LinuxVillage

LinuxVillage welcome => Rules and life of the forum => Discussion démarrée par: melodie le 24 octobre 2015 à 17:16:24

Titre: Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 24 octobre 2015 à 17:16:24
Hi,

2015 ending, let's do a summary on the state of the small Linuxvillage Community. We have few participations, with a very small number of people posting. The numbers today:
3636 Messages in 685 Topics by 88 Members.

Last user registered: jojolemerou. Welcome to him!

60 members posted at least once, 28 membres never posted so far.
 
When the adventure started, Desmoric and turzin co-created Linuxvillage, then later had to leave to take care of their families and non for profit assocations, and I continued and maintained the forum. There had been several moves related to server issues, then Gandi.net accepted to offer us a PAAS (a dedicated space in a virtual machine) on their professional servers which brought stability and security.

Some English speaking members became less present and shortly after not anymore when I attempted to put some power into their hands. (ego-ego, "if I'm the one to move a thread, it's not you" - well dumb things!)

In short, I don't know if this forum is still useful, except for an access to the tips and tricks posted in the two sections, in French and in English.

You need to tell me : do we continue? Do we stop? If we continue, do we need improvements, such as modifying sections or other things?

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: OnlyHuman le 25 octobre 2015 à 19:25:09
Some ramblings:

Many users probably visit their distro forum more than this one.
There are many linux distros and what people want from their distro installed systems can vary greatly, so probably impossible to please everyone.
Possibly an English forum version rather than just an English section would be better, or a simple means so the French language can be clicked and converted to English.
I daresay sometimes user  loose interest in linux or have other more important life commitments that prohibit their time for linux
Maybe the reason and aim of the  forum could be explained more.
Good luck with whatever you decide.
Best wishes
OnlyHuman
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 26 octobre 2015 à 22:49:48
Hi Melodie

I enjoyed posting here, a few technical things, a while ago.
Sorry I did not post more, I got side-tracked and was too busy, then forgot to look back.
I do post links to this forum from other forums like the LXDE and puppy forums.
I think there is a lot on this forum, but in my opinion the index page is too long and 'boring' and could do with condensing into a shorter page, it has to grab people and attract them in.
I would try a new layout with two columns instead of one.
I would try to use colour to highlight and differentiate different topics.
Make it look pretty and visually exciting and make the titles exciting and give people a 'teaser text' so they want to know more.
That brings me to another suggestion . . . it would be quite easy to set up a twitter feed that links into this forum and your related web sites. People could then embed your twitter feed on their websites and keep an eye on new happenings.
The beauty of twitter is in its simplicity and immediacy, updated daily and you can add photos and graphics.
Also try to send a mail shot to inboxes once  a month, I am sure existing members won't mind.
Thanks for all your hard work and effort and I hope the forum stays and gets more users and more content posted.
I will try to post something in the near future.

To sum up . . . I think the index page looks a bit dull and boring and it needs to made more exciting and be enjoyable so people want to visit here rather than anywhere else.
The index page links to fun and exciting topics, but it needs to be fun and exciting itself, because people spend only seconds looking and then click away, you need to attract their attention I think. IMHO.
Regards
Kevin
England UK Dorset
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 01 novembre 2015 à 15:12:37
Hello everyone!

kjdixo, thanks for your ideas. Let's see what we can do with them. I'll certainly make the sections more simple, by merging a few ones which can be merged. I might also gather all the English sections so that they all follow, and same for the French ones.

As for the colors, you are very right but I don't know how to create a skin for a forum and I don't have time to learn about that, especially as there are still many things to do to continue the development of Bento Openbox (there is a new website started for the Bento Openbox project, with the name "bentovillage").

If you wish to submit one, and if it can use the "Show topics for Past: 24h 48h 72h" plugin, then I would gladly install it, as an alternative (have you checked your profile? There are more themes available for the members logged in, and you can choose more at the SMF forum which I'll install if you use it).

OnlyHuman, thanks for your comment! Hope to see you here with your new babies built on Unity-Linux!

