27

Or is it just me?...

If it's really just me I'll suck it up and quit my yapping. I submitted a feature request on MSO a few days ago to be able to close it but not much was discussed about it and it hasn't gotten any further attention. Just wondered what the sentiments here on SF are.

8
  • Yes, although i'm kinda getting used to it now ...
    – Zypher
    Commented Sep 16, 2010 at 5:10
  • Yes. Really not sure why it wasn't made dismissible as with the FAQ banner/badge-notication in the first place.
    – jscott
    Commented Sep 16, 2010 at 10:41
  • 1
    @Warner: Nope, not from what I can see... At least not from Chrome and FF.
    – squillman
    Commented Sep 17, 2010 at 1:14
  • I put my bit in on MSO.
    – sysadmin1138 Mod
    Commented Sep 17, 2010 at 3:59
  • @sysadmin: thanks, I also edited that question again to bump it. We'll see. I might go the bounty route over there soon just to get it some more attention.
    – squillman
    Commented Sep 17, 2010 at 14:37
  • I came here to say this.
    – Petey B
    Commented Sep 21, 2010 at 20:13
  • The system notification bar is no more.
    – user9517 Mod
    Commented Sep 19, 2012 at 11:42
  • 1
    Until someone gets the idea of bringing it back to show us some more unnecessary crap.
    – John Gardeniers
    Commented Sep 20, 2012 at 6:45

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
16

Zoredache's comment on chat with 18 stars speaks your case:

I really wish I could dismiss the 'serverfault has a 3rd place' banner.

I totally agree. It's intrusive due to the way it renders, which interrupts the flow when reading.

2
  • 6
    +1 - I hate how its rendered on $document.ready() rather than being rendered in-line with everything else.
    – Mark Henderson
    Commented Sep 16, 2010 at 21:35
  • @Farseeker: yeah, I suggested on MSO that they put it in the view code instead of using jQuery for it. That would make it so that the layout doesn't bounce around.
    – squillman
    Commented Sep 17, 2010 at 1:15
9

No squillman, it's not just you.

I find it so annoying that it's causing me to spend less time on the site than normal. Something that irritating, if it's deemed necessary at all, should be way down the bottom, not up top where it creates an eyesore and interferes with the normal use of the site. I've lost count of the number of times I've gone to click on a question, only to have it suddenly drop down as that blue bar pops up.

Perhaps this kind of information belongs on the right hand side, along with all the other crap I completely ignore.

2
  • 3
    I can understand why it's there for things that are actually important, but most important things don't stay there for > 24 hours. Chat != important.
    – Mark Henderson
    Commented Sep 16, 2010 at 21:36
  • @Farseeker, my sentiments exactly. I wonder how much value is added to the site by a feature that just pisses people off. Seems a bit counter-intuitive to me.
    – John Gardeniers
    Commented Sep 17, 2010 at 2:22
3

Stylish is your friend if using Firefox.

@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);

@-moz-document domain("serverfault.com") {
#system-message { display : none ;}
}

Stylist is your friend if using Chrome.

Prefix http://serverfault.com

rule

#system-message {display : none ;}

I check every day or so to see if it's still there. When it goes I'll turn the style off.

5
  • Nice. But no love for Chrome :(
    – squillman
    Commented Sep 16, 2010 at 17:39
  • Feel the love for chrome
    – user9517
    Commented Sep 16, 2010 at 18:08
  • 3
    Why should we have to customise our browsers to compensate for a poor site design? Isn't that completely missing the point? As for Chrome, the day might eventually come where it's an acceptable and stable browser - but that's still a long way off.
    – John Gardeniers
    Commented Sep 17, 2010 at 2:25
  • It's a work-around whist waiting for a patch.
    – user9517
    Commented Sep 17, 2010 at 7:11
  • 2
    I don't want a patch or a workaround. I simply want that bar removed completely.
    – John Gardeniers
    Commented Sep 17, 2010 at 22:35
2

As I said in response to the feature request

In support of being able to dismiss notifications, and in response to Diago's comment above, :

Are you ready to handle all the questions on Meta once they dismissed it? Wait there was this banner on the site I dismissed about x, how can I read it again*/*I never saw that, what is this new feature.

A "Notifications" page where these announcements permanently reside would nicely tie this up. I think that it would fit in well near the "about" or "faq" links. This way the notifications could be dismissed, but could be referenced by anyone who would care to look them back up.

6
  • Thanks! I've edited the MSO question again to bump it. I'm going to put a kickin bounty on it soon if I don't get any more feedback. Such a simple thing....
    – squillman
    Commented Sep 17, 2010 at 14:36
  • @gWaldo, of all the information about SF that is NOT obvious to most users the chat would have to be about the least important. So what if someone dismisses the bar without reading about it? We work in a filed where this is the norm (e.g. who ever reads a EULA?).
    – John Gardeniers
    Commented Sep 19, 2010 at 0:07
  • @John Gardeniers, I'm sorry, but I can't be in the business of spoon-feeding information to everyone. The core audience, I think, will either not care about "what did that say", will read an unusual notification before clicking a 'dismiss' button, and knows where to discover information. Sure there are plenty of 'click first, ask questions later' types, but you honestly cannot cater to everyone, and right now, that blazing blue banner (in SF) seems to be annoying the core of that community.
    – gWaldo
    Commented Sep 20, 2010 at 12:14
  • @gWaldo, from reading your answer I get the impression you are defending that blue bar, yet in your comment you appear to be under the impression that I am in favour of it, which you will notice from my previous answer I most certainly am not. Either one or both of us are mistaken.
    – John Gardeniers
    Commented Sep 21, 2010 at 0:43
  • @John Gardeniers I am in favor of a dismissable notifications bar. My alternative to those who would want to look up what was announced is a notifications page. I fixed the formatting of my quoteblock to hopefully reflect that it contains a sub-quote. I have reread your earlier comment and I think we've suffered from hearing different things from read text. I read the second sentence as "So, what if someone dismisses..." to mean 'how do we cater to someone who dismisses it', where now I think you are saying "So What" as in "Who cares if they dismiss it".
    – gWaldo
    Commented Sep 21, 2010 at 12:15
  • @John Gardeniers I'd also read the last sentence to imply that despite people not reading our carefully worded missives and warnings, we still catch flack when they break things that we'd warned about. Thus, we have to cater to the lowest-common-denominator... Thanks for clarifying; I think we're on the same page! DOWN WITH NOTIFICATION BAR!!!
    – gWaldo
    Commented Sep 21, 2010 at 12:16

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