revamped forum

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Sponge Belly
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revamped forum

#1 Post by Sponge Belly » 28 Nov 2015 08:18

Hello All! :(

I’m just going to come right out and say it. I’m not happy with the revamped forum. I have several issues. First, I’m having difficulties loading the home page. Several attempts are usually required. I suspect the honking big Google Ads frame may have something to do with it. Next, the ‘View first unread post’ links don’t work. They no longer take you to the first unread message, just to the top of the page. Last and worst of all, the 50 latest posts are now displayed as a list and not as a table. This makes navigation with JAWS (my screen reader) cumbersome.

- SB

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Re: revamped forum

#2 Post by dbenham » 28 Nov 2015 08:32

The one new feature I like is the "Select All" link for code (and I like it a lot), but that is it.

My biggest complaint is the green color of the code. I find it extremely difficult to read - not enough contrast with the background. Yet code is frequently the most important part of a post.

Also, although I like the concept of the scrolling code blocks, I find them to be too short - so short that even simple logic is obscured by the need to scroll. I think the code blocks should be at least twice as long before scrolling kicks in.


Dave Benham

Aacini
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Re: revamped forum

#3 Post by Aacini » 28 Nov 2015 09:28

I opine the same than Dave about the code blocks; they are important part of this forum and now are difficult to read.

My other complaint is about the place where the author of the topic is listed, that now appear below the topic title. In previous layout the author have its own column and was easier to review. The new layout gives more importance to the last poster than the author...

Antonio

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Re: revamped forum

#4 Post by npocmaka_ » 28 Nov 2015 15:51

But still max allowed URLs are 2 :?

Ed Dyreen
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Re: revamped forum

#5 Post by Ed Dyreen » 28 Nov 2015 17:15

oh I thought it was just me, I thought the forum suddenly looks different because I installed several ad-dons, reduced the number of detectable fonts to reduce the chance of getting e tagged. So it's not just me who is looking at a totally different forum now. In my humble opinion, I like the previous forum style better. Is there any chance of getting the old style back ?

Over here all the code tags are collapsed to a small window, which I have to scroll through, I can't see the entire code at a first glance anymore :cry:

Liviu
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Re: revamped forum

#6 Post by Liviu » 29 Nov 2015 02:47

Is there a legend to the new icons in the main forum list? I'd guess that "white" = "read", "white+dot" = "posted into", and "blinking" is "heavier" than "static" though not sure how "weight" is assessed.

Liviu

foxidrive
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Re: revamped forum

#7 Post by foxidrive » 29 Nov 2015 07:18

Sponge Belly, I use this URL to get a list of the new posts - I am unsure of the table aspect because I've always seen them in an apparent forum list.

search.php?search_id=newposts

ShadowThief
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Re: revamped forum

#8 Post by ShadowThief » 29 Nov 2015 16:19

If an admin can log in to the ACP, go to General > Board Configuration >Board Settings, and switch "Override User Style" to "No", the users can at least choose their own theme, assuming that whoever is responsible for this change hasn't deleted the old one.

foxidrive
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Re: revamped forum

#9 Post by foxidrive » 29 Nov 2015 19:26

ShadowThief wrote:and switch "Override User Style" to "No", the users can at least choose their own theme, assuming that whoever is responsible for this change hasn't deleted the old one.


An updated version of forum software was installed by the head honcho - would older themes be compatible?

ShadowThief
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Re: revamped forum

#10 Post by ShadowThief » 29 Nov 2015 21:12

foxidrive wrote:
ShadowThief wrote:and switch "Override User Style" to "No", the users can at least choose their own theme, assuming that whoever is responsible for this change hasn't deleted the old one.


An updated version of forum software was installed by the head honcho - would older themes be compatible?

Themes generally play nice regardless of phpbb version, but if they don't, it will say somewhere on the theme's download page. No idea what the one we were using was called, though.

Jer
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Re: revamped forum

#11 Post by Jer » 30 Nov 2015 22:20

I worked at least 20 minutes composing a post tonight, then, lo and behold, three was no Submit button on the screen.
Scrolling to the bottom took me nowhere.

It only took about 2 minutes to learn that pressing the right-tab key made those Preview and Submit buttons pop into view.
No problem with this one though--with a short screen for entry and those vital buttons have nowhere to hide :D
Jerry

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Re: revamped forum

#12 Post by Ed Dyreen » 01 Dec 2015 06:38

I send a pm to administrator.

Jer
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Re: revamped forum

#13 Post by Jer » 01 Dec 2015 10:15

My O/S is Windows 7 32bit and browser is Firefox. I don't see the problem of the submit button being
out of view and seemingly inaccessible in this thread; it was in my post "test string for <, > or %".
Adding a lot of blank lines in this entry window did not push the buttons out of view.

admin
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Re: revamped forum

#14 Post by admin » 02 Dec 2015 01:53

Greetings and thanks for the feedback.

The forum needed upgrading to keep up with the security issues.
It made most sense to move to the latest version. Unfortunately the major-version change from 2.x to 3.1 broke the old Styles.

2 options for now:

Cheers!
Peter

admin
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Re: revamped forum

#15 Post by admin » 02 Dec 2015 02:40

After testing some of the newly installed styles I found that most of them have the same issue of scrolling- or low-contrast code sections.
I'll see if tweaking the css of the original Style will help, as soon I have a bit more time.

Still if you find a Style you like, please share here.

Thanks!
Peter

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