New Forum Layout Is Live! Things to know

Mike Greene said:

I'm wondering if the text appears at different sizes on different browsers. For those who think it's too small, does it look the same size (proportionate to the rest of the page) as this:

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I'm sorry. I should have clarified that I am on a phone. The desktop version is fine.

I should have also clarified that my Android Opera browser is set to make text larger because of my visual impairment. So the real issue is not font size, but Xenforo's CSS setting that prevents browsers from adjusting text size.

I apologize for not clarifying this before but I had actually forgotten how ENLARGED my browser's font settings are.

So the important thing I want to convey here is that I was wrong about VI-Control being abnormal in terms of its font size. The New York Times appears to use about the same font size.

I've checked different smarphone browsers and different websites and this analysis informs me that my situation is somewhat unique and probably doesn't apply to the majority of your users. So, again, I apologize for giving you incorrect information and I hope I didn't worry you that there was something wrong with your site. There's not. It looks great.

And since this appears to be a case of me having special needs (although I doubt I'm the only one) and you being super busy with the new rollout, I decided to research this issue myself, and it appears that there may be an easy fix.

There is a CSS property called "text-size-adjust". If this property is set to "none", browser text resizing won't work. It has to be set to either "auto" or "percentage".

Here is more on this feature:

SyntaxSection

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The text-size-adjust property is specified as none, auto, or a <percentage>.
ValuesSection

none
Disables the browser's inflation algorithm.
auto
Enables the browser's inflation algorithm. This value is used to cancel a none value previously set with CSS.
<percentage>
Enables the browser's inflation algorithm, specifying a percentage value with which to increase the font size.
Formal syntaxSection

none | auto | <percentage>

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I'm hoping that this might be a fast and easy fix to accommodate us semi-blind people. Anyway, sorry for the hassle and thanks for the great site.

dzilizzi said:

Can you add a "Page Up" button at the bottom of a thread? Or have the top not move? I have to scroll all the way back up to click on another thread or my alerts.
Thanks!

Okay, there is an up arrow that sometimes shows up and sometimes doesn't. I think I have to go to the bottom to get it.

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The "Back to Top" button shows up next to the scroll bar, and appears once you start scrolling.
Originally, it only appeared if you started scrolling up, now it appears regardless of which direction you are scrolling.

My favorite new feature: stuff that I decide not to post doesn't persist in the text box anymore!

Okay, the new look and dark mode are nice too...

Thanks for the dark mode, @Mike Greene! One tiny suggestion (for this thread, not the layout):

At the upper right, you'll see a light bulb icon. You can click that to change the forum from light to dark.

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It's only a light bulb if you're already in dark mode. If you're in light mode and want to go dark, it's a moon.

(Go ahead and call me a pedantic arse, I'm used to it. :D)

Honestly, great work! Loving it.

Edit: Actually, I do have a minor suggestion. In dark mode, the font thickness for read and unread threads seem very similar to me - it's hard to distinguish which threads I've read and which aren't. It's fine in light mode, imho.

storyteller said:

One quick suggestion is to add the Latest Posts link somewhere in the header so it is always accessible.

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Quasar said:

Is "New Posts" the same as "Latest Posts"? And if not, what is the difference?

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I think we need to clarify the terminology being used by the new system, which is slightly different to the old one.

Latest Posts shows all threads with recent activity, including threads you have opened and seen.
What's New shows only the threads you have not yet opened that include recent activity. ie. New Posts you have not seen.
You can apply a filter to the What's New page and save it as default, but Latest Posts will always revert back to no filter.

What's New is a tab in the main navigation bar with the star icon
Latest Posts can be accessed from the Forums sub-menu


EDIT: "New Posts" no longer exists as I have renamed it to "Latest Posts" to keep things consistent and familiar.

EDIT AGAIN: Menu has been restructured. Post has been edited to reflect this.

Jdiggity1 said:

I think we need to clarify the terminology being used by the new system, which is slightly different to the old one.

What's New shows all threads with recent activity, including threads you have opened and seen. (plus some recent profile posts underneath)
New Posts shows only the threads you have not yet opened that include recent activity. ie. New Posts you have not seen

What's New is a tab in the main navigation bar with the star icon
New Posts is accessed from the Forums menu

"New Posts" and "Latest Posts" take you to the same thing.

Click to expand...

That makes sense and is good to know. Thanks for clarifying!

Looks fine here on my iMac and iPad.

"Hip Hop creator" add looks nice in dark mode...

Jdiggity1 said:

The "Back to Top" button shows up next to the scroll bar, and appears once you start scrolling.
Originally, it only appeared if you started scrolling up, now it appears regardless of which direction you are scrolling.

