Site Design Changes

[Xelmon]

Ah, yap, it is better! Avatars are also back on the left side. Excellent!

The "Online" tag looks a bit weird now though. Oh well, win some lose some.

[glasseye]

I like it. Much cleaner. Better on my mini.

Can we get bigger avatars ?

[airkooledchris]

it's coming along nicely so far.... it's a little bright seeming to my eyes, but maybe it just takes some getting used to.

what id really love to see restored is the ability to view all threads in chronological order, no matter which sub-forum they have been posted to. clicking to 'view new posts' when you weren't logged in, previously, used to offer that functionality, but since viewing new posts became tied to being logged in it was lost.

the 'new posts' thread seems to drop posts off far too quickly, making it harder to go and track down recently added content.

[Amskeptic]

Ah, yap, it is better! Avatars are also back on the left side. Excellent!

The "Online" tag looks a bit weird now though. Oh well, win some lose some.

Hi! Coming up for air!

I am appreciative of zabo's work and gave myself time to live with the changes here. I was really hating on the right side avatars, couldn't figure who was saying what as I scrolled down the page past each poorly defined post/signature/post, etc. but lookitthat, it has been updated!

There is some skill in laying out a complex page like a bulletin board. I have a new appreciation for the difficulty. Line weights are absolutely critical to organizing and packaging and emphasizing as well as de-emphasizing elements on a page. For all the dated appearance of the last template, it came from a long line of experience over at PHP. Originally, I wanted to "clean up" the annoying busy-ness and clean up the junk and make the website tie in to the book design, clean black and white with color buttons that made sense and were easy to see and use on mobile devices. Somewhat like this rough example that I was laboring on when left Pensacola:



Not knowing how far we can tweak these bulletin boards, I was envisioning an "air-cooled tune-up", not an entire "Subaru engine transplant with a variable ratio transmission". So I was laboriously going through the design elements to see where I could make it clean but arty. I was most-interested in simple functionality that could possibly translate to small mobile devices, thus the color buttons where green was going to be personal user functions, yellow was going to be board management functions, and red was going to be page resets.

So, is there any melding to be had with this current layout? I would like to experiment with a current reply window where there is a lot going on, and see if I could make a "tie-in to the book aesthetic" result, but I need to complete this rush of five visits (three social) across ten states in seven days.
Colin

(p.s. can we delete the "set up an appointment with Colin" ? My itinerary sign-up is a brief season with an open and close date. Speaking of which, six days to go)

[Xelmon]

Ahhhh, I like your layout! New and old, molded together!

Especially like your frames at the topics, which I assume is a cross-thread from the book of yours. :)

Honestly, the IAC and Visit frames aren't bad. The setup is narrower than before, still, it's all very easy to read.

[zabo]

Unfortunately with the old template there was no way to make it play nice with smaller devices ( tablets/phones) so a new design had to be implemented. It also had a number of bugs due to its antiquated html table layout and code.

For all the dated appearance of the last template, it came from a long line of experience over at PHP.

Please let me know if im wasting my time here- I can revert back to the old template at the press of a button. and you can have the old page back in all its gloriousness.


I personally think this new template is a step in the right direction and will look great when finished- as it is I have just been trying to get it there when I have time, an hour here an hour there.

[Westy78]

This is better. The contrast between posts helps a lot. If the quotes could be separated from the main body of the post with a different color maybe, that would be great. As they are they seem to all blend together. Maybe a bolder line around them and the same with the sig lines.

[Westy78]

The site also seems to be running very slow. Is that an issue with the new format or server issues?

[zabo]

The site also seems to be running very slow. Is that an issue with the new format or server issues?

seems like server side mySQL errors wich is out of my expertise- the error logs full the last few days

A general error occured: General Error
» SQL ERROR [ mysqli ]

Can't create/write to file '/tmp/#sql_7534_0.MYI' (Errcode: 22) [1]

[dtrumbo]

Hi. First, thanks Zabo for all the hard work. With that, I'll chime in with my constructive observations which I think others have mentioned, but I'll second.

Yes, the site is painfully slow.

Also, it would be nice if the signature portion of the post was in a smaller font to help delineate from the context of the post.

The new background color really helps with all the white-space. The avatars back on the left is good, the different background for quotes is also good.

I hope this is constructive instead of 'I hate change, you kids get off my lawn!'

[RussellK]

??? I read that avatars are back on the left but on my computer they are on the right. The site is running very slowly using IE10

Okay....very strange. on yet another pc running IE8 Avatars are on the left side and the site runs faster

[airkooledchris]

??? I read that avatars are back on the left but on my computer they are on the right. The site is running very slowly using IE10

Okay....very strange. on yet another pc running IE8 Avatars are on the left side and the site runs faster

The Avatar issue is just your browser cache/temp files. Go to your Tools+Internet Options menu and click the delete button in the 'history' section. The popup will already have the values you want checked, so you can click delete here to confirm.

You'll end up having to log back into the site but that should give you the most recent data.

[Xelmon]

Ctrl+F5 also does the trick. :)

Otherwise, the theme itself is pretty good, and I'd definitely roll with it! Just a visual update here and there to get it all perfect. :)

[Amskeptic]

Ctrl+F5 also does the trick. :)

Otherwise, the theme itself is pretty good, and I'd definitely roll with it! Just a visual update here and there to get it all perfect. :)

Poll Question:

We currently have a grey dark grey/blue .

What other color combo would work for you?

The current forum header illustration is in the earth tone side of the color palette, as seemed appropriate for the red/subsilver from whence we came. I was wondering if a burgundy/light leather tan combo would work?
Colin

[Xelmon]

Poll Question:

We currently have a grey dark grey/blue .

What other color combo would work for you?

The current forum header illustration is in the earth tone side of the color palette, as seemed appropriate for the red/subsilver from whence we came. I was wondering if a burgundy/light leather tan combo would work?
Colin

That sounds really good actually, and the tan - IMO - would look great a background.
Yeah... Burgundy headers, white-ish post blocks, tan background to break it up and still have a light feel to the site. :)