General renovation...

[Luxman]

Hey,

I've been surprised this morning and I had to check out if I'm really connected to the correct site.

The AW boards have got new clothes.

A bit unfamiliar for the moment, but nice. I think we'll have to test a short period to give more founded feedback, actually I find the messages take a bit too much place vertically, advantage is that horizontal scrolling can be avoid for the most cases.

I hope the missing things like the clickable Smilies and the "Who is online..." list will reappear soon.

Anyway, I'm not yet sure, but I think I like the new design.

More later....

lxm

[Vid Dude]

There are still some things I'd like to tweak, but generally I like the new look. The Who's Online thingy is back on the front page - I had accidentally switched it off.

[Luxman]

In my eyes you should review the (old) top part of the page a bit. I think this part does not go very well with the new 3D design of the rest of the page.

You should consider to add the 3rd dimension there too. What do you think?

lxm

[Quartz]

I must say I do like the new s p a c e y layout, although Luxman does have a point concerning the large amounts of whitespace (okay, bluespace) between and inside the messages in a thread.

One thing I really dislike is the forced underlining of everything that links to something. I always instruct my browsers not to underline any links unless my mouse pointer hovers over them. Apparently, vBulletin overrides that decision by imposing underlining everywhere. This takes away from the more subdued, clean and clear layout of the old board. I find myself looking for the bits of information I need now, whereas they just jumped right up when there was no underlining. This comment concerns the index pages (the board index page, and the thread indices - the threads themselves (the message screens) are still pretty clean)).

One additional thing: I liked to see the poster's ID in boldface (Vid Dude is the only name in boldface ) when watching a thread (boldface is now only used to attribute the quote in a reply). I really have to look for who posted a message now.

A good thing is the blue shading and boxing to emphasize quoted text and the reply. The 'Attached Images' box is a bit much, as is the dividing line above the editing remarks, but that's probably something one has to (and will) get used to.

[Vid Dude]

I agree on the boldface names. I'm going to look into what I can do about that, because clearly they've done this to differentiate the moderators from the regular members. I will see if I can find another way to achieve that.

As for the other things, progress is change. I like them for the most part, and I tend not to change the things I like.

I might make my buttons a bit smaller though, they look a bit dominant right now.

I'm gonna make this reply window bigger too.

[Quartz]

I agree on the boldface names. I'm going to look into what I can do about that, because clearly they've done this to differentiate the moderators from the regular members. I will see if I can find another way to achieve that.

Thanks, this looks much better. The moderators are now slanted (oh, come on, you know what I mean). The smaller quote button makes the pages look a bit more compressed (less whitespace), so that looks better as well. The underlining stuff, well, it's probably a Javascript thing, so I can probably take that out.

Oops ... CSS:

a:link
{
color: #666600;
text-decoration: underline;
}
a:visited
{
color: #333300;
text-decoration: underline;
}
a:hover, a:active
{
color: #666600;
text-decoration: underline;
}

Bit harder.

Thanks sofar.

[Vid Dude]

I don't think I can change the underlining very easily. My experiments have been ineffective. The problem is, the settings have about 5 different places where links are referenced, and they seem to conflict each other. Plus, there are different kinds of links (menus, folder trees, inside posts, etc) so it's quite confusing.

Having said that, the override in your browser should still be working in any case. Weird that it isn't.

[Quartz]

I don't think I can change the underlining very easily. My experiments have been ineffective. The problem is, the settings have about 5 different places where links are referenced, and they seem to conflict each other. Plus, there are different kinds of links (menus, folder trees, inside posts, etc) so it's quite confusing. Having said that, the override in your browser should still be working in any case. Weird that it isn't.

It wasn't working when I wrote the message above, about an hour ago (or all of yesterday, for that matter). It works now

[Vid Dude]

That was me, still experimenting. I even made new smilies, which I will probably change too because they're so primitive.

[Quartz]

That was me, still experimenting

Ah yes. Surfing the boards right now is like navigating the Twilight Zone. Icons are changing between pages. With the Republican Convention simultaneously throwing nonsense at me in the background, this is becoming positively surreal ... I'll leave you to your antics and check back when the fall-out has settled down.

