This new forum freaks me out.

[Spiegel]

Actually it doesn't, I just wanted to be the first to post.

How is everyone?

[Lucifus]

Bastard, how dare you beat me too it. I'm loving it thus far.

[Assertn]

So am I to presume that an actual admin has returned?

[Munsu]

This is the most awesome new feature:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v04filnbCa8

[Lucifus]

Damn straight. And we shouldn't see any abuse with Kraco and Saphhire around.

Everything is so clean. =)

[Spiegel]

I will abuse Saphhire, though, so that is good enough for me.

[TheBladeChild]

Hehe, this reminds me of how we changed from the old blue website to the last forum. This is a nice layout though, good job ^^

[complich8]

glad you like it. I've been trying to perfect the style in my spare time for a long time, but I hit the point where I pulled a Bill-O: "Fuck it, I'll do it live!" ...

So positive feedback makes me happy, but negative feedback gives me a list of things to fix when I have spare time. Heh-heh-heh spare time.

But actually, the other folks who're admins should maybe be able to help with that a bit too.

[KitKat]

Oooh, fancy. Are sig and avatar restrictions still the same?

Edit: The Control Panel says 125x125 for avatar and 500x125 for sig. Is this the new standard?

[Buffalobiian]

I'm slowly adjusting (well I AM a slow adjuster to be honest). PS: There'll be a way to get rid of all this empty space later, right?

/me points down

[complich8]

Oooh, fancy. Are sig and avatar restrictions still the same?

Edit: The Control Panel says 125x125 for avatar and 500x125 for sig. Is this the new standard?

Actually, I just loosened it even more. 150x150 for ava/profile, 500x150 for sig. Thinking about adding more width to the sig option, but probably not more height ...


I'm slowly adjusting (well I AM a slow adjuster to be honest). PS: There'll be a way to get rid of all this empty space later, right?

/me points down

It's on my to-do list. If you've got any suggestions on how to make it happen, I'm all ears. I spent like 20 minutes trying to pick apart the page structure but it didn't work out, so I decided to just roll with it.

[Animeniax]

What happened to the rep system?? I live for pos rep.

Otherwise, the new forum layout looks fresh and so clean. Thanks for your hard works.

[complich8]

What happened to the rep system?? I live for pos rep.

Otherwise, the new forum layout looks fresh and so clean. Thanks for your hard works.
Rep is there, a little less obvious. On the gray bar on the bottom, look for the star. It's kinda a shitty icon for it and it doesn't show up very well on the charcoal on dark gray, but ... what can you do?

We'll see if we can at least get those tweaked to stand out a bit more...

[Munsu]

Does anyone have screens of the main forum page, of a forum page (threads) and of a post of the old forum?

Thanks.

[humpburger]

Hey, where's that rep message box where anonymous tough guys show up to bully me consistently?

Anyway the color is a little bright for me, plus lots of empty spaces, maybe the message column being too wide. Having to move my head to read one sentence is too much of a strain for me.

You bastards are gonna raid my rep box aren't you... o_O

[Kraco]

Concerning the stuff in the gray bar, I failed to change to red anything but the Reply hover icon. I'll get down to it soon. They'll all be bright red (to annoy humpburger) when you move your mouse on top of them. I think their passive colour is just fine, though. Anything consistently bright there would make reading the posts more annoying.

However, like Complich said, feedback will be read, also concerning the colours. Though since altering the icons takes some PS work, I won't be changing them every week.

[Splash!]

Does anyone have screens of the main forum page, of a forum page (threads) and of a post of the old forum?

Thanks.

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7161/74002614.jpg
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/6726/31231150.jpg
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/2253/79698105.jpg
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/3143/62055630.jpg
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/8352/92939074.jpg

Gotta love web caching.

[DB_Hunter]

Shit what just happened here? The forum does feel more fresh and perhaps 'clean'. There is that inertia to change in me right now still pushing me to crawl back to the old site layout but I can see the benefits of this one. Good job.

[Penner]

Ayay, nice job with the new look! ^_^

Edit: BTW, just click on "Settings" in the top-right corner of the site to get to your "Latest Reputation Received" info and whatnot.

[animus]

This new layout is freakin me out.

[itadakimasu]

I kinda like it. It seems a little more clean maybe.. idk.

[Archangel]

Bigger sigs and avatars? I'm gonna have fun with this...

