Infocenter and Infoboxes

[Enchant]

Infocenters are normally located at the bottom of the forum, it's primary function to show the stats of the forum. How many boards are updated, who's online, recent post..etc....However, there are codes provided in the Proboards Code Index that give us the ability to add more stats or even to remove certain ones. And while this is a great feature, too little information can look plain and too much can look cluttered.

While we are on the subject of information, lets talk about infocenters. These are primarily located at the top of the forum. Many times,I have seen the same information in the infobox as in the infocenter. It can be overwhelming and redundant. I am often asked what do I think should be put in an infobox, and often at times I reply in relevence to thier forum. But the fact that the question is often asked, makes me think that this would be a good topic of discussion. Do you think both are needed and if so, what should they basically contain and what shouldn't they have?

[kelendria]

I personally like to have how many boards, categories, topics, posts, birthdays (events), last member to join & possibly last member/topic posted (although not essential cos it seems alot)
I do use a customized info centre, the only thing I don't like in it is the PM bit (I have a button for it at the top so to me it's useless & tells guests to 'login to view this feature')
I prefer to have mine at the bottom, I don't like having to scroll further down to view what type of boards a forum has, that's just my own personal preference & to others it may be different.

[HoudiniDerek]

Great topic idea, Enchant.

Personally, I prefer to have the Info Center at the bottom as simplistic as possible. Several forums I visit in GOAYB get the comment that it looks too cluttered. I prefer the basic approach to it, similar to what this support board uses. It is simple, quick, and easy to understand. Granted, some forums can have something a little more detailed because they have less members, but the only thing I would add to the basic template that this site has is the USERS ONLINE IN THE PAST 24 HOURS. That is a good traffic indicator and is about the only addition I see as needed to the Info Center.

As for Info Boxes, I don't see them as necessary most of the time. For RP sites, this might differ as they usually set the immediate stage and timeline of the forum...and I think that can be beneficial. Personally though, I use the News Fader over an Info Box because Info Boxes are easier to overlook because they are static. Even if the News Fader has the same information, the human eye is drawn towards movement and I think they might get read with more frequency. (Granted, even on an RP site, I think you should only have one or the other because then the forum becomes cluttered too quickly).

[BluAngel]

I have an infobox at the top of my forum. In the center of the box, I have the "statement" of our site, a link to where to register, and a very short message. On the left side of our box, I have links to some of the important areas of our board, and on the right side of the box, Links to some other sites, that may be important or useful. My members really like it and some of the guests who become memebers have remarked that it made it easy to know where to go to read the rules, or learn how to use Proboards "gadgets".

I think having an infobox at the top can be helpful if utilized correctly. Use links to some of the important areas for people to go to where registering or new to the site. Give a statement of what your board is about, if it's not readily apparent. (Telling people your board is about Harry Potter, when everything is Harry Potter looking is redundent). I just have the infobox at the top, and the standard infocenter at the bottom, nothing much as even I rarely look at it.

[Ímþ®óvîšâ†ó®]

Awsome. Yet another intriguing topic is made. Kudos Enchant

Infobox's are awsome . You can customize them in any particular way in regards to the content put into it. If it gets too big, it can be hidden with a click of a hide/show button (which is surprisingly NOT in the code database lol). An info box with navigation links to the majority of the forum boards, a brief description of what the forum is about and (maybe) an affiliates section, a member of the month area or a list of the forum's staff etc is all an info box needs, otherwise it will be useless. In short, members prefer to stay at a forum longer if they can navigate properly on the forum, hence the info box can assist in acheiving that . Espacially if you have 100 boards on your forum and you don't have an infobox or if you do, it doesn't have any sort of navigation links. The way I see it, if you're going to have alot of boards on your forum, a navigation area is a MUST. members are most likely going to be turned away if there's too many boards on a forum and there's no way to help them navigate in them.

Info centres are ok, but I think the default icons should be removed from the default info centre as the majority tend to use info centre hacks which tend to hide those icons as a result anyway The only use an info centre can have (if any at this rate) is showing who's online/offline or statistics of posts etc If anything should be added to it by default, it's the forum age or rather how long the forum has been up/available for

~*£†. Ímþ®óvîšâ†ó®*~

[Kmylove]

Great topic!

