Forum theme

General discussion about anything related to Transcendence.

What style should we use for the forums?

Absolution (current style)
3
15%
ForumUS
0
No votes
Milk
12
60%
Other (please specify in comments; must be phpBB 3.2 compatible)
5
25%
 
Total votes: 20
george moromisato
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ABSOLUTION
The current style
Absolution.jpg
Absolution.jpg (107.55 KiB) Viewed 14991 times

FORUMUS
http://forumstyle.us/forumus/default-version/
ForumUS.jpg
ForumUS.jpg (102.17 KiB) Viewed 14993 times

MILK
http://preview.themeforest.net/item/mil ... w/16119149
Milk.jpg
Milk.jpg (59.32 KiB) Viewed 14991 times
Of course, in all cases we would have a custom header.
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Aury
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Pity there isnt much with a proper dark color scheme it seems
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Whatever theme is used, I feel that the background should be dark, individual posts should be vertically compact, and recent posts and subforums with recent changes should be distinguishable at a glance. The big advertisement zones in some of the themes could be used to e.g. display a link to the most recent Multiverse post.
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I want the "Night Mode" theme back. It fits so well with the darkness of space.
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Watch TV, Do Nothing wrote:
Thu Jan 26, 2017 9:06 pm
Whatever theme is used, I feel that the background should be dark, individual posts should be vertically compact, and recent posts and subforums with recent changes should be distinguishable at a glance. The big advertisement zones in some of the themes could be used to e.g. display a link to the most recent Multiverse post.
I have not been able to find too many themes compatible with phpBB 3.2. If you can find some dark themes compatible with 3.2, please post them here. I'll update the poll.
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Watch TV, Do Nothing wrote:
Thu Jan 26, 2017 9:39 pm
There's this one:

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/style/ne_blackgreen/
 I’ll back that option.
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Watch TV, Do Nothing wrote:
Thu Jan 26, 2017 9:39 pm
There's this one:

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/style/ne_blackgreen/
The example image failed to load, but the thumbnail looks like something I'd be okay with. If it ends up being compatible, it may be worth implementing Milk and then holding a second poll thread regarding switching to Blackgreen.
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I'd prefer a dark theme that isn't pitch black and doesn't have bright colors occasionally strewn about.

Something like this except actually compatible with phpBB 3.2.
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Watch TV, Do Nothing wrote:
Thu Jan 26, 2017 9:06 pm
Whatever theme is used, I feel that the background should be dark, individual posts should be vertically compact, and recent posts and subforums with recent changes should be distinguishable at a glance. The big advertisement zones in some of the themes could be used to e.g. display a link to the most recent Multiverse post.
I personally prefer dark text on light background, and was using a theme like that before the switch. But I agree that all 3 of the suggested themes have way too much padding, so you can only see a few forums/posts at once, even in a large resolution. Also, the read and unread icons for forums and threads need to be different colors, which of those 3, only Milk has. Some of the demo pages make the icon for an unread thread a link to the first unread post, which is a nice feature.
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The Milk theme apparently supports customizable colors, so I might be able to get a dark theme out of it.

I think it's worth implementing it and seeing if we can get it to look how we want.
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Milk costs $20 though. :(
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Ttech wrote:
Fri Jan 27, 2017 6:44 am
Milk costs $20 though. :(
I'm pretty sure the company can afford that.
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george moromisato wrote:
Fri Jan 27, 2017 3:06 pm
Ttech wrote:
Fri Jan 27, 2017 6:44 am
Milk costs $20 though. :(
I'm pretty sure the company can afford that.
Works for me! Just wanted to try to use free where possible. But so far the Milk theme is winning and if its paid, they're likely to support it each version change.
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OK, IMO: Absolution is clean but visually boring. US is terrible on all levels. Milk has distinct possibilities, especially for highlighting major changes in the top banner (BTW I really hope you don't use that area for constantly streaming ads as Steam does - it's a bandwidth hog & major distraction at very least! - if you're forced into ads, put up a static image refreshed upon reload/restart)

We need to have more info WRT msg threading, alerts, new post info & highlighting etc.. that may be outside the scope of this thread, but (fake?) examples of forum posts showing threading, highlights etc would be good

How will the changes affect board PM (or other) alerts WRT highlighting? (colour codes are useful but not optimal for colour-blindness) etc?

Agreed with (almost ;) ) everyone above that a dark background is required; inverse (effectively a negative) shouldn't be too difficult to add: just a toggle for those odd weirdos who prefer the other way around :) .. depending upon whether the API allows you to do so

Is it now possible to toggle the "Announcements" pane to minimised (or preferably hidden, except title bar) once unread msgs are read while in other forums' top level (ie index view)? This would allow more screen area for other (unread) forum msgs to show.. (I'm not describing this very well, but we'll see what happens..)
Dom 8-)
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