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vangogh
07-04-2010, 02:38 AM
Hey All,

As you can probably see I've upgraded the forum. It's been a couple or three hours, but I think I have things working now (for the most part) and will be turning the forum back on as soon as I finish this post.

Obviously there's a different look to the place so you'll need to reorient yourself. I'll be doing the same. Also you can easily see our logo is presently absent (Edit: logo or similar one now added) as are the few ads we had. I doubt I'll put either back tonight. Hopefully I'll find a couple of hours tomorrow for both.

Please let me know if anything isn't working. I've been clicking around a bit and they seem to be ok, but you never know. I imagine a few things are still off here and there so if you can call them to my attention I'd appreciate it and I'll do my best to get things fixed.

I hope everyone likes the new look. I'm guessing we have some new features, but I don't honestly know what they are yet.

My apologies for any inconvenience in adjusting to the new look and location of things. I've already noticed a few things that now take me a couple extra clicks to get to, but oh well. That's what happens with change.

One thing I have noticed is we no longer have a link called User CP in the upper left. It's now called Settings and is in the upper right. It'll look a little different than your old control panel, but it looks like all the information is still there.

Ok. Time to turn things back on. Keep your fingers crossed.

Steve

lav
07-04-2010, 06:09 AM
Looks much "fresher"

Spider
07-04-2010, 09:52 AM
Yes, it looks nice. Why change, though? What improvements are there? (I am hoping the change was to improve something.)

I have noticed the following -

Even smaller and/or finer font size making posts more difficult to read.

Paler colors, making the forum more difficult to read.

No "Todays Posts" link.

Looking forward to hear about the improvements.

vangogh
07-04-2010, 10:59 AM
Thanks lav.

Frederick all software needs to be updated. Security improvements alone are enough to warrant an upgrade. I don't know how long vBulletin is planning on maintaining the prior versions. As far as specific improvements are concerned I have no idea if or what any would be. This was more to get up to date with vBulletin than anything else.

I noticed there isn't a today's posts link either, which I too used and liked. Seems like we just have new posts. I'll see if there's a way to get the today's post link back.

As far as the font and color, both are things I'll eventually work on. Part of the reason for upgrading for me specifically is the forum is now coded with a css layout as opposed to tables so it should be easier to redesign the site and redevelop it. You'll have to live with the color for awhile. Your browser should be able to make the font bigger. In time I will work on the look of the place, but it won't be in the immediate future.

Patrysha
07-04-2010, 11:52 AM
I use a really tiny screen to access the forum most days (I tend to play a lot on my mini as opposed to the big computer...) and the font doesn't seem horribly small on this screen. It's just different and will take a bit of time to get used to. But all seems good and in place on my end...

vangogh
07-04-2010, 12:08 PM
I'm still adjusting too. For the most part things we had still seem to be here, albeit in different places in some cases. I'm finding a few things take me an extra click to get to when it comes to moderating, but I know I'll get used to it soon enough.

Harold Mansfield
07-04-2010, 01:05 PM
I like it :) Have you given much thought to the option that allows your latest blog post to appear underneath your Avatar?

vangogh
07-04-2010, 01:28 PM
Thanks Harold. I like the new look better than the old look too. Seems a little more modern to me. I'd like to add the latest blog post thing too. We use it on the webmaster forum I admin. I never could find a plugin for it on the old version, but will look again with the new version as soon as I get a chance.

@Frederick - I think I found some possible solutions to return the Today's Posts link. I doubt I'll work on it today, but will sometime in the next few days. The link does show up when you're not logged in so the functionality is still there. For some reason the developers didn't include it by default when logged in. They seem to add and drop it in different minor versions of vB 4. The good news is I should be able to put it back in.

Spider
07-04-2010, 01:45 PM
My comments weren't meant for you to drop everything to accommodate me, VG - nor to ever make a change, if you didn't think it warranted. Only to let you know what I had seen - but you had already found it, anyway.

