Topic: New website theme design

[Jimmy Deguara]

In the past day or so (1st February 2009), we have been experimenting with a new theme for the website consistent with the website. We apologise for the inconvenience since the updates were done live. Anyway, it seems like everything is back to normal but your feedback is appreciated.

Regards,

Australian Severe Weather Team

[Shaun Galman]

Hi Jimmy,
The new scheme is looking okay so far. It's definitely easier on the eyes!

Would there be a way to possibly blend the header image into the full width at all? I'm using a widescreen monitor and it tends to make it look a little small and lonely lol

I look forward to seeing any further changes/colour schemes that may evolve.

Kindest regards,
Shauno

[Jimmy Deguara]

I am not sure if it is at all possible to cater for all screen resolutions. I am aware of that but it would probably require a special add on.

Also take into account that most members see this:

http://www.australiasevereweather.com.au/australian_storm_chasing.html

as compared to this:

http://www.australiasevereweather.com/forum/index.php

This makes it a touch more complicated again.

There was a rotating banner concept that possibly could work but that I have to try first.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Ursula]

you done an excellent job, it is a lot easier on my eye's, I am still finding my way around things, can/will do a bit from now on,

take care Ursula

[Carlos E]

I like this theme a lot more than the old one, it also seems to load faster for me.

I agree that you have done a great job. Thank you.

[Richary]

I'm afraid I have to disagree. While it looks nice as I get older I find reading light coloured text on a dark background a lot harder than dark text on a light background. Yes, I probably need reading glasses.

An example is that if I am trying to read cooking instructions on something these days printed in white on colour I have to take it somewhere the light is really good, preferabbly outside if the sun is still up.

[Jimmy Deguara]

Although not new, it is probably important for most to know a particular feature that could get annoying. A new feature inserted a few months ago was the news section. When news is hot, many topics of news are added per day. This means there are many 'new topics' for members to sift through. If you have little time to deal with these topics, simply only read the new topics you wish and then in the "Unread" topics option, click the  "Mark All Messages as Read" tab. This will clear the rest of the messages you wish to clear from the unread items. I hope this helps.

Jimmy Deguara

[Steven]

Hi everyone,

As you can see, a new template design has been implemented but there are still a lot of quirks that need to be addressed. During this time, I will be working to correct many of them and getting some of the additional functionality working again. This might cause hassles but it shouldn't directly affect the way members try to post or access the forum.

Both Jimmy & Michael have longed to have the forum looking as uniform and consistent with the rest of the site, but of course due to time constraints, they were often not able to make the changes themselves, hence why I come in to help them achieve this goal.

One aspect that needed special attention was the multiple attachments bug. If you attach weather photos, chances are you might have more than one you would've liked to attach but couldn't as the screen would go blank. Although there was a workaround, it was still very annoying and needed to be fixed. It now has and members can attach as many photos as the forum permits.

I'd like to hear your feedback as it is crucial.

[Colin Maitland]

One problem I have incurred  while writing a post is that the parameters of the reply box fall outside that of the web page, as you are writing ,the right hand side of the post disappears from sight and it is not until a preview is performed that you are able to see what errors you may have made. Once returning from preview to rectify any mistakes you once again are typing blindly.

The whole Webb page does not seem to be centered and is drifting to the right of the monitor. I have checked this on all three computers I am running and all have the same problem, I thought this may be an issue on my side.

This may already have been one of the issues you are trying to resolve, but thought it was better just to mention it.


Thanks

Col

[Steven]

Interesting Col. Although I haven't been able to reproduce the rendering bug, it must be a browser specific thing as different browsers render web pages a bit differently. Are you using Internet Explorer by any chance?

[Colin Maitland]

No, I am using Firefox but I will swap over and check internet explorer. If no one else is having the problem it is something with my server . I'll check it out.

Thanks
Col

[Colin Maitland]

Thanks Steven, I have tracked down what seems to be a glitch in my system. It seems to be on my side and I should have it fixed shortly. Everything was working fine in the morning then with  the afternoon log on that co coincided with your upgrade of the forum, produced a fault, it  only seems to be highlighted on this forum.

PS. ran both internet explorer and Firefox, same problem, so it is not the browsers.

Thanks again

col

[Shaun Galman]

Well done on the new layout!

Looks clean and simple to follow.
I thought I was on a different forum yesterday when I logged in for the first time after being away for a few weeks lol.

I still get the weird yellow diamond shapes with a question mark inside, alongside the emoticon name using firefox above the reply/text box however.

Other than that it's tops!
Take care,
Shauno

[Steven]

Glad you're liking the new theme Shaun. 

In regards to the smilies not displaying properly because of the funny characters, yeah it's an issue related to the database. It doesn't appear to be easily fixed, but on the upside I have mitigated problem (by editing the settings), so the smilies should be working (for the first time I think).

Col,

Also glad I could help, even if I didn't fully understand your problem. It seems all too common that client side server networks cause problems as they cache frequently accessed content (to save bandwidth that is).

[Mike]

Hi all.

I do like the fresh new look also.  I have the same problem as Col with typing replies..
it's too far to the right hand side...I can type away madly and see the words disappear into thin air..
hence why my sentences are shorter !  I had the same problem with the older version of the forum of late
i found I had to scroll down all the time to locate the slide bar to move the page to the left..now I don't have a
slide bar to do that.  I think it's called 'proportion constraint' isn't it when this happens?

I have a large monitor so that's not an issue, but have found it to be so even on the work computer using either
Firefox or Explorer.

On a positive note...the grey is nice and everything looks clean and well spaced, a lot less color sometimes
is a good thing.  You guys seem to have reverted back to what is a standard design with most forums now? 
Thanks for you efforts.  It's not a quick or easy fix by any stretch - but in a nutshell apart from the screen issue
I do like it.