Hey @aquila! It's funny, I was actually wrestling with this very thing for a while. I actually did exactly what you said and went with fully round user avatars, and then decided to go back for some reason.
I think you're right, it is a bit confusing, especially the first time you come into the interface.
Ok, I'm going to give this some thought and might just go back to fully round user avatars. Or find another way to distinguish.
I like how Discord solves this by just using the logo and the horizontal line:
@marcoroth I had had that thought as well...does seem like separating would at least show some distinction.
I'd go for a bigger distinction woudl be to move it from there to a different place. Maybe in the top navbar to the right?
@adrianthedev I had actually started with the user avatar up in the top right of the navbar, but then it felt like it was unclear what the context was for the left nav panel for account:
Those are reserved for "click to manage your profile avatars".
@adrianthedev Can you say more about this? I wasn't sure what you meant.
I meant the avatar that most services have in the top right corner that people use to access their settings, billing information and sign out links.
@adrianthedev Ah, got it, thanks! 👌 Yes, that makes sense.
But you have to tell me more about this markdown editor. Is it custom made?
The toolbar is using @github/markdown-toolbar-element. I'm also using @github/text-expander-element for at-mentions and @github/session-resume for persisting the post to session storage. I've wired everything up with Stimulus and Turbo, as those libraries are lower-level. I've also got a drag-and-drop file uploader that's based on an earlier version I wrote about here.
There's more to come with the editor, too! This is one area that I think makes a huge difference for writing online.
I'm hoping to write this all up and share my implementation when I get the chance!
@kanejamison Thanks! I had almost the exact thought process. And yeah, I do think I want to keep that emphasis on the Inbox, Bookmarks, and (hopefully soon) Draft topics.
Relegating it to the bottom would be an easier match of expectations for people coming over from Slack...but I want to do more with it than just preferences and logout.
I love love love hitting CTRL+Shift+A in Slack communities and seeing every unread across all channels and pushing through them like that, then I'll go through my threads if there are ones I'm tracking conversations on. Could be cool to give that feel to the inbox and let it span communities. Right now I have to jump down each slack in the sidebar and go through the same inbox triage.
Could be cool to give that feel to the inbox and let it span communities.
Interesting, I'll think about that! Yeah, some of those mechanics were difficult to anticipate and design for ahead of actual use...so I figured those would emerge over time. I think you're hitting on an issue I was starting to notice as well: "how do I easily see all the unreads for topics I'm not following?"
For Slack communities everything is either A) historical, B) new and I haven't seen it yet, or C) I'm following it for new replies.
So Slack Unreads view shows me all of B. And Threads view shows me all of C. Everything else that has conversation activity I have explicitly chosen not to follow unless I seek it out.
I think that is close enough to what old school forums would be as well... Either I'm in the conversation or I've chosen not to follow it or it's a new conversation and I need to decide whether to follow or ignore it.
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