Test-Drive Our New Responsive Forum Theme!

[racketboy]

There is some nostalgia to the old theme, but after using this for a week or so and fine tuning annoyances, I'm quite happy with it -- especially on phones and tablets.

Prefer the standard default Glossy Blue
Gave the new theme a go and did not see an apparent View Active Topics option; the big negative for me. The text not separated clearly by border boxes either, but can see why to save space for cell phone screens. Agree, the new Racketboy V3 theme looks ideal for Cellphones and Tablets, but please keep the Glossy Blue for keyboard PC users.

We always keep the old themes, but they just don't get the updated headers and menus.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Love the new theme! Took me a bit to get used to it, but it works great on my phone.

[Ziggy]

I like the new theme. Very sleek. It has a modern feel to it that seems to fit mobile devices. I'm using it on PC right now. I like the new fixed width, not too narrow like Glossy Blue is. The new standard width for the reply box is great too, now I don't have to always resize it manually when typing longer posts (are you guys sick of me yet?). To point out a few negatives though...

I think it's TOO white. It needs more color. It ends up feeling to sterile. Why not have the left and right boarders have more color? Or, at least, not trail out into nothing. If that mosaic tile pattern didn't end and just continued down, I think that would go a long way. As it is now, there's just huge BLANK spaces on either side of the screen. Feels like unused canvas or something.

Speaking of a dark theme... I usually prefer light themes compared to dark. Dark is usually too dark, and as I stated above I think this new theme is too light. I never see a middle ground on forum themes. It's either completely light, or very dark.

My only other complaint so far is that "view your posts" and "view active topics" are hidden. These two need to be handy shortcuts, not hidden.

I think we've discussed this before, but if this site ever needs money raised for something, I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem!

edit: I noticed some people avatars are way bigger than 80x80 pixels now. I know the restriction for Glossy Blue and the old themes was 80x80, but if you linked a pic hosted elsewhere it could be larger and the forum would just resize it. Looks like this new theme is 320x320, I'm happy about that. I always found it hard to get an avatar to look right with such a small max size. So if you upload an avatar with the new max restrictions, will Glossy Blue just resize them?

edit edit: The answer is, it breaks the size restriction for Glossy Blue. NOW BOW TO THE ENORMOUS BENDER!!!

Now I can't up an 80x80 avatar. New min is 160, even for Glossy Blue. Don't know if that was intentional or not...

Also, I noticed that a bunch of my pics are broken in my BST thread. They work fine with Glossy Blue, but half of them don't display with the new theme.

[ElkinFencer10]

Yeah, this works great on mobile, and while I'm a bit nostalgic for the previous layout, I like this one a lot on PC, too.

One request, though; would be possible to get a black version?

See my mention of a dark theme above. There's just extra expense we have to consider.

Whoops, totally missed that part. My b.

What kind of expense would we be looking at?

[Ziggy]

Just to show how ridiculous my 320x320 Bender looked with the Glossy Blue theme...

Big Bender.jpg

[ElkinFencer10]

Bender is large and in charge.

[Forlorn Drifter]

I'm good with the look, and much prefer how the input on the phone works now. The only thing I would change is an options to jump to the last page of replies from the get go.

Are you talking about on mobile? Because on desktop you both have a little document icon that takes you to the first unread post and you can always click the further number to go to the last page.

On mobile. With the old school style on mobile, I could see the page numbers, but clicking on them always took me to the first page anyway. Now it's not even an option.

[Xeogred]

Yikes, now Ziggy is a giant Bobbomb.

I think the avatars should be kept at 80x80.

[MrPopo]

For those asking, is "View Active Posts" different from "View New Posts", which is what I always used? That still exists on the top bar. "View Your Posts" is hidden under a rollover on your name.

[Segata]

Yikes, now Ziggy is a giant Bobbomb.

I think the avatars should be kept at 80x80.

God no. It's not 2001 with dial-up members to worry about. Minimum should be 120X120. 80x80 is reserved for icon boards from the year 2001. I like to make my own avatars and always use PNG format. getting them to 80 and less is a pain.