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Welcome to the new and improved CAOS!

Started by Gregory Bartholomew, 2008-12-10T10:29:07-06:00 (Wednesday)

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Gregory Bartholomew

Welcome to the new and improved CAOS!  If you prefer the former theme, you can change back to it under 'Profile'->'Look and Layout Preferences'->'Current Theme'.

gb
......

Bryan

#1
Been having fun with the style sheets again, have we?

also you're directions for changing it are inaccurate, there's no 'current them' option. Help, the goggles..they do nothing..
Bryan Grubaugh
Quickly aging alumni with too much time on his hands
Business Systems Analyst, Scripps Networks.

Gregory Bartholomew

#2
Sorry, it's next to the "current them" label (it's not an option or a tab).  Yes, I've been playing with the style sheets.  I'm having a devil of a time getting things to look right in IE6.  In particular, the iframe that contains the RSS Feeds won't size to the width of the middle column in IE6.  Does anyone here know the solution to my problem?

Thanks,
gb
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Gregory Bartholomew

Never mind, I found the solution.  I had to use the "holy hack" to get the sizing to work in IE6.
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Justin Camerer

I don't see how this layout is any better that what we had. The previous one was terrible, but there is no reason to move what the majority of us are here for (the forum) down the page at all. If anything, move the forum area to the top of the page. The other sections are useless.
Justin Camerer
Do yo' chain hang low?

Gregory Bartholomew

Hi Justin,

I'm glad to comply with whatever changes you or others recommend.  I haven't, however, changed the layout of the site at all.  The gallery block is missing, but that is just temporary because it takes a little bit more work to move.  My guess is that you are getting a mix of the earlier forums style sheets and the current one.  If things look really wrong, try hitting Ctrl-F5 or closing all your browsers completely and starting a new session.  Like I said, the layout should be the same as before.  I tried to change the default colors to a darker theme because I was getting the impression from others that they didn't care for the light blue colors that are the default for SMF (and besides, we don't want to look exactly like every other forum on the internet).  You can still select the SMF color scheme though, if you prefer.  I gave directions for changing the theme for your account earlier in this thread.

I'm thinking about the possibility of setting up an account on the server with which people could connect and access one of the styles.  The idea would be to allow people to post possible theme configurations to the site and let others view and vote on them.  It would be a bit tricky, but I think it could be done.

gb
......

Justin Camerer

Yeah, I must have been seeing something screwed up. Anyway, the layout makes more sense now. Carry on. ha.
Justin Camerer
Do yo' chain hang low?

Gregory Bartholomew

Sorry for the confusion.  I make the switch to a newer website by running two concurrently, one my development site and the other the live site, and then quickly switching the IP addresses one the servers when I'm ready for the development site to go live.  Sometimes this method of quickly changing the site messes with the browsers though, causing them not to realize that they need to refresh their cache.

I really am open to whatever suggestions people have about how things ought to look.  Design really isn't my speciality, so I'm not going to take any offence if you think things ought to be different.  The site should be a little faster now.  I've put the RSS feeds into an iframe so that they won't slow down the loading of the rest of the page and I've worked out a little bug in the caching settings that was keeping one of the feeds from being cached.  The main page should be loading in a fraction of a second now except when the RSS feeds are over 1 minute old.  The first person to query the main page after the RSS feeds are stale will see a blank area in the RSS feeds section until it loads, then the cache will be fresh for everyone.

gb
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William Grim

Quote from: GigaByte on 2008-12-10T14:33:19-06:00 (Wednesday)
I really am open to whatever suggestions people have about how things ought to look.  Design really isn't my speciality, so I'm not going to take any offence if you think things ought to be different.  The site should be a little faster now.  I've put the RSS feeds into an iframe so that they won't slow down the loading of the rest of the page and I've worked out a little bug in the caching settings that was keeping one of the feeds from being cached.  The main page should be loading in a fraction of a second now except when the RSS feeds are over 1 minute old.  The first person to query the main page after the RSS feeds are stale will see a blank area in the RSS feeds section until it loads, then the cache will be fresh for everyone.

I want the absolute hottest pink you've got.

Having said that, the old theme was a lot better.  I'm now reminded of the 90s.

My girlfriend is a gifted graphic designer/web designer/developer that can redo the CSS, for a fee (don't tell Shaun; he may rage).  She makes sites look really slick!
William Grim
IT Associate, Morgan Stanley

William Grim

I also want the links back that take me to the different pages in a particular forum topic.  Now I have to click on the topic and then on the page I want to see.
William Grim
IT Associate, Morgan Stanley

blacklee

#10
I see you added pages to the latest posts on the home page. YES! Now I will not miss anything. Thanks Greg!
As far as style, I would like the new one if it was not so dark... I'm voting for pink (: Otherwise, it looks awesome. Gret job!!!

Admin

Alright, pastels really aren't my thing, but I have reset the forum to the default baby blue color scheme.  I thought the charcoal black was a bit dark myself, but then because the siue main site and now the CS main site use solid black for large areas of the screen, I figured that was the color of choice for the modern generation or something.  That or maybe everyone reads this forum very late at night when the brighter tones are harder on the eyes.  Anyway, we will definately have to get someone with some skill in colors and tones to do some work on a theme for CAOS at some point.

gb

Admin

Quote from: William Grim on 2008-12-10T20:25:08-06:00 (Wednesday)
I also want the links back that take me to the different pages in a particular forum topic.  Now I have to click on the topic and then on the page I want to see.

Hmm, I think I know what you are talking about.  They were between angle brakets and right after the subject title right?  I may have acidentally deleted the line of code that generates those when I was modifying the recent topics layout for embeding into the main page.  I'll look into it after I get the gallery working.

gb

Justin Camerer

You made the RSS links load in the iframe, which speeds the page load up, but are the RSS links necessary? I know that I never use them. Instead of that, maybe we could just show more topics on the front page. Also, a link for adding a new post would be a great help. Every time I post something, I have to dig for the link.
Justin Camerer
Do yo' chain hang low?

Admin

I like the new post link idea.  The only trick would be in specifying what board to post the new topic to.  I think the current controls all just post to the "current" board but the main page does not have a current board.  I'd have to add a drop down list box or some such control that could be used to select a target board but it shouldn't be difficult.  As for the RSS feeds, they were requested by Dr. Weinberg.  You'd have to take that request up with him.

gb