Move the quick/useful links to the top

[#1]

Having to scroll to the bottom to get the links is counter productive.

[#2]

If you click your username just above hte 'Browse' link (top right) there should be most of the links there too.

[#3]

But Chris, if you are in the middle of a long thread, you still have to go to the top to get to your username and then click twice there. If you move the links to the top, as they were, it will be simpler!

[#4]

We will need to think of placement as this bar would look strange next to the other similarly styles buttons on the homepage. Might need to include it on every page except the homepage to avoid a clash, will need some thought. There is a good reason why it only appears at the bottom though.. It's more of an exit route than anything else.

I originally put the bar at the bottom as an alternative to the user menu by request when user testing and users were getting frustrated with scrolling back to the top to access common pages. The menu bar acts more as an exit from the bottom of pages by giving you some of the most common pages that are useful. I personally use the bottom bar a lot but prefer the full user menu.

[#5]

Argh, not at the top ever please please, that'll be more scrolling on a mobile. The fly-out menu is there, I would have thought that quite sufficient once people realise it's there

But as a significant point, there is no mention of it in the FAQ that I could see, is it mentioned somewhere else @Chris? Of course it is, in the Welcome at login

[#6]

We spent a lot of time discussing this with the development team.  It was initially implemented as an alternative to having to scroll back to the top of the page, to then have to double click - avatar and fly out option - to navigate back to unread topics.

We also got the forum breadcrumbs added to the bottom of page too.  Being at the bottom is the most logical place for where next links.

[#7]

If it is "most logical place" then why does EVERY other forum have it at the top?
A lot of forums have a "back to top" button to get to the top of the page, I think that would be useful for mobile users.
Personally I just press back to go back to the previous page of links. But when you are on the landing page it isn't obvious where it is.

[#8]

HairyMcbiker wrote:
If it is "most logical place" then why does EVERY other forum have it at the top?

They are at the top on the slide-out menu, have you not discovered that yet?

The point of putting those at the bottom was to save having to scroll to the top, especially with a mobile device.

[#9]

I use the bottom links all the time and as others have said it's the most logical place to have them.

I'm glad they were put there.

[#10]

Yes I "discovered" them, I asked in this topic!
But they are NOT obvious, hidden under a user icon, where normally you only go for control panel.

Having been a board user since dial up days this is just confusing for me.
Same with the mark all read, again hidden in a sub menu, these are the MOST used (navigation) buttons surely.