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I am viewing the web on a large monitor. It is frustrating trying to read articles on this site in a modern browser - the text flows all the way across the page, regardless of how wide the monitor is!
The only way to actually read an article is to open the site/page in a separate browser instance, and then manually resize the browser down to a width that is comfortable for reading - something less than 230 characters per line or thirty or forty words per line...
"The ideal line length for text layout is based on the physiology of the human eye... At normal reading distance the arc of the visual field is only a few inches - about the width of a well-designed column of text, or about 12 words per line. Research shows that reading slows and retention rates fall as line length begins to exceed the ideal width, because the reader then needs to use the muscles of the eye and neck to track from the end of one line to the beginning of the next line. If the eye must traverse great distances on the page, the reader is easily lost and must hunt for the beginning of the next line. Quantitative studies show that moderate line lengths significantly increase the legibility of text.
Web Style Guide - Basic Design Principles for Creating Website
Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton
2nd edition, page 97."
Please change the site layout to make it easier to read the articles without having to manually resize the browser window.
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Life has come full circle  Just 6-7 years ago, people were complaining that the articles were scrolling horizontally. And now you have the exact opposite problem!
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Life is like that, isn't it?
Maybe it's time to update the site to reflect the fact that most users have monitors capable of display more than 1024x768.
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camainc wrote: Maybe it's time to update the site to reflect the fact that most users have monitors capable of display more than 1024x768.
Out of curiosity, what size monitor do you have, and at what resolution?
I am on a 24" monitor at 1920x1200 and I am not majorly inconvenienced when I read articles.
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I don't think you are representative of the majority. Perhaps you have trained yourself to read very wide columns of text, especially if you are on this site a lot.
There is a lot of great information on the web regarding usability. I posted a quote about long text columns earlier. Here is another link:
http://informationarchitects.jp/100E2R
What you guys do on your site is up to you, of course, but I would imagine there are a lot of people who would come here more often (myself included) if your site was easier on the eyes.
Oh, and I am looking at this site right now on a 20" LCD at 1600 x 1200.
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camainc wrote: I don't think you are representative of the majority. Perhaps you have trained yourself to read very wide columns of text, especially if you are on this site a lot.
That's possible - as I said in my previous post, I was asking out of curiosity.
camainc wrote: What you guys do on your site is up to you, of course, but I would imagine there are a lot of people who would come here more often (myself included) if your site was easier on the eyes.
I don't work for CP (I used to), so my reply to you was my personal opinion. That said, Chris and his team usually go to great lengths to make the site more usable, and I am sure they'll respect your feedback and suggestions.
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Maybe you are cheating and not using your browser with a maximized window? 
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Nor am I on a 22" screen. What will set me off with site design is having 30-50% of my screen space wasted because the designer hardcoded an 800/1024px wide layout.
3x12=36
2x12=24
1x12=12
0x12=18
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Turn your monitor 90° and then you won't have that problem.
I doubt it. If it isn't intuitive then we need to fix it. - Chris Maunder
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If I do that, all the text will fall to the bottom of the screen and will get all piled up.
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camainc wrote: If I do that, all the text will fall to the bottom of the screen and will get all piled up.
He was not joking, I think he meant that you try it out in portrait orientation.
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First, that assumes I have a monitor that swivels (I don't).
Second, why should I turn my monitor around just to view this site? Most of the sites I visit on a regular basis have made the switch to Web 2.0 usability standards, and besides, my monitor setup is perfect for development using Visual Studio, and I don't want to change just to read an article now and then on a site that I rarely visit anymore.
I only posted the original comment as a suggestion to the site owners for how they might adapt this site to accommodate more viewers. It was not a request for suggestions as to how I could change my monitor or website viewing practices to adapt to this site, although I appreciate the helpful intentions behind the suggestions.
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camainc wrote: I only posted the original comment as a suggestion to the site owners for how they might adapt this site to accommodate more viewers. It was not a request for suggestions as to how I could change my monitor or website viewing practices to adapt to this site, although I appreciate the helpful intentions behind the suggestions.
When you replied jokingly that the text would fall down, I assumed that you thought Ed Poore was joking too. And I thought I'd just clarify that perhaps Ed was not joking.
I don't seriously expect anyone to flip/rotate their monitor just for a website.
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Nishant Sivakumar wrote: He was not joking
I was actually...
I doubt it. If it isn't intuitive then we need to fix it. - Chris Maunder
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Thanks for the suggestion.
We have a redesign in the works and one of the things I will put in place is a max-width on the article column. I find exactly the same thing.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
The Code Project Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP
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Currently the user's location on the signup page defaults to "United Stated". While I think most of us here are from the US, I get tired of people signing up to ask for their homework to be done for them and when you check their profile, it says United States.  Force them to at least pick something. They could still lie but...
You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.
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Tim Craig wrote: when you check their profile, it says United States. Force them to at least pick something. They could still lie but
The first signup page can actually do an auto-detect based on remote IP address. Not a fool-proof measure though but a significant gap should be covered anyway.
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar
Personal Homepage
Tech Gossips
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep!
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Vasudevan Deepak Kumar wrote: The first signup page can actually do an auto-detect based on remote IP address
It does.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
The Code Project Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP
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I had to try that from Antwerp, Belgium.
"Sign up" yields the form with time zone almost correct (it said "+1 GMT: Amsterdam" where "+1 GMT: Brussels" would be more correct).
It also said "Country: United States" 
I have a screenshot if you need one.
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While you're at it, could you try that in Bangalore and Karachi?  
You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.
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No problem, I'll do that the next time I'm around, assuming my mobile internet will work there as well as it does here.
Do you think those cities got annexed too?
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Luc Pattyn wrote: Do you think those cities got annexed too?
Might as well have. Both would probably have gone belly up long ago except for US foreign aid. 
You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.
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At the rate things are going, it should default to "India".
.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"The staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - J. Jystad, 2001
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John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote: At the rate things are going, it should default to "India".
I could suggest how the rest of the profile should be defaulted. This would be especially helpful to the one post idiots who create a new ID every time their homework is due. However, I'd probably get censored for being politically incorrect and culturally insensitive and be forced to read Lounge posts to atone for my misdeeds. 
You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.
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