Testing a new forum theme

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Professionalism is the main feature of the new design.We don't need colrs and flowers.We need English .
 
I agree, except where colors help with navigation and usability. If it's easier to see where a new posts starts or help "clump" like items together, then color is a good thing.

(And right, no one needs flowers. Just send chocolate!)
 
Agreed. If you have specific suggestions I'd be happy to try them out. If you have colour schemes (and/or can point me to some examples) I can also try them out too. As I'm not a web designer colour choices are not my forte so I tend to use 3rd-party templates and stick with them. This template set pretty much came as-is as far as colour is concerned. Let me know any ideas you have to help improve the look and feel. Ta ;-)
 
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Barb_D said:
I agree, except where colors help with navigation and usability. If it's easier to see where a new posts starts or help "clump" like items together, then color is a good thing.

(And right, no one needs flowers. Just send chocolate!)
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Yes. This is why I don't like having to scroll down through adverts before I get to the English. Web-sites with fancy graphics often deal with this by having the link 'Skip Intro'. I wonder if anyone ever doesn't skip it ;-)

b
 
Red5 said:
Agreed. If you have specific suggestions I'd be happy to try them out. If you have colour schemes (and/or can point me to some examples) I can also try them out too. As I'm not a web designer colour choices are not my forte so I tend to use 3rd-party templates and stick with them. This template set pretty much came as-is as far as colour is concerned. Let me know any ideas you have to help improve the look and feel. Ta ;-)
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I'd like to see some of the green from the buttons incorporated into the site a little, in a subtle way. I notice the new style doesn't really have a lot of borders, but the green could work very well on fine borders perhaps - blocks of it would be too overwhelming as it's very bright, but narrow borders would perhaps be OK, and help to tie the whole scheme together as well as addressing some of the concerns above from BarbD about seeing where things start/end and grouping them visually.

As a slightly-related thing, have you ever considered changing the way "Quick Reply" is set up? It's a bugbear of mine to need to press it in a post to use it. It can be set to "auto-on" which doesn't prevent people quoting or replying in "advanced" mode, but does mean those that use quick reply don't have to remember to click the button every time.

Although perhaps I'm the only person to get annoyed by that :oops:
 
Tullia said:
As a slightly-related thing, have you ever considered changing the way "Quick Reply" is set up? It's a bugbear of mine to need to press it in a post to use it. It can be set to "auto-on" which doesn't prevent people quoting or replying in "advanced" mode, but does mean those that use quick reply don't have to remember to click the button every time.
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The quick reply box requires a prior click in a post for the system to know which post you're replying to. Otherwise the threaded display modes would break. ;-)
 
Ahhh of course. I'm so used to seeing things in Linear (not a fan of threading either ;) ) that I forgot about that!

By the way, I saw above that you plan to update - I assume to VB4, but wondered if you had considered any other forum software such as XenForo?

(I'm a Forum Admin elsewhere, this is something we're looking into ourselves as we've heard bad things about the security of VB4 so far).
 
Ahh. That makes sense. When you're in your inbox, there is only one message open, so the system "knows" which post you want to reply to. One of those things that makes perfect sense once you think about it.

I have no preference for which colors, by the way. Just a bit more distinction as to where things separate.
 
Tullia said:
...

By the way, I saw above that you plan to update - I assume to VB4, but wondered if you had considered any other forum software such as XenForo?

...
Click to expand...

Be not the first on whom the new is tried
Be not the last to cast the old aside

I may be beginning to sound like my grandfather, but 20+ years of dealing with software has left me with a healthy suspicion of updates. They often just provide further confirmation of the Law of Proliferation of Bugs (which holds that fixing n bugs entails the introduction of N more bugs, where N > n). And to quote a stand-up whose name I forget (Welsh) 'If I'm happy with a dog, why should I want an upgrade to a wolf?'

b
 
Tullia said:
Ahhh of course. I'm so used to seeing things in Linear (not a fan of threading either ;) ) that I forgot about that!

...
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I've seen the non-linear argument before, and can't say I'm convinced. Surely it's a Simple Matter of Programming for VB to detect whether you're in Linear mode, and default to the only sensible setting (given that context)? I know SMOPs are seldom simple, though, and am resigned to all the redundant clicking - a bit like when you click to delete a post and it doesn't work unless you tick the 'Delete this Post' box.

