It's time to decide on a new theme! Currently the floodgates are open; you can try out all of the below. This is just for testing purposes. Eventually we'll narrow it down, choose one, and refine it. Post your opinions here!
Profile > Look and Layout > Current Theme
Default (Curve)
Envy
Type-R
Feather
Wide
I'm finding Type-R easiest on the eyes. Maybe could modify the alternating post colors to white/grey, instead of white/yellow.
The rest feel pretty aggressive to me, compared to what we've had before.
My current faves are Curve (Default) and Feather.
Type-R definitely up there too. It's very rectangular with a lot of sharp corners, though.
Wide - The sidebar seems unnecessary/oppressive.
Envy - Probably the worst one that I installed. It gets worse inside a thread. Spacing is bad. Quote blocks look terrible.
Yeah, Feather isn't bad, either.
Curve feels really busy to me, or maybe the color scheme just reminds me of mIRC or MSN Messenger. To me it feels somewhat dated.
Once a final theme is settled upon, will any of the others remain installed if we want to customize?
Edit - I'm noticing the post text size is giant or something on Feather, which is weird/not preferable. I really dig the simplicity of Type-R.
I was planning to force one theme on everyone, whatever our favorite is. But if there's not a major consensus, we could probably go with 2-3. It just takes more work to tweak and maintain.
I'm using Feather right now, and "Quick Edit" doesn't work. Unfortunate.
It's definitely Type-R for me. Curves is too generic, Feather too bubbly. Envy has elements I like, but it falls apart in the details. I like that Wide is wide, but I fear that Wide might be TOO wide.
Regardless, we're going to have to spend some time working on the colors and icons and everything to make it feel like home. And I'm hoping we can replace the plain text title with a logo again (either the old one or we can figure out a new design).
Also, I'm hoping we can change the font that it uses for when you're composing posts, because whatever it is now is brutally ugly.
QuoteRegardless, we're going to have to spend some time working on the colors and icons and everything to make it feel like home. And I'm hoping we can replace the plain text title with a logo again (either the old one or we can figure out a new design).
Also, I'm hoping we can change the font that it uses for when you're composing posts, because whatever it is now is brutally ugly.
Agree with all this. So it sounds like we want Curve and Type-R for sure, and maybe Feather.
Yes, we can definitely put a logo in the same spot. (I was just holding off for now.)
In Discord,
@HACKANUT mentioned that he wanted to create a logo. We could probably come up with one that would work in all 2-3 themes.
I'm more than willing to do a new logo! Beforehand tho, I'd like to make sure everyone has a chance to brainstorm ideas/give feedback.
The 'old' logo has something very powerful going for it: Simplicity, and awesomeness. The film reel incorporating an X is pretty perfect. Maybe it could get a polish--rotate it to emphasize the X, and/or...I don't know...a blue lens-flare? :yabbse-grin:
Having said that, I'd welcome New Logo Overlords, too. Selfishly (and annoyingly) it would be awesome to work some kind of PTA reference into it--although I can't imagine how that would work. Is there a simple, visual shape that represents the man, the myth, the filmography?? :ponder: Something white? :yabbse-grin: Two tortured male avatars with crossed swords (there's your X)? :lol:
Quote from: wilder on March 01, 2022, 08:35:43 PMMaybe the color scheme just reminds me of mIRC or MSN Messenger. To me it feels somewhat dated.
Although currently Curve2 iz my favorite of the bunch, I totally get that early '00s feel, too ~
Would definitely want to keep the film reel "X" if we can. It's iconic IMO
I think this calls for a Hackanut/
@polkablues collab...
I disabled Feather. Too many problems with buttons not working.
Type-R gets my vote. It's not flashy or anything, just simple, clean, basic, and the more modern of the bunch.
Okay. Curve and Type-R are locks to become permanent. I'm not sure there's enough support for any of the others.
Any desire to incorporate some sort of new Xixax Marquee for the roaring 20s? New stills, new quotes?
Any way the bottom-right post buttons on Type-R can be simplified to icons instead of tables with text?
From this:
(https://i.imgur.com/VivpXuv.jpg)
To this:
(https://i.imgur.com/x2kSk2f.jpg)
That would make them too small for mobile. And I already received this:
Ah okay.
Seems like we should start modifying the themes (Curve and Type-R). I've started by tweaking the overall font size multiplier. I took it from 83% to 120%. This is very easy to change, so let me know if it's too big or still too small!
I think it's brought post body text to a good size, but other things are obviously too big now. Hope to fix that later.
120 feels needlessly huge to me, personally.
Yeah, it used to be too small for me, but 120 is too much. Let's try 95 or 100. (The strange thing is that, even though we're currently 120, the buttons for "Post" and "Preview" are still small; there's an overall issue with proportions.)
Changed to 100.
I don't think the buttons are affected by this.
100 seems perfect to me.
Was looking at the design of the forum through the years. Can't help but feel that our older designs were a little cleaner, at least on the front page.
I think it's down to the fact that the tables were wider and could accommodate the forum descriptions in single line shots, which also made it easier to take in the forum at a glance.
Is it possible to both widen the tables and shrink the fonts to be more in line with what we've had in the past? The descriptions extending into "new paragraphs" in the more narrow tables we have now might be what's throwing some of us who are finding the new look a little unfamiliar.
2004
(https://i.imgur.com/KnNAe10.jpg)
2008
(https://i.imgur.com/PUoJfFY.jpg)
2012
(https://i.imgur.com/pbJ0q9P.jpg)
2020
(https://i.imgur.com/NZgbxog.jpg)
2022 - Type-R
(https://i.imgur.com/e8crjmo.jpg)
2022 - Curve
(https://i.imgur.com/MUNnqf5.jpg)
Quote from: wilder on March 14, 2022, 06:06:18 AMWas looking at the design of the forum through the years. Can't help but feel that our older designs were a little cleaner, at least on the front page.
I think it's down to the fact that the tables were wider and could accommodate the forum descriptions in single line shots, which also made it easier to take in the forum at a glance.
Is it possible to both widen the tables and shrink the fonts to be more in line with what we've had in the past? The descriptions extending into "new paragraphs" in the more narrow tables we have now might be what's throwing some of us who are finding the new look a little unfamiliar.
2004
(https://i.imgur.com/KnNAe10.jpg)
2008
(https://i.imgur.com/PUoJfFY.jpg)
2012
(https://i.imgur.com/pbJ0q9P.jpg)
2020
(https://i.imgur.com/NZgbxog.jpg)
2022 - Type-R
(https://i.imgur.com/e8crjmo.jpg)
2022 - Curve
(https://i.imgur.com/MUNnqf5.jpg)
There are significant readability issues with allowing text to get too wide. The general rule of thumb is that a line of body text should be 50-60 characters long.
Alright! Clearly no design expert.
Some updates for Type-R:
@polkablues figured out how to change the topic/forum title size!
@Rooty Poots came up with a solution to align the logo with the rest of the page. Thank you!
@HACKANUT has updated the logo with newly-drawn spools.
I seem to have lost the shoutbox on the front page after changing themes, I'd like to start using Type-R
Can you check if there's a little plus icon on the bottom right? It might be collapsed.
ok, thanks that worked... Is there a way to have the shoutbox in dark mode? It's white for me while the rest of the page is dark, anyone else?
I use Type R and only the top and bottom are dark.