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by benjamincburns 4746 days ago
My personal pet peeve... A huuuuuuuuge banner image pushes the article text below the fold on my 13" rMBP on default display settings in a maximized (by height and width, grr OSX) Chrome window.

Screenshot: http://imgur.com/fFqt2ud

Maybe I'm a bit irrational about this, I know scrolling isn't hard, but I came to read your text, dammit.

Edit:

Also, seriously... HUGE thanks for asking!

Edit 2:

Scrolling down I'm noticing that your image height is actually bigger than the height of the viewport (minus the height of your top bar). Even if you disagree with the idea that the image shouldn't push the text below the fold, I hope you agree that the image should at least fit my viewport.
1 comments
donohoe 4746 days ago
Thats a tough one. We want to be visual as well as just text. Text is king, but nice to have best of both worlds (if possible)

Editors choose "Featured Images" and we really want to allow for the big expressive photos.

Its hard to constrain them and maintain a sane aspect ratio. I'm not disagreeing with you - I don't have a good answer.

These definitely work really well on larger monitors - however laptops, older computers its not the ideal.

Will need to think about this more.

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benjamincburns 4746 days ago
If you want to make it the editor's choice, build a feature that at least gives them visibility into what they're doing. Worst case, just load an article preview in a bunch of fixed-size iframes which match the viewport size of common browsers. Better but more expensive, cobble together a browser farm (getting cheaper now thanks to modern.ie images). Either way, make it a prominent part of the editorial process.

Edit: I think the reason it bugs me is that text is the primary value your site provides. The image is ambiance. Ambiance that blocks me from the value I seek goes from tasteful to gaudy real fast. I get the desire to let editors be expressive, but if you're in a situation where you're forced to prioritize, always prioritize the thing that brought the visitor to your site in the first place. Otherwise you might not have need for the editor at all.

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