24 replies to this topic

[Brito]

Hello,

A new visual theme for the site is under testing. This theme is inspired on the style brought forward with the new Windows 8 user interface.

If you don't see it, go to the end each page and open up the "change theme" box. Select the theme "Metro".

So far I'm enjoying the change in colors brought by the new theme, I hope you also like them.

The theme is still being adjusted to our site, you might stumble on some of these changes and defects on the layout until we get them ironed out. Otherwise, don't worry and just keep on using any of other available themes on the site.

If you have feedback of things you'd like to see changed on the theme (colors, font size, ...) then please let me know. Can't promise that everything can be changed and corrected, but I can try to make changes within my reach.

[DarkPhoeniX]

Here is my 50c

[Brito]

Here is my 50c

Hi my friend, let me guess: Firefox?

 

In the Firefox from my home laptop I see the same defect but not on the firefox from my work place.

 

Thanks for reporting.

[DarkPhoeniX]

Yap im using FF 18.0.2

Only shows up on the Forum/Home page

 

Hope that helps

[pscEx]

With FF 19.0 I see it correct.

 

 metro.gif   11.17KB   2 downloads

 

Peter

[Brito]

Yes, I confirm that this work better in FF 19.

I've contacted the theme author about these issues. Let's see if they can get addressed.

In overall, what do you think about the theme?

[pscEx]

In overall, what do you think about the theme?

Not my taste / favor

 

Peter

[dvond]

Lover the new format. Nice and clean!

[DarkPhoeniX]

I think this may be a FF plugin

The FF 18.0.2 at work shows the site correctly

a new problem croped up this morning however :

I will disable/update the plugins and FF tomorrow

As for the skin, i liked the old one better

But i dont mind the new one ether, its clean and colorful

 

Maby you Should put it to a Poll

[Brito]

From what we can tell, the FF version 18 has a rendering problem that does not appear in older or more recent Firefox versions.

 

What you report from the last message is an attempt of moving the publicity bar inside the blue bar and this way keep the header smaller. Unfortunately it is getting difficult to combine these two blocks together.

 

I've reverted the changes and placed the theme as optional for now. Will later be working to get all the reported issues corrected.

 

 

 

As for the skin, i liked the old one better

But i dont mind the new one ether, its clean and colorful

 

Maby you Should put it to a Poll

 

Polls on color decisions would just create havoc around here. Some would criticize actively whatever changes, while a silent majority would enjoy the changes but say no words about the matter. Every now and then we do a refresh on our design, the previous theme will still be available just like the default theme that comes with the board.

 

Right now the intention is bringing a fresher look to our community. Let's see how this goes.

[Tripredacus]

I originally had a problem where the reply did not appear to work. It would just sit there from quick reply and I would have to refresh to see the post. But now it seems fixed.

 

Also, I can't find a "new unread topics" link anywhere, does it not exist anymore?

 

EDIT: also, I am expert now and no longer Advanced User!

[Brito]

Thanks for reporting. Sometimes it might help to clean up the cache because the CSS and theme files change, so it might be worth to check if from a clean cache the problem persists (just mentioning this in case other folks also stumble in problems).

 

This afternoon I was making some changes but not everything is over. Still some glitches missing to handle.

 

 

Also, I can't find a "new unread topics" link anywhere, does it not exist anymore?

 

This might be the case, I don't use it so I didn't noticed it was missing. Where was it positioned before?

 

 

 

EDIT: also, I am expert now and no longer Advanced User!

 

Yes, from my perspective the previous situation with advanced members didn't seem very fair to describe the participation of some members in the community so a new category was created this week (didn't announced this change thought). btw: Congratulations!

[pscEx]

Yes, from my perspective the previous situation with advanced members didn't seem very fair to describe the participation of some members in the community so a new category was created this week (didn't announced this change thought). btw: Congratulations!

 

Peter

[Tripredacus]

This might be the case, I don't use it so I didn't noticed it was missing. Where was it positioned before?

 

It used to display me the new unread topics on the front page by default, so I never had to use the link most forums have. Here is how to manually do it:

 

http://reboot.pro/in...arch_app=forums

 

EDIT: I found it by accident. On the upper right on the index, in that orange rectangle under my large username, there are 4 things. Its the one that sort of looks like a folder. But the URL is slightly different and either that or the one I posted here works the same.

[Brito]

Our good friends at TLF are helping us improve this theme: http://tech.reboot.p...ad.php?tid=3873

 

I can apply some changes on my own, but they are far better skilled than me to solve some of these issues that have been reported. Over there you can read about what is being done and add some feedback if you wish. This is the best time to add missing features or corrections.

 

:cheers

[dummkopf007]

This is the best time to add missing features or corrections.

 

 

I know where it is ..... but the log-out button could be a'lil bit more prominent

 

........... when I blink it seems to be see-sawing my blood pressure readings

[robertcollier4]

The left-right margins are way too big. The user profile picture is way too big. Title heading font sizes are a bit too big and have too much whitespace around them. It seems to me that this forum has become for people with bad eyesight who don't like reading meaty technical content but rather want a "pretty" experience.. The theme is wasting a ton of screen real estate in places causing me to have to scroll around a lot more to read and find the content I want. This is not ideal for a technical content site. I should not have to scroll around so much and whitespace should be at a minimum - technical sites should be "content packed".

 

How many posts are you able to see with your eyes at one time? The goal of a theme should be to maximize this while still maintaining aesthetics and organization.

Edited by robertcollier4, 09 April 2013 - 07:21 PM.

[Brito]

Hi Robert,

 

Good suggestions but I'm unable to implement them. Would you have designer skills to make changes yourself?