Re: New posts - there are two links to New Posts but none to Todays Posts. Couldn't one of them be changed. The link from another forum I attend is -- http: //www.DOMAIN.com/forum/search.php?do=getdaily

I just tried this and it worked -

http: //www.small-business-forum.net/forum/search.php?do=getdaily

vangogh
07-04-2010, 02:07 PM
I wasn't taking your comments in any bad way. No worries on this end. I'm glad you're pointing stuff out. I want to know as much about what people think as possible. Can't make promises about if or when I'll change things, but I do want to know what people are thinking. Ideally I'd like to redesign the forum to a degree so we can have a unique look instead of looking like every other vBulletin 4 forum.

You might have missed my post above, but I did find some different solutions to getting the Today's Post link back. I know it works since it's there when you're not logged in. I want to look through the different solutions and decide which to go with. Give me a day or two. After spending a few hours upgrading last night and given that today is a holiday I doubt I'll get to it today, but I will bring that link back. It's pretty useful and I have no idea why the developers would remove it. It was one of the first things I noticed missing and I felt the same as you about wanting it back.

I forgot to link to it in my original post, but here's the vBulletin site (http://www.vbulletin.com/). They're trying to move things so instead of vBulletin being a standalone forum, it will be a full publishing suite with the forum as one part. You can click on Features and Screenshots to see what the publishing suite includes. Also if you click on the CMS link at the top you can see what I think becomes the default home page for the software. The specifics of what's in the sidebars and the content area can all be changed and I think it will be easy enough to have either 2 or 3 columns.

In a month it'll be time to renew the license. I don't have to renew, but the license allows for continued support from the developers. The difference in price between upgrading the forum only and going for the full publishing suite is $75 so I'll likely buy the full publishing suite at that time. Also I've seen where vBulletin wants to phase out the forum only application. It's been awhile since I looked, but if memory serves we can have the full publishing suite, but only use the forum. My guess is that's how I'll initially leave things, but who knows if the rest will install by default. In time it'll give us a chance to make this place more than a forum even while maintaining the forum as the central reason for visiting.

I think that's when we'll see more features and switching to the full CMS will be a much bigger change. Also one reason I wanted to upgrade the forum itself now. This will give us some time to adjust to some things instead of having to adjust to everything at once.

Evan
07-04-2010, 11:11 PM
I thought I landed on the wrong website for a moment! But certainly this does look very "fresh"!

dynocat
07-05-2010, 03:36 AM
Just checking in after a few days. Very nice, VanGough. I zoomed in the font in Firefox for my old eyes. It looks fresh and new.

billbenson
07-05-2010, 05:32 AM
FYI, I was making a post, clicked advanced, had to sign in again and lost the post.

vangogh
07-05-2010, 11:29 AM
Definitely a new look to the place and I imagine some people won't realize where they are for a moment. Hopefully most people figure it out quickly enough.

Bill I'm guessing there was a considerable time between when you first logged in and when you clicked the advanced button. The forum is probably signing you out after a period of inactivity, which probably occurred before you wrote the post. If I remember similar things happened when we originally installed the forum. I've noticed myself getting signed out a little more often. I'll look around to see if there's a setting.

KristineS
07-05-2010, 01:20 PM
I like it. Cleaner and more modern looking than the old forum. It's a good change, I think.

vangogh
07-05-2010, 04:05 PM
I think so too. There are some differences in the navigation and I'm still adjusting to things. I'm waiting to see how things go once most people are back after the holiday weekend. So far I like the change overall and hopefully I can make a few tweaks to bring back some things we may have lost.

vangogh
07-05-2010, 08:23 PM
If you saw the forum navigation doing some funky things in the last few minutes that was me.

I managed to get the Today's Posts link back. For now it's right next to the New Posts link under the Forum tab, though I may look for a better places to add it. I found some code to add a drop down so we could check posts from the last day or week or month or however many days I want to set. It didn't quite work, but I'll give it another shot later.

Blessed
07-05-2010, 08:42 PM
Oohhh pretty!

Been a few days since I've had a chance to pop over and I like the new look. Will poke around a bit more now :)

vangogh
07-05-2010, 09:48 PM
Most everything is still here Jenn. Some things moved to different places, but hopefully you'll be able to find what you use most often right away.

jamestl2
07-06-2010, 06:02 PM
VB4 does have some pretty nice features, but honestly, I'm not a big fan of the default design that comes with it at all.

