Does this bother anyone else?

[FrankReynolds]

Well, todays PCs were built for multitasking, so multitasking is exactly what I do with them.

I know a few people who have 2, I don't know anybody else who has 5. Lots of people still only have 1.

This isn't really an ancient setup, I see it all over the place even today. So there's unused space on the side of your browser. I really don't see it as a big deal.

Every computer in my office and every person that I know who plays games on their PC has 2 monitors or a TV and a monitor. Either way, I don't really see how having the webpage would hurt you or anyone else in any way. Just about any web dev. (I assume that the people administering this site are professionals) should be able to make this change in a couple of minutes.

To recap:

* This has no negative impact on the ability to use the site.
* This modernizes the look and feel of the site.
* This has virtually no cost involved.
* This takes mere minutes to implement.
* You are not the arbiter of web design.
* You are not the arbiter of monitor placement / use / possession.
* You don't use the site in a way that would be affected one way or the other so your input is of little value to anyone.

[Babekeke]

I can't be bothered to multi-quote everyone, so my apologies:

I use a 15.5 inch widescreen monitor on my laptop. At 100% the actual font size on the screen is about 2mm high, and I'm sat at around 60-70cm from the screen (from my eyes). Maybe it's just my eyesight going in my old age, but that's just too small for me. Thankfully, the website only covers about 70% of the screen at that view (window in full screen mode). Zooming to 125% makes the text larger and the website fills almost all of the screen width. Zooming to 150% takes some of it off the screen.

Sure, I can only see 1 post at a time, and if it's a long post, only part of it. But I can only read 1 line at a time, so what does that matter?

As a reference, I can see the top of the blue banner above franks post, down to the line before his sig. His sig is hidden without scrolling down.

I get about 1.25 inches, or 3 cm of grey to the right of the website. I don't see the issue.

edit: oh and as for everyone using multi-screens? Not likely. I doubt that many people in the UK are using multi-screens. They recently introduced them at my work, but I've never seen anyone privately using more than 1. It certainly would negate the effectiveness of a laptop to require a 2nd screen lol. Though I do use a separate USB keyboard so that I can have the KB on my lap whilst sat on the sofa.

<alt> <tab> is fine.

[FrankReynolds]

I can't be bothered to multi-quote everyone, so my apologies:

I use a 15.5 inch widescreen monitor on my laptop. At 100% the actual font size on the screen is about 2mm high, and I'm sat at around 60-70cm from the screen (from my eyes). Maybe it's just my eyesight going in my old age, but that's just too small for me. Thankfully, the website only covers about 70% of the screen at that view (window in full screen mode). Zooming to 125% makes the text larger and the website fills almost all of the screen width. Zooming to 150% takes some of it off the screen.

Sure, I can only see 1 post at a time, and if it's a long post, only part of it. But I can only read 1 line at a time, so what does that matter?

As a reference, I can see the top of the blue banner above franks post, down to the line before his sig. His sig is hidden without scrolling down.

I get about 1.25 inches, or 3 cm of grey to the right of the website. I don't see the issue.

edit: oh and as for everyone using multi-screens? Not likely. I doubt that many people in the UK are using multi-screens. They recently introduced them at my work, but I've never seen anyone privately using more than 1. It certainly would negate the effectiveness of a laptop to require a 2nd screen lol. Though I do use a separate USB keyboard so that I can have the KB on my lap whilst sat on the sofa.

<alt> <tab> is fine.

The size of the screen doesn't matter as much as the resolution. On a 1080p monitor, almost half of the screen is grey. The larger the monitor, the larger that half a screen looks. On my 24" monitors at home, that means that there is almost 9 inches of empty space between the content on my game monitor and my browser monitor. More importantly, it means that I am looking at the far left edge of my screen instead of the middle. Almost every publication in print has used padding on both sides of the page to center the content for thousands of years. I'm not sure why this style of programming ever took hold on the web.

It bears repeating though: This adjustment has no adverse affect.

