).

It's worth pointing out that you were never forced into having 'moods' as post icons. We had those as default images simply because they had to be relevant to all communities. Changing them to 'Apple' or 'Tech' or whatever was as simple as replacing the images (exactly what you'd have to do if we had 'full' post icon support) - yet almost no community ever did.

I appreciate the few people posting here found a use for them. The unfortunate truth is the vast majority did not, and therefore it was impractical to keep them. We don't want IP.Board to fill up with unnecessary features that only a handful of people ever use. This is precisely what addon hooks & apps are designed for - filling niche needs.

Sure, and when working on software of this scale you can't be all things to all people. I certainly appreciate that.

I think the option to use the first tag as a prefix to the post is a nice middle ground. Tagging is, ultimately, a more powerful mechanic than post icons. The next step would be a way to display certain of the more popular tags as png images. In other words, if I tag a post "Dallas Cowboys," and that's a popular tag for which I've uploaded a png icon, then that text tag is converted to that png icon.

Did that make sense? In other words, I'm not advocating that post icons be brought back. Only that tags could be enhanced slightly further.

I agree with Rikki: very few people were using post icons and it would have been very easy to change them.
However, I don't think IPB ever explored the real possibilities of post icons (granted, probably because there was never any need for it). But the thing is, many people just didn't really know what they could be used for, and since they did look like mood icons, they were slowly abandoned.
But the possibilities of post icons are really HUGE. What Dave is saying is exactly one of the ideas behind post icons, to use them as tags. Easier to identify for people (instead of having to read a whole list of of words), SEO friendly too.

The video does show many post icons BUT you don't have to use that many at all, you don't have to use any: in fact, you can even have different sets of post icons for different categories, etc.

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