Best regards,
Mélodie

PS: "or a simple means so the French language can be clicked and converted to English."
this is never bringing very good results, it's ok for a "once and a while" use, but on the long run it's tiring to read badly translated sentences. Figure out: I am almost perfectly fluent in English (though not perfectly fluent), I use both French and English spelling dictionaries in Firefox, once a while use on line dictionaries to seek for a word… I can tell you about it. ;-)



Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 03 novembre 2015 à 10:05:19
Melodie
Citer
As for the colors, you are very right but I don't know how to create a skin for a forum and I don't have time to learn about that . . .
I am the same, but I will help as soon as I have some spare time.
Consider 3 methods, all 3 have 'pros and cons'.
1. Use a predefined skin written by someone else.
2. Dive into the default CSS and tinker with the code (using expert knowledge of CSS).
3. Use a predefined skin written by someone else and then go to method 2.
Never satisfied with predefined templates, I usually customise them if it is not too difficult..
Several years ago I changed the look of a 'phpbb2' forum by modifying the CSS so I know what is involved and it can be quite a big task that also needs thorough testing.

Yesterday I tried installing SMF on localhost on my puppy linux computer but I had problems starting mysql, which is required for the forum to work.
So I installed it online 'for testing purposes only'.
http://www.kdworld7.net/smf (http://www.kdworld7.net/smf)
I am very busy at present,
When I have some spare time and the inclination I will start to investigate the options (do some experiments).
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 03 novembre 2015 à 23:36:49
Hi kjdixo,

I look forward to read about your tests. On the French forum there is also a discussion running: http://forum.linuxvillage.org/index.php/topic,731.msg4131.html#msg4131

I said I can install what members want, but not tweak skins to get the "Show topics for Past: 24h 48h 72h" inside each of them. It's up to the members to submit what they wish. (And also I'll be announcing new versions of Bento Trusty very soon, with lots of small improvements, and a full update).


Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 05 novembre 2015 à 17:54:15
Hi Melodie
Please take a look at

http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php (http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php)

It is not finished, I will wait for your suggestions and comments before continuing.
Thanks
Kevin
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 08 novembre 2015 à 12:05:27
Hi kjdixo,

There is someone in the French section who pointed to the choice of themes at SMF. The very purpose of the topic related to the turning point would be more about topics and the value of our exchanges than in the colors of the forum, however, each member should feel comfortable with the colors, this is why I will just say, if you create a new theme that you like, I'll install it (provided it does not break the forum) : then you are free to set it up for your own use in your profile. I notice the author of the theme you picked to work on it, and visiting his other contributions, I see this one (a bit old and I don't know if it would work with the actual SMF):
http://custom.simplemachines.org/themes/index.php?action=download;lemma=1426;id=8667;image

I kind of like it, the colors match well together and the first site has some good energy.

I have worked last night, on making the sections more simple, less main categories, merged several in one in each main group. I hope this will please the visitors and the members. I have also gathered the French and English sections together.

Any comments?

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 08 novembre 2015 à 20:59:03
Hi Melodie
The tabs-fun.zip theme is an excellent theme, I am very glad you found that.
The tabs are colourful and are better than icons.
The orange hover is good.
If you want to you can replace the black icons with more descriptive images.
It also looks more standard than my effort . . . which I have now changed to test this new theme you found.

Combine the new theme with your simplifications and merging of topics and I think that is a good start and much better than before.
Look at http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php (http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php) where I am testing this old 2009 theme on the latest SMF 2.0.11.
It appears to work.
So good luck installing it.
kjdixo
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 08 novembre 2015 à 21:24:31
Re: Black Icons
I found out that the black icons are dynamic and change colour as follows:
Black = No New Posts
Red = New Posts
So that is very handy . . . it is easy to see the new posts.

There are a few minor, unimportant positioning errors where text is not central.
It does not use 2 columns, but that is not a problem now - because you have simplified the category structure.
I think it works better than the current theme.
Both visually and in action (user friendly).
I look forward to seeing the modified, improved forum.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 08 novembre 2015 à 21:58:11
The plugin 24h 48h 72h does not appear anywhere . . . I cannot find it even though it is installed.
So if this is important to you then maybe do some tests and verify you can see it before changing the theme.
Titre: Re : Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 09 novembre 2015 à 00:44:01
The plugin 24h 48h 72h does not appear anywhere . . . I cannot find it even though it is installed.
So if this is important to you then maybe do some tests and verify you can see it before changing the theme.

Hi,

The plugin : it works with the default SMF theme. If another theme is activated, and if we want it to work with another theme, the theme needs to be modified.

The new theme you are working on : even if I install it, it might not be the default theme. (Please check your profile if you didn't yet, you should find a choice for different themes, which are installed and available for anyone who wants to pick up something else than the default).

So any new theme I will add will not become the default, unless it pleases most members, or unless it's likely to please most members (who can still choose another theme for their own default profile) and can be tweaked to have that "last messages" links available. I see you have done a very good job in testing the tabbed theme. Do you think it's possible for you to work more on it? ie: if I suggest more colors for the tabs, ask you to add the Linuxvillage header to see how it matches... and perhaps try to see how to integrate the said plugin with this theme? (the SMF forums might help with that).