Hopefully you'll be able to find a few (maybe even unique?) vB skins that look good.

vangogh
07-06-2010, 06:21 PM
What don't you like about the design. I'm not planning on grabbing one of the skins I see. I think most are pretty bad actually. Too many dark backgrounds that I don't think suit a business forum. As far as the default theme I do like it better than the old default theme.

I'm not sure how much customization I'll do, though I do want to do something. It probably won't happen right away. What I was thinking was to slowly make incremental changes over time and see where that takes us. Feel free to share ideas for a new look if you have. No promises, but I'll certainly listen. I still may break down and come up with a completely new design too. I might work on one behind the scenes.

jamestl2
07-06-2010, 06:33 PM
I haven't taken a look at the vb4 version skins, but I thought there might be some out there that look halfway decent.

About the design, some things I'm not a really big fan of are:
-Text too small
-Rearranging and rewording of the forum features (it took me a few moments to find the UserCP)
-Color scheme doesn't flow very well.
-Lots of extra white space compared to the old design.

Those were just off the top of my head. I know the design doesn't always "make or break" a forum, and that there are many other things that make a forum great, but personally it just feels a bit on the bland side. Although honestly, I wasn't a big fan of the old default skin either.

vangogh
07-06-2010, 09:00 PM
That's 2 mentions of text being too small. Is it the text in the posts, elsewhere on the site, everything? I checked the main text in posts and for me that text is 13px, which is fairly common. It's actually the size I prefer. Is 13px too small? Are you seeing it smaller? Any info you can give me about where and why the text is too small will help me fixing it.

I know things got rearranged. It took me a few minutes to find things too. I can probably rename Settings to User CP easily if it's something more people would like. I probably won't move it right away, though I'm still reaching to the left. Maybe one night if I have some free time I'll play around with the navigation some.

What don't you like about the color scheme. It's a lighter blue, but otherwise seems ok. I like the new colors better myself and I think a few other people do too.

More space? Really? Seems about the same to me, though I like more space. Some of it's going to go away though. I'm planning on adding a sidebar on the right. And here I was worried that would leave too little space for everything else.

Let me know about the size of the text when you get a chance. The navigation stuff will come when I have a chance. Should I change Settings back to User CP? The rest I'll have to think about, but my first thought is not to change them, at least not anytime soon.

Anyone else have thoughts or suggestions about the design?

Spider
07-06-2010, 09:52 PM
Ooh! A wsh list for VG to do "in his spare time!"

1. Yes, the font is too small everywhere, but much of that smallness, I find, is the boldness (or lack thereof.) If this is 13px, then 13px in bold would be considerably more readable. To attain that level of readability in light font, you'd need 16px (at a guess.)

2. Adding to the difficulty of reading the new font is the paleness of it. Making it black, instead of semi-dark gray, would help.

3. What font is this, anyway? I don't think it is Arial, is it? Verdana is broader and easier to read at these small sizes. Microsoft san serif is a nice one, too.

4. The blue links are too pale - especially the vlink. The paleness of the color, along with the fineness of the font and the small size of the font, makes vlinks almost invisible to me.

5. The wasted white space that irks me somewhat is the added space between the end of each message and the signature on every post.

6. I notice the Reputation score has been removed with each post. I rather liked that - it encourages posters to write in a fashion to please and benefit aother psrticipants.

vangogh
07-07-2010, 12:07 AM
Uh Oh. I opened my big mouth :)

1. I'll have to look into the fonts. It's actually set as Verdana and 13px. The reason I'm finding it a bit odd that you're both seeing it as too small is that on the old version the font was Verdana and 13.33px. A tiny bit smaller now, but not significant enough that I would think it would be an issue. I won't be making all the text bold though. That's a big typographic no-no.

2. I agree. I think it's not even just the gray (it's currently set to #333 instead of #000) it's also that the background has been given a bit of color. I can make the text a little darker and see if that helps.

3. Verdana

4. I noticed that too and also agree. In When they're by themselves like in your signature I think they're ok, but I agree they get lost some in the text. I'll see about making them a shade or two darker.