I think the Infocenter at the bottom of the forum is useful when it comes to finding out who is online and how many members there are on a forum. Personally I only look at these two bits. I use a custom one, but I've chosen (better said I was suggested) quite a simple one, which doesn't overwhelm you with useless information. To me it's also useful for reading my pm's as I don't have the PM link in the welcome table any longer.
As a conclusion about Infocenters: they are ok, and they are useful as long as they provide only some basic information, and don't go too much over the top with unimportant details about a forum.

---

Infoboxes are very useful in my opinion. They can make navigation inside the forum much easier, specially for new comers. They are very easy to costumize and they can hold up a lot of information. You can use them for just about anything: putting in your affiliates, your forum news, summaries (for rpg boards), useful links...anything you can think of...
I use mine to put in some shortcuts to important boards, such as rules or affiliation, shortcuts to the register area, some news, the stat counter, the icon legend and links to the staff members' profiles. I am aware that I've exagerrated a bit with the content and that the infobox itself takes up a lot of space on the page though...

[.::Rebecca::.]

I'm a member of Support 101 - I think that's what it's called? It's a coding board. Someone thought that their infocenter looked too cluttered, while others really liked it, such as myself. It's all a matter of your taste. I, personally, get bored of seeing the same ones. It's refreshing to see different styles of infocenters whether they're is too much or too little information. It all depends on the organization of it for me. Although, I'm not really crazy about infocenters sometimes, unless it appears cool to me.

I haven't seen an infobox be the same as an infocenter yet. It's boring when the admins create the same info box as another. I have seen this done. I hate it. It looks as though I've just joined the same message board.

[myke]

I think info boxes can be very effective in the header if dome correctly. However, most of the time I see their use redundant or overwhelming with a ton of irrelevant and unorganized information.

A table in the headers should never be so large that it makes the rest of the forum look small. If you have a table 12 inches tall because of a lot of text, then it's probably a better idea to have that text in a thread so it can be read and not forced on a user each time they visit and scroll down to post in a board.

Each cell of the table should be in proportion to the other. For example, if you have 12 lines of text in the left and middle cells, you're going to want to have the same amount or close to the same amount in the right cell. For example, this is an uneven table:

text text text text text text text text text text text text

text text text text text text text text text text text text

text text

The far right cell looks empty compared to the rest of the table.

So in all, info boxes in the headers should be tidy, organized, and the cells should be in proportion to one another. The information contained within the table should be vital, and should not be there just for the sake of being there.

Taking a look at the tables in GOAYB, the designing and coding sub-boards will give you perfect examples of a properly utilized table.

[shadowbender]

I hope this isn't topic revival if that even exists (please don't hurt me)...
but I have something to say about the info box. The info box might be unorganized but it doesn't cluster the forum as much as a clock would. Also, if you replace "?action=(insert action here)" with "?board=(insert board here)", you can make it into something like a quick navigation system.

The info center can also be useful if used in the right way. Codes that modify it seem to cluster it more. I prefer keeping it the way it is... the info center doesn't necessarily need "Total Topics: 68 - Total Posts: 3,585" as why is the total number of posts needed?

[kaylee2000]

I like using a basic info center and elaborate infotable at the top. I alo suggest putting a C box or Saybox in an Info Table if you run out of things to put in there. I don't like to have cluttered info centers in fact the defaults are clutter enough as is. I really don't care how many catergories or board there are....I can count those myself.... Keeping a balance between the two is essential.

[lovelexy]

Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an infobox with the exact same information as the infocenter. They’re a great way to introduce your forum to new members, post plots or current events and have a ‘navigation’ section for easy browsing, and that’s how most of them are used. But I have to agree with you Enchant, if an admin posted stats like their member count in the infobox, I’d wonder why. It’s a bit redundant when the same information can be found just by scrolling down.

Perhaps it’s just because they’re so common, but I do think an infobox is helpful to a forum in most cases, especially with RPGs.

Infocenters have their place too, but for most forums I think the majority of the information is unnecessary. All I’ve kept in mine is the member/post/board count and the most recently updated thread. I can see why places like coding boards might want more detailed statistics, but the majority of members in General Chat or RPG boards don’t care about those sorts of things.

While I like the idea Sissorelle mentioned about a shoutbox in your infobox, I can’t really see the point in it. Sure, it looks snazzy, but more often than not the shoutbox gets neglected when it’s made to look like a decorative feature, rather than a place to chat.
Besides, if it’s just for idle chitcat, I have to wonder why someone would want that displayed at the top of the forum. At the bottom or in a separate board seems more appropriate. =/