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New forum style to try out & server upgrade

Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 9:04 pm
by Arokhs Twin
I've added a couple of new styles to the board which you can now change in your user preferences area. I've enabled a blue version of the default style and also modified a style originally designed for World of Warcraft. There's only three styles to choose from:- Aero, Aero Black & wowdrenor. Give them a try and let me know what you think as I think the modified WOW style fits the game better rather than the generic look.

The old style we used to have that matched the main website page is not compatible with the new forum software and my programming skills are not good enough to re-write all the .css files that would be required. The new styles look better on widescreen monitors that everyone has nowadays anyway.

If you use a mobile device you may want to stick with the default Aero Black style though.

Secondly, for you techies out there the server this website runs on has had an upgrade. The latest intel 12 core xeon CPU's have been installed along with double the amount of RAM and the hard drives have been ditched in favour of solid state drives. Yeah, the site actually runs on a virtual server along with god knows how many others on the physical server but it should speed up website access times substantially.

Re: New forum style to try out & server upgrade

Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2016 5:32 pm
by Arokhs Twin
This is now the default style for the forum - existing users will remain on the previous style which can be changed in your user preferences area.

The new style is mobile device friendly and has a neutral black / grey and orange colour scheme.

Re: New forum style to try out & server upgrade

Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2016 5:18 am
by MBK_MBK
Greetings, :D

I use a mobile device, android. I have tested all styles and everything goes well. I like them much.

Thanks for all your hard work in the forum. Thank you very much. :)

Re: New forum style to try out & server upgrade

Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2016 4:41 pm
by UCyborg
I've been mostly using WoW style ever since it's available and it's great, love Aero ones as well, especially the blue one. They all seem to look fine on mobile devices as well. Speaking of Aero, the author forgot about rounded corners for buttons. :)

Re: New forum style to try out & server upgrade

Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2016 9:59 am
by Arokhs Twin
Merry Xmas and glad you like the styles. The Aero theme is one of the ones provided by PHPBB themselves. It can be customized though like I did with the WOW theme and adapted it to suit this forum. CSS scripts and PHP programming are not one of my strong points so it is much easier to use an existing theme and modify it.

logo image

Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 11:12 pm
by cieply
I like the style, is quite clear and functional - the most important traits I would say, and also appealing which helps you to come back. There is one thing I want to ask - the logo image i rather big and low quality I would say - it has lot's of artifacts from over-compression. I cleared one from artifacts and also compressed with jpeg using low compression rate to preserve quality and put in attachment - would you mind to use this one as it's not only better quality but also so much smaller which also helps when one uses forum on phone (which I admit to do too often) where it saves decent amount of internet allowance.

Re: New forum style to try out & server upgrade

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 5:34 pm
by Arokhs Twin
Yeah, that does look better. However it needs to be in .png file format to be able to work - I would need to make some code changes to the style template to use a .jpg file which I will do when I get time. I managed to reduce the file size but it didn't look any different to the original so Ill stick with the current setup and use your file if I can modify the stylesheets etc.

Thanks

Re: New forum style to try out & server upgrade

Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2017 1:26 am
by cieply
Arokhs Twin wrote: Wed Jan 25, 2017 5:34 pm I would need to make some code changes to the style template to use a .jpg file which I will do when I get time.
I didn't know it would need so much hustle, don't worry then too much

when you convert it to png it will be ~260k which is not much difference in size indeed, but quality should remain flawless

attachment (and last PM) background colour

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2017 1:53 am
by cieply
there is a flaw in style (I think it's in style because I experienced it in firefox/gecko and opera/webkit) - when uploading attachment background of filename is white which in combination with very light and almost white fonts is unreadable. I agree that the background should be different but this way it becomes difficult to use (check attachment for sample screenshot). There is exactly the same situation with new answer to private message.
Anyone can sort it?

Re: New forum style to try out & server upgrade

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2017 5:50 pm
by Arokhs Twin
Hi yeah, I've noticed that too and tried to fix it in the past. To be honest looking at the stats there's only around 20 of our members using this style so I didn't worry about it too much but now that you have mentioned it I will try and have another go.

Re: New forum style to try out & server upgrade

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2017 5:51 pm
by UCyborg
Did anyone ever encounter any issues with desktop version of the forum site on mobile devices not appearing quite the same as it would on an actual desktop? On my phone, only the Topics column is visible, the number of replies are shown along with the thread title under Topics, Views and Last post are absent.

Re: New forum style to try out & server upgrade

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2017 6:28 pm
by Arokhs Twin
I am using chrome on Android and it looks OK - what phone and browser are you using? I recommend that for mobile users stick with the Aero theme though but if the new style works OK then feel free to use it.

Re: New forum style to try out & server upgrade

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2017 9:59 pm
by UCyborg
Sony Xperia E3, latest official ROM (Android Kitkat 4.4.4), Chrome 55. Note that there aren't any issues with the mobile version itself, just requesting desktop version (Request desktop site option) doesn't get me quite the same thing as on actual PC. Selected theme doesn't make a difference.

I tried it on another cheap Lenovo phone with Chrome 43, Request desktop site doesn't change anything at all here.

On latest Android x86 with stock browser I ran on VMware virtual machine I always get desktop version. At least it looks as it should there. Steam's website on the other hand insists on mobile version regardless of what I choose.

Re: New forum style to try out & server upgrade

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2017 10:21 pm
by Arokhs Twin
Sorry don't know how to fix that - there's so many different OS and browser combinations it's impossible to try them all. There's a few known issues with the theme but they are only a minor annoyance. I'd use the Aero theme if you are unable to view it correctly on a mobile. The issue you are having is likely the screen resolution scaling not being detected correctly or the forum is unable to determine your browser, OS and screen resolution.

Re: New forum style to try out & server upgrade

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2017 5:30 am
by UCyborg
It's not a major issue, but it's very strange. Looks like there is this third layout that looks like a hybrid between full desktop and full mobile version. The first screenshot is from my phone, the second is from Android x86, showing regular desktop site as it also appears normally on computers. On the first screen, the key point is you get desktop version of the menus, but the content part keeps the mobile layout. One would think if one part of the site follows fashion, the other would as well.