[XanBcoo]

I like the fresh look. It's gonna take a while to get used to, however.


Anyway the color is a little bright for me, plus lots of empty spaces, maybe the message column being too wide. Having to move my head to read one sentence is too much of a strain for me.

I agree with this.

[Buffalobiian]

This new layout is freakin me out.

I think my eyes are getting used to the contrast now. The older forum had more shades of grey that didn't give you a striking Red-Black-White look. It looks fine to me now, but I still wonder how it would play out if we added the grey gradients back. Perhaps a new theme we could play around with when all the other priority fixes are out of the way.


Bigger sigs and avatars? I'm gonna have fun with this...

I think we need a limit on this. The thought of having sigs spanning the entire width of the post box and avatars using up the entire left bar freaks me out.

[XanBcoo]

I also think the links at the top of each thread could stand out a bit more. It took me a while to search for them because they don't look like links. Just small lines of random text.

I'm talking about the "Forum -> Off-Topic -> General Discussion -> etc." links at the top that take you to each subforum.

[Buffalobiian]

I also think the links at the top of each thread could stand out a bit more. It took me a while to search for them because they don't look like links. Just small lines of random text.

I'm talking about the "Forum -> Off-Topic -> General Discussion -> etc." links at the top that take you to each subforum.

Yeah, I've been building up a list of possible improvements. Will post when Comp has recovered enough to survive another wave. :P

[Archangel]

I think we need a limit on this. The thought of having sigs spanning the entire width of the post box and avatars using up the entire left bar freaks me out.

As long as a limit in filesize is set i don't see a problem with it

Animated sigs are still banned so there's no fear of this becoming another MangaShare

[Buffalobiian]

As long as a limit in filesize is set i don't see a problem with it

Animated sigs are still banned so there's no fear of this becoming another MangaShare

That should not happen. EVER.

[Archangel]

Meh, i still stand by that animated Touma x Misaka sig i had a while back

[RyougaZell]

Meh, i still stand by that animated Touma x Misaka sig i had a while back

Indeed.

I think I'll keep my current sigs as they are... but I wouldn't mind a larger Chibi-Thanatos

[Archangel]

I don't think i still have the psd though :/

[rockmanj]

It is a bit jarring.

[RyougaZell]

I don't think i still have the psd though :/

Dang. Oh well, guess Chibi-Thanatos will remain chibified.

[Deadfire]

Post to approve of changes.

[Iridani]

I thought I sensed a disturbance... it was just Gotwoot farting apparently.

[Spiegel]

I thought I sensed a disturbance... it was just Gotwoot farting apparently.

Oops, sorry, that was me. I have had a problem with flatulence lately.

[Psyke]

I'm getting used to it :)

[Killa-Eyez]

I think the white for me is too bright. The old colors gave a more serious, less childish look. And I saw a small... "abnormality"(?) The bar that displays GotWoot's sections shows a difference in size in the selected section. But I likey the new design alot! The video linking is definitely an improvement! Great job, mods!

[Munsu]

The "current" selection of the menu bar has a border/bar at the top to signify the selection. Certainly it needs better styling. You can check the default theme to see how it actually works.

[Sapphire]

I feel like the white is more open. I like it.

I don't see why a darker theme can't be worked on, though. When I get time *not soon* I'll work on one. Maybe someone else who wants to can work on one too.

[Xelbair]

I think that changing black bg to some kind of dark gray would make my eyes hurt less..

[Archangel]

Damn, SLUR as far as the eye can see

Does anyone have the ingredients to summon Terra or Mut? I never got to meet those guys.

[Buffalobiian]

I think that changing black bg to some kind of dark gray would make my eyes hurt less..

I thought about that too, or that we can change some parts of the white background to grey, and/or increase the darkness of the existing grey areas to lessen the contrast of the current site.

That said, human adaptation is marvellous, for better or worse.

edit: well here's a little list of stuff I thought up when browsing the site earlier. Nothing that's priority fix though, so time can take care of it.


- Put custom title more towards the username and less towards the rep bar

- Banner is pxls out from left and right, fix

- Icons need to be changed in the front page, either resize, remove or customise.

- Rep button looks weird. (edit: looks more or less fine now, though red highlight makes it hard to see)

- Contrast of the site can be lower. consider using more, or a deeper shade of gray.