Click to expand...

I'd see it but it kept disappearing. And getting covered up by pop ups on my screen. I didn't realize it was linked to the scroll bar. Now I just scroll a bit and it shows up again. Thanks.

Looking good! I appreciate you keeping the option to spread the page across the screen (hate forums that lock you in a middle column for some reason)

-DJ

Daniel James said:

Looking good! I appreciate you keeping the option to spread the page across the screen (hate forums that lock you in a middle column for some reason)

-DJ

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Enjoy it while you can. We're still working on the full-screen Realitone wrap-around-wallpaper ads!

jacobthestupendous said:

But also a serious question: does anyone use the "Home" page? I really only ever start from "Forums" and it makes me grumpy when I accidentally click on "Home" on the mobile site and it takes me to that splash page. Is there any reason to include that link at the top left of every forum page or could we maybe start up there with Forums?

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Yes, the link to the portal is inconvenient, I agree. I am in the process of setting that up, part of the few afterglow tweaks. Thank you for your patience!

Looks great!
What’s the limit on upload now? I tried uploading a 3mb mp3 and it says file too large to upload.
Thanks,
B

Mike Greene said:

I also owe major thanks to Piet De Ridder (re-peat), who many here know is not only an outstanding composer, but also has a great eye for design. We had been emailing about some Soundboard related stuff, and I mentioned we were going to be changing the look of this forum and I hinted that I was never crazy about the logo and I wonder if maybe we should look at changing it. I might have added that golly, maybe I could learn how to use Illustrator so then I could try to make a better one myself. The hint was shamelessly transparent, but it worked. He took the bait and sent us a number of great logo options, including the one we picked at the upper left. I love that logo. He also helped (along with André, of course) with the layout balance (which we're still working on - Xenforo is not easy to tweak), color coordination, and he supplied the textured backgrounds. All for free. I owe you, Piet!

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BIG SHOUT OUT TO PIET!! (@re-peat)!! Thanks to him the logo has moved into the 21st century! And the backgrounds you can pick from are also his doing. Plus he kindly offered feedback on dimensions and was indeed invaluable in noticing little nags breaking the visual harmony. He could see things I wouldn't notice.

AND SHOUT OUT TO CLAUDIO FROM TODO10, who has been onboard for years not only as a powerful hosting company, but contributing further technical expertise and support in that arena. Even more so as we transitioned to the new revisited and improved version of the forum platform. And you should have noticed it is MUCH faster than before.

AND OF COURSE TO MIKE, who is running the ship with a steady hand and professional vision. Thanks for everything, you understand and honor team work like few people I've worked with!

There may be some tweaks that will be mysterious to accomplish, still, and for those I apologize in advance. Onward then, and we should have ironed out what remains to be done in short order.

Peace out,

Andre

bengoss said:

Looks great!
What’s the limit on upload now? I tried uploading a 3mb mp3 and it says file too large to upload.
Thanks,
B

Click to expand...

Ah? This will need to be fixed. Thanks for asking!

dzilizzi said:

Can you add a "Page Up" button at the bottom of a thread? Or have the top not move? I have to scroll all the way back up to click on another thread or my alerts.
Thanks!

Okay, there is an up arrow that sometimes shows up and sometimes doesn't. I think I have to go to the bottom to get it.

Click to expand...

The up-down arrows only appear if there's movement on the page. It retires if you are busy reading and not navigating, per say.

Hope that helps!

Thanks for all the hard work that you put into the new and improved design. People might actually think I’m “cool” now when they catch me looking at this website.

creativeforge said:

The up-down arrows only appear if there's movement on the page. It retires if you are busy reading and not navigating, per say.

Hope that helps!

Click to expand...

Thanks - someone else also pointed that out to me. I didn't see them when I initially posted but now they are appearing regularly.

Another thing that bares mentioning:

Am I wrong that the "Like" and "Reply" buttons used to be where the "Report" and "Bookmark" buttons now are? When I aim where I am used to clicking to like a post, I am aiming at "Report", which is the opposite of my intention.

jacobthestupendous said:

Another thing that bares mentioning:

Am I wrong that the "Like" and "Reply" buttons used to be where the "Report" and "Bookmark" buttons now are? When I aim where I am used to clicking to like a post, I am aiming at "Report", which is the opposite of my intention.

Click to expand...

Actually that's a good thing for me, as I nearly report every post I reply to on VI-C. Everywhere else seems to have them on the right.

Great looking changes folks!

One question - I used to always use the Recent Posts button, am I right in saying that New Posts is now essentially the same thing?