5. Got'cha. It's more extra space inside of things than the overall space. I don't mind the extra space for the most part, but I'll look into it as well. Generally I think a little extra space is a good thing. In this case I think it makes the sigs stand out more. One thing I didn't like about the old version of vB was anytime I added a link toward the end of a post it got obscured because it was so close to the signatures.

6. Nice catch. I hadn't even noticed that. I don't remember it being difficult to add them last time. I thought it was simply a setting somewhere so I'll look into that one. I like the reputation too. I think it's a nice touch.

And again I won't make any promises about when I'll be able to get to these things, but I'll try to get to some of the simpler ones as soon as I can. Thanks for the feedback.

vangogh
07-07-2010, 12:38 AM
I managed to get the reputation number back in. It's not pretty, but at least it's there again.

Spider
07-07-2010, 01:02 AM
This is arial

This is Verdana

This is Verdana

Hmm... It IS Verdana. Sure doesn't look it until you compare them. Could such a small color variation have made a difference? I wouldn't have thought so. Perhaps the colored-background and slight color change in the font is enough combined.

Spider
07-07-2010, 01:07 AM
Another FYI --

The reply - the one at the end of each post and the one at the end of the page - doesn't go anywhere. Well it does - it takes you to the Quick reply at the bottom of the page that is on the page anyway. Then you have to click again for Advanced reply.

Nothing wrong with the quick reply, I suppose, except you cannot review your post before sending.

vangogh
07-07-2010, 01:21 AM
I made the text color darker. It's now one shade above black. Does that make it easier to read? I can go to full black though it won't be much darker than it is right now. I'd have to change the background color to get more contrast. I also made the links inside the post content a little bluer. I couldn't find a good blue that was working with the theme so I just underlined the links. That should make them easy enough to stand out.

I think the reply button is meant to reply specifically to a post. I don't think it was meant to move you to the advanced editor. Was it that way on the old version. I hardly ever used the advanced editor so it's not something I would have clicked.

The font might have been different. I found several fonts defined and Verdana was third on the list. The first two listed might have been Windows only fonts, which would explain why I saw it as Verdana all along. I'm not sure if where I changed it actually affected anything though. Nothing would have changed for me anyway.

Spider
07-07-2010, 09:29 AM
Difficult to say if the text is appearing any darker for me - maybe it is, but it is slight. Thanks for changing it, though. It's just too small. You say 13px this is fairly standard around the web? Well, yes - I find most websites to have fonts that are too small. Mostly, I just exit immediately but I guess now I think I'll have to change the resolution of my screen. It would be nice if I could use the browser's Text Size control but most sites have fixed fonts nowadays.

Replies: I'm not sure but the advanced reply seems different. Before, I saw the Quick Reply on the page but always clicked the reply button and went to a reply screen that allowed one's post to be reviewed. I don't think Quick Reply let you review - it doesn't now.

Verdana font: To my eye, this doesn't look like Verdana. When I typed the two lines in my previous post "This is Verdana" one was using the Verdana font selected from the font control and one was without any control - and they were the same. I think of Verdana as being larger, more rounded, less vertical and wider spaced. Just a guess - is there some letter-spacing style control in use that is squeezing the characters together.

Still. Never mind. These are just academic thoughts.

vangogh
07-07-2010, 10:55 AM
The thing with the font size is 13 px is actually bigger than most sites use. 12px seems to be the de facto. The old forum was 13.33px so the font here is only a tiny bit smaller. I certainly don't want it to be too small. I want everyone to be able to read it. I also like bigger fonts. It's making me wonder though if you're seeing something different than I am, since it seems fine to me as it is. I could probably bump it up to 14 px without it being too big for others.

I know this isn't a real solution and it's not something you should have to do, but temporarily until I sort this out you can hit ctrl+ to make things bigger. If either you or James can capture a screenshot and send it my way that would be great too. I want to make sure we're all seeing the same thing.

Spider
07-07-2010, 11:19 AM
Initially, Ctrl+ (125&#37;)made it larger but not more easy to read - I needed Ctrl++ (150&#37;). Now it seems easier so I'm thinking the near-black is having this effect. I'm hoping you will change it to 14px. Or just <small> so it becomes variable and every user can choose their own setting with the browser text size control.

