Are there too many links at the top of the boards? Any I should remove?

I think the biggest issue is that it's really quite busy up above and I'm probably not alone in basically avoiding 99% of the stuff up above the links on this board. It's quite overwhelming having 3 different lines with separate menus, in addition to the cavalcade of links in the Notices box.

First, I would remove all of the links in the Notices box above. I don't think I've ever clicked on any of them. Assuming that people do use those links - perhaps move them into "calfans links" or a similar dropdown menu in the box.

I would combine the site navigation and boards/chat/listen/tv menu. At the top menu, I would get rid of User CP (already in Quick Links) and move Faq and members list into Quick Links. I would delete Calendar - why does that link even exist?

Not sure whether this type of analysis could be easily done, but it might make sense to see what links people actually click on and make those readily available with the rest relegated to submenus in an organized way that takes into account relative frequency of usage. Unfortunately, I don't read any boards from any other schools so I don't have any benchmarks that I could point to as to what I think it should look like. Just generally I'd make it simpler.

Agreed, there seems to be way too many menus and too many unnecessary links that make the whole page look cluttered. Do people really need links for things like SF weather and Berkeley weather? I also vote for removing 99% of the stuff in the notices box and toning down the 3 rows of menus.

As an example, at first glance I see 3 separate ways to access chat from the menus: the "Forums/Chat" menu, the "Chat Room" menu, and the "Boards/Chat/Listen/TV" menu. Or to get the the forum index, you can go via "Forums/Chat", "Site Navigation", "Boards/Chat/Listen/TV", or even click on the "The Bear Insider - Covering Cal Sports 24 x 7" link.

Simplifying everything would make navigation a whole lot easier and improve site aesthetics imho.

Please get rid of some of the drop down menus (under the countdown timer) completely.

Not only do they contain duplicate/obsolete/broken links, they also just "expand" the screen width unnecessarily.

It used to be that I could keep my browser at the half the size of my 20" monitor (1680x1050) and be fine, but now I have to scroll horizontally because the page doesn't fit, which is pain in the ass.


I say get rid of 3 drop down menus at least:

- Site Navigation - not really needed. duplicate links found elsewhere.

- Mobile - not needed. I don't even see drop down menus when I log in with my cellphone/tablet anyways.

- Calfans Links - a bunch of non-working links that only show HTML codes. Are they there for troubleshooting purposes only? not sure why it's there. based on link names, they are also redundant.



Also all those links under the pull down menu, I personally have never clicked on any of them. Not sure how many people use them. They just look messy. Don't really care about them though. My main annoyance is with those 6 pull down menus that make this message board wider (at its smallest default size) than it needs to be.

2 deep for FSU?