Author Topic: Forum Theme Evolution. NET Sept. 27, 2019  (Read 90181 times)

Offline Chris Bergin

We've been working on improving the forum theme in the background for a long period of time and will be launching this shortly.

Importantly, the functionality will remain the same, this is an appearance change and improvement. As with all changes, you can't please everyone, but we've been beta testing this with the team and have settled on this design as the way forward.

The main changes relate to the top bar. The top bar now matches more closely to the appearance of the news site, bringing commonality of appearance to the site as a whole. The same with the sidebar.

The news site style sidebar importantly allows additional revenue opportunities for the site, although you will notice we mostly use it for supporting our team members, including the rolling twitter feed (which is very useful) and only a few actual ads. We would appreciate it if visitors to this site whitelist NSF as adblocking it will only change that sidebar into a blank white area. Ad revenue will be going to an account to directly fund the team for content/expenses (L2 for the hosting), so don't be "that person" who runs around NSF saying they really enjoying with your ad blocker on full.

We have tested the new theme on as many formats and browsers as possible and for now the current special mobile theme will remain in place until the new theme is ready for mobile use. The goal is to have one theme to rule them all so to phase out the special mobile theme. For now, mobile use, in desktop mode, works. Just remember the forum menu will be focused on the section heads. Once in posts you'll be fine. Mobile/Desktop mode is a very small part of the readership, but that's a heads up.

Feel free to add feedback into this thread.

====

Will add some key notes here as we go:

1) Old theme: When you clicked on an image attachment it would open to its original size in your browser (could be crazy if it was a big one, and break the width etc.) New theme: Click on an image to enlarge and it'll open in a new tab/window. Download link will still be there in the post.

2) Note the Forum on small mobile screens, in Desktop Mode" notes above.

====

Below is an example of what you'll see when clicking on a section, for example (click to open full size).
« Last Edit: 09/27/2019 08:58 pm by Chris Bergin »
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Online kevinof

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Re: Forum Theme Evolution. NET Sept. 27, 2019
« Reply #1 on: 09/26/2019 10:23 pm »
Nice job Chris. Good to see more "breathing" space between the rows - - - makes relevent info stand out better.

Like it.

Offline Martin FL

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Re: Forum Theme Evolution. NET Sept. 27, 2019
« Reply #2 on: 09/26/2019 10:31 pm »
That looks a lot more modern and fresh! Really like it.

Offline ThePonjaX

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Re: Forum Theme Evolution. NET Sept. 27, 2019
« Reply #3 on: 09/27/2019 03:04 am »
Exists a trend to "simplify" and make the websites and applications more "white", sorry but I don't like it.
I prefer "darker" themes, I like the more contrast from the "old" theme. 

Offline Chris Bergin

Re: Forum Theme Evolution. NET Sept. 27, 2019
« Reply #4 on: 09/27/2019 03:43 am »
Yeah, there is always going to be, and always will be, people not happy about certain things (there's enough not happy with the old theme). However, there is work going on per a dark theme option. Remember, we've never had a dark theme, so that'll be an additional element.

Also, remember you're looking at menu and section menu. Threads have a lot more "color" to them with images etc.  It'll be a bit of a "shock to the system" for some folk to start with, but personally (and mentioned by other testers) it's really something that becomes so nice the old theme actually looks nowhere as good when switching back.

Anyway, absolutely going to be some people who hate it, but likely the same amount, or less, than those who hate the old theme. And we really had to move on from the old theme, 100 percent requirement.
« Last Edit: 09/27/2019 03:47 am by Chris Bergin »
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Offline Swedish chef

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Re: Forum Theme Evolution. NET Sept. 27, 2019
« Reply #5 on: 09/27/2019 04:27 am »
The news site style sidebar importantly allows additional revenue opportunities for the site, although you will notice we mostly use it for supporting our team members, including the rolling twitter feed (which is very useful) and only a few actual ads.

Personally i don't mind the ads, as long they are static. When they start to blink like in a discotheque i tend to block them. With that said I'm pretty sure i would not like the rolling twitter feed on the side, these sorts of things are really distracting. So if you go with them, please make it so it is easy to block them without also blocking the ads.

Offline gongora

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Re: Forum Theme Evolution. NET Sept. 27, 2019
« Reply #6 on: 09/27/2019 04:56 am »
The news site style sidebar importantly allows additional revenue opportunities for the site, although you will notice we mostly use it for supporting our team members, including the rolling twitter feed (which is very useful) and only a few actual ads.

Personally i don't mind the ads, as long they are static. When they start to blink like in a discotheque i tend to block them. With that said I'm pretty sure i would not like the rolling twitter feed on the side, these sorts of things are really distracting. So if you go with them, please make it so it is easy to block them without also blocking the ads.

The Twitter feed doesn't automatically scroll, you have to put your cursor over it and manually scroll.

