Board rebuild complete

[PTRACER]

So, just click here. I'm messing around. New theme (I think it's pretty!), sections split up to reflect how current discussions are going...
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk/testforum/index.php

Those sections aren't final or anything, they're just a suggestion. Opinions and feedback would be greatly appreciated.

There's one alternative theme available called CA_Gen2 which you can change if you log into your User Control Panel > Board Preferences. You can probably click this link to get there:
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk/testforum/ucp.php?i=165

Btw whatever you do on there won't affect what happens on here, they're separate boards.

[Ian-S]

The layout is too wide (I have to side scroll on this tablet which I don't have to on this version), other than that it looks OK, that reminds me to fix the v8 forum which is the same lol.

But I'm a strong supporter of only fixing things that are broken, don't change things for the sake of change etc.

Edit: got this error when trying the ca_gen2 template:

template->_tpl_load_file(): File ./styles/ca_gen2/template/mods/reimg_content.html does not exist or is empty

[PTRACER]

The template now works.

Oddly I don't have to side scroll on my Windows phone at all, I'll try on my iPad

[Michkov]

A dark/night theme would be great. Something with a dark backgrounds and light grey font color. Not really necessary but if your toying around with the themes already.

[PTRACER]

A dark/night theme would be great. Something with a dark backgrounds and light grey font color. Not really necessary but if your toying around with the themes already.

I love black, hence the black bars on this current forum, but a light theme would work better here I want to go for something bright and modern.

I don't know whether people's silence on the matter is they don't care or they don't want anything changed. Some of the decisions made in the past pushed people away, so I don't want to force a change they don't want. Ian says "don't fix what isn't broken", but we've got to move with the times and we've essentially had this design since 2003. There are also few of us remaining, but a lot of 'old' users signing in and checking out the forum. I want to give them further reason to stay

Perhaps the best option is to phase in the new design slowly. Allow active users to keep the current look and simply move everyone else over to the new design. I do want to remove some of the redundant sections now though.

[erwin greven]

I think that making the board less wide, would not hurt the layout. Also a few more themes like Michkov says would be nice but not necessary in my opinion.

I give an opinion because, like you say Paul, there are not many who react at the moment. There are not that many regular users anyway on this board. Ten to Fifteen users maybe?

[PTRACER]

I think that making the board less wide, would not hurt the layout. Also a few more themes like Michkov says would be nice but not necessary in my opinion.

I give an opinion because, like you say Paul, there are not many who react at the moment. There are not that many regular users anyway on this board. Ten to Fifteen users maybe?

Thanks, I appreciate the comments. What about changing the forum layout to add a few more sections and take away the less popular ones? I think it looks like the forum is inactive when sections haven't been posted in for six months.

You're right, very few of us are left However the board refuses to die!

[Sam]

I quite like it... I think there should be less white with black text, maybe use the creamy color as a background for some elements?

Also, that blue bar looks really out of place now.

[PTRACER]

The blue bar is the same colour as the 'New Post' icon, but I should be able to customise the colours if people are unhappy with them.

I've uploaded that style for testing on this board, so change it on your profile if you want to give it a go.

[erwin greven]

Make Blue/Black and White/Gold themes... Very popular atm...

[PTRACER]

Make Blue/Black and White/Gold themes... Very popular atm...

Yeah, and then I get all the complaints that people can't tell the difference between the two

[Michkov]

A dark/night theme would be great. Something with a dark backgrounds and light grey font color. Not really necessary but if your toying around with the themes already.

I love black, hence the black bars on this current forum, but a light theme would work better here I want to go for something bright and modern.

I meant as an alternative to the main theme. Bright and modern may be good, but going blind from going from a dark tab to a bright one(looking at you wiki, google and co) at night isn't

I don't know whether people's silence on the matter is they don't care or they don't want anything changed. Some of the decisions made in the past pushed people away, so I don't want to force a change they don't want. Ian says "don't fix what isn't broken", but we've got to move with the times and we've essentially had this design since 2003. There are also few of us remaining, but a lot of 'old' users signing in and checking out the forum. I want to give them further reason to stay

Perhaps the best option is to phase in the new design slowly. Allow active users to keep the current look and simply move everyone else over to the new design. I do want to remove some of the redundant sections now though.

Just throw the new design out there and fix whatever seems broken to people. Works for software companies

So far I quite like it, makes the old design look quite old. Can you widen the display area for the forum a bit? Right now it's using only half of my screen with, about 2/3s would be great.

[PTRACER]

I could look into a dark theme, but it would be different to the one I've suggested.

Btw, I just increased the width of the theme to a percentage rather than a set number of pixels. Have another look at the Test Forum and let me know what you think (I also think it looks better!)

Ian - the CSS for that theme is set to min-width: 978px wide. Your tablet must surely be less than that if you're having to scroll? I've reset the min-width to 800px as a test, let me know how it goes

[Ian-S]

Ian says "don't fix what isn't broken", but we've got to move with the times and we've essentially had this design since 2003.

Yup worked pretty well for Friends Reunited that "we've got to move with the times" business model hehe.

I'll check the new width out tomorrow, I'm not saying don't give the forum a refresh or introduce new styles, far from it the new style and format at another forum I go to has done it wonders, but also keep the old one around just incase, people don't leave forums because the colour and layout has stayed the same for 11 years though imho.

[PTRACER]

Friends Reunited lost out like Myspace did, to Facebook. I got my grandad reuinted with his two best school friends through that site (about a year or two before one of them died of cancer) so it served its purpose.

I'll do what you suggest, I'll leave the old style there for people to use. The only real question now related to the available sections:

1. Whether to split up Motorsport Discussion into "Formula One" and "Other Series" (in the hope the latter gets a little more airtime)
2. Whether to introduce a new video section purely for this season videos only so spoilers can be avoided in the other sections and to encourage a little more discussion on them. Videos get posted but rarely commented on nowadays (maybe the Like button doesn't help either)