[Luxman]

What I really appreciate is the EDIT button appearing on my own posts only.
In the past I've often tried (by accident) to edit others posts and getting this "no access" pages stressed me.

I have a preference for the old (yellow) smilies, the colorful ones don't match the dignified design of the pages.

lxm

[Luxman]

One suggestion: I think you should review the white color for the small size text like the time stamp, it's pretty hard to read. For the bigger font sizes there is no problem.

lxm

[Quartz]

Maybe you could get rid of the superfluous line breaks after a quote? Since the quoted text is already in a separate <div><table></table></div> block, the trailing line breaks look out of place, and the resulting whitespace as well. It shouldn't involve more than a quick hack in a template, I guess.

[Vid Dude]

How's that? (for both)

[Luxman]

Vid Dude,

I must say that I like your new design. Very nice, just the title at the top is a bit old-fashioned compared to the rest of the page.

I've created a quick and dirty example how I could imagine that part. Maybe it could give you an idea.

lxm

[Quartz]

How's that? (for both)

Let's see what happens when I reply right under the quote in the reply window (I usually insert one line of whitespace myself).

---

It will still force an additonal line break in there:

</div><br />
Let's see what happens when I reply right under the quote in the reply window (I usually insert one line of whitespace myself).

---

Oh well.

[Quartz]

How's that? (for both)

Now let's see what happens when I reply right behind the quote in the reply window (not even a space after the closing quote tag).

----

Well, I think I'll get used to replying immediately below the quote. The line breaks are obviously caused by a user's (any user's) tendency to leave an empty line under the quote in the reply window, which can only be achieved by inserting two <br> tags, one by 'the system' (which positions the cursor below the quote to begin with), one by the user (who wants the additional empty line, just like in e-mail or in a usenet posting).

[Quartz]

Oh, lest I forget, I've seen no more database array errors or cookie problems since the upgrade. I think you're done

[Vid Dude]

I must say that I like your new design. Very nice, just the title at the top is a bit old-fashioned compared to the rest of the page.

Every time I try to add three dimensionality to things like our logo, Abby vetos it. She doesn't like things like that, I think she feels it obscures it too much and wants simple clarity. I've been gunning for drop shadows or bevelled edges since the beginning, and so far no luck.

[Luxman]

Oh! I don't understand why.

Looking at this page now, with the new (nice) buttons & icons, the actual logo looks flat and outmoded to me and disturbs the design of the rest of the page.

I know, it's only an unimportant opinion of an unimportant member, and Abby is the boss, but you should try to convince her for this change, I'll support you. I think it would give a more actual and modern face to the boards pages, and you should at least give it a try.

I can't see in my modest sample anything that's obscured.

I really don't understand.

lxm

[Tank]

Totally agree with Luxman & Vid Dude on this one. The title looks out of date as it stands.

Tank
"The wall was high and I fell asleep"

[Vid Dude]

I had originally designed this, but Abby doesn't like it so much. I'll probably try for something else, when I get some time.

btw, don't start campaigning Abby for these changes, she'll just get annoyed. I'm just showing you this because it was already brought up.

[vmsmith]

I like it. It's subtle, and matches the rest of the new boards very well. Good work!

[Tank]

I like it. Shame about Abby.

Tank
"The wall was high and I fell asleep"

[bubbatech]

I know what!!!

Use it!!!

I bet you she won't realize the difference, until a couple months go by...

and you can say it was always like that!!!

LOL

[Tank]

Just a small thing. I miss the "Mark posts read" button in the view new posts section.

Tank
"The wall was high and I fell asleep"

[Quartz]

Just a small thing. I miss the "Mark posts read" button in the view new posts section.

There's a Mark Forums Read option under the Quick Links menu. Isn't that the same thing?

[Tank]

There's a Mark Forums Read option under the Quick Links menu. Isn't that the same thing?

Your right, I hadn't seen that. Thanks Quartz.

Tank
"The wall was high and I fell asleep"

[Vid Dude]

I hope the missing things like the clickable Smilies and the "Who is online..." list will reappear soon.

Clickable smilies are working now.

[Luxman]

I've seen that, thanks.

lxm