Dedicated "Next" theme for theme experiments

[Christoph.Krn]

Ed, it seems that you're doing live adjustments to this forum's theme(s).

Could you please fork the current theme that you want to edit into a new theme called something like "Next", and then do your adjustments there until they're "done"?

The reason that I'm asking this is that I've made a couple of small adjustments to this site's theme on my local setup myself after the recent update of this forum's software, but they keep breaking from your live updates.

 

[EvilDragon]

I'm pretty much done with it right now, unless someone wants to add some fixes and tweaks

 

[Christoph.Krn]

Do you happen to have a backup of the "Pandora Forced Desktop" theme as it was last afternoon? It seems that you've added <br> elements inbetween posts since then, which to work around with CSS would be rather dirty. The same is true for the <hr> elements inbetween posts, so if you could remove those too, then that would be splendid. (This approach is not ideal anyway. By adding separator lines inbetween posts, you just create even more "visual elements", namly the spaces above the lines, the lines themselves, and then more spaces below them. That's why these lines don't really serve their purpose, because unless you increase the empty spaces around them, everything just becomes more busy. Contrast this with the attached screenshot.)

If you could clone that into a new theme called "dragonboards-oha-next", then I could submit a patch against it. I'm not guaranteeing that anything works since I've only used/tested this on my own configuration, and right now it's quite wonky in places, but at least it's focused on legibility, and it could possibly serve as basis for community-based theme efforts.

 

[Neelix]

For what it's worth I don't see a need for the <hr> element anyway. The light blue bar at the top of each post does a fine job of separating the posts in the current theme.

-Neelix

 

[EvilDragon]

The reason I added the space is the anchor. Since the menu always shows on top, if you linked to a post or went to the first unread post of a topic, the top of the actual post was hidden below the main navbar.

If someone knows how to change an anchor so that any link to the anchor goes about 30px above that anchor, it would be great, as I could remove that space again then.

 

[EvilDragon]

Okay, found out how to do it properly with CSS

So back to a normal looking spacing, with working anchors.
I still kept the horizontal line - I tested, and it looks cleaner and better with it.

Then the new themes should be mostly finished

 

[fusion_power]

It was already suggested to work with some decent colours instead of such an line. separate the background from the post windows a little bit, it does not need much. All it needs is a slight contrast between the posts and the spacing between. Oh, and the color of the post header is to much on the blueish side, I suggest to pick an color from another site element to match it better the light blue and grey colors here are much better imho.

 

[EvilDragon]

The color of the post header is exactly the same as on the old boards - and the remaining colors now as well
I can also add a different color instead of a horizontal line, if you think that's better... don't know which color though.

 

[fusion_power]

light blueish grey or anything that makes the posts a little bit lighter or darker - or keep them white and change the colour in between. I guess everything is better than this ugly line. ^^"
Here, quick and dirty mockup, this also dulls the "bright" forum appearence a bit, I don't like plain whige backgrounds:

 

[Christoph.Krn]

It seems that you've added <br> elements inbetween posts since then, which to work around with CSS would be rather dirty.

The gaps have returned now ...why?

 

[EvilDragon]

It seems that you've added <br> elements inbetween posts since then, which to work around with CSS would be rather dirty.

The gaps have returned now ...why?

Argh, it's still the issue with the anchor!

With FireFox, setting padding to 65px and margin to -65px works that the anchor works as it should.
Doesn't work for Chromium though. Chromium wants a setup of:
 

display: block;
height: 65px;
margin-top: -65px;
visibility: hidden;

So I combined them and added padding: 65px at the end.

Now the gap is back.

I HATE WEBBROWSERS!
Is there no way that works on ALL browsers to make them go 65px BEFORE the anchor?

Have they STILL not resolved rendering issues between different browsers?

 

 

[Christoph.Krn]

Have they STILL not resolved rendering issues between different browsers?

Yes.

The changes that I've made locally used to work just fine before you've made changes to the gaps inbetween posts again today. I intent on publishing them eventually, but not yet because I first want to use them for a bit to make sure that there are no critical problems. I cannot do that if you keep altering the forum themes though.

 

[Christoph.Krn]

I've been treated in a way that made me feel like some kind of lesser lifeform by some moderators for complaing about some moderation measures, and for making suggestions about making this forum a more enjoyable place. I have been issued a flat-out irresponsible warning point for trying to get the potential severity of a security problem across. And I've had questions regarding this project here go unanswered.

This usability thing that I've been working on for these boards... it's not happening. Not in this atmosphere anyway. I find that sad myself, but it's not enjoyable. I have tried to understand, I have tried to explain, I seriously have, but I have the impression that you moderators that I'm talking about appear to have gone into non-acceptance mode in regard to questions and suggestions, and I'm unable to see what I could possibly do about it to get into an actual dialog with you at eye-level.


If you're one of the moderators that I'm talking about, you are in fact open for an actual two-way conversation, and you think that I just don't understand, fine, please contact me via PM and tell me what exactly I've been doing wrong in detail. But not if you only want to hear me agree with your view, because right now, I fundamentally disagree with the way that you are doing things here.

 

[Neelix]

I think your approach has been wrong.   You basically demanded that the rest of the forum should be put in a sandbox so that you could play outside of it in isolation.  What I think you should have been requesting was a sandbox of your own on the server so that you could experiment inside it and share your results with the one person who mattered, that being ED.


-Neelix

 

[EvilDragon]

I'm not sure I understand at all... last thing he posted was that he wants to test out his changes locally a bit more before I can integrate them.


Where did he demand a sandbox...?

 

[Christoph.Krn]

I think your approach has been wrong.   You basically demanded that the rest of the forum should be put in a sandbox so that you could play outside of it in isolation.  What I think you should have been requesting was a sandbox of your own on the server so that you could experiment inside it and share your results with the one person who mattered, that being ED.

I have a local "sandbox". I have never demanded that any such changes be made. I'm referring to other things. You don't know about most of them, only about one where you happened to be present in a PM group discussion. I'm not going to disclose things here, or to you in person, because I don't publish things that I've been told in private conversations unless I have explicit permit.

[...] last thing he posted was that he wants to test out his changes locally a bit more before I can integrate them.

I actually sent you some stable-ish files a while ago because "release early, release often". You don't know because you haven't read all of my PMs yet though.

 

[Neelix]

I was referring yo your opening statement in this thread:

Ed, it seems that you're doing live adjustments to this forum's theme(s). Could you please fork the current theme that you want to edit into a new theme called something like "Next", and then do your adjustments there until they're "done"?

What I described in my last post, was the impression I was left with.  Obviously my impression was based on incomplete information, so please accept my apologies.


-Neelix

 

[Christoph.Krn]

What I described in my last post, was the impression I was left with.  Obviously my impression was based on incomplete information, so please accept my apologies.

No, please, it's not neccessary. I appreciate your trying to express your view.