Pick different icons for 'closed topic' and 'secure category'

FA locks are a bit more distinct, but my reasoning for using a different icon for private is this:

Locked category Private category
image image
Changes are locked Key is needed for access
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I donā€™t feel qualified to make the call here, so please letā€™s reduce the noise:

Donā€™t post any more icon suggestions in here unless youā€™re sending them as a PR which you have tested!

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LOL look at you trying to turn off a bikeshed topic. Thatā€™s adorable :blush:

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Anyways, I am open to this if we can decide on a final outcome, but letā€™s have @jordan-vidrine @awesomerobot @Johani weigh in.

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As someone who often takes screenshots in an environment with lots of mixed-access content, I strongly disagree! I suspect file sharing benefits from being log-in-only and private-first when it comes to not labeling things.

Some sites could definitely remove the icon without issue, but it would be dangerous for others.

Using the same icon and relying on context to differentiate the meaning requires a bit more mental work than having two distinct iconsā€¦ but itā€™s also very possible that a distinct but less apparent icon could be more confusing.

Anyway, what weā€™re trying to communicate is ā€œthis category is access-restrictedā€ (from the public or other groups)

The padlock with the user seems closer to the area of ā€œsomething about security and peopleā€ rather than just ā€œsomething about securityā€ but itā€™s not a good icon at small sizes. Is this a shopping category?

Screen Shot 2020-04-20 at 6.56.00 PM

so what about a key?

Screen Shot 2020-04-20 at 7.00.14 PM

ehhā€¦ similar issue, the small size and lack of association with a lock or some other related thing makes it lose meaning really quickly. Plus if a topic is lockedā€¦ is the category the key to the topicā€™s lock? whatā€™s that association all about?

Unlocked is probably the closest usable suggestion hereā€¦

Screen Shot 2020-04-20 at 7.23.36 PM

I think this could potentially be as ambiguous as the lockā€¦ just in the opposite way.

More importantly, there are a lot of Discourse sites in the world nowā€¦ and we might give a good number of admins heart attacks if their locked icons are suddenly unlocked. Thatā€™s enough of a concern that I donā€™t think itā€™s worth remotely considering!

A lock isnā€™t perfect, but itā€™s the best weā€™ve got!

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Can we test out a few different icons for ā€œclosed topicā€ then?

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Considered ban, but it feels a little too much like itā€™s saying ā€œdo not enterā€ to me

A slashed speech-bubble maybe? Could argue that itā€™s more literalā€¦ might be a little less clear visually (could try some adjustments to improve that).

We wouldnā€™t be able to use that exact icon as mocked up above though because itā€™s under Font Awesomeā€™s commercial licenseā€¦ but it wouldnā€™t be difficult to create something following the same concept.

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Letā€™s change closed I like that idea better.

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Hereā€™s how a custom comment-slash would look in some different contexts, put it above the unlisted icon here just to check how similar it is:

In topic titles:

Topic status message:

Screen Shot 2020-04-21 at 12.16.37 AM

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I agree that the slash-through speech bubble is the right direction for a closed topic.

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This looks good however, I have mixed feelings - a step forward, but it looks weirdā€¦ To me it doesnā€™t give a ā€˜closedā€™ vibe. It looks more like another version of a muted icon. How does it look in the admin wrench?

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Personally, I get a ā€œno talking allowedā€ from this icon, which is what we want to convey here. I like it

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Iā€™ve just made the update. I also added a new ā€œdiscourse-commentā€ icon so the speech bubble styles matchā€¦

Screen Shot 2020-04-21 at 5.38.46 PM Screen Shot 2020-04-21 at 5.38.53 PM

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/b6489d269045d28ad1f8c6dc7e41f991390f002c

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Actually does not look bad at all in the admin wrench :+1:

Doesnā€™t the make public topic icon look alike to open topic ?

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I have mixed feelings about thisā€¦ ironically it fights with the Discourse logo visually :cry: ā€¦ probably not an issue with other logos?

Also open feels kind of generic. Maybe we need the talk bubble and a plus?

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I am thinking close is good as-is, but open is the problem, hereā€™s my mock of what I feel we should do

image

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An interesting thing, since I am admin on so many sites, closed never meant to me ā€œend of discussionā€ ā€¦ it is more ā€œwe are done with this topicā€. So conceptually the lock was good and this change is ā€¦ surprising.

I will live with this though for a few weeks and see how I feel, my knee jerk ā€¦ why did you move my cheeseā€¦ reaction here is I would have preferred changed the icon for secure categories.

But who knows how I will feel in 2 weeks.

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Agree I want to live with this for a while. I think the glyph is clearer this way.

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