Increasing the number of new visible postings

[AlexHancock]

I quite like to quickly see what's been recently posted without having to scroll down. It seems that only a few postings can now be seen due to the various banners and stickies. In fact it looks like the new postings are only visible in the last 25% of the screen.

I understand the banners pay for the site but do they need to be so big? Or always at the top? Do Stickies always have to be shown? Can't they be hidden for regular users?

[mrmr96]

Try this:

1 - Go here:
http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/prefs.asp?h=0...

2 - Change "Page length" to 80 (or any number higher than you presently use).

3 - Click "Save"

4 - Re-visit the pages you were having a problem with and see if there's an improvement.

Hope that helps.

[AlexHancock]

Thanks, but that doesn't help if there's a big advertising banner and lots of Stickies.

[TonyHetherington]

Do you mean within one page of a forum?

If you use the "What's New" function, it will show you all the forums' posts in a big long list. You can then choose in your preferences which forums you see and so your "what's new" list will be very specific to only what you like to read.

Does that make sense?

[AlexHancock]

Yes, that makes sense but it means having all of the new postings for my favourite groups all jumbled together! Perhaps I'm a bit anal but I like to focus on one group at a time. I'd be happy to hide the stickies (I never look at them anyway).

[TonyHetherington]

Ah I see what you mean. Unfortunately I don't think it can be done specific to each forum visit, however I'm sure the PH Bods will see this and comment if possible (they're always checking Website Feedback).

[mrmr96]

AlexHancock said:

Thanks, but that doesn't help if there's a big advertising banner and lots of Stickies.

Why not? I know you'll have to scroll down page the banner and stickies, but a quick mouse wheel roll and you should be presented with the topics you're after. Increasing the page lenght should mean that there's more of these visible on the one page, shouldn't it?

I think I must be misunderstanding what you're after.

[AlexHancock]

No, you understand - we just have different mice I use a trackball without a scroll facility which means I have to move and click or hit the page down button. I just don't want to as I don't see why such a large part of the screen is taken up with stuff I'm not at all interested in seeing. I know the name of the website, I rarely use the menu (it could be elsewhere), I don't need to be welcomed back, the adverts could be smaller as I don't see them anyway and the stickies aren't interesting unless they've changed.

[RacingPete]

We have several skins for the forums (See My Info -> Preferences from the top menu). The default is now Big Blue, and the older skin is PH Classic - the one you are using.

We are looking to add more of these skins in the future so people can have different look and feel to the site based on their preferences, so we will take your thoughts into our design process.

With the advent of more netbooks and laptops with wider screens but smaller heights it is something we are also looking into, though we are still over 85% with a screen height of 768px or more, and this is only a little scroll on the current page lengths.

But watch this space.

[AlexHancock]

Thanks, I'll keep my fingers crossed...