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Maintenance 04/12/2014

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FengolFengol
edited in Association News
Please note that the website will be undergoing maintenance tonight from 19:00 until 23:00 as we upgrade the forum software.

New posts, comments or uploads made during maintenance may be lost.

Comments

  • FengolFengol
    Maintenance is now complete and seems successfully (i.e. we didn't lose any data)<div><br></div><div>2 features I want to point out:</div><div><ul><li><span style="font-size: 10pt;">There is now RSS support which you can get the links to from the All Categories page</span><br></li><li><span style="font-size: 10pt;">If you click on the gear icon in the top-right there should be an option for you to Mark All As Viewed</span><br></li></ul><div>Comments, complaints, thoughts on theme welcome here!</div></div>
  • woganwogan
    Neat - there are so many new buttons! :D
  • TuismTuism
    Oooooh, this actually doesn't look bad at all. Well, ok it could do with some cleaning up but overall it's not as bad as v1 was way back :)<div><br></div><div>Thanks for your work @Fengol :)</div>
    Thanked by 1AngryMoose
  • NitrogenNitrogen
    edited
    Any hope for having user-selectable themes? Eg, I'd really like a dark theme for this site, but I know most of you non-troglodytes wouldnt?<br>
  • TuismTuism
    edited
    Actually a dark one would be nice for the eyes. I however do prefer white around our logo... Oh right what logo XD (I know this is a fresh install and the customisation is coming later, and that's ok :P)
  • ShadowBladeShadowBlade
    edited
    I'd be all for dark as well. I can't stay on bright white sites for long :\<div><br></div><div>At any rate, I appreciate the effort and hard work, @Fengol!</div>
  • FengolFengol
    edited
    Let's see who complains about the dark theme.<div><br></div><div>If anyone wants to create a theme; we're using Bootstrap and you're welcome to pass it along to me to upload</div>
    Thanked by 1ShadowBlade
  • AngryMooseAngryMoose
    @Fengol rules!
  • TheFuntasticTheFuntastic
    edited
    I'm not about to start complaining as such, but I might say that to make the dark theme really hang together it would be good to turn down the contrast a bit. The hearts buttons for instance are a bit eye burny. But I'm leave it up to someone else (design/web dev) to get involved. So in that case if it never gets changed so be it ;) <br><br>Thanks for doing the hard work of web admin @fengol 
  • FengolFengol
    @TheFuntastic, Yeah, never send a dev to an artists job. I set the hearts based on the white background. I'll update it shortly
  • TuismTuism
    It's about colour values :) I don't know the science behind it, but when colours are similar to the background they're on but high saturated it gets jarring. Like purple.<div><br></div><div>Just pick a "bright" colour like orange or yellow or light blue or something for now :)</div><div><br></div><div>Great work @Fengol :D</div>
  • damouseydamousey
    I love the darker theme personally, but we need to make it more cohesive and claim it for ourselves. So much want to volunteer, but time, already so overcommitted everywhere :(<div><br></div><div>*googles "bootstrap" because is mad*</div><div><br></div><div>maybe over the break this December :)</div><div><br><div><br></div></div>
  • woganwogan
    I'm not sure what your feelings are on mobile support, but when you're done with the main site, the mobile view could use a little love: <div><br></div><div><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ki9suAY.png" width="500"><br><div><br></div><div><br></div></div>
    Thanked by 1damousey
  • damouseydamousey
    Could we have a not on black favicon?<div><br></div><div>It just seems very strange that the only representation of our logo is the one least recommended because black heart.</div>
  • FengolFengol
    You want black background for mobile as well?
  • woganwogan
    @Fengol Not necessarily - it just looks like an out-of-the-box view that could probably use some attention.<div><br></div><div>A consistent color scheme would work though, I think, if it wasn't a lot of effort to implement.</div>
  • woganwogan
    @damousey I thought it was rather fitting, given all the loadshedding going on ;)
  • TuismTuism
    edited
    <div><span style="color: rgb(206, 206, 206); font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4285717010498px; background-color: rgb(48, 48, 48);">Nevermind, I see the favicon when I drag the tab out - strange because the rest of my tabs show the favicon.</span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(206, 206, 206); font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4285717010498px; background-color: rgb(48, 48, 48);"><br>I never made a black favicon, where did that come from? Do you need me to make a new favicon @Fengol?</span></div><span style="color: rgb(206, 206, 206); font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4285717010498px; background-color: rgb(48, 48, 48); text-decoration: line-through;"><div><span style="color: rgb(206, 206, 206); font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4285717010498px; background-color: rgb(48, 48, 48); text-decoration: line-through;"><br></span></div>[q]</span><div><span style="color: rgb(206, 206, 206); font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4285717010498px; background-color: rgb(48, 48, 48); text-decoration: line-through;">Could we have a not on black favicon?