Hey all,
Since we need a new layout for the forums here, I've been wondering if any of you have come up with ideas you'd like to see implemented in a new layout. I'm talking purely about the design, here, but I'm sure many of you frequent other Zelda sites and may have considered such things.
So: any preferences for the new layout? I'd like to avoid going back to the original scheme, personally, but I also liked how well it was integrated into the site. Maybe you didn't? That's what this discussion is all about.
Don't feel like you guys need to have ideas in this situation, though. A new layout will exist in the coming months, whether or not a substantial discussion about what it will be is carried out. I'd just like to give you all a chance for feedback before I dive into coding and the like.
My suggestions are more technical, sadly. It seems I can only really implement Web sites instead of come up with color schemes and stuff like that. :/ But I'm all for HTML5 and CSS3 implementation; more rounded corners and shadows for me. Screw IE7 and IE8. >_>
Say, you did say you had some work in mind for me, right? :D
I have absolutely no clue how the new forums should look, nor do I really care. Just as long as I have this theme (http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg14/FeetLord/Forumtheme.png) available to me, I'm good.
I hate the new layout. It doesn't feel like the desert colossus at all.
It feels like we have the same amount of bots, but we lost the cool banner at the top (and all of TDC's style).
The layout I loved (and can still switch too) looks terrible, and is hardly functional. The only other layout I would consider using isn't functional at all. I always get this "No data received" crap.
I'm so unhappy. :(
Well, yeah, ZV, this is only a temporary layout. I have to code up a new one, but you can rest assured that it will be very much like the TDC you know and love. However, I'll probably take the chance to update it more. I might replace the banner, honestly, as the old one slows down the site a bit too much. (I do love it, though).
I don't really know what to do about the bots. We're on the latest version of SMF and we're supposed to even have captcha support for registration (which we do), but that doesn't seem to stop them. I'll have to look into it some more.
I was wondering why the forums looked so different. Anyway, I don't think the layout needs to be changed at all. I liked it the way it was. Plus, the animated banner of the sand blowing in the desert was kind of cool.
In my opinion, it seems the number of bots has INCREASED.
Agreed, I'm certainly noticing a trend.
If we could modify the registration process ourselves a little, I think we could trick a lot of those bots. I doubt a majority of those bot programmers would take more time out of their day to modify their code so they can get into only one more site.
I liked the old layout.
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/ R.I.P \
I I
I The I
I old I
I Layout I
I??-2011I
^ I---------I^^
Quote from: Mr. bubbles on June 25, 2011, 11:17:16 AM
I liked the old layout.
_____
/ R.I.P \
I I
I The I
I old I
I Layout I
I??-2011I
^ I---------I^^
I lol'd.
OK, well... it's been a while. I guess you guys don't have any particular requests for the layout. I think I'll sit down and try to start coding something up later today. I am SO TEMPTED to just get the old layout working again, but I'm going to try something completely new first. I can make something prettier, I think.
Go for it, man! I'm excited to see what you come up with.
So far this is turning out to be an updated version of the original layout. Essentially, it reflects the look of the site around it, but is still inline with the site itself. I'll try to make it EVEN FANCIER.
HTML5/CSS3.
DO EET.
Um.
No.
I'm having enough trouble with the way they handle images as it stands. I'm not sure what versions of HTML and CSS this version of SMF uses, but whatever it is, that's what I'm coding in.
Aw, fooey. I guess I'm out of ideas, then. XD
Hooray! The "new" layout is "done."
Since most of you seemed to like the old layout, I just stuck with the same basic concept. It was pretty simple to implement, and the layout you see before you is actually a modification of the SAME TEMPORARY LAYOUT that we were using before.
OK but now everyone has to help me out: I need to know if there are any problems with the new layout. As you use it, let me know if there are any clashing colors, hard-to-see font colors, and general badness. I can't really check everything, and there are A LOT of styles I never even touched so there may be some conflicts. PM me!
Also I'd like to hear any criticisms you all may have. Honestly, this took me a lot less time than I thought it would. If you wall would really like something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT instead I might be open to it (although it would probably take a much, much longer time.)
I'll also work on getting the old smileys back! And generally featuring more Zelda-related icons across the boards.