BTW, do you see the "24h 48h 72h " plugin here, with the default theme, once you are logged in? I know there is this "div=/show/hide" (id="upshrink") at the upper right corner of the forum, which I'd like to remove it from the css.



Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 09 novembre 2015 à 11:56:07
On your default current theme.
Yes I do see the upshrink icon and the 24 48 72 plugin working.

On my 2 column modified theme  I saw it and it worked also (now replaced with your single column fun-tabs theme).
On the fun-tabs theme I do not see it, so it might need some more code to get it to display.
Even 'view source' on the html does not 'reveal it' as 'hidden by the css'.
I can work more on this and would like to see it finished but I am very busy for 2 days so tuesday evening I will look again.
Also would I appreciate quick responses to my questions (feedback and comments), so I don't work for days on something that is going down the wrong track.
I can easily modify the css to do small specific tweaks.
I think it would be best for you to point out each small modification to me, one at a time, so we proceed in a manner that is under your control.
Thanks very much.
kjdixo
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 09 novembre 2015 à 14:44:45
I could not answer right away the first time because I needed to think about it. I assure you I respond as fast as I can usually. You can take the time you want, and if you want it to be a closed topic once you can find how to implement the plugin in the theme, it's not a problem. If you feel I lack responsiveness (which isn't in my habbits), you can still send me a private message so I get a notificaction.

Thanks for your work by the way!

PS: I will be out tomorrow and the next week-end. From wednesday to friday I will try to find some time to study a set of other colors for the tabs and the black/red arrows.



Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 09 novembre 2015 à 18:59:57
Very good.
Thanks.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 14 novembre 2015 à 10:08:25
Hi,

I have started to look, just right now I'm not at home, I'll be back this evening and hopefully can take some time during the week-end, i'll do a screenshot of the test forum you put up and test some colors. I think red and black are way too strong to be used with this tone of blue. However colors need to be picked carefully not to hurt the sight.

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 16 novembre 2015 à 14:15:07
Hi,

Here is what I have come with:
http://meets.free.fr/images/forum-test.png

(http://pix.toile-libre.org/upload/img/1447679474.png) (http://pix.toile-libre.org/?img=1447679474.png)

Of course it's opened to improvements. ie : if you like the idea of the shading on the sides, it could be improved to match better with the color at the top. I did my best, however I am not a graphist. Perhaps the banner would be better in the center, or in the right side… and the search field on the top right removed as there is already a search tab.

How do you feel about the colors in this draft?

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 17 novembre 2015 à 11:46:09
Hi Melodie
Sorry for the wait, I was busy.
I think it looks good, except for these few points.
1. Difference between icons 'New posts' (dark orange) and 'No New posts' (light orange) is not pronounced enough. I would maybe use the html background-color: 'lime' which is a bright green for New posts. It is easy to see and complements the orange.
Also, the black borders around the orange icons look a bit 'clunky', they could be made to look more smooth and glassy and 3d.
2. Zooming in on the tabs, I see that the gradient colour is 2 steps red/orange, it would be nicer to use css3 and produce a sort of gradient effect, though not all browsers are html5 and css3 capable. Or change the code to use images for the tabs and then all older browsers will render complex 'artistic tabs'. I prefer to use css tabs rather than images because css loads faster than images.
3. The banner looks ok. The background gradient is ok.
The banner could be enlarged to fill the full page width and blend in and be more integrated..
4. Experiment with thin borders, they can transform a page from unfinished and ordinary to very professional looking.
Titre: Re : Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 17 novembre 2015 à 12:50:48
Hi Melodie
Sorry for the wait, I was busy.

Well you waited for me too, and I couldn't help it. Don't worry I know how it is. I am glad to have you here bring your ideas and help.

Citer
I think it looks good, except for these few points.
1. Difference between icons 'New posts' (dark orange) and 'No New posts' (light orange) is not pronounced enough. I would maybe use the html background-color: 'lime' which is a bright green for New posts. It is easy to see and complements the orange.

Then if you use lime, or any kind of green, please reuse a bit of any of the green tones which are already in the banner, and check that the colors look nice together (can you do a screenshot on a test image and do that with gimp, inkscape or so?)
I guess you know color pickers such as gcolor2?

Citer
Also, the black borders around the orange icons look a bit 'clunky', they could be made to look more smooth and glassy and 3d.