- Having just a bigger red box selecting the current section looks weird. Consider increasing the font as well

so that it is more obvious what the red box is meant to do. Also helps you see more easily which tab you're in.

(Note: looks less weird after getting used to the site)

- Re-introduce the "thread below this have not been updated since your last login" function when viewing

NEW POSTS or NEW POSTS TODAY

- "View first unread post" doesn't always work sometimes, can load the last page instead of the first unread post.

- Avatars in "visitor messages" are scretched, regardless of whether the original avatar is large or small.

(Note: doesn't appear to be so at the moment. Problem is either fixed, or is inconsistent.)

[Iridani]

Damn, SLUR as far as the eye can see

Does anyone have the ingredients to summon Terra or Mut? I never got to meet those guys.

I could probably rustle up Terra provided he's not too busy on his end.

[Archangel]

I say you do it and document his reaction for the sake of future generations

[Iridani]

It may be along the lines of "hell no! OMG set me on fire instead!"... we shall see if he ever responds to me. :P

[oyabun]

The new design is great. Plus we get to have a bigger size restriction for the sig and avatar. Yey!

[Carnage]

I usually don't like change but this new version is very clean. The only problem I have is that sometimes it feels a bit cluttered. Maybe its just me, and maybe the feeling will go away, but the general forum page has too many bright colors clumped together without any black in between. Can't be picky though haha, its a nice job overall.

[Janice]

I think the "Started by X, Sun, 01-16-2011 09:12 PM" below every thread title is mainly what's making it feel cluttered.

[Penner]

I just want a "Forum Index" link next to the "Contact Us, GotWoot, Archive, Top" at the bottom right, and i'm happy :P

Sure, i could use the "Quick Navigation" or simply click "Top" then from there click "Forum"... but i'm lazy and picky damnit! :D

[Buffalobiian]

I just want a "Forum Index" link next to the "Contact Us, GotWoot, Archive, Top" at the bottom right, and i'm happy :P

Sure, i could use the "Quick Navigation" or simply click "Top" then from there click "Forum"... but i'm lazy and picky damnit! :D

Yeah... I don't see it happening simply because there's two ways to get there already as you mentioned, for the price of one more click.

[Animeniax]

Damn, SLUR as far as the eye can see

Does anyone have the ingredients to summon Terra or Mut? I never got to meet those guys.

Umm, shouldn't the new (or old, though they're never around) mods have caught this post and cleaned it up? That's the problem with going foreign I guess... they don't have the same sensibilities as Americans when it comes to slurs and inappropriate content.

[Sapphire]

Thanks for catching that, Ani.

[complich8]

I just want a "Forum Index" link next to the "Contact Us, GotWoot, Archive, Top" at the bottom right, and i'm happy :P

Sure, i could use the "Quick Navigation" or simply click "Top" then from there click "Forum"... but i'm lazy and picky damnit! :D

I'll see if I can make that happen. For some reason the hook defined there isn't firing off, but I've got an almost identical hook up in the header that fires perfectly. But yeah, you could also click twice and move your mouse a bit :p

[Archangel]

Old*** is in no way an insult


An Oldfag is a user of an online community who has been with the community a considerable amount of time

Educate yourselves on the ways of the internet please, it could save your life one day

[Animeniax]

Old*** is in no way an insult

Educate yourselves on the ways of the internet please, it could save your life one day
This use is no different (and no more excusable) than calling something "romo" online. We all know what it means and we all know it's a slur.

No gay, btw, just arguing for the sake of it.

[Archangel]

I'm not about to get into a semantics argument with you so I'll just leave my opinion on what should really matter, intent.

[Animeniax]

I'm not about to get into a semantics argument with you so I'll just leave my opinion on what should really matter, intent.

How can we know your intent with any certainty from words posted on a forum? It's like sarcasm, sometimes it's hard to detect in the printed word.

[Assassin]

the default color scheme is like being stabbed in teh eyes by the color red. except its not even red, its like a lame maroon or something.

But.... being able to post vids into a posting makes up for it.

PS: That FX series looks great.

[Animeniax]

the default color scheme is like being stabbed in teh eyes by the color red. except its not even red, its like a lame maroon or something.

But.... being able to post vids into a posting makes up for it.

PS: That FX series looks great.I like the default color scheme. If my eyes have a problem with it, my brain hasn't interpreted any signals they are sending to say otherwise.