Looks good, man! The only problem I see with it is that it's a little... tiny. I'm using a 1920x1080 resolution and the entire site only takes up about half the screen.
Did it used to be that way for you, or did it stretch out? If it did then I think I know the settings I have to change...
It worked fine in the past. Well, with the other theme. I can't remember if it worked with the older version of this one.
Quote from: Tacheon Black on July 13, 2011, 08:44:46 PM
Looks good, man! The only problem I see with it is that it's a little... tiny. I'm using a 1920x1080 resolution and the entire site only takes up about half the screen.
I use a slightly lesser resolution, but I do have a similar criticism. Other than that and the large font sizes on the thread views, though, it looks really, really nice! Awesome work!
Hmm... I'm pretty sure the original layout didn't stretch at all, since the site's layout in general isn't built to (considering the nav bar and all). In theory I could just add space on the left side, but that would really just center the whole site, so I don't see the point.
I noticed the large font size too, Magmar. It should be an easy fix.
BASICALLY if the size of the forum is such that it is actually harder to read on higher resolution screens, then I'll look into a fix. Otherwise, I can't see an easy way to stretch the site that wouldn't mean just shifting what we have over (or redoing a lot, site-wide).
Uhm, it's not really a problem, but then I have decent vision.
I'd appreciate centering it though, if it wouldn't mess things up for lower-resolution viewers. It's fine as it is in all honesty, but it's also kind of aesthetically hurtful.
I'll look into centering it. It shouldn't be too hard to do... And, I don't think the font size has actually decreased at all, so, hopefully no one will have issues.
This layout is freaking awesome.
Really nice work, KP, you outdid yourself. I'm seriously impressed.
Here (http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg14/FeetLord/tdcforum.png) is what the top of the page looks like to me. Is that just Internet Explorer?
Otherwise, it looks good.
Quote from: Hi no Seijin on July 14, 2011, 06:04:56 AM
Here (http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg14/FeetLord/tdcforum.png) is what the top of the page looks like to me. Is that just Internet Explorer?
Maybe it's Firefox 3.
Also, every page tells me there's a stack overflow at line 1322.
HNS... I'm not sure why that's happening. I'd say it's IE, but I tried rendering the page in IE 6-9 using a tool online and it didn't happen. The layout is slightly messed up in IE, but not to that degree.
Shika, what browser are you using? I only get that message in IE. I'm not sure why it's popping up, but I'll look into it more after work.
Seems to work perfectly for Google Chrome. No errors to report over here.
Quote from: Shikatache on July 14, 2011, 09:28:50 AM
Maybe it's Firefox 3.
Also, every page tells me there's a stack overflow at line 1322.
I didn't know that PHP used stacks.
I'm using Chrome and it's working fine for me, other than the aforementioned left justify
Well, whatever you guys did to make the forum look like it does now, DON'T CHANGE IT!!! ;)
Well, I can't find a solution to the Stack Overflow/Out of Memory errors because I don't know what's causing them. I was hoping maybe it was the Flash banner, but even getting rid of that didn't help. It only appears in Internet Explorer as far as I can tell, though, so you might be better off switching to Chrome or Firefox at this point. =/
EDIT:: OR the solution could be the very next thing I search. The error messages should be gone now.
Out of curiosity, what was causing the error?
SMF has a setting that resizes avatars using javascript. IE doesn't play well with javascript, so I turned it off.
Oh, IE... Why am I not surprised? -_-`
Yes.
Regarding Tach's centering issue: no dice. So much of the site layout around the forum is positioned absolutely, to the pixel, that it would be a major pain to figure out how to get that to center according to your screen. Also, the CSS I was trying to use to center the page would not budge it at all. I'm willing to bet it's because of some of the positioned stuff, but I can't be sure.
tl;dr the site is too weirdly coded in the first place to support it.
HNS I still don't know what to do about your issue because I can't reproduce it.
Ya think we should try doing a complete restructuring of the site's HTML? It would take a lot of work, to be sure, but I noticed that a bunch of the content is rendered in tables (and a lot of those tables are nested inside
more tables!)--another likely culprit behind the idiosyncratic sizing. Using tables for layout also uses up a bit more memory, so for some clients, that could help in terms of speed if we switched to simple <div>s. I also noticed that a significant portion of block-displayed content is rendered inside of an inline element, and a deprecated one, at that.