 

If so, let me know and you are welcome to give a try. Besides "pretty", the goal is to reduce the number of graphics required to load and replace with plain text where possible. This was done for the buttons. Whitespace is a bother, I tried myself to get it smaller but when changing something that elsewhere the design is broken.

 

What this theme does bring in advantage is the fact that it is more "finger-friendly", meaning that from a tablet device it becomes easier to browser around the topic and read what is being discussed. The previous themes are indeed too small for non-mouse based navigation.

 

[robertcollier4]

Hi Robert,

 

Good suggestions but I'm unable to implement them. Would you have designer skills to make changes yourself?

 

If so, let me know and you are welcome to give a try. Besides "pretty", the goal is to reduce the number of graphics required to load and replace with plain text where possible. This was done for the buttons. Whitespace is a bother, I tried myself to get it smaller but when changing something that elsewhere the design is broken.

 

What this theme does bring in advantage is the fact that it is more "finger-friendly", meaning that from a tablet device it becomes easier to browser around the topic and read what is being discussed. The previous themes are indeed too small for non-mouse based navigation.

 

 

I like the IP.Board Theme and changed it for me from the button at the bottom. It is full width, doesn't waste space, and is familiar to the many other IP Board websites that users might have already used on other forums, thus consistency. I think it should stay as default. No need for a redesign. Editing CSS files and making something work across all the browsers is a VERY time-consuming task - if IP.Board has already supplied the theme then let it be, its not worth the time.

 

With that, I assume the vast majority of the users on this board are using this site with mouse and keyboard based devices. It is a technical content site - whenever doing any typing, the user always wants to use a physical keyboard.

 

For the tiny minority of users who might be using touch-devices to access the site - they can change the theme to Metro for themselves.

 

Just one suggestion - reduce the Avatar / Profile Picture size. Every other IP Board has it much smaller, example of size it should be.

Edited by robertcollier4, 10 April 2013 - 06:18 PM.

[Brito]

The opinion as end-user is important, however you should also note that "familiar" looks are not necessarily a good thing from a webmaster perspective.

 

One finds more often an IPB forum site with a customized theme than the other way around, not likely for the sake of the visitors but more for the sake of preserving a digital identity that visually distinguishes a site from the rest.

 

Usability is always an issue. Resources available to improve this situation are always an issue as well. If there are volunteers willing to invest in making changes, they are welcome.

[Wonko the Sane]

One finds more often an IPB forum site with a customized theme than the other way around, not likely for the sake of the visitors but more for the sake of preserving a digital identity that visually distinguishes a site from the rest.

And in order to do so, you are attempting to use a Metro like style, i.e. the most senselessly replicated one, that besides the original being wrong, ugly and hurting the eyes, will guarantee a site look very similar to tens or hundreds of other ones.

 

Emerging by conforming, interesting new paradigm shift.

 

Wonko

[Brito]

And my dear Searcher, how many forum sites in our field of expertise are using the same design?

 

After this exercise, what is the ratio that we can compute? 10 to 1, 50 to 1?

 

Without knowing any numbers, I'd be tempted to quickly equate that the ratio of forum sites in this area of expertise using the default theme is higher than those using a metro-like theme.

[pscEx]

@Nuno, @Wonko,

 

I'm not sure whether I understood your discussion fully, depending on language and interpretation.

 

So my post may be off-topic.

 

I feel as a user of a forum.

 

And when I'm member in several forums, I do not wont on every visit have the same "login trauma": OOPS, here I'm in XYZ. It remands a user behaviour different from my usual one, and the "key buttons" are in a different place and have a different caption.

 

I would be very happy when I in all forums where I'm member, I could see my preferential "911CD" look. And whenever the forum allows, I try to define for me.

 

The appearence triggered achievement "HURRAAAHHH, here is my favoured forum" I can miss.

 

Peter

[Wonko the Sane]

Nuno, 
you are failing to see the point (or I completely failed to make it clear ).
 
The final users (with all due exceptions of course) tend to be like Peter or myself and to like having the same "interface" on the Forums where they go, with *some* shorcuts at the top, *some* at the bottom, *some* on the right, *some* on the left.
We have talked n times about the issue that once you take into account readability, a very restricted number of "ink" and background colours (and fonts) provide better readability.
 
If you want to distinguish Reboot.pro from the other boards (and as long as you will kindly leave the possibility for old dinosaurs to use the "classic" 911CD kind of skin) you have all my support (and most probably also Peter's one)
 
What I suggested was that to make something distinctive it must be different from the rest, possibly better, in any case "new" (in the sense of "original").
 
By replicating the Metro NCI "visual style" you are failing certainly to provide anything "new", and IMHO also not "better".

While my opinion on the awkwardness of NCI "visual style" is obviously irrelevant, it is a fact that it is not "new", and additionally, given the nature of the NCI you have (again IMHO) the added "risk" to have the board confused with OS tiles, apps or whatever pertaining instead to the "local machine".

 

Finally if you have a look at the ads, very often they are already in that same "visual style", so that will add further confusion.

If you want an example forum, here are a few:
http://forums.scar-d...-new-forum-skin
http://www.wssrpg.co...page/index.html

This skin for Invision:
http://community.inv...ile/5368-metro/
http://www.finalpres...0cb7518b965e6c
has been sold 69 times



Wonko

[Brito]

My friends, I know we will never reach a consensus on theme discussions..

 

From my perspective we need a fresh breeze of air and I'm trying to provide a theme that is as simple as possible, with no fancy graphics nor stuff that take ages to load on the browser.

 

For me, if a completely text based theme would be possible, I'd jump right in to adopt it around here but there seems to exist no such theme and the default theme is just too default, would welcome some character in the looks please..