Site Layout Tweaks

I made some subtle changes to the site layout last night. I optimized the page layout for at least 1280 pixels wide. Previously the minimum was 1024 pixels wide. What this means is that the web page will tell the browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, etc) that it needs at least 1240 pixels now to display properly (leaving 40 pixels for a vertical scrollbar), where before it was set to 1000 pixels. If the browser window isn't big enough to give it the minimum amount of space, either because the computer monitor is too small or the browser window itself is small (i.e. not full screen), it will now create a scroll bar across the bottom so you can move the page right or left to see the part that is cut off.

This is much better than what happened before on those small screens, where the center area just overlapped the blocks on the right side and you couldn't really see the page because it looked garbled. This has been reported by many people since we started the site. I finally have it fixed now. I apologize that it took so long.

According to my google site statistics, about 85% of you are using computer screens that are at least 1280 pixels wide. You probably didn't even notice the change, since your browser window was already at least 1240 pixels wide. For the rest of you, you may have noticed that you now have a scroll bar at the bottom of your browser window and you have to scroll side to side to see the blocks on the right. You probably saw the garbled mess before on certain pages like the profile page, the reply page, the new topic page, and maybe even the private message page. There were probably others too. There are actually several topics about this were people reported the problem in one form or another.

I am still thinking about ways to optimize the site so that it works great for everyone without horizontal scrolling. One idea I have is that I might have two versions of the site layout, one for wide screens and one for small screens. But hopefully now the site will at least work for everyone.

If you have any issues with this, please let me know. My screen is actually 2560 pixels wide, so a lot of times I don't even notice the problems people have on smaller screens. If you are one of the people with a small screen, let me know how it works for you now. If it turns out that the approximately 15% who have the small screens are the guys who actually come here and post everyday, I may have to rethink my strategy.