Font Size - Individual Needs or Appeal to Masses

[HazyEyes]

I think as an admin it's your duty to see what your members think. And majority too, but you have to catar for people's needs, because everyone is different. But you also at the same time do have to go with the majority. I set mine at a fairly small size, but asked members what they thought, and if someone couldn't read it very well i'd ask the members what they thought or change it to suit that persons needs. At the end of the day as an Admin, we're there to make the board for the members aswell as ourselves. So I think in conjunction to your question:
Font Size - Individual Needs or Appeal to Mass I think it needs to be a little of both. If it's an individuals needs then as kthe mass how they feel about the change. Usually they shouldn't mind.

[.:*Clover*:.]

I believe you need balance between Individual needs and appealing to masses. I myself have bad vision and it can be hard to read some of the small print when I don't use my glasses because I usually and shouldn't need to use my glasses to read since they are for distance only but my vision is pretty bad and will continue to get bad. So I know personally what it's like having trouble to read some of the font. On my site I use the default setting because it's easy for me personally and I haven't even thought about changing because I think it looks good enough. Nothing has it be perfect. So I guess my answer would basically be to balance between Individual needs and Appealing to masses.

[Former Member]

I think you should appeal to mass, if your forum font size is too low, then small screen resolution people can't read what your forum says. Always think about your members first. Some people have to put on eyeglasses to read. So I think you should put the font size what you and others can read. Individual's needs shouldn't be a problem if masses agree. The individual should always think of the masses and not of himself or his/her forums.

[Lugubrious]

I use the smaller font. My site is geared towards a younger crowd, and the slightly smaller font is more attractive to them. Also, if you have such bad eyesight, you should be internet savvy when playing websites. It is possible to zoom in on web pages. If you have really bad eyesight, perhaps playing around on the computer is a bad idea, anyways. You don't want to go blind or something. I go with the common standards of what most sucessful role-playing sites use. And besides, if somebody has a problem, all they need to do is alert me and I can fix it. But from what I know, there are more members that will come because of the small font than the ones I will get because they like the large font size.

[MISS']

I prefer the small font, and on my sites, almost everyone uses it. I haven't gotten any complaints about it yet, but if I ever do, I will make sure that it is possible to switch the font, or I will make it bigger. Still, I haven't gotten any complaints yet.

[Cat-5]

My site is not a week old yet but as time passes and members grow i will ask what they prefer

[HoudiniDerek]

Jun 10, 2008 6:45:21 GMT -8 Cat-5 said:

My site is not a week old yet but as time passes and members grow i will ask what they prefer

Where do you make the distinction though? What if you have a couple of steady members that love Font one, but a lot of other posters who are not intermittently that hate it? How do you make the determination?

What is your site like now? Are you using the default or something else?


Personally, I like using the default because I think a site that is prominent in Font One will deter potential members. They may love everything about a site, but if they cannot read it easily, they may go elsewhere.

I don't keep members from using Font one, but when they PM me to complain that no one is RPing with them, I let them know that the font size could be the reason why. It is hard to RP opposite someone that you cannot easily read what they post.

[Remarque]

Personally, I find larger fonts easier to read. Smaller fonts, in my opinion, however, look classier, and are on the rise.

I think that contrast plays a major role here. Make it easy to read and you can go pretty tiny.


...As a personal choice, I like size 11. Just small enough to be classy and efficient, but just large enough to be easily read.

[nyaccent]

Right now, the default font 2 is being used on my board. That isn't by choice.... I think I have conflicting text size codes which is making it the default size. I wanted the text to be size 3.

I didn't give my members the choice as to what they wanted. I designed the board as I wanted it, however one of my younger members had made a comment when the text size was working that she prefered smaller text and a more stretched out board. I do have codes in place to bring in my board from the edge.

I guess it is just a matter of taste. But as you get older, you prefer larger text as it is easier to read. I also prefer lighter boards, rather then the dark ones too.

