To a certain degree, DesignateOnline has to make up for its minimalism by making the featured discussion on the start page visually impressive. If it were to begin with a normal text discussion it would look far less interesting.
Maybe so, jakob, but it at least draws you into the discussion and content you're initially presented with instead of drawing you away to look at any other eye-candy which would navigate you away from the page. It's really a matter of choice, personally, I think it's well executed as a no-frills wysiwyg layout, whether that was the point or not.
sure lech, I agree and think it's very well done and all the more refreshing for it. My comment was meant less as a criticism as pointing out something that contributes to it working well that should be considered before blindly going the same route (i.e. lifting the idea) with a project of one's own.
Thanks for the nice comments about DesignateOnline, they're much appreciated. The forum is actually severely unfinished. It's only live because so many of the members somehow found their way onto the forum while it was still being built.
It's nice to know that people like the stripped down minimalist approach I created. Which is why I used Vanilla in the first place. Forums are about communicating. In my mind, you don't need a zillion fancy buttons, icons, etc to communicate. So I wanted to take things back to basics.
Maybe thats something Mark never intended to be done with his Vanilla forum, but I appreciate the opportunity his software has given me to do this. So thanks Mark!
Also, just to let you know, you're all welcome over at DesignateOnline anytime you want! Hopefully, in the coming weeks you'll see the DO forum change shape into a more finished article.
Comments
It's nice to know that people like the stripped down minimalist approach I created. Which is why I used Vanilla in the first place. Forums are about communicating. In my mind, you don't need a zillion fancy buttons, icons, etc to communicate. So I wanted to take things back to basics.
Maybe thats something Mark never intended to be done with his Vanilla forum, but I appreciate the opportunity his software has given me to do this. So thanks Mark!
Also, just to let you know, you're all welcome over at DesignateOnline anytime you want! Hopefully, in the coming weeks you'll see the DO forum change shape into a more finished article.