As for how many people have dual monitors... I have no interest in researching and providing proof that dual monitors are a popular set up beyond the fact that almost every aftermarket video card and / or laptop computer ever made has / had multiple monitor support for a reason.

[Alhanelem]

Every computer in my office and every person that I know who plays games on their PC has 2 monitors or a TV and a monitor.

Well, everyone in your office and every person you know is a lot richer than I am, apparently.

And frankly, i'd upgrade just about any other component in my PC before i'd consider a second monitor.

It bears repeating though: This adjustment has no adverse affect.

Not saying it does, though the way I see it, there is no adverse effect or problem caused by the way things are now, which is probably why they're slacking on it. I just don't see why people are making such a fuss about it. Fixed width is common, and I'm willing to bet the only adjustment the'yre going to make is centering it instead of left-aligning it. The main reason why sites use it is it creates a consistent appearance for all visitors for the most part regardless of whether their window is big or small, resolution is high or low, and it makes formatting easier.

I have no interest in researching and providing proof that dual monitors are a popular set up beyond the fact that almost every aftermarket video card and / or laptop computer ever made has / had multiple monitor support for a reason.

To give people the option of doing so- not because everybody does it, but because there are people who do use it.

Also, there isn't anything more or less modern about fixed width. Even the most visited website in the world, google, uses a fixed width.

I was just giving my perspective on the issue, so I don't know why you felt the need to go all out to battle against me. Don't even bother responding and you'll save us both a lot of trouble.

I use a 15.5 inch widescreen monitor on my laptop. At 100% the actual font size on the screen is about 2mm high, and I'm sat at around 60-70cm from the screen (from my eyes).

This can be easily fixed by increasing the font DPI in Windows, or by increasing font sizes in your browser settings.

[FrankReynolds]

And frankly, i'd upgrade just about any other component in my PC before i'd consider a second monitor.

I think most people do just that to some degree.

I upgraded my hard drives first, then I upgraded my video card to a card that I thought would run whatever I would need it to in the foreseeable future ( I didn't buy a top of the line card because I mainly play FFXI which doesn't benefit much from that). Next I did the power supply because it failed. Then I added memory. $35 for 8 gigs seems like plenty to me. At first I used to use my TV as the monitor to play my game and I would mess around on the internet, watch video, edit music / video etc. on the other screen. I eventually decided that that was over the top and got a smaller monitor for my game screen. Eventually when that rig got long ion the tooth (The cpu fan mount broke, so my cooling unit was held on with zip ties), I just built another one with similarly priced parts.

Anyone who works on multiple documents or sites at the same time benefits greatly from having two monitors. The tax compliance officer at my office has 3 monitors and makes use of all of them quite well. I've seen people who play flight simulator games with 5 monitors for an iMax like feeling. Most kids / students could benefit in the same way.

At any rate, who cares how mangy monitors people are using? It's a simple thing that makes the site easier on the eyes. FFXI is a game with lots of downtime and having a second monitor alleviates a lot of boredom.

[CyrilCade]

I've since switched to Chrome and installed the StyleBot extension. A few CSS hacks, and I've got nice wide forums on my machine ^^

For those that would like to reclaim some screen space before SE updates the forums: you can download Stylish and apply the FFXI Official Forums - Simple user style. This uses client-side CSS to remove the background and stretch the page to 100% of your browser window.

[FrankReynolds]

For those that would like to reclaim some screen space before SE updates the forums: you can download Stylish and apply the FFXI Official Forums - Simple user style. This uses client-side CSS to remove the background and stretch the page to 100% of your browser window.

Thanks! I downloaded that extension, but I never got around to messing with it. That helps a lot.

[Mirage]

Totally installed it. Thanks bro.

Just can't let this slip past though.

Well, todays PCs were built for multitasking, so multitasking is exactly what I do with them.

Yeah, and so what? My PC multitasks, that doesn't mean I have to multitask all the time too. Sure, my PC can and does do several tasks in the background, but that doesn't mean I want or need to see them happening, and definitely not all the time.