Ditto on the new FX show. Very clever and original (please please be original). I'll be looking for it.

edit: sonuva: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_%28TV_series%29

[Assassin]

Wait, scratch that....the default scheme is blue and even uglier. Im appreciating the red after seeing it.

[Buffalobiian]

Wait, scratch that....the default scheme is blue and even uglier. Im appreciating the red after seeing it.

The default scheme isn't as pretty, but is easier on the eye.

[Marik]

The default scheme isn't as pretty, but is easier on the eye.

It's easier on the eyes, but way too wide. I prefer the slimmer gotwoot v4.

[Buffalobiian]

It's easier on the eyes, but way too wide. I prefer the slimmer gotwoot v4.

True enough. I've only flicked to default once or twice and never noticed the width difference. I'm on GWv4 myself.

It also appears that the GW theme fixes the negative space in each post, whereas the default one still has it.

[Death BOO Z]

I go offline for one week and everything changes?
the width frightens me. I'm used to small spaces. like the hole I want to crawl into.

[koppayana]

Keeping it simple. It looks nice.

[Animeniax]

I go offline for one week and everything changes?
the width frightens me. I'm used to small spaces. like the hole I want to crawl into.

That sucks since you're a pretty big dude. You should join the IDF and learn to kill people with your hands. That would help you get over your agoraphobia(?).

[Y]

The thread index is hideous but it looks ok in thread viewing. Better than the very first stylesheet when I started posting here but kind of a sidegrade from the previous one. I assume it was primarily a backend update.

[complich8]

yeah, vbulletin 3.x -> vbulletin 4.x. Completely different templating engine, so everything had to be re-implemented. I wanted to kind of keep the gist of the old gotwoot-v3 color scheme, but set the layout a bit wider, make banners a bit easier to work with, and go to a more maintainable set of templates. I'm no designer and wasn't really going for a complete re-imagining of the site, so this is where we ended up.

If you've got specific ideas that would make things look better, I'm all ears (... err... eyes, I guess).

[Y]

It's the thread index icons next to the threads, really. Also, the white text on red background makes the page numbers pop way more than they should. I'm not exactly sure what you should do to correct either of these, and inside threads it looks fine, so not really a big deal.

[Buffalobiian]

It's the thread index icons next to the threads, really.

I agree. The icons are way too eye-catching, and obscure you from seeing each thread's topic when browsing the index.

I had an idea to make some custom icons in for the subforums when viewed from the main forum index, but that'll take some time while I learn photoshop. I've also decided to hold off that until we've determined if we're going to keep the icon size and all as they are now, or shrink them etc. We can't have custom icons for each individual thread to help finding topics easier after all. It'll only really work for the subforums since they're always displayed and don't change.

[complich8]

So the problem with the pagination stuff is that it's a bit tangled with other things. The same variable that controls the color of the text on the pagination control controls the text of the dropdown menu next to it (and I think the title text on the "notifications" dropdown on the top controlbar). But it's an entirely different variable that controls the background of that menu (which also sets other colors) versus the pagination stuff.

I'm still trying to figure out a decent way to untangle that. Maybe just disable pagination on the forum view entirely, since looking at "1, 2, 3, 139" for the "post your picture" thread isn't super-useful, and "go to first unread" is a lot more useful. I agree that that control in particular is pretty ugly. Maybe replacing it with just a "last page" button would be better. Pagination positioning there also stomps on the subscription notification and a couple other things if you go to the "new posts" interface (which gives a narrower thread column), so ... there's definitely a few style issues we need to work through with that. For now consider the pagination as it appears to be a stopgap until we can figure out something better.

Kraco is currently working on icon color schemes and such, so direct feedback on those to him. I'm comfortable saying that tuning that is still a work in progress.

I think we're not going to go for smaller icons because it'd be hard to present the other information about the thread that's there. I mean, we could shrink the font on the "started by" or lose that bit entirely and just have the thread title and the other info columns. Maybe that'll be something for us to experiment with in a child theme of the main gotwoot-v4 theme or something at some later point.

[Y]

The page colors aren't nearly as bad as the icon thing.

[Kraco]

KitKat mentioned some days ago she would work on creating new thread icons. What I did was recolouring and reshuffling them to suit the red Gotwoot traditions. If KitKat gives up, I might try to come up with something on my own. It seems like the icons are so big (compared to the old forum ones you hardly noticed) they catch attention also in the wrong ways.