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Message by Lirodon is ignored [reveal message] [reveal all messages by Lirodon] [stop ignoring this user]

Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164430 is a reply to message #164429]

Fri, 04 February 2011 21:11

The Witcher

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What kind of ideas do you have in mind?

"I'm a Witcher, I solve human problems; not always using a sword!"

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Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164432 is a reply to message #164430]

Fri, 04 February 2011 22:43

naudefj

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That's music to my ears.
We use FUDforum because it's the most powerful, but it definitely not the prettiest forum around.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164438 is a reply to message #164436]

Sat, 05 February 2011 09:13

The Witcher

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I'm afraid you lost me after "CSS", but new themes and schemes would be really nice.

"I'm a Witcher, I solve human problems; not always using a sword!"

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Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164440 is a reply to message #164439]

Sat, 05 February 2011 13:57

The Witcher

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The CSS styled buttons would be a nice change, its something that has already been mentioned favorably several times.

"I'm a Witcher, I solve human problems; not always using a sword!"

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Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164441 is a reply to message #164440]

Sat, 05 February 2011 15:14

Ernesto

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With your proposed layout you will waste a lot of screen realestate. The whole idea behind keeping the poster info above the post is to maximize screen usage and to keep the layout modular.

It is quite hard to design for dynamic content, you have to put thought into every piece, why it is there, etc.

It's quite the huge job to do the whole thing, it will take you hundreds of hours to do a proper full restyling.

Anyhow, hope you manage to finish it, I have one restyle in progress, 20 hours into it, just too lazy to wrap it up ehhe

Ginnunga Gaming

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Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164452 is a reply to message #164442]

Sun, 06 February 2011 11:56

naudefj

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I like it! We can introduce a new postbit as part of the default template set (ts), or as a skeleton ts similar to the current "user_info_left" and "user_info_right".

The current templates are relying too heavily on HTML tables, it would be great of your design can either be table-less or at least use it sparingly.

The "time ago" functionality can be introduced with jQuery. I was thinking of introducing it into the next release myself.

How do we proceed?

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Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164454 is a reply to message #164442]

Sun, 06 February 2011 12:22

The Witcher

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How would this affect the display of geo-location flags and assigned user tags/images?

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Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164457 is a reply to message #164455]

Sun, 06 February 2011 13:11

The Witcher

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Ok, and from the looks of it creating different colored themes should be relatively simple to implement. But would it be compatible with current themes?

"I'm a Witcher, I solve human problems; not always using a sword!"

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Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164459 is a reply to message #164458]

Sun, 06 February 2011 14:32

The Witcher

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There are only a dozen or so themes that I am aware of and most of those are mainly modified via the CSS as opposed to any real changes to the overall forum structure. You are right about compatibility with older themes but that will always be an issue.

I would be more concerned that the proposed changes would be beyond the comprehension of the average user admin like myself, to adjust to.

As for Gitorious I could care less, I'm just now becoming familiar with Source Forge so that would be a naudefj issue to decide for or against, otherwise I'm not much into "What's in right now" if I was I probably wouldn't be using FUDforum.

One of FUDforums major draws for me is its uniqueness but I see some users who see it as a draw back so dragging it forward might not be such a bad idea.

"I'm a Witcher, I solve human problems; not always using a sword!"

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Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164461 is a reply to message #164460]

Sun, 06 February 2011 15:20

The Witcher

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If I understand it 3.0.3 isn't slated until summer of 2011, so I assume you're speaking of this being completed sometime in 2012. But by that time would your proposed changes be outdated, or do you believe they would still be in sync with common usage?

I see people still using versions 2.7.6., 2.7.7., 2.8.0., 2.8.1., and 3.0.0. Most of which are rather established forums which have been modified on their own and I doubt the Admins plan on upgrading to 3.0.2 anytime in the near future.

So might it be worth considering making the switch in one fell swoop leaving version 3.0.3 a transition version from Classic FUDforum over to the Modernized design and look, it could be re-branded at the same time since there has already been discussions of renaming it to remove the perceived negative connotation associated with "FUD"?

I've been trying to visualize your proposed changes against the "Classic view" of the forum as it is now and it really does not seem to be all that radical, of course it's hard to visualize at this point.

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Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164463 is a reply to message #164462]

Sun, 06 February 2011 16:54

The Witcher

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A 10 year anniversary sounds like a good idea, as for more frequent updates that would again be a naudefj issue, The same applies to a dedicated forum or wiki.

"I'm a Witcher, I solve human problems; not always using a sword!"

