I haven't worked on phpBB for a while, and never on the latest version. I just know that other boards basically work with javascript turned off. Here. the two main title images, the double row of buttons in the big green bar, the little "new post" icons, and a few other things are all generated by javascript after the page has loaded. They don't show with javascript off which is the easy way to spot them, but with javascript on they appear later than the rest of the page, or they flicker off and on again while navigating around the forum. It seems to be better than it was, but it might just be that my machine is handling them a bit quicker.
Incidentally the reply box still transitions to a darker colour on mouseover. Or has that stopped now? I'm sure it was doing it a few minutes ago. Updates might be trickling down all the time
Compare to the BCSS forum which also uses phpBB but works perfectly without any javascript at all. I don't know if it is a different setting or a different version. I do notice that it is currently using jquery. Is it something that particular styles use, or is it just embedded now?
Bruce wrote:Another thought: As I scan down the page, my eye doesn't always pick up the start of a post, mainly (I think) because of the large ratio of pale grey to text. What do you think about changing the background color to a green (as pale as the grey) on alternate posts? The text could then stay dark and the alternate stripes of green and grey should give the forum a cactus-y color scheme.
Alternating colours is one of the options with phpBB. It can be distracting with some themes, but it does help to locate a particular post. Might be worth experimenting to see how it looks in this theme although it isn't something I'm struggling with.
Yes, the reply box definitely transitions from dark to pale on mouseover. The reason I thought it had stopped is that as soon as you start typing in the box it stays pale whatever the mouse does.
The post under the mouse in the forum list also transitions to paler when the mouse is over it but that at least picks out something useful from a sea of other information.
Another nit: the button "depressing" effect (in the big green bar at the top) seems to have become highly exaggerated. Or is it exactly the same and the buttons got smaller?
iann wrote:Yes, the reply box definitely transitions from dark to pale on mouseover. The reason I thought it had stopped is that as soon as you start typing in the box it stays pale whatever the mouse does.
I didn't even notice this. I'm not sure why that would be a bad thing?
iann wrote:Another nit: the button "depressing" effect (in the big green bar at the top) seems to have become highly exaggerated. Or is it exactly the same and the buttons got smaller?
This hasn't changed since about 2004 or so. Those buttons go along with the main site so that will get updated with the reskin of the main site - whenever that may be....
All Cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are Cacti
daiv wrote:Here is a test of the youtube function....
Check out this awesome cactus vid!
Yay! Thanks, Daiv!
Iann, I'm not noticing any flickering on the forum and I'm usually over-sensitive to stuff like that. In fact, ever since the upgrade the forum's been running much faster for me.
I'm not noticing any posts or reply boxes getting darker or lighter when I mouse over them either. Daiv, if the reply box is doing to Iann what I think it is, I can understand why he's bothered by it. The text in the reply boxes on another forum I frequent change from light to dark depending on where your mouse cursor is and it's very distracting.
Maybe it's your system or browser, Iann? What are you running over there? I've got Windows Vista and my browser of choice is IE9.
Okay, this is weird. When I quoted Daiv's post with the embedded video I got a huge blank spot where the video should be. But if I click on the blank spot, the audio for the video starts playing.
Yes - always open to ideas. Actually I was open to suggestions on the old version too, but it got to a point where there was simply no more support for the old version. So the trouble people had with not staying logged in and not being able to search for more than 10,000 posts could not be fixed.
All Cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are Cacti
Ok, If you want the overall green look to the forum then the blazing red is fairly ugly and unnecessary. The Red I'm referring to is the unread sub-forums or unread thread titles that show up upon logging in. IMO, These should be green just as the unread ones or maybe a bolder green. The arrow button 'lit up' on the left is more than enough to show that something has not been read since last visit.
The second is probably only me but the avatar/user info being on the right causes a slow down to viewing. I browse at least a dozen other forums and not surprisingly every one of them has this stuff on the left. When browsing in a hurry (often) I've learned to scroll down a page keeping an eye on the user/avatar attempting to locate certain posters that I consider 'must reads' whereas others at the time get quickly passed by. The slow down comes since we naturally read left to right and this causes a slight brain cramp when one is going down the right hand side only to have to go left.
These same old smilies are small and not that great. I could point you a forum that has bigger much cooler ones.
Well this stuff is good. As for the red text on new posts. I'm with Harriet on that - I really like the way the unread posts are super easy to spot.
As for the user info on the right... I realize that was the way this theme showed up until after I installed it. It immediately struck me as odd and then I thought, why knee-jerk react on this? Let's see how it works in time. Andy does make some really valid points about having it on the left. I'll have to check and see if that is an option within the style or maybe we'll need to go with a different theme.
All Cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are Cacti
I like the red. What would be really great would be if clicking the *big* red icon took me to the new reply, because clicking the *tiny* red icon is so much harder
I'm getting used to profile info on the right. It makes more sense. I *always* want to read the message. Then *maybe* I want to look at the profile.
Thanks, Daiv!
)