Offline Longhorn John

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Re: Forum Theme Evolution. NET Sept. 27, 2019
« Reply #7 on: 09/27/2019 05:23 am »
Looks great!

And Chef, matching the news site means that twitter feed you see in the news site will be the same for the forum, so look on the news site to see it's actually static and you can manually scroll the feed. If Chris tweet something new you'll see it when you refresh or move to another page. It's great on the news site so it'll be great on the forum and really useful too!

Offline Chris Bergin

Re: Forum Theme Evolution. NET Sept. 27, 2019
« Reply #8 on: 09/27/2019 08:36 pm »
T-25 mins or so
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Offline Chris Bergin

Re: Forum Theme Evolution. NET Sept. 27, 2019
« Reply #9 on: 09/27/2019 08:55 pm »
T-5 mins. Green Board.
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Offline Chris Bergin

Re: Forum Theme Evolution. NET Sept. 27, 2019
« Reply #10 on: 09/27/2019 09:02 pm »
Live.
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Offline Lee Jay

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Re: Forum Theme Evolution. NET Sept. 27, 2019
« Reply #11 on: 09/27/2019 09:02 pm »
I'm not seeing any issues.

Offline RotoSequence

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Re: Forum Theme Evolution. NET Sept. 27, 2019
« Reply #12 on: 09/27/2019 09:03 pm »
I'm not seeing any issues.

I do - the kerning on the font is eye-strain inducing  :o

The ever shrinking fonts for embedded quote trees are no good, either.
« Last Edit: 09/27/2019 09:05 pm by RotoSequence »

Offline NSF Webmaster

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Re: Forum Theme Evolution. NET Sept. 27, 2019
« Reply #13 on: 09/27/2019 09:07 pm »
I'm not seeing any issues.

I do - the kerning on the font is eye-strain inducing  :o

The ever shrinking fonts for embedded quote trees are no good, either.

Do you have a link to that specific topic ? thanks

Offline intelati

Re: Forum Theme Evolution. NET Sept. 27, 2019
« Reply #14 on: 09/27/2019 09:08 pm »
I'm not seeing any issues.
the font is eye-strain inducing  :o

The ever shrinking fonts for embedded quote trees are no good, either.

I've never been a fan of reading "light" fonts.

But really, I'm getting used to font as I'm typing this out...

I had a freak out when the page loaded. I like the top bar though...
Starships are meant to fly

Offline RotoSequence

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Re: Forum Theme Evolution. NET Sept. 27, 2019
« Reply #15 on: 09/27/2019 09:09 pm »
I'm not seeing any issues.

I do - the kerning on the font is eye-strain inducing  :o

The ever shrinking fonts for embedded quote trees are no good, either.

Do you have a link to that specific topic ? thanks

It's not post specific; all embedded quote trees make the font smaller and smaller.
The quotes in this post, as well as the linked post, show what I mean.
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=45824.msg1996817#msg1996817

Offline launchwatcher

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Re: Forum Theme Evolution. NET Sept. 27, 2019
« Reply #16 on: 09/27/2019 09:10 pm »
Too much whitespace everywhere  >:( -- please give us an option to make the layout more compact!

In the top level page, the difference in shade between "has new posts" and "doesn't have new posts" is way too subtle.

Offline Chris Bergin

Re: Forum Theme Evolution. NET Sept. 27, 2019
« Reply #17 on: 09/27/2019 09:10 pm »
I'm not seeing any issues.
the font is eye-strain inducing  :o

The ever shrinking fonts for embedded quote trees are no good, either.

I've never been a fan of reading "light" fonts.

But really, I'm getting used to font as I'm typing this out...

I had a freak out when the page loaded. I like the top bar though...

HA! Yeah, tried to warn people. I (and the team) got used to it very quickly as we've had this theme running for days to test it.

Roto with a good point on the quotes.
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Offline NSF Webmaster

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Re: Forum Theme Evolution. NET Sept. 27, 2019
« Reply #18 on: 09/27/2019 09:11 pm »
I'm not seeing any issues.
the font is eye-strain inducing  :o

The ever shrinking fonts for embedded quote trees are no good, either.

I've never been a fan of reading "light" fonts.

But really, I'm getting used to font as I'm typing this out...

I had a freak out when the page loaded. I like the top bar though...

HA! Yeah, tried to warn people. I (and the team) got used to it very quickly as we've had this theme running for days to test it.

Roto with a good point on the quotes.

Fix for the increasingly smaller quotes is being pushed as we speak

(this post should show up better in a minute)
« Last Edit: 09/27/2019 09:12 pm by NSF Webmaster »

Offline Chris Bergin

Re: Forum Theme Evolution. NET Sept. 27, 2019
« Reply #19 on: 09/27/2019 09:13 pm »
Too much whitespace everywhere 

Screenshot? (adblocker on?) Right hand side will fill out as we go too and that'll really balance it. Your browser can also help with the reducing (or increasing as some may want) window size.
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