New Thread and Forum Icons in Default style

[jezter6]

I have to agree with Wickett on this one. I'm still one of the legacy dialup users, and so far all these fancy changes just keep adding code (read: longer to download) to the board software. Not to mention, I really dig the black and grey style, and i think adding pink and yellow and blue to it really is not good colors for a black and grey system. Plus, we all knew what the old icons meant, now i have to re memorize what icons mean no new posts, and stuff, it just doesn't look clean at all.

No offense to anyone in particular, but the board rocked as it was. Nobody seemed to complain that it was lacking anything in particular, so why the change for no reason. If it aint broke, don't fix it.

My DC 2 wealth check.

 

[jezter6]

Also, the d20 Modern stylesheet is major screwed up. Don't know if it's new and people are working on it or what but i get lots of blank space between threads and categories.

What happened to NORMAL??

 

[Michael Morris]

FYI Ryan, most of the coding changes I've done in the last month have been with the goal of reducing server load. Unlike your version of the page, I get back a small report on each page load on the time, in milliseconds, it took to compile and send the page. By finding more efficient ways to do things I've shaved off about 3 milliseconds / page load. I know that doesn't sound like much, but mulitplied over hundreds of page loads / day it is.

As to the icon change, it was a direct response to a complaint filed by MANY people about the inability to tell the difference between the thread icons. For the most part the old ones look a lot alike. The new ones can be differentiated easily - at a glance you can tell what threads are hot, and which ones are not.

I'm sorry if this upsets you, but I was told once by a very wise member of these boards that it is impossible to keep everyone satisfied all of the time. So in this case I'll press forward with what changes can be done to further reduce server load and to improve the functionality of the site.

And that's what this is to me - a functionality change. The old icons didn't serve their purpose of alerting folks to the thread statuses. This, in the default style, is a problem.

Now, if you don't like images that much Ryan, switch to the stealth styleset. That mode was specifically designed to produce a minimum of images and shouldn't annoy you as much as the default mode apparently now does.

 

[Umbran]

There is something to be said for having occasional small changes in things like the icon sets. While familiarity is good, over-familiarity and complacency are not. I think little tweaks on occasion help us remain alert and attentive, and make the place feel a bit more like a living, organic thing.

 

[Piratecat]

Very true. We'll keep tweaking, too; we want things to be both functional and pretty, 'cause just pretty doesn't really cut it. If something is neither of those it will probably get looked at. That takes some time and some trial and error, though, so please have patience and keep telling us what you do and don't like.

My thanks to Michael (Spoony Bard), incidentally. Whether you like the new look or not, a tremendous amount of functionality has been added that doesn't increase server load. We're really appreciative of that.

 

[BobROE]

Ok, a new set of more subdued colors are in, which match the scheme much better than the greens, reds and purples I had going on. Note that forum icons with new posts remain blue - on those larger globes it works cause water is blue, and remember that the ENWorld logo does have blue in it that isn't echoed elsewhere on the page.

It looks alot better now. I didn't mind the large blue ones, but the pink, red, and purple ones just didn't match anything else on the site.

Still think the x for locked thread should be moved to a corner cause it just looks weird as it is now. And could the icons for busy threads and the one for thread I've posted in be different (box in different corners perhaps)?

 

[Fast Learner]

I like the more subdued look, nice work!

One small issue: To me the "new posts" and "no new posts" shades are a bit too close. When they're side-by-side they're very easy to tell apart, but when the pages is full of either one it's kinda hard to tell whether they're all new or all old. Perhaps you could push the "new posts" icon a bit closer to white?

 

[jezter6]

I'm not against change, don't get me wrong. But those of us that like the default should be able to keep the default. If you want changes, you should have a stylesheet for cool spiffy changes.

Right now, the only options are: spiffy pretty images which hurt my eyes, or stealth, which is absolutely NOTHING. There's no middle ground for normality.

Is it not possible to have the default 'normal' sheet stay the way it is and all the new fancy stuff be in new templates? Default should be that...default. The way it was, and the way it all will be.

But alas, I'm just one person and am forced to deal with all the changes, and nothing I can do can change it. Short of a revolution, we will all be herded along to all the fancy stuff till all the fancy images and rollovers make it a 15 minute load time for those of us on dialup.

Heck, now that the thread icons are changed, lets start making the 'quick reply' button all fancy colors with mouseovers as well. If the original icons weren't good enough, they should all be not good enough. Right?

 

[LeapingShark]

Other problems:

The white box in the "hot thread" icons is the same as the white box that demarks "you have posted in this thread". But I have not posted in those threads.

The "hot thread" icons are bright like the "new post" icon. This makes it look like those threads have recent posts, even if the thread is so old that it hasn't seen a post in months.

 

[Capellan]

I don't know if it is a refresh issue, but I still see the globes in Stealth mode, at a forum level eg they appear next to forum names, and on 'go to last post in forum' but not next to thread dname, or 'go to last post in thread'.

As far as navigation goes, it is easy enough to click on the last page (next to the thread name), so I don't think the loss of the icon is an issue.