Mmmm - Blueness! A couple of teething problems with new forum upgrade

[yordan 10]

For those who miss the easily accessible new posts, you can use a javascript hack that I made back at Xisto to pop up the My Assistant panel and show you the newest posts.

 

Bookmark the following and click it to see the newest posts: (remove the space between java and script - it's some xss prevention or something)

 

java script:buddy_pop();xml_myassistant_init("posts");document.getElementById('get-myassistant').style.top=(389+document.body.scrollTop)+"px";void 0

The "view new post" is clickable on top of each window, near "my control". Simply it was nice to have it displeayed on ech page, instead of having to look for it.

[OpaQue 15]

Yeah - this colouring is much more sensible than the bright blue that was up this morning. Hope the Admin don't chance colours too often... I keep having to change my sig image to match each time.

I noticed your siggy with the new background color .. thanks, it really helped me decide on which theme to put online :-) I was actually planning to allow skin choice but then, it leaves room for mistakes. And with my schedule, its easier for me to manage this forum with a fixed skin

[Nabb 0]

The "view new post" is clickable on top of each window, near "my control". Simply it was nice to have it displeayed on ech page, instead of having to look for it.

Yes, but using the My Assistant pop-up via my piece of javascript allows you to view the newest posts without having to navigate away from the page, and it also should be slightly faster due to not having to load as much. Personally, I find it easier to use this instead of the View New Posts link on Xisto (which is mostly the same in terms of viewing newest posts).

 

Oh, and the skin looks fairly nice - the header logo is awkward but I understand that it will soon be changed. I don't like the new 10 post shoutbox restriction, although it should aid prevent spam and 10 posts isn't that much (even though I'm not even there ) - but removing it from the top of each page might be an annoyance (despite the fact that the shoutbox here always seems a lot more inactive than the one at Xisto).

[Animator 0]

I noticed your siggy with the new background color .. thanks, it really helped me decide on which theme to put online :-) I was actually planning to allow skin choice but then, it leaves room for mistakes. And with my schedule, its easier for me to manage this forum with a fixed skin

Kewl - someone's thinking of me! Yeah transparent sigs are a bit of a pain really. You either have hard unantialiased transparency (GIF) or one that's not going to work in all browswer (PNG) or you fake the transparency like I've done just matching everything to what the known background is. Themes would alter this, but then if there were themes I'd opt to make it work best with the common default.

Thanks for the effort you've been putting into this.

[toby 0]

The first few hours were worse, not entirely sure what was even wrong. Now, it's nice, airy and new.

[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

My main concern is usability over aesthetics. If the skin is usable and it's visually appealing, the better. The original skin when this topic was created, it was too bright and not accessible at all, I was basically fuming lol, I've never seen such poorly designed skin in my life.However, the use of AJAX was cool.This one is a lot more usable and I have no problems.xboxrulz

[darasen 0]

I prefer the old one but this skin is far better than what ever was going on with that blue disaster yesterday. The design is OK, lets be honest there are a hundred thousand BB templates out there (if not more) and most of them look pretty much the same. I do think it looks a bit girly for the target audience, but that is just opinion. I do miss the super simple boxes that let me look at the most recent new topics and most recent new posts with just a glance. I typically check the page two or three times a day and I lied the ability to see what was going on in one look. "Today's Active Topics" and "View New Posts" seem to contain the same data for me currently. The active topics is kind of useless given this board propensity to add new post to topics that are several years old. Case in point the "where can I find web templates" topic. Someone decides to make their one and only post in a three year old thread and that constitutes an active topic? On the previous system I could tell at a glance that was an old topic being dug up right away. I dislike having to look for then wait for information that is easily presentable otherwise. A new Topic option at least would be nice given that we have the completely useless top 20 options. (And really does anyone care who the top 20 people with time on their hands happens to be?) Basically why make information harder to find? This is an especially good question when the board (at least at one point) purports to have a professional stance. I am aware my post sounds rather negative. Please realize that is not my goal per se. I like the the Asta community and the Hosting is absolutely top notch. I simply do not believe in changing something that works fine for the sake of changing it. On the positive side I am so very glad the stunningly useless shout box is no longer atop the forums.

[toby 0]

The expand/collapse navigation isn't remembered.

[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

I agree that the expand/collapse isn't remembered, but I hope it can just be easily fixed (or not).I have to say that this skin is still 100x better than what was installed when this topic was created. That was such a mess.xboxrulz

[Atomic0 0]

I'm wondering if you could integrate a theme switcher into the forum, where forum users can choose a theme they want from a predetermined set of themes. This would allow users better flexibility to see which theme they would personally prefer, sort of adding a personal touch to the forum.