New forums graphics plan

[Raz]

I voted the last option. Not enough discussion.I want more choices (none of the ones in the link of a bunch look very nice compared to our themes.) but if there aren't anymore possible options I guess I'll just vote for the black one.

[Venexis]

As long as you people who voted for more discussion lead it. This topic is over two years old now at this point, I was under the impression it was settled.

Edit: by settled I mean I thought we were implementing both the light and dark version and letting users toggle them at will

[Kimonio]

Personally, I think that the grey box sitting against the background image itself is a huge, huge no-no in terms of graphic design. Think of it like cutoff in levels, for example, do we have just a dirt block, or do we have a dirt block with something to go with it? Is that cave tile going to sit there, or are we going to put the crystal border blocks around it?

The same can be applied here. The theme is a level, the background gradient is our background, and everything sitting against it is either cutoff or a decoration block/item of some sort. However, our little decoration blocks don't have something to keep them from clashing, such as a border, a shadow effect, or a shaped outline. Instead, we have a dark grey box just saying "hey look at me, I have no visible outline.

I'll use Minecraft Forums as an example. Notice how their header bar(not the Curse one) has a 3D effect, and how their forums block has a CSS shadow to keep it away from the blue and green. When the background transitions to a blackish grey, it loses the shadow/becomes less visible, and you are left with a light grey/white. In graphics and web design, this is appealing, as you don't have a pure white on a pure black, which is easier on the eyes, but rather you have a lighter black behind a greyish white.

That's not really what we have here. We have dark grey on light blue. That wouldn't be a problem, but nothing keeps the two from clashing. It's practically like putting red walls with blue carpet and not having a purple trimwork to separate them.

Another unsettling factor is this. This should NOT be a thing. At all. A separate divided container if anything, but when it just sits against the background, it makes it harder to see. And if that doesn't clarify my point, this and this Can you read that without changing your screen brightness or tilting your monitor? Do you think a user should have to see that? "But no one looks at that" It doesn't matter, it's still an underlying problem that can either be tethered or related to another graphical issue.


Here is an example of what I did on reddit. If altered and applied to our theme, it would work well, with a light grey 2px border, or using the header-bg image on the other sections of the site, such as posts, post reply pages, and thread backgrounds on the main sections of forums.

This however is not a good design scheme, if unbordered. That is my main pet peeve. Our header background would look better if rounded borders were applied to give it a 3D effect, and would help the header stand out more.

That's just my point of view.

Edit: Maybe brighten up the hue on link colors too? Or have posts have a lighter grey when hovered. Little tricks like that, you know? Those help tremendously.

Edit2:

by settled I mean I thought we were implementing both the light and dark version and letting users toggle them at will

Sadly, no, we only discussed that, and it never became a thing, because apparently everyone likes the dark theme, or we thought people needed to get used to it. I don't even know, but that option was never given.

Also why do we still have the onsite chat frame if we're not ever going to use it?

[*Emelia K. Fletcher]

This post by *Emelia K. Fletcher was thumbed up by:

Venexis (May 18th, 2015, 1:50 pm)

[Runouw]

That's not how you get consensus. A POLL's how you get consensus.

I figured it was a little early for a poll. I brought up that styles website to see what people wanted and THEN we could make a poll.

Also I didn't really give a vote for that 0mega theme, it was just the first on the list. Although it looks okay

Personally, I think that the grey box sitting against the background image itself is a huge, huge no-no in terms of graphic design.

Another unsettling factor is this. This should NOT be a thing. At all. A separate divided container if anything, but when it just sits against the background, it makes it harder to see. And if that doesn't clarify my point, this and this


This however is not a good design scheme, if unbordered. That is my main pet peeve. Our header background would look better if rounded borders were applied to give it a 3D effect, and would help the header stand out more.

I agree with these points. The current forums style was a gift from Suyo for my birthday. And because it was a gift, I've been wary to change it. However, we've definitely gone too long dealing with the flaws of the design to not do something about it.

Writing a phpbb3 style from scratch can take weeks because of the CSS nightmare that ensues. Because of that, I do not want to spend too much time to programming the theme when I could spend it on the Last Legacy update. Still, I'll offer some time to program the layout after we've decided exactly what we want.

[Doram]

Well, since I got pretty much an even number of people saying let's talk more as people who had a definite opinion, I figured that I would take this back a step to what kind of elements people are interested in. As to whether this is custom or stock, we can decide that later in this process, but let's see what people are interested in (culled from recent suggestions).

Also, I do agree with a lot of what you said, Shade, though, I am not a fan of curved borders. I have looked into the last chat, and I have confirmed that the "Site Chat will be back soon-ish. --Suyo" that displays there is the result of a page loaded from his site that is supposed to be the interface to the chat. It's clearly been shut down for a while - from his end. I am going to remove the designated area now, since I have no control over him turning that back on, and it is clearly non-functional (with little hope of it becoming functional again).

[*Emelia K. Fletcher]

can this still be optional because enforced controversy never really seemed like this site's schtick

[~MP3 Amplifier~]

I like this poll a lot, I can actually vote for the features I want. Simple, dark coloured and square borders seem to be the obvious options.

[Asterocrat]

I like how I voted for literally everything people don't actually want

Also last time I checked, the new theme was to resemble the style of the Main page of the site and all that stuff... So admitting we completely change the theme of the forums, can we change the theme of the other pages too? If we don't my "OCD" will kill me

[Supershroom]

I actually question if there is any need to change anything ... I like our current graphics. At supermariobrosx.org where I occasionally lurk at, I really don't like the bright colours there, they don't fit really well with the font colours and many sigs.