Links at the top of the page are a tad too large.

[Howard_Casto]

I think the links to other forums needs to be reduced.  Mind you I like having the links but between those and the "arcadcontrols.com" table above it, half of my vertical screen space is taken up!  Mind you I'm running at 1024*768 too. I can only imagine how bad it is for those who use a lower res. Could perhaps a more modest links table be made instead?

[SirPoonga]

Actually, takes up as much as the old spot.  Where do you suggest the info go?  In links?

[planetjay]

In a side by side comparison, the current header is abit smaller than the previous one. It is possible to make it even smaller but not without loosing some info that saint feels is vital to the page.

If enough people post replies here, he may change his mind. But keep in mind that THIS IS HIS WEBSITE!

In the mean time you can do what I do.
In IE6:
Place the address bar next to the menu bar.
Make the toolbar use small icons.
If you must have the links bar, place it beside the  toolbar.
Close the Favorites, Search, or any other side bars.

This will give you maximum content area in your browser. See http://mamehost.com/images/screen.jpg for a screenshot of my desktop. (Note: I have Dual Monitors at 1024x768)

Also:
Get a scrollwheel mouse and use the scrollwheel.
Use a higher resolution like 800x600 or better yet 1024x768.

[Howard_Casto]

For the record I didn't care for the size of the old header either, I was just so exicted to get a new board that I didn't mind it so bad.  But it seems that we are starting to clean up the look of byoac and I thought this could be a place to start.  

I think the links to external forums could be consolidated into a single link, which expands to show them all.  

Also in my humble opinion some of those forums are only vaguely related to byoac.  I can see the aos,afx,ultimarc and to a lesser degree alt.games.mame as they are all related to the software and hardware construction of a mamecab.  

The others however puzzle me a bit........  

The hotrod forum is for premade controls, which kind of negates coming here in the frst place.  Also it's a commercial site, and if you allow linking to it, it would only be fair to allow linking to xarcade, actlabs and all the other people who build pre-made setups.

RGVAC is primarly not a mame cab forum but a forum for those with real arcade machines.  Actually I kind of see that one to a point.  

Retrocactus is pretty much dead now.  It only has 36 members total and you might see one thread a month if your lucky and twistygrip has a whopping total of 4 posts.    

I'm not saying that all of these forums aren't noteworthy, I'm just saying that they take up too much valuable screen space for what they give you.

Perhaps the best solution would be to have a launch pad for the first screen of the message board with nothing but the full, expanded header with descriptions of each forum and links to it.  Then once you go into the main forum you have a rather modest header that only has the internal forums and a link to go back to the launch pad.  

Just a few ideas... anyone else?  

[saint]

For the official record:

This has my attention, and I'll work on it when I can.  I was torn between  a clean look (which I value highly) and/or linking appropriate sites.  I like the launchpad/expansion idea, I'll look into that.  One problem is that currently there is one template for every page of the board.  It's hard coded into the forum software.  I *think* there are mods to allow separate templates.

Anyway - I didn't want you to think you were being ignored.  It may be a bit before I can actually get to it, but I hear you

BTW - just so everyone knows, I never object to constructive criticism.  Patience is definitely a virtue in getting responses to constructive criticism, but I always read it and heed it.  Please keep it coming  

--- saint

[Lilwolf]

I second the removal of most of the other forums.

how about a forum link on the side?  

[u_rebelscum]

I second the removal of most of the other forums.

how about a forum link on the side?  

I don't like the idea of the links on the left or right.  If they're at the top, at least I can scroll past them.  If they're on the side, they'll squeeze everything on the rest of the page.  And with the avatars and boarders, sideways is the more limited real estate, IMO.

If you didn't literally mean on the side of the web page, I'm sorry.  I'm just making sure the horizontal space is not squeezed.