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EDIT: Electric Blue has underwent it's transformation.
Well, PHB has underwent some modifications and now it's married to the mysterious new default style. I'm relaunching it now, and it gives you a chance to speculate on what the new default will really look like. Highlights of it's differences.
The largest functional change is the navbar. The staff has carefully evaluated what was being used, what wasn't, and moved some things about. There are now more options on the navbar than before and it's moved slightly higher on the page.
Tips of the day will now launch in this styleset, either in the page, or if you command it to do so, as a popup. If a pop-up launches unbidden tell me immediately
The post icons are now available again, though when I get the time PHB will get it's own set. You'll note that different forums have different icons available, up to 24 in any given forum.
You can now select from 7 new options that control various parts of the page display, including the ability to choose the postbit layout - new posts in bold, and so on. The subscribed threads in italics feature though will still not function until after the server upgrade.
Please alert me to any display problems immediately, and enjoy.
Last edited by Michael Morris; 7th December 2004 at 04:37 PM..
It looks awesome, man, just awesome. Ads are back, and so is the new posts in bold feature, which I felt lost without. Haven't put it through the paces by messing with the postbit options you describe, but I'll try to at some point.
The only thing that sticks out a little bit is the way the post times are in red. The red sometimes draws my eye to that column. If that's intentional so post times stand out, cool. If not, well I thought you might wanna know.
Oh, and while I'm not a huge fan of the topic tags, the ones I see for here in meta look pretty clever. If people use them here it's bound to make things easier for the people in charge.
I dunno if you get thanked enough for making EN World easier on the eyes, but thanks. I spend a lot of time at the computer, so I'm appreciative of anything that reduces eye strain.
__________________ I've got a clan of gingerbread men / Here a man, there a man, lots of gingerbread men / Take a couple if you wish, they're on the dish ~ Syd Barrett
The only thing that sticks out a little bit is the way the post times are in red. The red sometimes draws my eye to that column. If that's intentional so post times stand out, cool. If not, well I thought you might wanna know.
Having looked around a bit more, I am also fining the red post times to be distracting. Can they be made another, less invasive color?
I preferred the old black post times as well (as a dedicated user of the older PHB styleset) but it's not that big a deal to me.
Related to the new change, I didn't think the icons in the Storyhour forums were particularly useful. Most of them were for a historical period, with only a handful of genres (in fact, I only remember Space Opera.) I think concentrating on genres would work better than historical time periods. I also didn't much like the white on white (with black outline) text of most of the buttons. I kinda missed the older, more colorful ones like the old Grim Tales or Call of Cthulhu icons.
I also don't much like the shape of the icons. They are too long, making the rest of the page feel a bit squished.
I like most of what I see, but I can't help but notice that Living Enworld receives only a single icon with its name - which, considering that it is a subforum of its own, isn't particularly helpful. I'm not sure if this is the final list to use, but over at the forum, we brainstormed a little to create a small list of possible icons:
Adventure
Announcement
Archive
Discussion
Judge
Proposal
Record
Tavern
Archive and Record might be considered the same for our purposes.
__________________ Also posts as Ashardalon (here and elsewhere) and as Eques Concordia and Guinea Pig (only elsewhere).
The icons for each forum are still very much in the air. As to the width, it's important that they remain visible at all screen resolutions Josh. If I make them any narrower they become illegible at resolutions beyond 1024x768
I actually liked the more blocky ones of the past iteration.
And I didn't mean to sound too negative; these icons are actually pretty good when you're in the post. They make that column take up a bunch of room on the threadlist page, though.
As for the Story hour icons, have you also thought about including most of the main settings as options?
I had, but I only have room for 24 icons. If I expand beyond that the expansion must go across every single forum. There are easily more than 24 settings out there, so I didn't want anyone to feel like I was dissing their fav setting.
I had, but I only have room for 24 icons. If I expand beyond that the expansion must go across every single forum. There are easily more than 24 settings out there, so I didn't want anyone to feel like I was dissing their fav setting.
More than 24?
Homebrew FR
Eberron
Planescape
Midnight
Dungeon Path
Scarred Lands
AU
Kalamar
OA
Greyhawk/Core
Dark Sun
Oathbound
D20 modern
D20 future
Adventure!d20/Pulp
Spycraft
Mutants/Masterminds
well, there would be some more than I can't think of right now... perhaps you're right.
Disclaimer 1: Above all, I am a very silly man. So if a statement of mine can be construed as joke - especially if it's not funny - it likely is.
Disclaimer 2: I am also opinionated, so when not joking I am still voicing my opinion. Except when I am stating facts.
One other thing I noticed today that seems odd (but may have been that way before) is the area below a message where the "quote" and online status indicator sits is a different color from the areas above it. It doesn't look bad, it just struck me as slightly odd.
Oh, and I did try out most of the postbit options. The ones I tried all worked. It's very cool having that level of choice.
__________________ I've got a clan of gingerbread men / Here a man, there a man, lots of gingerbread men / Take a couple if you wish, they're on the dish ~ Syd Barrett
One other thing I noticed today that seems odd (but may have been that way before) is the area below a message where the "quote" and online status indicator sits is a different color from the areas above it. It doesn't look bad, it just struck me as slightly odd.
That's intentional, and in other sets it's more pronounced.
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