</span><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(206, 206, 206); font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4285717010498px; margin-top: 0px !important; background-color: rgb(48, 48, 48);"><span style="text-decoration: line-through;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(206, 206, 206); font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4285717010498px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; background-color: rgb(48, 48, 48);"><span style="text-decoration: line-through;">It just seems very strange that the only representation of our logo is the one least recommended because black heart.</span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(206, 206, 206); font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4285717010498px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; background-color: rgb(48, 48, 48);"><span style="text-decoration: line-through;">[/q]</span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(206, 206, 206); font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4285717010498px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; background-color: rgb(48, 48, 48);"><span style="text-decoration: line-through;">(damnit I don't know how to quote. There's no button, <q> and [q] don't work...)</span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(206, 206, 206); font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4285717010498px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; background-color: rgb(48, 48, 48);"><span style="text-decoration: line-through;"><br></span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(206, 206, 206); font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4285717010498px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; background-color: rgb(48, 48, 48);"><span style="text-decoration: line-through;">Not sure what you mean here @damousey?</span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(206, 206, 206); font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4285717010498px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; background-color: rgb(48, 48, 48);"><span style="text-decoration: line-through;"><br></span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(206, 206, 206); font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4285717010498px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; background-color: rgb(48, 48, 48);"><span style="text-decoration: line-through;">Right now I don't see any favicons for the site?<br>Or do you mean you'd like not a black background to go with the logo?</span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(206, 206, 206); font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4285717010498px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; background-color: rgb(48, 48, 48);"><span style="text-decoration: line-through;">Or do you mean you want a new logo to accommodate black background?</span></div></div>
  • FengolFengol
    <blockquote class="UserQuote"><div class="QuoteAuthor"><a href="/profile/Tuism" rel="nofollow">Tuism</a> said:</div><div class="QuoteText"><p><div><span style="color: rgb(206, 206, 206); font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4285717010498px; background-color: rgb(48, 48, 48);">I never made a black favicon, where did that come from? Do you need me to make a new favicon @Fengol?</span><br></div><span style="color: rgb(206, 206, 206); font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4285717010498px; background-color: rgb(48, 48, 48); text-decoration: line-through;"><div><span style="color: rgb(206, 206, 206); font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4285717010498px; background-color: rgb(48, 48, 48); text-decoration: line-through;"><br></span></div></span></p></div></blockquote>No, that's the transparent one; when I upload it, it turns black. It's on my list of things to fix
  • Kobusvdwalt9Kobusvdwalt9
    Views is a nice addition. Overall it looks good. <br><br>Nice work !!<br>
  • AntiVoidAntiVoid
    The homepage is gone though. Had that nice intro and links.<br>
  • FengolFengol
    @AntiVoid, the homepage is coming back in a new, fancier, far more easily editable way soon!
    Thanked by 1AntiVoid
  • NitrogenNitrogen
    It's looking pretty cool!<br><br>The only things I miss is the little additions I did to the threads - being able to hover over the title to see the first bit of the body copy, and to see who started the thread, etc. But those are pretty minor.<br><br>Any way to move the Quote button to beside the <3 button?<br>
    Thanked by 1Tuism
  • KarujiKaruji
    edited
    Err I [i]think[/i] the forum has reverted to using HTML for its markup as opposed to BBCode which is rather worrying to me >.><div><br></div><div>Edit: Yep it has. This does not make me happy :<</div>
  • dislekciadislekcia
    edited
    Not a fan of the dark background, just in case that matters...<br><br>Is there a reason that the text in the text entry box is a different size to the actual forum text? I know I seem to keep going on about legibility, but seeing as I read EVERYTHING here, having it not be a chore to do so is my number 1 thing for the site.<br><br>The current quote style is also a thing: It makes quoted text huge. Some of the more heavily argued threads are crazy right now.<br>
  • KarujiKaruji
    <blockquote class="UserQuote"><div class="QuoteAuthor"><a href="/profile/dislekcia" rel="nofollow">dislekcia</a> said:</div><div class="QuoteText"><p>Not a fan of the dark background, just in case that matters...<br><br>Is there a reason that the text in the text entry box is a different size to the actual forum text? I know I seem to keep going on about legibility, but seeing as I read EVERYTHING here, having it not be a chore to do so is my number 1 thing for the site.<br><br>The current quote style is also a thing: It makes quoted text huge. Some of the more heavily argued threads are crazy right now.<br></p></div></blockquote>