And I dunno about you, but the numerous usages of absolute positioning for a lot of our content blocks is...well, scary from a maintenance standpoint and a cross-browser standpoint. We could accomplish all the positioning simply by nesting simple block elements inside one another and making sure the ancestors are rendered just right.
Again, it would take a lot of work, but it would make future theming potentially more flexible and less of a headache to navigate.
Please forgive me if this sounds like unwarranted criticism, but structurally, some of the implementation (not necessarily yours, of course) rubs me the wrong way. Of course, it may have been an inherited thing from the time when XHTML practices weren't as widespread as they are today.
Quote from: kamakaziplumber on July 14, 2011, 06:56:28 PM
HNS I still don't know what to do about your issue because I can't reproduce it.
Well, it's only an issue if I use the default theme, but I'm using the Core Theme (I think I'm the only one). So, I dunno, just tell people to not use IE; which, hopefully, they're not anyway since it sucks.
HNS, I took the liberty of making a new layout called "TDC New Full." It basically just gets rid of TDC's site layout container, so the layout spans the entire screen but has the same style. There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to use the new layout. It should get rid of the issue, which I'm beginning to doubt is even related to IE in the first place since I can't really reproduce it in my own IE installations/emulations.
Also Tach: using that theme will fix your resolution issue, if you'd like to use it. Up to you.
The default will remain the theme with the site layout in place, but you can change your theme to the Full one through your profile.
Thanks, KP! Works beautifully.
TDC New Full does look much better. Thanks.
It works nicely for me, as well. Very good job!
As an improvement suggestion, it would help a little if there were a link to the front page. However, the lack of one is by no means problematic for me, so if you don't get around to it soon, I won't complain.
I like this new layout...a lot. In fact, I love it.
TDC New Full looks awesome on my monitor. Not many forums out there take advantage of all my screen real estate so this is a pleasant change.
The theme itself is awesome too, by the way. It retains the old TDC feel but simplifies it and gives it a modern twist. Pretty much perfect.
Quote from: Twilight Wolf on July 19, 2011, 05:27:35 PM
TDC New Full looks awesome on my monitor. Not many forums out there take advantage of all my screen real estate so this is a pleasant change.
The theme itself is awesome too, by the way. It retains the old TDC feel but simplifies it and gives it a modern twist. Pretty much perfect.
This. KP, you magnificent bastard, you've done it again.
Thanks for the compliments, guys. :) I was hoping to go for a good compromise between the old layout and a new one. Maybe if the site's layout ever gets a complete overhaul, I'll make a completely original forum layout to go with it. For now I'm happy with this one, too.
Oh, I restored the old smileys, by the way. ;)
Ah, so good to have the old smilies back :3
However, I'm running into a bit of an issue with the forums now, unfortunately. For whatever reason the forums simply will NOT keep me signed in even if I set the time to "forever." This only happens on Opera. All the other forums I go to I have no problems with. Heck, even my Nook Color's web browser remembers to keep me signed in. Is the forum taking issue with my web browser or is it some setting I have to play with on my end?
*Finally stepped out of the stone age and got rid on IE in exchange for chrome*
OH WOW, THE SITE LOOKS AMAZING!
Quote from: Twilight Wolf on August 03, 2011, 06:54:42 AM
Ah, so good to have the old smilies back :3
However, I'm running into a bit of an issue with the forums now, unfortunately. For whatever reason the forums simply will NOT keep me signed in even if I set the time to "forever." This only happens on Opera. All the other forums I go to I have no problems with. Heck, even my Nook Color's web browser remembers to keep me signed in. Is the forum taking issue with my web browser or is it some setting I have to play with on my end?
I had the same problem before, when I put the URL as "http://www.desercolossus.com/forum/index.php". But when I dropped the "www" it allowed me to log in. I don't understand why that happened or if that is useful information to you but I hope it helps.
Quote from: Twilight Wolf on August 03, 2011, 06:54:42 AM
Ah, so good to have the old smilies back :3
However, I'm running into a bit of an issue with the forums now, unfortunately. For whatever reason the forums simply will NOT keep me signed in even if I set the time to "forever." This only happens on Opera. All the other forums I go to I have no problems with. Heck, even my Nook Color's web browser remembers to keep me signed in. Is the forum taking issue with my web browser or is it some setting I have to play with on my end?
