Test-Drive Our New Responsive Forum Theme!

[CRTGAMER]

I agree. I like them on the iPad -- especially in "laptop orientation", but when it's a narrow screen, I think we need very small avatars so it doesn't increase vertical space.

I'm also wondering if we should hide signatures on small/narrow screens as they often look like another message, which makes for a weird experience --- especially those with quotes in the signature.

Agree, avatar file size band width and display real estate. Glossy Blue now auto resizes, but the larger avatars still have to load.

I sometimes get thrown off by a quote in a signature thinking its related to the immediate reply. Perhaps quote boxes and text as well in signatures could be set to less subtle (maybe a dark grey text?) to visually show difference? Or the line separator for signatures could be a thicker border and width?

[racketboy]

Good ideas.

BTW, we've been refining the Private Message interface these last few days. It's SO much better. The stock theme was still horrible on anything but desktop and now it's actually pretty enjoyable to use (just not as nice as a native mobile messaging app)

[Tanooki]

Maybe I'll try it out later today with the phone and my shield tablet as that'll cover both Android and iOS as I'm curious.

The formatting works great on a full sized environment, easier to follow and use than the old layout.

Since I haven't checked yet, is there a way to (or is it done already?) to use the desktop version of the site or will it keep putting up that annoying setup that has been in place?

[ElkinFencer10]

I agree that there should be some limits on avatar size, but 80x80 was ridiculously small. 160x160 or 120x120 would be much better.

[Ziggy]

Cool. I noticed that the left and right boarders are not darker and continue all the way down to the bottom of the page. It makes a huge difference, in my opinion. Feels a lot less like being in a room with padded walls.

My only other nitpick with appearance is the grid lines, the lines separating each post I mean. They're too thin and faint. They should be more well defined, making it easier to distinguish posts from each other, which in turn makes the page look a little tidier as well. On my monitor at work, which isn't the best, if my viewing angle changes slightly the grid lines disappear! Viewing threads without grid lines is no fun. My opinion is they should definitely be a little darker. Perhaps a little thicker, too. But definitely darker.

edit: Switching back and forth, I definitely prefer that part about Glossy Blue. It's much easier to distinguish everything. The grid lines are much more visible, but also, posts are separated by thick black bars. Even when viewing a list of threads, the more visible grid lines are much appreciated. With the new theme, since the grid lines are so faint, everything just kind of runs into each other.





My only real complaint with the layout is that "view your posts" and "view active topics" are hidden. Can they be placed in the black bar instead?

Capture.JPG

^^^ Super quick MS Paint mock up.

[Xeogred]

I agree that there should be some limits on avatar size, but 80x80 was ridiculously small. 160x160 or 120x120 would be much better.

160x160 should be the absolute maximum.

Or enforce 80x80 on old themes. Also I have to say, CRT and others seem to be saying that the avatars are being resized for them on AcidBlue, but not on my end. I'm still seeing the big avatars and stretched tables so it must be weirdly case by case.

I have Fiber, so speed isn't an issue for me personally at all, but should animated gifs even be allowed for avatars?

I don't mean to be that old guy who hates change and all, but there is a lot to love about simple uniformity with how things were. Don't fix what isn't broke! Maybe the old themes can retain all the old rules and such, while the new themes let those who want to do more with bigger avatars and whatnot. Win/Win. I don't know if I'm in the minority, a lot of people are out during the summer, but yeah it wouldn't be fun to feel somewhat forced to switch to the new themes if some of these problems on the old don't get fixed up.

If anything, I would actually be more welcoming to increasing the signature size/limit so people can have real banners and more in there, while keeping the avatars a bit stricter and small.

Probably a lot of issues come with these changes for mobile browsing, but this should go without saying... don't let us desktop regulars get compromised for mobile use. I've seen that happen to too many sites over the years and it's never good.

[marurun]

Part of the problem is that the web is now just as much mobile, if not more, than desktop. Personally, I hate Uber-sigs. I think signatures should not be allowed to be too tall, on mobile or desktop. But I think boosting avatar size to 120 px square isn't too bad. I do wonder if there's a way to put avatar pics beside the user info on the narrow phone view instead of having everything stack. It is possible that would be a horrible idea, but I'd like to see it once to be sure.

[marurun]

Huh, that change isn't so bad, actually. It does look a little weird when someone lacks an avatar, but not especially so. What does everyone else think?

[Ziggy]

Huh, avatar resize seems to be fixed now for Glossy Blue.

[Xeogred]

Not on AcidBlue and I can't tell if Sarge is joking or not with his new resized one, it's about to physically crush the forums.

Untitled-1.jpg (290.63 KiB) Viewed 1147 times