    Could be wrong, but I remember having similar (though not as bad) issues when we originally setup the forum and were running HTML instead of BBCode. That said could just as easily be the theme.<div><br></div><div>Also. I like dark theme, I REALLY like them. Any text editor that doesn't have a dark theme is instantly discarded. That said: I really don't like this dark theme on the forum . . .</div>
  • PowerCatPowerCat
    Site has turned into a Graphic Designers nightmare, Lol.
  • TuismTuism
    A redesign always brings everyone's opinions out... And let's be honest, since when has design by committee ever pleased *everyone*? :) Everyone's a critic and an expert :)
    Thanked by 4Nitrogen AngryMoose Fengol roguecode
  • NitrogenNitrogen
    <br> <blockquote class="UserQuote"><div class="QuoteAuthor"><a href="/profile/Tuism" rel="nofollow">Tuism</a> said:</div><div class="QuoteText"><p>A redesign always brings everyone's opinions out... And let's be honest, since when has design by committee ever pleased *everyone*? :) Everyone's a critic and an expert :)</p></div></blockquote>

    I remember this from last time!<br>
  • AsbestosAsbestos
    edited
    <iframe scrolling="no" style="width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="http://codeflow.org/misc/gravity.html">
    </iframe><div>The new comment editor is quite powerful.</div>

    EDIT: But it doesn't accurately represent the final result.
    EDIT 2: Uh-oh. Maintenance things are happening to the site right now.
  • dislekciadislekcia
    Ow. The yellow highlight on new posts hurts - I can't see how many new posts there actually are ;)

    I assume it's temporary.
  • ElyaradineElyaradine
    Um. I'd suggest doing the experimentation offline, on a local copy of the website, rather than editing a live one. Because wow.
    Thanked by 9AntiVoid Nitrogen Tuism francoisvn Ramperkash Asbestos thoopid damousey AngryMoose
  • woganwogan
    *puts a cowboy hat on @Fengol*
  • TuismTuism
    I know we're undergoing maintenance, and this isn't permanent, and we love you dearly for doing stuff for us all @Fengol, but what is the state of play with the maintenance? Are we waiting for something? Is there a reason we're using this one as opposed to one of the previous ones we're talking about?

    Just wanted to know what's going on and if any of us could help to expedite this?
    Thanked by 1Asbestos
  • FengolFengol
    I'm taking the previous theme and updating it with the latest goodness. The previous version edited the core libraries which I won't allow to happen now and some of the styling has changed.