I don't know how to make a screenshot, but if you tell me how I'll be happy to make one for you, if it will help. But how will that help anyway? Whatever I capture about my screen, your browser will alter it to display it according to your machine, wouldn't it?

Percentages are not displaying!

vangogh
07-07-2010, 11:32 AM
If making it larger isn't making it easier to read it might not be an issue with the font size. That's what I'm trying to figure out. I'll look into changing the font to 14px, but I might not be able to get to it till tomorrow if you can hold on.

A screenshot is an image of what you're seeing on the screen so it wouldn't get resized on my end. You to capture one is to hit alt+PrintScreen. That will capture an image of the program that's active on your computer. That only saves the image to your clipboard so you then have to paste it into an image editing program. Paint on Windows works fine.

There are better ways to get screenshots with free or paid programs. Do you use Firefox? I use an extension called Screengrab to capture screenshots. There are some other extensions that do the same, but that's the one I prefer. I also have some free programs on my Mac that allow me to capture screenshots as well. Not the kind of thing everyone needs, but I tend to use screenshot software a lot.

I see what you mean about percentages. Now that's a confusing one. I'll have to look into that.

jamestl2
07-07-2010, 12:42 PM
It's not just the primary text that's too small, it's most of the other text as well. The userinfo text for example, is only 11px, I think the 13px would actually be a good size for that text. Much of the other text around could usea few increases as well.

And rather than use 13px for the primary post text, I think 13pt, not px, is actually a fairly easy-to-read size. Although that might be too big for some people.

Also, I'm not entirely sure what you need a screenshot for, but here it is:

http://www.jameslewitzke.com/images/sbf.jpg

vangogh
07-07-2010, 12:47 PM
Thanks for the screen shot James. Exactly what I was looking for. 13pt would be way too big. That would be about 17px or 18px I think. 14px is about is big as I'll go. Quite honestly I think 13px is fine and again it's the same size as the old version of vB. I'm wondering if the issue is really something other than font size.

I can see how in other areas of the site the font does get smaller, though again I think the text is pretty much the same size as it was previously.

I probably won't have any time to work on this today, but I will look. Maybe I'll experiment with some different sizes and see how they look.

jamestl2
07-07-2010, 12:59 PM
Actually, I meant 11pt for the primary font. You're right 13pt is pretty big. Got those numbers mixed up when posting them.

11pt for the main post body text
13px for the majority of the other text (aka userarea of posts)

vangogh
07-07-2010, 01:12 PM
I changed the font size in the post to 14px. Does that work? 11pt was too big and fonts online shouldn't be specified in pts anyway. To be honest I liked the 13px better, but I do want to make things easier to read. When I get a chance I'll look into the text in other areas of the site.

Spider
07-07-2010, 01:52 PM
This larger font in the posts is great for me now. Actually, it seems quite a bit larger - more than I would have expected going from 13px to 14px. But in doing this the font color seems to have faded back to grey.

Obviously, the resolution of each of our respective monitors plays a part here, and I am using 1280 x 800 on a 17" diag. wide screen laptop. That is the lowest resolution I can use giving me the largest possible text to compensate for these ancient eyes.

vangogh
07-07-2010, 02:27 PM
Glad it helped. It does get bigger than expected. I could always try something like 13.5px, but I don't think all browsers handle the fraction. I think some round down which would take us back to 13px. It's easy enough to experiment. I do like 13px better personally, but this site is for all of us and I'd rather the font be a tad to big for my liking than too small for others.

Now to see if anyone thinks the font is too large. :)

cbscreative
07-07-2010, 04:10 PM
Wow, I go on vacation and vg renovates and rearranges all the furniture. It's a little bit to get used to, and just like others said, I thought I was on the wrong site for a few seconds.

I guess I should put revamping the logo on my schedule unless no one wants that old logo back. I was thinking all I need to do is place it inside a rectangle so it can still have a white background inside the dark blue band on the top. Sound good?