Well I am at risk to look picky, however "smooth and 3d" is ok with me, glassy isn't that much. I know a few members who would not like it, so if some gradient effect can be done to make it look consistant, I agree with that. Let's try to avoid these old glassy effects. :)

I don't want the black borders either, I just did a fast "select by colors" and "poor some other color", using Gimp. I told you, I am not a graphist. (I just have an eye for colors, and the original colors of this theme seem much too strong and agressive to me, then also I feel the need for bits of hot colors red tones, but not too dark and so on).

Citer
2. Zooming in on the tabs, I see that the gradient colour is 2 steps red/orange, it would be nicer to use css3 and produce a sort of gradient effect, though not all browsers are html5 and css3 capable. Or change the code to use images for the tabs and then all older browsers will render complex 'artistic tabs'. I prefer to use css tabs rather than images because css loads faster than images.

We can try either or, as you wish. Then you will need to check how it renders in Firefox, Opera, Midori, and Chromium Browser. Nowadays these are the main browser (let's forget about IE). Also the forum isn't responsive and I suppose it's not possible to make it responsive? What do you think?

Citer
3. The banner looks ok. The background gradient is ok.
The banner could be enlarged to fill the full page width and blend in and be more integrated..
4. Experiment with thin borders, they can transform a page from unfinished and ordinary to very professional looking.

I agree completely. I don't know how to do that. Is it your main professional occupation?


Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 17 novembre 2015 à 16:02:10
Hi again,

Rafaellaguna, who did the last version of the header, just sent me back the SVG. It is available here (http://phillw.net/isos/bento-ubuntu-remix/misc/LinuxvillageProject/header_forum.svg). I just miss the lettering right now (font type), I need to find where…
Here it is! (http://phillw.net/isos/bento-ubuntu-remix/misc/LinuxvillageProject/KGWhattheTeacherWants.ttf)
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 18 novembre 2015 à 18:53:50
I am in a bit of a hurry to go out so I will answer your questions tomorrow.
However, I have tinkered with the css to produce orange and green icons (css actually, not images).
I added the following 2 lines to style.css in the tabs-fun theme.

a img[title='New Posts']{cursor:pointer;width:0px;height:0px;border-left:40px solid #9ce000;border-top:20px solid transparent;border-bottom:20px solid transparent}
a img[title='No New Posts']{cursor:pointer;width:0px;height:0px;border-left:40px solid orange;border-top:20px solid transparent;border-bottom:20px solid transparent}
The result is here
http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php

and here is a screenshot
(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/new-posts.png)
When 'logged in' the green "icons" are visible.

I will post more tomorrow
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 18 novembre 2015 à 19:41:14
Hello,

I have had other feedback from someone who follows the forum while not registered, its about the colors. We should use very light yellow for the "new messages" icons, and pale green for the rest, in her opinion. (red being an "alert/danger" signal). I'll try to work on this idea and produce a model using again a screenshot from your new layer on the test forum.

Have a good end of day!
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 19 novembre 2015 à 00:30:03
I changed the colours to pale yellow and pale green, which did not look good on a white background, so I changed the background to pale blue, which seems to 'blend in well' with the darker blues and helps to highlight the icons.
a img[title='New Posts']{cursor:pointer;width:0px;height:0px;border-left:40px solid #ffffb3;border-top:20px solid transparent;border-bottom:20px solid transparent}
a img[title='No New Posts']{cursor:pointer;width:0px;height:0px;border-left:40px solid #66cc99;border-top:20px solid transparent;border-bottom:20px solid transparent}
.windowbg{background-color:#ccebff}
Here is a screenshot
(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/new-posts2.png)

and the test forum with the new colours.
http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php (http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php)
I can see the yellows ('new post' icons) only when logged in . . . is that correct . . . or should they be visible to everyone (when not logged in)?
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 19 novembre 2015 à 01:23:57
The green and yellow and light blue background colors look very nice. Visible to everyone is better. We have sign up and sign in only for the reason we don't want spammers/spambots, but we don't hide the posts nor the activity.

About the tabs, which colors should we use now? the same green for the main color and yellow for the hover, or reverse?

For your other idea related to the banner, did you see I linked to the sources? SVG and font? Also can you stretch the main body and use a fading color on the edges as in this pic? http://meets.free.fr/images/forum-test.png
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 19 novembre 2015 à 02:13:12
Far from being perfect yet (the banner integration needs more care of course), but here is the idea about the borders, which I wanted to share: http://meets.free.fr/images/test-forum-look-with-narrower-body.png

(http://pix.toile-libre.org/upload/img/1447895574.png) (http://pix.toile-libre.org/?img=1447895574.png)
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 19 novembre 2015 à 17:05:55
Citer
did you see I linked to the sources? SVG and font?
Yes, I installed the font on my computer, but it did not display in the svg.

