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cfmdobbie
High Emperor
Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Posts: 1859
Location: London, England |
Yep, got a screenshot, in BMP format. How fascinating, MS Paint surely used to be able to save as JPEG...  Hang on a minute...
EDIT: Linux to the rescue! Check yer inbox 
_________________
Charlie Dobbie
=Member of The Nonflamers' Guild=
=Moderator of the Morrowind/Oblivion Forums= |
Mon Aug 11, 2003 2:42 pm |
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dteowner
Shoegazer
Joined: 21 Mar 2002
Posts: 7570
Location: Third Hero of Erathia |
Arhu, did you make a change to the skin recently, or am I going MORE senile? I don't remember the thread name being part of the bold yellow links at the top and bottom. Not sure whether I like it or not, but I'm pretty sure it's new.
You switched the preview and submit buttons, too?
_________________
=Proud Member of the Non-Flamers Guild=
=Benevolent Dictator, X2/X3 and Morrowind/Oblivion Forums=
Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
RIP Red Wings How 'Bout Dem Cowboys! |
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Sun Aug 17, 2003 2:42 pm |
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Ariel
Harmonious Angel
Joined: 21 Jul 2001
Posts: 432
Location: Germany |
quote:
Originally posted by dteowner
I don't remember the thread name being part of the bold yellow links at the top and bottom. Not sure whether I like it or not, but I'm pretty sure it's new.
You switched the preview and submit buttons, too?
Very observant, Mr. Dte, and not senile at all!
About the thread name as a link, I'm not so sure myself, actually. I reintroduced it because I thought it was useful for something... Although the thread name is now kind of redundant again. Maybe I should change it back, or change it differently. Any thoughts on this?
Regarding the preview / submit buttons, their current location was the default in lots of other templates I've seen, and it's more logical anyway. And hopefully, if people click the preview button before the submit button, they won't have to edit so much anymore, which they often never did in the first place.
More -
Change: on topic pages, I've moved the post date to the headline of each post. Posting headline itself is a bit smaller.
Reason: I've always felt that the old location of the posting date was wrong. It looked like it was for the next post, and I often mistook the registration date of a user for the posting date. Above the message it makes more sense.
Change: where date used to be, there's now a "back to top" link
Reason: Saw it in another template, thought it would enhance navigation, and besides that space was now free anyway.
Change: reduced the vertical size of user information (#posts, location etc.), if not all entries are filled out
Reason: Reduced vertical space is always nice. There's a bug in the forum engine that puts an extra line after custom avatar images, specifically the "more than 500 posts or moderator" custom sort of avatar images, but that will be fixed in phpBB22
Change: added a "view unanswered posts" link to the index page
Reason: Filled a missing spot. Was in the forum engine code, so why not use it.. What it does: Shows all topics that have no replies yet, so helpful posters can answer them all. Hehe.
Change: fixed the display of the IP overview page (actually the css file was not updated I think)
Reason: cmfdobbie's request, and I'm a perfectionist.
Change: more very minor changes not worth mentioning. A cookie for the person who spots one or more of them.
Comments are always welcome and will be considered for the next update.
_________________
“Through the sounds of falling rain, through the clouds of bitter times
I see the pure grace of your smile, in dreams of the warmth in your eyes” - Tim North |
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Sun Aug 17, 2003 3:15 pm |
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dteowner
Shoegazer
Joined: 21 Mar 2002
Posts: 7570
Location: Third Hero of Erathia |
quote:
Originally posted by Arhu
About the thread name as a link, I'm not so sure myself, actually. I reintroduced it because I thought it was useful for something... Although the thread name is now kind of redundant again. Maybe I should change it back, or change it differently. Any thoughts on this?
I like having the thread name display at the bottom in addition to the top, but I'm not certain I like it as part of the links. It doesn't really bother me, though. Your call...
quote:
Originally posted by Arhu
Change: on topic pages, I've moved the post date to the headline of each post. Posting headline itself is a bit smaller.
Reason: I've always felt that the old location of the posting date was wrong. It looked like it was for the next post, and I often mistook the registration date of a user for the posting date. Above the message it makes more sense.
I didn't have a problem with the old location, but I like the new one better.
quote:
Originally posted by Arhu
Change: where date used to be, there's now a "back to top" link
Reason: Saw it in another template, thought it would enhance navigation, and besides that space was now free anyway.