Whenever I come to the colossus, all I have to do is hit the home button, and it logs me in. Hope that helps.
Quote from: Twilight Wolf on August 03, 2011, 06:54:42 AM
Ah, so good to have the old smilies back :3
However, I'm running into a bit of an issue with the forums now, unfortunately. For whatever reason the forums simply will NOT keep me signed in even if I set the time to "forever." This only happens on Opera. All the other forums I go to I have no problems with. Heck, even my Nook Color's web browser remembers to keep me signed in. Is the forum taking issue with my web browser or is it some setting I have to play with on my end?
Possibly your Web browser, as I'm fairly certain that your user data is stored in a cookie, which I'm sure a few browsers handle differently anyway. Do you have your cookies set to expire after a certain time?
Quote from: Inigo Montoya on August 03, 2011, 07:11:14 AM
*Finally stepped out of the stone age and got rid on IE in exchange for chrome*
OH WOW, THE SITE LOOKS AMAZING!
Does this mean
you've been using IE all this time!?*cocks gun* (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DramaticGunCock)
I have to agree with MF, it's probably a problem with Opera's cookie settings. I'd suggest just using another browser? Or if you're attached to Opera, check your settings and make sure that cookies determine their own lifetime.
Quote from: Inigo Montoya on August 03, 2011, 07:11:14 AM
*Finally stepped out of the stone age and got rid on IE in exchange for chrome*
OH WOW, THE SITE LOOKS AMAZING!
Does this mean
you've been using IE all this time!?*cocks gun* (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DramaticGunCock)
[/quote]
Every last minute. Hey, at least it wasn't Firefox 7.
Needless to say, all the problems I had with the site went away when I switched.
Who uses IE anymore? God, you do need to be shot! And my sister uses Firefox 7, she doesn't have any problems with it. Hey, at least it's not Firefox Vista. Imagine the nightmare...
Anyway, I think I like this layout a lot better. I tried it out on my Wii a few nights ago, it works pretty well.
My parents still uses IE. >>
Gods, I think it's time I start robbing banks so I can have bribe money to give to employers. But first I'll have to escape to Switzerland and get work on the Large Hadron Collider experiments. I'll go back in time, (http://www.cracked.com/article_16583_the-5-scientific-experiments-most-likely-to-end-world_p2.html) create the LHC, and get rich off of it. That way, I won't have to rob banks. And since the LHC already exists, I know I'm guaranteed to succeed in robbing those banks! ;D
(Note: The above link goes to Cracked.com. So, you know, profane language warning.)
So, yeah, layout. You guys know where at the top it goes "Home Help Search Profile My Messages Members Logout"? Sometimes, it shows up as a vertical list for me. It's not a problem, so you don't have to rush to fix it; I was just wondering if it does that for someone else.
I had that problem too, it went away when I got chrome.
Quote from: Zelda Veteran on August 03, 2011, 01:02:19 PM
Quote from: Twilight Wolf on August 03, 2011, 06:54:42 AM
Ah, so good to have the old smilies back :3
However, I'm running into a bit of an issue with the forums now, unfortunately. For whatever reason the forums simply will NOT keep me signed in even if I set the time to "forever." This only happens on Opera. All the other forums I go to I have no problems with. Heck, even my Nook Color's web browser remembers to keep me signed in. Is the forum taking issue with my web browser or is it some setting I have to play with on my end?
Whenever I come to the colossus, all I have to do is hit the home button, and it logs me in. Hope that helps.
This worked. Led me to discover the URL for TDC in my Speed Dial was still the old "colossus.rhidia.ch" address. Updated that and it works no problem now.
Considering Firefox 7 is in beta and that IE...well, isn't, I'm surprised that you didn't think it would be at least somewhat buggy. Of course, I'm surprised you thought IE wouldn't be buggy, either, considering that
it's freaking Internet Explorer.
Quote from: Hi no Seijin on August 05, 2011, 06:46:18 AM
My parents still uses IE. >>
Someone should uninstall that infernal software and replace it with something that's actually decent.