For now, I have experimented with the original png and the css code.
I fixed the gradient background (946px) + below filled with css coloured background  as requested, but it faded to white, which was much too harsh on the eyes.
So I cropped the background gradient  to 900px height (not yet bright white, but slightly blue tinted) and used the colour value of the 900th pixel to use as the background colour to the page bottom.
I am keeping all my modifications at the end of style.css in the tabs-fun theme.
.logo_name{margin-left:0px;/* kjdixo modifications start */border:solid 1px white;border-radius:0.5em;margin-top:10px;background-size:cover;min-height:140px;background-image:url(../../header_linuxvillage2.png);background-repeat:no-repeat}
.level1,.level2{padding-top:6px}
.level1{border-top-left-radius:0.4em;border-top-right-radius:0.4em}
.level2{border-radius:0.2em}
/* resized images/short_bg.jpg and images/short_bg2.jpg to 50px height */
a img[title='New Posts']{cursor:pointer;width:0px;height:0px;border-left:40px solid #ffffb3;border-top:20px solid transparent;border-bottom:20px solid transparent}
a img[title='No New Posts']{cursor:pointer;width:0px;height:0px;border-left:40px solid #66cc99;border-top:20px solid transparent;border-bottom:20px solid transparent}
.windowbg{background-color:#ccebff}
body{background:url(images/backdrop3.png);background-repeat:repeat-x;padding: 0% 4% 0% 4%;background-color:#f0f6fa}
div.user_info.clearfix{background-color:#ccebff;border-top-left-radius:0.5em;border-top-right-radius:0.5em;height:80px}
div.user_info.clearfix center{font-size:120%;margin-top:10px}
li{background-color:#ccebff}
li.level1,li.level2{background-color:transparent}
div#footerarea.headerpadding.topmargin.clearfix{background-color:#ccebff}
div#bodyarea{background-color:#ccebff;padding:14px 4px 4px 4px}
form,form input,form select{margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;font-size:120%}
form#search_form{margin-right:15%;margin-top:284px;display:none}
.logo_name h1{display:none}
div#menu a.level1,div#menu span.level1{padding-top:4px;background-color:transparent}
.tall_bg{padding:0px 0px}
#infocenter_login{background-color:#ccebff;border:solid 1px black;border-radius:0.2em}
(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/new-posts3.png)

http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php
 (http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php)
I now have to do other things . . . that is all for today.
Titre: Re : Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 20 novembre 2015 à 03:01:38
Yes, I installed the font on my computer, but it did not display in the svg.

Does it display in the choice of fonts in Inkscape when you load the image? If not, you might want to consider typing in console "fc-cache reload", or the same with sudo if you installed the font in /usr/share/fonts/TTF for instance. If it's loaded in the choice of fonts in Inkscape, you will need to apply it to the text.

Citer
For now, I have experimented with the original png and the css code.
I fixed the gradient background (946px) + below filled with css coloured background  as requested, but it faded to white, which was much too harsh on the eyes.
So I cropped the background gradient  to 900px height (not yet bright white, but slightly blue tinted) and used the colour value of the 900th pixel to use as the background colour to the page bottom.
I am keeping all my modifications at the end of style.css in the tabs-fun theme.

I don't get it all, but the result is becoming better and better.

Citer
.logo_name{margin-left:0px;/* kjdixo modifications start */border:solid 1px white;border-radius:0.5em;margin-top:10px;background-size:cover;min-height:140px;background-image:url(../../header_linuxvillage2.png);background-repeat:no-repeat}
.level1,.level2{padding-top:6px}
.level1{border-top-left-radius:0.4em;border-top-right-radius:0.4em}
.level2{border-radius:0.2em}
/* resized images/short_bg.jpg and images/short_bg2.jpg to 50px height */
a img[title='New Posts']{cursor:pointer;width:0px;height:0px;border-left:40px solid #ffffb3;border-top:20px solid transparent;border-bottom:20px solid transparent}
a img[title='No New Posts']{cursor:pointer;width:0px;height:0px;border-left:40px solid #66cc99;border-top:20px solid transparent;border-bottom:20px solid transparent}
.windowbg{background-color:#ccebff}
body{background:url(images/backdrop3.png);background-repeat:repeat-x;padding: 0% 4% 0% 4%;background-color:#f0f6fa}
div.user_info.clearfix{background-color:#ccebff;border-top-left-radius:0.5em;border-top-right-radius:0.5em;height:80px}
div.user_info.clearfix center{font-size:120%;margin-top:10px}
li{background-color:#ccebff}
li.level1,li.level2{background-color:transparent}
div#footerarea.headerpadding.topmargin.clearfix{background-color:#ccebff}
div#bodyarea{background-color:#ccebff;padding:14px 4px 4px 4px}
form,form input,form select{margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;font-size:120%}
form#search_form{margin-right:15%;margin-top:284px;display:none}
.logo_name h1{display:none}
div#menu a.level1,div#menu span.level1{padding-top:4px;background-color:transparent}
.tall_bg{padding:0px 0px}
#infocenter_login{background-color:#ccebff;border:solid 1px black;border-radius:0.2em}

