Looks good!

It seems that it is not possible to create new topics on the Swift Scenics forum... Or is that only me ?

I really like the fact that the "View new posts" is always on the top now

I have a few issues to raise, using Safari 5.1 on OS X Lion, with a 27" iMac running at 2560x1440.



I apologize if this screenshot's markup is tiny and difficult to read; I had to resize it to comply with the new restrictions on image size (1024x819 is apparently the limit now, which was not obvious before I tried to submit this post).

The "View unanswered posts | view active topics" bar at the top of the page has fonts that are so tiny as to be nearly unreadable on a large, high resolution display. The area of the page with links to our control panel and messages is similarly tiny and unreadable.

Additionally, the right side of that bar with the breadcrumb navigation is using two different font sizes, one readable, one not, and the smaller font sized text is poorly aligned within that div. You can see the same issue lower on the page, circled within my screenshot as well.

There are other issues with alignment as well; on the Post a Reply page, the iFrame that has previous replies to the thread breaks alignment with the rest of the page column; quoted replies use a much larger , more readable font than the reply font itself, and within the quoted text div, the "So-and-so wrote" text is a nearly unreadable dark gray on the black div fill color.

I love the "look and feel" of the new forum, but it's a usability nightmare at this point.

Good catch, that area seems to be locked down. I'll let Denny know.



Huh. I can tell you right now that what I'm seeing in your screenshots is not what you ideally should be seeing.

I'll have to go over the template and stylesheet with a fine toothed comb. The forum is using a modified third party template/theme, and we did the upgrade on the dev forum first. However, the Mac users on the dev forum were either really late to the party or didn't get far enough into things to reproduce those issues. I'm sorry you had to be the one to find them first.

I'll install Safari on my dev box and see if I can reproduce and fix the issues as soon as I can.

A screenshot of the layout-breaking iFrame I mentioned, just in case it helps.

Ack. That's definitely not what it should look like. If you see any more stuff like that, keep posting it and I'll fix it as soon as I can.

FWIW, in Chrome on PC I get the same inconsistent font sizes (and vertical spacing) on the breadcrumb trail.

Small fonts are also hard to read, but manageable. (They look about the same as sunraven's)

Steve

Edit: But I don't get the frame break

I get the same inconsistent and small text on FF7.

Thanks for the usage feedback and issue reporting Sunraven! We'll work on it

I'm getting used to the new forum. I'm kind of an old dog, so new tricks throw me for a loop. I'm finding the new theme and layout much harder to casually read than before. I've tried attaching a screenshot to show off something that I can't seem to get right:



I am wishing the theme made more obvious the boundaries between the messages. Given the attached shot, the top "Profile" and "PM" buttons are really close to Akmor's name, but they don't pertain to him. Similarly, the "Quote" button that's near his message isn't for his message. The button to quote his message is way down in the corner of the image, near the NEXT message.

Was it like this with the old forum? Gak it's sad I can't even remember. I don't think there was this massive gap between the little "I'm a supporter!" image and the bottom of the posting.

I wonder, too, if the sig area can have a different background color, or something visual to separate it from the actual message. Right now, there are a lot of sigs that have a crazy quantity of images, or a crazy quantity of text which really makes reading a threaded discussion hard. I think what I really want is a way for a person to opt not to see ANY sigs on messages -- I think the single owership badge is cool (though it could be made a lot smaller/streamlined), but given the current theme and layout, many sigs are just a LOT of clutter.

What you're seeing is normal for this style layout. The size of the post box is actually controlled by either the minimum size of the left side profile/avatar box, or the size of the post, whichever is longer. Because there's tall avatar, plus the profile box on the left, it pushes the pm/profile/quote buttons down under the white space left from there being a very short reply. I don't think there's a more graceful way to handle that, though.

Hmmm...I've got a thought on creating a more clear boundary between posters. Let me work on that one

Give the forum a refresh. I've added additional contrast between posters and a little graphic bookend for further separation.

Let me add that I find blue staff more pleasant than red staff, it's less agressive.

Edit: However, now there's no border between sig and post. This makes it look as if I were posting my sig in each post, which is a bit confusing.

Edit 2: Also, the link at the top of the page to the store no longer lies beneath the whole "Enter our store etc..." line, but stops after the word "our", if that's in any way understandable.

All fixed up now Thanks Zorg!

I'm having the same problems as sunraven running Firefox 6.0.2 on Windows7.

(p.s. the separator between posts and sigs is helping readability, but it still seems more cluttered than the previous version - of course, that might just be that I'm not used to this layout yet.)

This is all a bit part and parcel when you're dealing with open-source forum software. Lots of additional features but that tradeoff also comes with additional data and information clutter.

We'll continue to work at things to reduce the overload as time marches forward

I like everything except the BLUE LINE BOXES around anything you can click on. It disturbs the a pleasing composition with the force of a wreaking ball!

Gag! You really need to get rid of all those garish color box frames. Its so disturbing to the eyes, mine at least. Its like a kid marking up a piece of art. Why on earth did you do that when you can just roll your mouse over an area and know it is clickable?

Good progress: I'm finding the tweaks you've done are helping me parse the page visually. What's left are minor points for me.

Steve

Hey Delta. Can you take a screenshot or something for us? I'm not seeing the blue "color box frames" you're referring to. What browser are you using by the way?

Anyone else?

I don't see those at all, fwiw.

I see the blue boxes in Internet Explorer but not in Firefox.

I edited the stylesheet to kill those borders. IE applies them by default, and the stylesheet didn't account for that. Hit F5 and let me know if you're still seeing them.

Ahh...that would explain it! Lots of IE users wondering why the heck we put blue borders on everything...lol.

Not any more.

Not a problem as such, but it's a bit weird that quotes grow in size, esp. when embedded in another quote...

They are gone now, thank goodness! I had not been that repelled by something in ages. Artistically, I mean. I could not understand how anyone here could stand it. I know WWG has a devoted fan base, myself included, but I wasn't going to drink that kool aid.

Now all is well, faith restored, and I'm thinking I really need to dump IE.