Won't use it, but others might. It certainly doesn't bother me at all.
quote:
Originally posted by Arhu
Change: added a "view unanswered posts" link to the index page
Reason: Filled a missing spot. Was in the forum engine code, so why not use it.. What it does: Shows all topics that have no replies yet, so helpful posters can answer them all. Hehe.
A nice idea, but where's the link? I don't see it. Senile AND blind?!? 
_________________
=Proud Member of the Non-Flamers Guild=
=Benevolent Dictator, X2/X3 and Morrowind/Oblivion Forums=
Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
RIP Red Wings How 'Bout Dem Cowboys! |
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Sun Aug 17, 2003 3:41 pm |
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Ariel
Harmonious Angel
Joined: 21 Jul 2001
Posts: 432
Location: Germany |
quote:
Originally posted by dteowner
I like having the thread name display at the bottom in addition to the top, but I'm not certain I like it as part of the links. It doesn't really bother me, though. Your call...
Mmmm, a "tail line" as opposed to a headline. Interesting idea. I'm going to experiment with that.
quote:
Originally posted by dteowner
quote:
Originally posted by Arhu
Change: added a "view unanswered posts" link to the index page
Reason: Filled a missing spot. Was in the forum engine code, so why not use it.. What it does: Shows all topics that have no replies yet, so helpful posters can answer them all. Hehe.
A nice idea, but where's the link? I don't see it. Senile AND blind?!?
Nah, it's just very small and at a rather insignificant location: Index page. Top half, second box, right side, bottom, below the user statistics.
Oh, and thanks for the feedback!
_________________
“Through the sounds of falling rain, through the clouds of bitter times
I see the pure grace of your smile, in dreams of the warmth in your eyes” - Tim North |
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Sun Aug 17, 2003 4:48 pm |
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dteowner
Shoegazer
Joined: 21 Mar 2002
Posts: 7570
Location: Third Hero of Erathia |
quote:
Originally posted by Arhu
Nah, it's just very small and at a rather insignificant location: Index page. Top half, second box, right side, bottom, below the user statistics.
Oh, and thanks for the feedback!
First off, if you're going to do so much work on the template, the least we can do is take a few minutes to review it.
I found the link. Now, two questions. Since I haven't played Gothic 1 or 2, I have zero interest in those threads. Is it possible to have the link placed in each forum, or better yet, each "forum group", so that it only shows the relevant subset of posts? For instance, it would be nice to click on a link and have just the 3 Morrowind forums (the "forum group") searched. Then, while we're at it, can it be filtered with a time window? There's not much point to answering a 0 reply post from 2001.
_________________
=Proud Member of the Non-Flamers Guild=
=Benevolent Dictator, X2/X3 and Morrowind/Oblivion Forums=
Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
RIP Red Wings How 'Bout Dem Cowboys! |
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Sun Aug 17, 2003 5:22 pm |
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Ariel
Harmonious Angel
Joined: 21 Jul 2001
Posts: 432
Location: Germany |
That would indeed be quite useful. Unfortunately it's beyond the abilities of a mere skinner like me. If there were an appropriate search function for reply-less topics, I could come up with a hack, but otherwise the phpBB guys would have to implement it in the engine, right now there's only "view all unanswered posts".
_________________
“Through the sounds of falling rain, through the clouds of bitter times
I see the pure grace of your smile, in dreams of the warmth in your eyes” - Tim North |
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Sun Aug 17, 2003 6:01 pm |
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Roach
SBR Belfry Bat
Joined: 20 Jan 2002
Posts: 3233
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quote:
Originally posted by Arhu
Regarding the preview / submit buttons, their current location was the default in lots of other templates I've seen, and it's more logical anyway. And hopefully, if people click the preview button before the submit button, they won't have to edit so much anymore, which they often never did in the first place.
I had hit the preview button and was reading right as the update came though and the buttons switched. I had noticed that the skin changed and then changed back, but I didn’t see that the buttons had changed. I hit the preview four times trying to post before I realized they had just switched.
quote:
Originally posted by Arhu
Change: more very minor changes not worth mentioning. A cookie for the person who spots one or more of them.
Oo oo! *holds up hand* The bottom of the threads are much different. (Although I’m not positive about all of them so if you see a (?) then that‘s why)
1. “Display posts from previous:...” was moved.
2. (?) I don’t remember a forum jump option at the bottom of the page.
3. “All times are GMT - 6 Hours. The time now is 17 Aug 2003 12:10” At the bottom of the page, this is new.
4. (?) On the left side of the page was the ‘sign up for weekly newsletter’ added to the paypal/feature alert section? (?)
edit: Oo oo! I just noticed another one. Between the ‘RPGDot forums’ forum and title name there are now two greater than symbols >>, that’s new. I don’t remember what it was before, but I know that’s new.