If the main body of the forum could be even more narrow it would be better. (I think the actual default skin is a bit more narrow, and yet it seems somehow a bit wide, so while you are on it…).

The tabs might look nicer with two tones yellow, one as light as the lightest here pix.toile-libre.org/?img=1447895574.png and one darker as what you got here: http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php

It could be the light yellow from here: http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/new-posts2.png


light yellow: #FFFFB3
other light yellow: #FDF4A9

darker yellow: #FECB2A // as in this pic of your's: http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/new-posts3.png
other darker yellow: #FBBA71

A try would be welcome. I know the version I put up was clumsy, http://pix.toile-libre.org/upload/img/1447895574.png but this tone for the tabs was the closest I have been able to get to the idea. 
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 20 novembre 2015 à 10:46:59
Hi Melodie
I will install and look at inkscape later.
My latest modifications . . . tab colours and more space at left and right sides.

(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/new-posts4.png)


http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php
 (http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php)

/* kjdixo modifications start */
.logo_name{margin-left:0px;border:solid 1px white;border-radius:0.5em;margin-top:10px;background-size:cover;min-height:140px;background-image:url(../../header_linuxvillage2.png);background-repeat:no-repeat}
.level1{border-top-left-radius:0.4em;border-top-right-radius:0.4em}
.level2{border-radius:0.2em}
/* resized images/short_bg.jpg and images/short_bg2.jpg to 50px height */
a img[title='New Posts']{cursor:pointer;width:0px;height:0px;border-left:40px solid #ffffb3;border-top:20px solid transparent;border-bottom:20px solid transparent}
a img[title='No New Posts']{cursor:pointer;width:0px;height:0px;border-left:40px solid #66cc99;border-top:20px solid transparent;border-bottom:20px solid transparent}
.windowbg{background-color:#ccebff}
body{background:url(images/backdrop3.png);background-repeat:repeat-x;padding: 0% 8% 0% 8%;background-color:#f0f6fa}
div.user_info.clearfix{background-color:#ccebff;border-top-left-radius:0.5em;border-top-right-radius:0.5em;height:80px}
div.user_info.clearfix center{font-size:120%;margin-top:10px}
li{background-color:#ccebff}
li.level1,li.level2{background-color:transparent}
div#footerarea.headerpadding.topmargin.clearfix{background-color:#ccebff}
div#bodyarea{background-color:#ccebff;padding:14px 4px 4px 4px}
form,form input,form select{margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;font-size:120%}
form#search_form{margin-right:15%;margin-top:284px;display:none}
.logo_name h1{display:none}
div#menu a.level1,div#menu span.level1{padding-top:6px;background-color:transparent}
.tall_bg{padding:0px 0px}
#infocenter_login{background-color:#ccebff;border:solid 1px black;border-radius:0.2em}
.title,div#menu a.level2,div#menu span.level2{color:navy}
/* transformed colour of images/tab_bg.jpg using mtPaint */

What do you think?
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 20 novembre 2015 à 12:32:58
Hello!

I think I don't have much more to say, apart from some shadowning should be nice too on the left green arrows (I suppose you have thought about that). For my like, now we need a bit of hot colour somewhere, but I need to think about it, or find some people who can suggest something that fits.

I am going to ask around and see who can help.