[Support KL]

May 24, 2008 9:36:40 GMT -8 Enchant said:

I noticed as of late, a new trend has been rising. Many forum admins are making thier font sizes smaller then the default settings. While this can make the forum look more sleek, organized and even professional, it is not with out its down side. There are many potential members who have issues with thier eyes. In most cases, the resizing of text can be adjusted on thier individual computers, however, there are times when that just isn't enough.

For the record, I have the smaller font on my own forum. However, when this problem was brought to my attention by one of my own members, I searched high and low for a solution. I had to take into account the coding already in place, the integrity of the current skins, and the possible inconvience to the other members. But because I value all my members I wanted to find a compromise. I finally found a code that could be modified and embedded within the coding of my forum and still not be disruptive to the current default layout. It isn't a perfect solution, and the larger the font size goes the more messed up my graphics become, but it was a compromise till I found a better one.

So I ask you this, when building or revamping your forum, do you take into consideration the individual needs of your members or do you try to appeal to the masses?

I wonder where did you get the idea that smaller text sizes make forums sleek, organized and even professional. For one thing, the proboards support forum is made up by a group of professionals (they make business) who sell forums to customers. When you look at the support forum, they use the default size. So really, having a professional, sleek or organized layout definitely does not mean having smaller font sizes than the default. To look professional, a forum must be straightforward and clear. To look sleek, the creator must know how to create unique functions using programming. To look organized, the creator must plan things out. Smaller text sizes have nothing to do with the aforementioned characteristics: they are instead a personal taste. Because professionals like the proboards support staff use the default readable font size, it appeals to the masses and thus the staff (especially Pat) makes business. For some people who likes tiny font sizes, I think that needs to be taken into consideration, not the other way around.

The default font size, the font size that is used on the proboard support forum, is normal; otherwise, it wouldn't have been chosen by Pat or the original creators of webpages and HTML. It is the people who like smaller text that say their way is normal, when really it is not.

[paddybygrace]

As an older person, I find this "hyper-small" font drives me crazy and I have good vision with my glasses on. I do know many older folks on my forum request the larger and bolder fonts so I employed them when I created it. Many of you young folks will understand what we mean as you grow older. I also understand the many of you are young and your forums are geared to the younger crowd, a small font works well there. But remember, if you have older folks or people with vision problems, you will lose them, (white text is a problem as well).

[catarific]

I have decided to try a larger font using comic. I will see how it goes - we are a graphics group - and have some older members who have complained that they have trouble with the forum because of the font size. I copied one of the scripts from here and adjusted the size.

So far everyone loves the comic sans font and the larger size!

[clobopallymad]

Normally, I absolutely love font size 1. It is extremely annoying in most cases, as I have bad-ish eyesight, but when you roleplay, it looks better than size 2, But today [Christmas Day 2008] I was given a small Acer laptop so even size two or three looks small. Size one though, it looks like a scribble. Seriously. At the moment though, I have set this forum so size one is disabled, I'm just sad that it isn't on all forums, as I have to strain my eyes on my online friend's forum and it's the one I love..

So, if you have a large screen and it looks great, but those with small screens/laptops or bad eyesight can't see it so well. So either install a changing the font size code or just don't use it, because not everyone likes it,

[smiles_8D]

Well for me, i hate the smaller font i usually go for the bigger ones. I can see the smaller font perfectly, but i always feel like there's too much to read, and i couldn't be bothered. But with a larger sized font it looks easier to read. So i never get complaints about the font for its not to big, not to small =]

[topherenslaved]

Being that proboards has a default font size, we do not require the members on our forum to change that size in their posts. Some do, and some don't. But we don't get many complaints about the size of the fonts. I think that setting a standard font size on a forum is not really needed, but if you have someone always making their posts larger than the default and you don't like it, as an admin I believe you should have to right to talk to them about it, but I have not run into that issue as of yet.