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BobK said:
I've seen the non-linear argument before, and can't say I'm convinced. Surely it's a Simple Matter of Programming for VB to detect whether you're in Linear mode, and default to the only sensible setting (given that context)? I know SMOPs are seldom simple, though, and am resigned to all the redundant clicking - a bit like when you click to delete a post and it doesn't work unless you tick the 'Delete this Post' box.

b
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Ah but the problem with your SMOP is that not everyone is in linear mode. If us linear-lovers don't click *somewhere*, then those threaded-tootsies will be stuck as they won't know who we were supposed to be replying to.

Sadly, I find I never click anywhere but the most recent post, as I like to read a whole thread then comment in case I'm going to say something already said. Then, even if replying to an earlier point, I really can't be bothered scrolling up to click the actual post and just click the nearest one, the most recent one. So in fact the threading isn't necessarily representative of my actual intent, and therfore becomes pointless anyway.

Were I working for VB, which I'm not and neither is my friend anymore (she used to) I'd suggest that they looked into how common that behavioural pattern was, and if I am representative of a significant majority, then I'd be tempted to build something in to take that into account and remove the need to click on a quick reply button for people in linear mode, defaulting the "hidden click" to the most recent post, but as far as I'm aware there hasn't been any research into the topic and I don't know any existing hacks to solve the issue.

I don't like threading, in case you hadn't realised ;-)



EDIT: oh and re XenForo, it's actually being made by some of the original VB guys; I wouldn't want to try it on a forum of this scale myself - it's too untested - but it's certainly fun to play with and makes you realise just how VB hasn't improved over the years.
 
I like the new forum! It's clear and clean, much better than the old one!

Thank you!
 
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Tullia said:
Ah but the problem with your SMOP is that not everyone is in linear mode.
Yes - but the user interface can tell what you're doing can't it? Surely it can...Red5?
if us linear-lovers don't click *somewhere*, then those threaded-tootsies will be stuck as they won't know who we were supposed to be replying to.

Sadly, I find I never click anywhere but the most recent post, as I like to read a whole thread then comment in case I'm going to say something already said. Then, even if replying to an earlier point, I really can't be bothered scrolling up to click the actual post and just click the nearest one, the most recent one. So in fact the threading isn't necessarily representative of my actual intent, and therfore becomes pointless anyway.

Were I working for VB, which I'm not and neither is my friend anymore (she used to) I'd suggest that they looked into how common that behavioural pattern was, and if I am representative of a significant majority, then I'd be tempted to build something in to take that into account and remove the need to click on a quick reply button for people in linear mode,
That's what I'm suggesting.
defaulting the "hidden click" to the most recent post, but as far as I'm aware there hasn't been any research into the topic and I don't know any existing hacks to solve the issue.

I don't like threading, in case you hadn't realised ;-)
Nor do I; nor do many people.



EDIT: oh and re XenForo, it's actually being made by some of the original VB guys; I wouldn't want to try it on a forum of this scale myself - it's too untested - but it's certainly fun to play with and makes you realise just how VB hasn't improved over the years.
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b
 
I prefer the old one because the blue color was magnificence for humans' eyes. Now after the color was changed to white maybe I would not endure to see or look to white color for a long time, because humans' eyes cannot endure to see white color for long time specially when they are tired. And most of the members have been logging in when they are free and completed their chores or jobs.

My opinion is to let the two themes available for everyone as long as possible I mean "forever" not to delete the old one. There is no problem to keep the old one available for the people who need it.
 
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@BobK
Your suggestions are sensible, but are actually more like mod requests and need to be dealt with by someone who knows how to program for vB. I, sadly, don't.

@All
I was really only asking about the design (for design read layout) and colours of the forum pages as these can be controlled easily by changing the forum theme. Significant functionality requires the installation of custom modifications to the forum (meaning custom programming), which are not necessarily going to be compatible with future forum software upgrades (because they are not part of the official package). As I don't program for vB or know their code, I can't implement many of the more significant changes (such as those that are being requested by BobK).

As an example, you can see some sample 3rd-party forum themes at the following links:
 
BobK said:
...I don't like having to scroll down through adverts before I get to the English...
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Look Ma, no ads!

At least, no ads for registered members with more than 10 posts. :)
 
Red5 said:
Look Ma, no ads!

At least, no ads for registered members with more than 10 posts. :)
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Oooooh. I like this very much!
 
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