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Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164496 is a reply to message #164463]

Fri, 11 February 2011 22:31

naudefj

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Lirodon, I trust you are making good progress with the new theme.
Please let us know if there is anything we can do to help.

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Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164654 is a reply to message #164496]

Wed, 23 February 2011 18:07

yuanyelss

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The whole idea behind keeping the poster info above the post is to maximize screen usage and to keep the layout modular.It is quite hard to design for dynamic content, you have to put thought into every piece, why it is there, etc...

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Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164666 is a reply to message #164654]

Fri, 25 February 2011 09:29

carlton

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Could definitely see this forum being a great resource if you had a homepage with more how-to type articles and news/developments on FUD.

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Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164669 is a reply to message #164666]

Fri, 25 February 2011 16:51

yuanyelss

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The current templates are relying too heavily on HTML tables, it would be great of your design can either be table-less or at least use it sparingly...

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Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164705 is a reply to message #164685]

Wed, 02 March 2011 05:34

Ernesto

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You are definitely getting there, a skin like that would be better than the current one I am sure. I'd still feel that your design is still a little old, sort of 2006.

Also note that text-shadow does not render well in chrome if you have cleartype enabled (which everyone has nowadays) and it doesnt work in most IE browsers. Using .htc files to fix that is not a good way.

Ginnunga Gaming

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Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164708 is a reply to message #164705]

Wed, 02 March 2011 05:43

naudefj

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Ernesto wrote:

You are definitely getting there, a skin like that would be better than the current one I am sure. I'd still feel that your design is still a little old, sort of 2006.

So, how should a 2011 design look like?

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Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164725 is a reply to message #164429]

Wed, 02 March 2011 23:29

Ernesto

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Typography
Texturized backgrounds
Subtle Shading on elements
Large icons / buttons
Indicational navigation (IE, tabs v 2.0)
"3d" borders

Examples. Some are not pretty per-se, but they all use 2011 webtrends:

http://typophile.com/forum/4 - This one is pretty
http://www.macheist.com/forums/ - Dark, but shows well the shading and textures
http://www.teefury.com/forum/ - This one uses alot of the "web 2.0" elements, IE, influenced by twitter, facebook, etc
http://www.designforums.co.uk/ - Not so pretty, but tries to use all the trends
http://www.webdesignforums.net/ - Yet again web 2.0 look, reminds a lot about metaplace.
http://www.yourdesignforums.com/ - incredibly 2011, I don't like all the beveling though and the forum isn't completely skinned Razz

Typical 2006:
http://www.allgraphicdesign.com/phpBB2/

While the design presented in the above post IS pretty and follows one trend that is really strong, that the web should look like a desktop application, it copies the look of desktop applications from 2006. IE, Crystal for linux and the likes, which in their own right are pertty for sure, but it is not new. With new I do not mean never-seen-before, just not "modern".

Please please, do not get me wrong, the design presented is tons better than what we have, do not let my criticism disturb in any way, its a HUGE job to completely re-skin a forum. Your efforts are much much much appreciated!

Ginnunga Gaming

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Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164746 is a reply to message #164742]

Fri, 04 March 2011 09:01

naudefj

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andy_scouser wrote:

id second that !!!

its been a great forum to use over the years, but for us mere mortals, a little more 'higher level' howto's would really help.

Is there any *we* can help at all? testing releases even, if you have test plans we could follow....even maybe write?

More howto's would indeed be great. Instead of complaining, why don't we all write one or two? If we do, we will soon enough have a bunch of them.

I'm not aware of any test plans, it would be great if you can maybe start working on one?

After all, FUDforum belongs to all of us and everyone is free to contribute to it.

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Re: Modernize the design and look [message #164751 is a reply to message #164750]

Fri, 04 March 2011 23:58

naudefj

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Lirodon wrote:

Anyway, here's a new look, kinda went for more of a soft metal motif. And, I also hid profile info away in a new pop-up "miniprofile"

Absolutely stunning!

Lirodon wrote:

I would expect copious amounts of jQuery in such an end product, am I right?

Not necessarily. jQuery code is quite compact. And, if you do the HTML, I can always help to patch in the jQuery bits.

Lirodon wrote:

and yes, I do agree we need more involvement. Distributed version control can seriously help. I think you can do git and hg on SourceForge too though. But I'm not sure of their GUI cloning implementation is as good as Gitorious and the like or not.

Why don't we open a GIT project for this theme? We can always move the main repository later once we all understand GIT a bit better.

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