I know we had a few objections to the logo, but it seems most people liked it. I liked it just for its simplicity. I was surprised when I researched it after getting the idea, I could not find a forum using anything similar, and I thought the old typewriter look was quite ideal. Though very simple, it is unique, and both are basic requirements for a logo.

vangogh
07-07-2010, 04:18 PM
It is a change isn't it?

I didn't know what font you used in the old logo and not sure I would have it installed anyway. I went with the simple Helvetica here and I had to change the black text to be white for the new background. It's a transparent .png at the moment. I'm still debating whether to create a completely new design for the site. Feel free to get us a better logo than what's currently up there if you want.

Business Attorney
07-08-2010, 12:19 AM
Kudos to Vangogh for putting "Today's Posts" back on the nav bar.

vangogh
07-08-2010, 12:52 AM
Yeah that was the first thing I worked on. I need that as much as anyone.

Since we've been talking about it here, what do you think of the size of the font. I made it bigger (14px) though I preferred it the way it was (13px).

Business Attorney
07-08-2010, 01:08 AM
The day you installed the update, I thought it was small so I changed the size by holding Control and the wheel on my mouse. The page has stayed the same size ever since. Apparently Firefox remembers any screen adjustments from site to site because I have never changed it again. So now I don't know what "normal" is.

vangogh
07-08-2010, 01:17 AM
I guess I was the only one who didn't think it too small. Maybe it is a resolution thing. I'm fine with how it is now so I'll be happy to leave it since it works better for everyone else.

FF will remember the setting in the tab I think. You can reset it if you want by hitting ctrl+0

ctrl + (increases the size)
ctrl - (decreases the size)
ctrl 0 (resets to original size)

Spider
07-08-2010, 09:37 AM
In Explorer, there is a percentage in the bottom righthand corner of the browser that tells you the magnification setting. (Same controls.)

In case it matters to anyone, this is not a resizing of the font in either FF or IE - it is a magnification of the whiole page, pictures and all. To control the font size only, the text size button in the top tool bar and View menu (IE only) will do that if the webpage developer has not restricted that ability by writing their webpage with fixed size font.

Business Attorney
07-08-2010, 09:49 AM
I guess I was the only one who didn't think it too small. Maybe it is a resolution thing. I'm fine with how it is now so I'll be happy to leave it since it works better for everyone else.

FF will remember the setting in the tab I think. You can reset it if you want by hitting ctrl+0

ctrl + (increases the size)
ctrl - (decreases the size)
ctrl 0 (resets to original size)

When I first get to a site, I adjust it to a size that works for my eyes and how the pages appear on my screen. My office computer, my laptop and my desktop at home all have different screens and therefore different settings.

So here's the punchline. I am at work and hit ctrl 0. The size instantly increased. So at least at work, the normal font is a little too big for me.

vangogh
07-08-2010, 11:27 AM
Funny David. I guess it really does come down to the resolution of the computer you're using. It's interesting how the same thing looks too small in one place and too big in another.

jamestl2
07-09-2010, 12:27 AM
Just wanted to say here the text size looks good, even 13px wouldn't be that small.

I do occasionally use the scrolling feature FF for some sites too, especially the corporate-looking ones that use 8px text and under. I don't know how they figure anybody can read text that tiny.

vangogh
07-09-2010, 12:39 AM
But the text was 13px when you thought it was too small. At least that's what it was set at and what I was seeing it as. Weird how it looked so different to all of us. At least at 14px we all seem to able to read things.

I know what you mean about the really tiny text. The lowest I'll set main body text is 13px. That's actually the size I prefer. 14px is about as big as I like to see it. 13-14px translates to the typical size used in prints for books. On the web I think people tried to set px at the same number they set pts. There's no real translation between the two, but you generally need a bigger number of px to have text display the same size as the equivalent pts.

jamestl2
07-09-2010, 01:05 AM
I think that might be because I wasn't expecting the transition from 13 to 14px to be that great, the original size looked a bit smaller than 13px.

Personally when I design themes and other sites, the sizes often vary depending on the site factors. I normally think bigger text is better, not humongous, but bigger. Just makes the page easier to read.

