Fine Tuning...

[daiv]

Ian,
I know you post at the BCSS and they use a slightly modified "prosilver" theme. Can you compare/contrast your thoughts between the that and the current theme here? I am considering dropping this theme and going with a Prosilver theme.

One thing I do not like at all in Prosilver are the topic icons - the ones that look like little light bulbs with lines in them.

[iann]

I don't like the new look of the BCSS forum at all. Hideous colours with poor definition. I don't like the post icons either, too many with too little variation between them. I have no idea what they mean which makes them just so much useless clutter. And they move, horrible.

Here is better. Still has a fresh look, which I know is important to people with a design bent although I'm perfectly happy with the same old thing Clear and easy to spot stuff, what more could anyone want from the forum?

[peterb]

what more could anyone want from the forum?

free Echinomastus!

peterb

[daiv]

Egads! Why didn't I think of this sooner?? I'm still not used to all the freedom we have in the new system. We can actually install multiple styles here and users can select the style that they like best. Of course I'll have to do some setup on different styles, but why not?

I activated the Prosilver style and so if anyone wants to play with this, click on "User Control Panel" in the upper right, then click "Board Preferences", then find "My Board Preferences" and switch the style there. (I haven't modified Prosilver so it will be blue and ugly)

[Melt In The Sun]

I like it! Now if we had one with the avatars on the left.....

[Andy_CT]

Egads! Why didn't I think of this sooner?? I'm still not used to all the freedom we have in the new system. We can actually install multiple styles here and users can select the style that they like best. Of course I'll have to do some setup on different styles, but why not?

I activated the Prosilver style and so if anyone wants to play with this, click on "User Control Panel" in the upper right, then click "Board Preferences", then find "My Board Preferences" and switch the style there. (I haven't modified Prosilver so it will be blue and ugly)

Massive improvement!

now just move the avatar/user to the left on the prosilver then thats good enough.

[daiv]

Well I didn't even realize that the prosilver theme also had the profile info on the right hand side. In fact, I spent some time on the PHPBB forum looking for a way to move it to the left before I realized that the PHPBB forum itself has the profile info on the right. Anyway, I found the mod that does it. So I think I'll set up a right and a left. That way we can actually please everyone.

[John C]

Sounds good Daiv. Like I said before, at first I didn't like the avatar being on the right, but then after using it a while I think I like it better. I pay more attention to the content of the message and less attention to who posted it unless I really want to know. That's just me though.

[CelticRose]

I don't like the new look of the BCSS forum at all. Hideous colours with poor definition. I don't like the post icons either, too many with too little variation between them. I have no idea what they mean which makes them just so much useless clutter. And they move, horrible.

Here is better. Still has a fresh look, which I know is important to people with a design bent although I'm perfectly happy with the same old thing Clear and easy to spot stuff, what more could anyone want from the forum?

I'm with iann. I just tried the prosilver theme and I like this one much better. The moving icons are obnoxious and the colors really clash with the CactiGuide logos and buttons. I like the current theme. It looks nice and it's easy on the eyes.

I don't mind the red, and I don't think that it clashes with the general color scheme. If anything looks out of place, it's the bright blue of the CactiForum logo, but even that's not horrible.

I don't have a problem with the avatars being on the right either. I post on another forum that has avatars on the right, and you just get used to it after a while.

[Bruce]

Another nit: On the Board Index page, the "Mark Forums Read" and "View Unanswered Posts" buttons at the top are merged into one continuous string of characters. They still work but it's not so pretty.

[daiv]

@Rose - Well I really didn't do anything with Prosilver to make it match the site. That is pretty much the out-of-the-box version with the logo and links slapped on the top. Eventually, I can pretty that up, but wanted to open it to users who wanted to experiment.

I think it might be worth it to put in a few different theme choices. That way users can pick the one they like best. After all, the page layout should be all but unnoticed and the focus be on the content.

@Bruce - I think Harriet pointed that out too. Should be a pretty easy fix...

[Bruce]

@Bruce - I think Harriet pointed that out too. Should be a pretty easy fix...

Oops, so she did. Sorry, didn't want to seem like I was nagging.

[daiv]

No problem, but now that I've looked into it, it seems a harder fix than I thought. I'm not exactly sure which file the code is in that produces that text. For whatever reason, the mark posts read link is in a separate element off by itself.

[peter]

No problem, but now that I've looked into it, it seems a harder fix than I thought. I'm not exactly sure which file the code is in that produces that text. For whatever reason, the mark posts read link is in a separate element off by itself.

It looks different in Prosilver. No problem there!

[daiv]

Installed a green version of prosilver if anyone is interested in trying that one out....