1. Blue = Unread, Normal Green = Read?
- Posted by jeremy (admin) Nov 04, 2010
- 2075 views
The yellow star that we are use to indicating a new message is a think of the past for modern browsers. It deals with security and history sniffing. We simply used the CSS styling of the A tag for Normal and Visited links to change the way the appear. There are a few blog posts about this subject:
So, until we get better read/unread tracking, the only thing we can change about a visited link tag is the color. I'm open to suggestions here. I don't care for the current method but it seems our hands are tied now. At least now people using modern browsers can determine read vs. unread messages.
Jeremy
2. Re: Blue = Unread, Normal Green = Read?
- Posted by DanM Nov 07, 2010
- 1695 views
I think using red for unread might be better, because they're more obviously OPPOSITE?
3. Re: Blue = Unread, Normal Green = Read?
- Posted by ChrisB (moderator) Nov 07, 2010
- 1725 views
Hi
Disagree. Look fine now.
Chris
4. Re: Blue = Unread, Normal Green = Read?
- Posted by DanM Nov 07, 2010
- 1662 views
Hi
Disagree. Look fine now.
Chris
Hi Chris,
Do you disagree to the extent that you would OBJECT to using red for unread instead of blue?
My suggestion doesn't relate to how it LOOKS, but rather how the colors COMMUNICATE: blue and green are BOTH rather "mellow", peaceful, "ok" colors, as in, "it's ok, you've already read this"; whereas red, as in traffic lights, means STOP, as in, STOP, READ THIS.
Dan
5. Re: Blue = Unread, Normal Green = Read?
- Posted by DerekParnell (admin) Nov 07, 2010
- 1663 views
My suggestion doesn't relate to how it LOOKS, but rather how the colors COMMUNICATE: blue and green are BOTH rather "mellow", peaceful, "ok" colors, as in, "it's ok, you've already read this"; whereas red, as in traffic lights, means STOP, as in, STOP, READ THIS.
Dan
However, it is not a problem if I haven't read something so a red light associated with that might be seen as inappropriate. It could be a case of "oh, I haven't read X, oh well whatever". The "STOP, READ THIS" is not the only way people approach forum posts.
What's intrinsically wrong with "mellow", peaceful, "ok" colors?
6. Re: Blue = Unread, Normal Green = Read?
- Posted by DanM Nov 07, 2010
- 1712 views
My suggestion doesn't relate to how it LOOKS, but rather how the colors COMMUNICATE: blue and green are BOTH rather "mellow", peaceful, "ok" colors, as in, "it's ok, you've already read this"; whereas red, as in traffic lights, means STOP, as in, STOP, READ THIS.
Dan
However, it is not a problem if I haven't read something so a red light associated with that might be seen as inappropriate. It could be a case of "oh, I haven't read X, oh well whatever". The "STOP, READ THIS" is not the only way people approach forum posts.
What's intrinsically wrong with "mellow", peaceful, "ok" colors?
Just the fact that they're BOTH similarly indicating "mellow", peaceful, "ok" , ie, the SAME THING, thus they're intrinsically somewhat confusing as to which means what. I just thought that two DIFFERENT colors might be easier to distinguish as to which were read vs unread, since the COLORS are clearly opposite, but I see your point about exactly WHAT each color would be taken to "mean".
But I would still think that when most people are looking at the posts, most are generally looking to see what NEW posts are there, that they HAVEN'T yet read, so an ALERTING color like RED would seem to be most effective in that regard.
Dan
7. Re: Blue = Unread, Normal Green = Read?
- Posted by jeremy (admin) Nov 07, 2010
- 1629 views
This is a temporary measure, but may be with us for some time, not sure yet. Anyway, maybe a simple ledgend would solve the problem. I am betting that regulars here will learn it no matter what color we choose. What I wanted was BOLD means unread and NORMAL means read, but w/the new browsers we are only able to change the COLOR attribute... How silly. I can understand the image problem but I don't understand BOLD vs. NORMAL.
Anyway, nothing we can do to change that.
Oh, about color selection. I did want two "mellow" colors because many do not read every message. Some may not care about setup questions and never read it. If it were a glaring color causing a bunch of distraction, that may not be good. People would be forced, just to get rid of the eye sore, to read messages they have no interest in. It's already bad enough (I think) w/multiple colors 
Jeremy
8. Re: Blue = Unread, Normal Green = Read?
- Posted by DanM Nov 07, 2010
- 1604 views
Oh, about color selection. I did want two "mellow" colors because many do not read every message. Some may not care about setup questions and never read it. If it were a glaring color causing a bunch of distraction, that may not be good. People would be forced, just to get rid of the eye sore, to read messages they have no interest in. It's already bad enough (I think) w/multiple colors
Jeremy
Ok, now I get it. And the only way I can think of to allow more distinct colors, and solve that glaring problem, is to have a check box along side of each post listing, and a button, "mark checked items as already read", that's how Yahoo does it for web email.
But I can get used to the blue and green, the blue is dark enough that it does stand out sufficiently differently from the paler green to be an ok indicator of "not yet read".
And I REALLY agree that the multiple colors in the first place is nowhere near as good as just a single "post read" indicator like before.
Dan
9. Re: Blue = Unread, Normal Green = Read?
- Posted by ChrisB (moderator) Nov 07, 2010
- 1595 views
Hi
The best way of course would be to theme the forum.to allow the user to choose there own theme - way beyond my level of knowledge though.
Cheers Chris
10. Re: Blue = Unread, Normal Green = Read?
- Posted by jeremy (admin) Nov 07, 2010
- 1599 views
The best way of course would be to theme the forum.to allow the user to choose there own theme - way beyond my level of knowledge though.
Most browsers allow you to override a sites CSS file if you wish. So, if anyone wanted to go through the work of custom styling OpenEuphoria.org, they could, although it wouldn't be easy or fun (at least for a normal person, hi hi)
Jeremy
11. Re: Blue = Unread, Normal Green = Read?
- Posted by petelomax Nov 08, 2010
- 1545 views
And I REALLY agree that the multiple colors in the first place is nowhere near as good as just a single "post read" indicator like before.
Absolutely. What would be wrong with displaying a star (*) in a bright colour (orange would be my choice) on unread messages, and white or light grey to nearly match the background on read messages, with the rest of the text black on both?
Pete
12. Re: Blue = Unread, Normal Green = Read?
- Posted by mattlewis (admin) Nov 08, 2010
- 1554 views
What would be wrong with displaying a star (*) in a bright colour (orange would be my choice) on unread messages, and white or light grey to nearly match the background on read messages, with the rest of the text black on both?
In theory, nothing. In practice, it's not so easy. In order to do that, we'd have to store which messages each user had visited in the database.
I'm pretty happy with the colors. It's a pretty standard thing to see when browsing the web. I actually prefer the color to the star (or whatever).
Matt