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 21 novembre 2015 à 00:13:23
I added some shadows to the left green buttons

http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php
 (http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php)

(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/new-posts5.png)

/* kjdixo modifications start */
.logo_name{margin-left:0px;border:solid 1px white;border-radius:0.5em;margin-top:10px;background-size:cover;min-height:140px;background-image:url(../../header_linuxvillage2.png);background-repeat:no-repeat}
.level1{border-top-left-radius:0.4em;border-top-right-radius:0.4em}
.level2{border-radius:0.2em}
/* resized images/short_bg.jpg and images/short_bg2.jpg to 50px height */
a img[title='New Posts']{cursor:pointer;width:0px;height:0px;border-left:40px solid #ffffb3;border-top:20px solid transparent;border-bottom:20px solid transparent}
/* a img[title='No New Posts']{cursor:pointer;width:0px;height:0px;border-left:40px solid #66cc99;border-top:20px solid transparent;border-bottom:20px solid transparent}*/
.windowbg{background-color:#ccebff}
body{background:url(images/backdrop3.png);background-repeat:repeat-x;padding: 0% 8% 0% 8%;background-color:#f0f6fa}
div.user_info.clearfix{background-color:#ccebff;border-top-left-radius:0.5em;border-top-right-radius:0.5em;height:80px}
div.user_info.clearfix center{font-size:120%;margin-top:10px}
li{background-color:#ccebff}
li.level1,li.level2{background-color:transparent}
div#footerarea.headerpadding.topmargin.clearfix{background-color:#ccebff}
div#bodyarea{background-color:#ccebff;padding:14px 4px 4px 4px}
form,form input,form select{margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;font-size:120%}
form#search_form{margin-right:15%;margin-top:284px;display:none}
.logo_name h1{display:none}
div#menu a.level1,div#menu span.level1{padding-top:6px;background-color:transparent}
.tall_bg{padding:0px 0px}
#infocenter_login{background-color:#ccebff;border:solid 1px black;border-radius:0.2em}
.title,div#menu a.level2,div#menu span.level2{color:navy}
/* transformed colour of images/tab_bg.jpg using mtPaint */
/* mtPaint snapshot of zoomed in css web button, then made background transparent, then ImageMagick to create a shadow, then resized with Mirage to (48x48) including background, result is a new images/off.png */

If they are ok . . . then I will go ahead and do the same for the yellow side buttons?
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 21 novembre 2015 à 11:38:28
Hi,

I feel sorry, I sayd shadowed, where I really wanted to say gradient, as in the tabs. I'll work this afternoon on seeking for something related to "how to add again a little bit of hot colors somewhere and what tint", and will post back.

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 21 novembre 2015 à 13:43:51
The green arrow buttons now have a very subtle soft shading - not too much.

http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php
 (http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php)
(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/new-posts6.png)
I experimented with various types of shading and some shading is too severe and looks bad.
Now the shading is enough to stop the buttons looking flat, whilst still remaining 'low-key' and 'under-stated'.
I started with my mTpaint image of the flat green button mask3.png.
(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/mask3.png)
This was obtained by doing a screenshot of my green css web button, with the browser zoomed in to make it (233x233px).
I was able to make the above screenshot have a transparent background using mTpaint channels and mask.
I had a white background and chose to make the white background transparent.
Citer
MTPaint: 7.5.7 Creating a Mask from a Single Colour
Pick the colour from the canvas using Ctrl+Left/Right mouse click to store it in colour A & B
Create a new channels using 'Set colour A radius B'
Then I used imageMagick to do 2 steps (see code snippet below):

http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/advanced/#aqua_effects
 (http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/advanced/#aqua_effects)

convert.im6 mask3.png -alpha Extract -blur 0x8  -shade 130x30 -alpha On -background gray10 -alpha background -auto-level aqua_shade2.png

convert.im6 mask3.png aqua_shade2.png -compose Softlight -composite aqua_result.png
Then resized to 48x48px.
I realize that you wanted 'gradient like the tabs' . . .  which I can do.
I thought that first I would demonstrate, the above shading effect, which might be sufficient, or maybe combine that with a gradient effect on the top surface of the button.
There are many combinations of gradient (angle, multiple gradients and shapes ... triangular?) colours, etc).
I think that simply putting a vetical gradient on a triangular arrow button would look a bit strange.
But I can try it, if you like.

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 21 novembre 2015 à 14:34:17
Hello,

I don't know yet for the gradient method. I want to ask Rafaellaguna for advice, if I can get in touch with him. Meanwhile, would you want to try this png?
http://meets.free.fr/images/new-header.png

It is bigger than the one you have used, hopefully it will be less blurry. I don't know what should the width and height be?

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 21 novembre 2015 à 15:28:15
Added the new header that is less blurry.