    What with regular electricity being a problem, this is happening when slower than expected; plus I'm not a CSS/Vanilla expert yet.
  • dislekciadislekcia
    I'm not sure how much of this is a thing, but new threads that have been created since my last visit don't seem to get a new content icon. You can only tell they're new from the bold of their titles, which isn't as easy to see.
    Thanked by 1Tuism
  • dammitdammit
    Is it possible to also make the threads not take up the whole width of the screen? It's really a strain for reading...
  • FengolFengol
    @dislekcia, @Tuism, brand new threads should now have the new content icon

    @dammit, this needs consensus because I like the wide lines. What do others feel?
  • AngryMooseAngryMoose
    MY EYES!!!!
    Thanked by 1Elyaradine
  • dammitdammit
    Fengol said:
    @dislekcia, @Tuism, brand new threads should now have the new content icon

    @dammit, this needs consensus because I like the wide lines. What do others feel?
    The optimal line length for your body text is considered to be 50-60 characters per line, including spaces (“Typographie”, E. Ruder). Other sources suggest that up to 75 characters is acceptable.
    baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability
    Thanked by 2Fengol Elyaradine
  • dislekciadislekcia
    edited
    Fengol said:
    @dammit, this needs consensus because I like the wide lines. What do others feel?
    The way the old site behaved was good for my reading, this feels too wide - I agree with @dammit

    Also, looks like quotes are broken ;)
  • ElyaradineElyaradine
    edited
    This is really something a web designer/developer should be doing. In terms of design principles, if you're looking at the readability of lengthy paragraphs, when the lines of text get too long, it becomes difficult for the reader to find which the next line is. The number of words in a line at which this happens varies, but it's somewhere less than 20 as far as I know. Serif fonts are also generally easier to read when there are walls of text (although some modern sans-serif fonts do a pretty good job too). While there are many things that I think can be left up to a vote/consensus, I think there are established rules when it comes to web design that shouldn't even be up for discussion.

    Duncan Bell has offered to help before (and does this stuff for a living afaik), and Nitrogen, Tuism and a few others have all shown they've got a good head on their shoulders when it comes to presenting visual information. I'd offer, but I'll only have some time, if any, in the first week of the new year.

    [edit] whoops, double-ninja'd.
    Thanked by 2Nitrogen AngryMoose
  • woganwogan
    For excellent readability: medium.com. They've put a lot of thought into it, and I think they have a blog somewhere that details their design decisions too.
  • TuismTuism
    Wide is bad. There's been many studies on this and we had this discussion during the last redesign :)
    Thanked by 1dammit
  • NitrogenNitrogen
    Web Dev is my day job so I'm happy to pitch in with styling or anything you'd need help with.

    What I would prefer doing is having switchable themes so that you dont have to try please every member of the forums within one theme.

    I've had a brief look around the Vanilla community for a per-user theme switching plugin and dont see anything that could serve our needs. If anyone sees anything that could possibly work as a per-user theme switcher, tell us about it.

    That being as it is, I think it would be fairly straight forward for me to write a Vanilla plugin which would allow each user to select which theme they'd like to use on the site (just include another CSS file into the head depending on a profile field). That way most of us could use a dark theme and the crazies like @dislekcia can use their monitors to tan themselves :D
    Thanked by 5Elyaradine dammit Ramperkash AngryMoose mattbenic
  • ElyaradineElyaradine
    Nitrogen said:
    Web Dev is my day job
    Ah ha! That explains much! :D

  • ElyaradineElyaradine
    Just want to say I'm actually enjoying not having emoticons... <_<
    Thanked by 3Karuji wogan Tuism
  • dammitdammit
    Thanks for the narrowing! (though, if possible, it would make more sense for it to be centred in the screen)
  • damouseydamousey
    I don't think picking at individual aspects one at a time without a whole design in the pipeline is very useful, each design decision has and should have dependencies that are inevitably going to be reworked. With such limited volunteer energy, surely we should focus on direction first?
    Thanked by 1Tuism
  • damouseydamousey
    sorry aboot double posting, I just realized that that may be more antagonistic than I actually feel.

    Right now, if I was certain I wouldn't be still in crunch mode and or fighting a cold I would volunteer to start and do next week, because dangit, I <3 MGSA and want it better.

    But I can't promise, because if I end up not being here then that's not better.
    Thanked by 1dammit
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