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I think I might have brought this up before actually but I've always felt like this feature was missing something and not fulfilling it's potential. In fact I've definitely had this discussion with you, Lego, because we talked about the reasons for distancing Dakka from social media which was really interesting to me.

Anyway, it dawned on me that a little reformatting would make the feature something quite exciting and useful to boot. I'll try a word picture and if that doesn't work I'll try graphics:
1. So we start with the current profile page format.
2. Relocate the 'Friend List' to a new full page length column down the right hand side.
3. Add the avatar of each friend next to their username.
4. Remove the 'People who list [username] as a friend' and replace with a 'Reciprocation Icon' attached to each friend entry.
5. I don't use the ignore list but it seems like it could remain in it's current column and format happily.

Straight away that's a better looking tool with a series of mini profiles instead of hyperlinks and it's easy to add functionality to that format. I remember there is a hang up about server load from when I suggested the avatars in quoted text but you managed to work around that because they were just smaller versions of avatars that would probably have been loaded in full anyway. In this case that's not an option but I'm thinking that this isn't a page people are visiting a lot anyway so hopefully it wouldn't be a substantial drain?

In terms of adding functionality, here are a few things I think people would appreciate seeing:
1. A direct link to the 'send this user a private message' could be applied to each 'Mini Profile' for an easy way to contact a friend.
2. Ranking and post count plus DCM, MOD or ADMIN status would be easy and effective additions.
3. Treading the line of social networking you could have a link to recent activity: a post, a new thread or an uploaded image. It would link directly to this item to promote and redirect traffic back into Dakka.
4. You could maybe also pull some data that shows how long you have been friends with someone but I spot a few issues here. It's really just a nicety anyway so you could make it manual entry and verified by the other user? Verification simply executed with a similar method of automated private message like 'A New Friend...'

And now I have the oddest feeling I'm missing some huge blatant reason this can't work. If so lets right this off and as always I'll be back to annoy you with some else before long.

I think something like this has potential.

Two. That's all we need.

They say the first man to speak up is crazy. The second is brave and forms the movement.

To the trenches men! We charge at day break.

Just a thought: Would it be a beneficial to be able to organise or group your friends in some way? Maybe colour code or organise them by how well you know them? Or just being able to group them by how you know them under a category of your choice?

Just brainstorming.

I like this idea too.

I'm sure Lego has tons of spare time - and I'm sure he'll get right on this.

I hope.

Wink wink.

Nudge Nudge.

Hah! Yeah I'm pretty sure at this stage Lego's heart sinks every time he sees I've posted a thread in Nuts & Bolts. One day I'm going to try and log in to Dakka and I'll be IP blocked.

Sounds like it has potential. Could you or someone do a mockup on a screenshot for me so that I can visualise it a bit better. I dont see any major reasons why it wont work.

Yay! I'll get on a mock up tonight.


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Apologies for the quality and the fact I've only shown the basics. I'd never even opened Dreamweaver until tonight and it's terrifying so I was only able to get so much done. I've stuck them in quotes because looking at Dakka inside Dakka is just blowing my mind. Seriously though this is one ugly botch job but I already think it looks pretty cool, definite potential for you to work your magic on.

Interesting indeed!

Casey, that's grouse looking.

Thanks lads. It needs a fair amount of tidying up and formatting but trying to write html inside pre existing html was killing me. Particularly since I don't really know html, or any code actually. Turns out the html for table is... <table>. Who would've thunk it?

@Lego - If you need more, I have the files saved so I can go back in and tackle it again at some point if you request it.

ok looks pretty cool, I'll add it to the to-do list.

One possible issue is that scrolling on a touchscreen will be a pain because scrolling on the right of the screen will just scroll the friends list, but it should not be a showstopper.

Ah good spot, I never clocked that issue. I'll try and think of a solution.

Also, and I can't promise anything, but if I were to use this to teach myself Dreamweaver could you feasibly take what I've done, make any necessary alterations and then paste it into place for the following update? I'd be very happy if I was able to lighten your work load to a check and correct.

Nope, the interface side of things is only an hour or so of work at best. The back end side of things takes a bit longer, but for this particular change neither is a massive amount of effort.

Integrating code from others is generally a pain as I have to spend more time reading and integrating it than it would take to just write it myself but thanks for the offer anyway.

No worries, bud.

Hahaha! It took me a few hours to just make that mock up.

Looking forward to this!

+1 Internet for Casey for suggesting it.

+1,000,000 Internets to Lego for actually having to do it!

Damn straight!