*while typing the edit I got another one, there are more options above the message body, i.e. List, List=.
So how many cookies do I get? |
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Sun Aug 17, 2003 7:09 pm |
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Ariel
Harmonious Angel
Joined: 21 Jul 2001
Posts: 432
Location: Germany |
quote:
Originally posted by Roach
I had hit the preview button and was reading right as the update came though and the buttons switched. I had noticed that the skin changed and then changed back, but I didn’t see that the buttons had changed. I hit the preview four times trying to post before I realized they had just switched.
Heh. Bad timing, and you are probably still conditioned to the old way. I was wondering already how many people were going to have this problem.
quote:
So how many cookies do I get?
One cookie for Roach! Congratulations! The "»" is new. It was ">" before.
All the others were either introduced in the first version of this skin already, or have been like this all the time, like the sign up pic or "list" buttons.
It's interesting how some things are hard to notice or ignored if they are rarely used or positioned at less popular locations...
_________________
“Through the sounds of falling rain, through the clouds of bitter times
I see the pure grace of your smile, in dreams of the warmth in your eyes” - Tim North |
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Sun Aug 17, 2003 7:45 pm |
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cfmdobbie
High Emperor
Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Posts: 1859
Location: London, England |
I have to say I'm not sure about the topic title being put in the navigation at the top. You already have the title an inch below it in the header of the table, the navigation it provides is equivalent to a refresh, which the browser does fine already (also with a keyboard shortcut). I'm just not sure what it adds, aside from more text on the screen. Also, a topic title can be quite long, and I've seen it wrapping in places, which doesn't look great and breaks the nice left-to-right feature of the nav.
But if you decide to keep it, please also add it to the Reply page et al, just for consistency. That's actually the place that can really use it, as the topic title isn't displayed anywhere else on that page.
Date at the top of each post - yep, excellent! Might it look better vertically centered? Or maybe just squeeze that bar a bit more vertically - seems to be some wasted space above and below the buttons? (While I'm here, the little arrow in front of the date is brilliant for linking direct to posts - never saw it before, I'd been browsing the source to pull anchor names out...!)
I don't think I'd use the "Back to top" link either - I've got a Home key for that!
"View unanswered posts" is an interesting one! Fascinating to see the kind of posts that the *entire community* decided weren't worth answering. Maybe newbies should flick through the earlier pages as a kind of "what not to do" guide. 
Arhu, if you want to save more vertical space, how about getting rid of the advertising banner at the top and the copyright information at the bottom? 
_________________
Charlie Dobbie
=Member of The Nonflamers' Guild=
=Moderator of the Morrowind/Oblivion Forums= |
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Tue Aug 19, 2003 12:03 am |
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Ariel
Harmonious Angel
Joined: 21 Jul 2001
Posts: 432
Location: Germany |
You too, cmfdobbie, thanks for all the feedback!
quote:
Originally posted by cfmdobbie
But if you decide to keep it, please also add it to the Reply page et al, just for consistency. That's actually the place that can really use it, as the topic title isn't displayed anywhere else on that page.
Yea, the topic link is already gone again in my working copy. I've tried different variations, like making the normal headline a link, which looked a bit strange, and making the headline appear at the bottom, which looked wrong. So this one will be rolled back.
As for the topic title on the reply page, yes, that bugs me as well. But try as I might, I did not find a way to display it there. Must be an oversight in the forum software, hopefully fixed in the next release.
quote:
Date at the top of each post - yep, excellent! Might it look better vertically centered? Or maybe just squeeze that bar a bit more vertically - seems to be some wasted space above and below the buttons?
€: It is vertically centered.. or isn't it? Gotta check in other browsers. Thought I did that... €²: not centered in IE, will try to fix it.
Regarding the vertical space of that bar, the padding should be the same for each cell. I can check if that is the case for the bar in question. Due to the greenish colors being very close to each other, I do have to be careful that I don't reduce too much, or otherwise I'd jeopardize the template's usability.
€³: curious, my personal copy looks perfectly fine in IE, with vertically centered text and just the right space around the buttons, the public version does seem to have the problems you describe. This smells fishy.
quote:
(While I'm here, the little arrow in front of the date is brilliant for linking direct to posts - never saw it before, I'd been browsing the source to pull anchor names out...!)
Heh. I know what you mean. Never noticed those icons myself, before I started tinkering with the template code.
quote:
I don't think I'd use the "Back to top" link either - I've got a Home key for that!
