I like a trimmed interface when I'm reading a conversation, and I've trimmed up the display of each post in each thread display. It allows me to move through conversations a bit faster, as there are fewer superfluous objects displayed. I did this by authoring a set of userscripts for use in the Greasemonkey Firefox extension, and I've decided to share the userscripts here. Anyone may use them if he likes. I've called the set, simply, Postbox Toggle.

Each userscript hides, by default, a different part of the postbox (all posts are treated equally). By clicking in the cell which displays the author's name, you cause all hidden elements, with the exception of the signature, to be displayed for that one postbox. The signature (if you have that userscript installed) is displayed by clicking in the cell containing the post comment itself. In all cases, clicking again in the same spot re-hides the elements (hence the "toggle" in the thread title).

These work fine regardless of how your show/hide avatars/signatures options are set in your forum profile. As I rely on avatars to determine the author of a post (as I quickly scan the page), there is no userscript for hiding avatars.

Header Row: postheadertoggle.user.js
Postbit: postbittoggle.user.js
Signature: postsigtoggle.user.js
Footer Button Row: postfootertoggle.user.js
Separator: postseparatortoggle.user.js

I have them all installed, and I only enable the userscripts for the elements I want normally hidden as I read posts. If I want to see that element for a specific post, I click as described above. If I want to see that element for all posts, for the moment, I disable the one appropriate userscript. It works very nicely.

These are the most ambitious userscripts I've created yet (and, yet, they're not half as ambitious as what I'm working on at the moment), and it makes me a little nervous. I've been using them for a couple of days now, and they seem to be stable. If you have any problems which you think might be caused by these userscripts, disable them immediately and provide here as much detail as you can.

The only problem I've seen, which seems very intermittent, is that, when clicking into a post which is partway down the thread (from New Posts, for example), I sometimes end up just above or just below the start of the post. This is caused by my hiding elements after the page has rendered (I cannot do it sooner). This is annoying, and I might one day fix it, but it doesn't happen too much, and so it's not a showstopper for me. Please share here whatever headaches these userscripts create for you (if they don't create any at all, do share that).

If you have any questions about how to install or use this, please do use Google to educate yourself minimally about Greasemonkey before asking questions.

If you do use this, please do provide feedback in this thread, even if it's just to let me know you like it. If you see room for improvement, please discuss.