Harold Mansfield
07-09-2010, 01:13 AM
I think the text size is perfect just the way it is right now.

vangogh
07-09-2010, 01:23 AM
James a lot of it comes down to your monitor size and resolution. A friend of mine has one of those 30 inch monitors. Websites are a thin strip down the middle. I designed a site for him and he kept asking me to increase the font size. 16px was too small. So was 18px and 22px. Finally he saw it on my laptop and realized it couldn't be that big.

Harold I still liked it better at 13px, but maybe that's my monitor more than anything. 14px is fine to me though. A little bigger than I like, but not at all too big.

Spider
07-09-2010, 01:22 PM
Another factor I'm finding is my mood/the weather/what I ate for breakfast/i don't know. ..... but this morning the font looks slightly smaller than it was yesterday but not as small as it was at the beginning. And it looks blacker, too. If we were playing a guessing game, I'd guess at 13.6px and color 000.

vangogh
07-09-2010, 03:38 PM
See why it's hard to satisfy everyone? :)

I think I set the font at #111 so close to black and probably not a noticeable difference with #000. The font is still set at 14px. I also haven't changed anything in a couple of days so it should look today exactly how it looked yesterday.

jamestl2
07-09-2010, 10:03 PM
Thanks Harold. I like the new look better than the old look too. Seems a little more modern to me. I'd like to add the latest blog post thing too. We use it on the webmaster forum I admin. I never could find a plugin for it on the old version, but will look again with the new version as soon as I get a chance.


Wow, don't know how I missed this suggestion!

This is a feature I had already incorporated into my site's vB forum. It's a vBulletin plugin called CARP that grabs the RSS feed and displays the latest post (I'm still running vBulletin 3.8, so I'm only running Carp 3.5 (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=91781), but this is the latest version of the plugin for 4.0):
Latest Blog in Postbit Using Carp for vBulletin 4.x - vBulletin.org Forum (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=234254)

There's both a free and paid version. The paid version I believe has more advanced features and even self-hosting for the feeds (I think), but I only use the free version, which is enough to just display the links in the postbit.

I assume installation is pretty much the same. It basically creates a DB table to store the information and requires another plugin or two to configure and display it properly (which are fairly easy to create).

If you wanted to see the plugin in action, just take a peek at any one of the posts on my Engipress forum for reference.

vangogh
07-11-2010, 07:48 PM
I downloaded the free version of Carp and have instructions bookmarked to get this set up. Just haven't found the time yet. This weekend I was at a WordCamp conference and also a bit under the weather. I'm not sure if I'll have to time during the week or if it'll have to wait till next weekend. From glancing through the instructions it looks like you upload and install carp and then make a few edits to the vBulletin template.

This is definitely something I want to add. It'll be another way those of us with a blog can get something back from the forum.

jamestl2
07-13-2010, 01:33 PM
Sounds good. Yeah, that's pretty much the jist of it.

One more thing I noticed too is the favicon is missing. You'd probably have to just re-upload it, if you're planning on using the same one as before.

vangogh
07-13-2010, 01:43 PM
Yep. I forgot I overwrote the old when I uploaded the new files for vB 4. Steve also made a new logo to replace the quickie one I did and again it's a matter of uploading it. Hopefully both later tonight.

The Carp stuff will probably wait till the weekend when I have a bit more time.

jamestl2
07-27-2010, 11:48 AM
The new logo looks very nice, although the current image takes up more vertical blank space than the actual image needs. It probably doesn't need to be 75px tall.

vangogh
07-27-2010, 12:48 PM
The image is that size so if someone is viewing at 800px the links in the right fit above it. If the height of the image is reduced the links end up covering the logo.

jamestl2
07-27-2010, 12:55 PM
I see what you mean. I temporarily adjusted my monitor to see the difference. Don't know how anyone could view the site at that size though, that's huge!

It does look like wasted space on a 1024px screen. Don't worry though, it's not really a big issue...

vangogh
07-27-2010, 12:59 PM
I know. I was thinking the same thing. It started smaller, but I still test at 800px even if it's not a common resolution width anymore. Seemed like a reasonable tradeoff to leave some extra space to ensure it worked at 800px. I think enough of the visits here are still at 800x600 to justify it.

At some point (if and when I find time) I'll likely start working on making changes to the theme and see if I can improve on the current look.