I'm too lazy to even coordinate a finger to the home key. I use right-click, right, up.
quote:
Arhu, if you want to save more vertical space, how about getting rid of the advertising banner at the top and the copyright information at the bottom?
The bottom part is negligible. However, I could remove the ad banner and the RPGDot logo...
But I won't. 
_________________
“Through the sounds of falling rain, through the clouds of bitter times
I see the pure grace of your smile, in dreams of the warmth in your eyes” - Tim North |
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Tue Aug 19, 2003 12:58 am |
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dteowner
Shoegazer
Joined: 21 Mar 2002
Posts: 7570
Location: Third Hero of Erathia |
| This is the subject field |
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quote:
Originally posted by cfmdobbie
But if you decide to keep it, please also add it to the Reply page et al, just for consistency. That's actually the place that can really use it, as the topic title isn't displayed anywhere else on that page.
I'd like to second this. If it can't be done currently, who do we talk to to get it into a newer version of the board software?
I think the vertical centering issue you guys are talking about is because of the blank space for the subject line. Only a few people use subjects when it's not the first post. I put one in so you guys can see if that's what is bugging you.
_________________
=Proud Member of the Non-Flamers Guild=
=Benevolent Dictator, X2/X3 and Morrowind/Oblivion Forums=
Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
RIP Red Wings How 'Bout Dem Cowboys! |
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Tue Aug 19, 2003 1:54 am |
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Ariel
Harmonious Angel
Joined: 21 Jul 2001
Posts: 432
Location: Germany |
| Re: This is the subject field |
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quote:
Originally posted by dteowner
If it can't be done currently, who do we talk to to get it into a newer version of the board software?
I've peeked into the code of the current development version, and it looks like there is a reference to the topic title on the reply page. phpBB22 is going to be amazing! All we have to do is wait...
And I'll have to redo the skin then, because there's so many changes. And I don't even want to think about what awaits Myrthos.
quote:
I think the vertical centering issue you guys are talking about is because of the blank space for the subject line.
Close, but that's not it. If there is no headline, there really is no headline (not even a blank space), and the text should be vertically centered. I've found a simple way to fix it in IE, though I'm still perplexed as to why IE is behaving right on one occasion, and wrong on another, with the same code...
In any case, I've prepared a patch for Myr, should go live tomorrow or in a few days.
€: Update. The IE issue is fixed now. Thanks Myr for uploading.
All in all the date/headline bar is not perfect yet, but it's getting closer.
_________________
“Through the sounds of falling rain, through the clouds of bitter times
I see the pure grace of your smile, in dreams of the warmth in your eyes” - Tim North |
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Tue Aug 19, 2003 3:19 am |
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Ariel
Harmonious Angel
Joined: 21 Jul 2001
Posts: 432
Location: Germany |
Time for a few changes, which you certainly have noticed by now.
Divinity Site skin:
~ autumn trees in the background. I think they emphasize the green plates some more. See if you like it or not. Maybe it's a bit too depressing, but we could also offer two different Divinity skins, one with green summer trees, one with the new ones.
Divinity Forum skin
~ Improved logo courtesy of antx, the original creator of the Divinity UI.
~ dates on the viewforum page are now "nowrap"ed, i.e. it's now more compact in resolutions <= 1024x768. I wonder why nobody has noticed it before, or is everyone running higher resolutions?
~ fixed a visual glitch on the profile page
Last, but not least, Arhu is no more. I was starting to feel a bit out of character with that name, somehow I couldn't fit myself into the image of a 1 year old young tomcat anymore, and besides I've used that identity for about four years. Now Val's recent avatar change gave me some inspiration and I decided to follow her example.
Feedback and suggestions for improvement are as always welcome.
_________________
“Through the sounds of falling rain, through the clouds of bitter times
I see the pure grace of your smile, in dreams of the warmth in your eyes” - Tim North |
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Tue Aug 26, 2003 10:32 pm |
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dteowner
Shoegazer
Joined: 21 Mar 2002
Posts: 7570
Location: Third Hero of Erathia |
I like the autumn trees. Like you say, it makes the panes stand out much better.
Hadn't noticed any of the other issues.
Nice avatar!
_________________
=Proud Member of the Non-Flamers Guild=
=Benevolent Dictator, X2/X3 and Morrowind/Oblivion Forums=
Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
RIP Red Wings How 'Bout Dem Cowboys! |
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Tue Aug 26, 2003 10:43 pm |
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