(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/new-header.png)

style.css in tabs-fun also changed to reference the new image
.logo_name{margin-left:0px;border:solid 1px white;border-radius:0.5em;margin-top:10px;background-size:cover;min-height:140px;background-image:url(../../new-header.png);background-repeat:no-repeat}
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 21 novembre 2015 à 15:59:52
It seems still not the right size, the welcome messages at the bottom don't appear. Perhaps adding a transparent calc a bit larger would help (or not?). Same, I'll ask Rafaellaguna, who is a professional graphist.

I registered and logged in, there are red buttons:
div.buttonlist_bottom:nth-child(2)

at the top right of the topics.

I can't work fully on it right now, but I'll be back with some more details next.

Thanks!
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 21 novembre 2015 à 16:19:47
This is what I see in a screen 1680x1050 (21')

http://meets.free.fr/images/test-forum-index.png
http://meets.free.fr/images/test-forum-index2.png
http://meets.free.fr/images/test-forum-topic.png

done with the program scrot in console, using options -c count and -d delay:
$ scrot -c -d 5 test-forum-index.png
(I noticed you are using mtPaint, perhaps would you like to try scrot which makes it quick doing several screenshots one after the other, just calling back the previous command, and modifying just a bit of the name of the argument).

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 21 novembre 2015 à 19:31:57
Try the new header now.
I knew that it might  not be right, because it is 150px height and I did not bother to change my style.css
.logo_name{min-height:140px}
is now changed to
.logo_name{min-height:150px}
I did not do it earlier because it was ok in my browser and I had to go out in a hurry.
You should see the welcome messages now.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Yes I was aware of the 'logged in issues', which need a little bit more work.
The issues are caused by the style.css that I have been modifying has a sort of global influence in some areas and that is why I now need to work on those and  tweak and check the layouts for those pages.
It shouldn't take long, however there may be some odd looking layouts whilst I do that.
The red buttons are part of the tabs-fun theme, I will change them and make them nice.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 21 novembre 2015 à 20:40:54
Now when logged in.

1. I made all areas so that they are light blue,

2,The 'member' title was white on light blue which was nearly invisible, so I made it black.

3. I removed a whole bunch of the css code relating to those horrible red buttons.
They are now ordinary plain and simple hyperlinks, which I can style with css if you want.
I think that they look ok as just plain and simple hyperlinks.

4. Text areas everywhere were too tightly packed, (forum registration text for example).
I fixed that by increasing the spacing between lines.

Code changes are here:

/* kjdixo modifications start */
.logo_name{margin-left:0px;border:solid 1px white;border-radius:0.5em;margin-top:10px;background-size:cover;min-height:150px;background-image:url(../../new-header.png);background-repeat:no-repeat}
.level1{border-top-left-radius:0.4em;border-top-right-radius:0.4em}
.level2{border-radius:0.2em}
/* resized images/short_bg.jpg and images/short_bg2.jpg to 50px height */
a img[title='New Posts']{cursor:pointer;width:0px;height:0px;border-left:40px solid #ffffb3;border-top:20px solid transparent;border-bottom:20px solid transparent}
/* a img[title='No New Posts']{cursor:pointer;width:0px;height:0px;border-left:40px solid #66cc99;border-top:20px solid transparent;border-bottom:20px solid transparent}*/
.windowbg{background-color:#ccebff}
body{background:url(images/backdrop3.png);background-repeat:repeat-x;padding: 0% 8% 0% 8%;background-color:#f0f6fa}
div.user_info.clearfix{background-color:#ccebff;border-top-left-radius:0.5em;border-top-right-radius:0.5em;height:80px}
div.user_info.clearfix center{font-size:120%;margin-top:10px}
li{background-color:#ccebff}
li.level1,li.level2{background-color:transparent}
div#footerarea.headerpadding.topmargin.clearfix{background-color:#ccebff}
div#bodyarea{background-color:#ccebff;padding:24px 4px 4px 4px}
form,form input,form select{margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;font-size:120%}
form#search_form{margin-right:15%;margin-top:284px;display:none}
.logo_name h1{display:none}
div#menu a.level1,div#menu span.level1{padding-top:2px;background-color:transparent}
.tall_bg{padding:0px 0px}
#infocenter_login{background-color:#ccebff;border:solid 1px black;border-radius:0.2em}
.title,div#menu a.level2,div#menu span.level2{color:navy}
/* transformed colour of images/tab_bg.jpg using mtPaint */
/* mtPaint snapshot of zoomed in css web button, then made background transparent, then ImageMagick to create a shadow, then resized with Mirage to (48x48) including background, result is a new images/off.png */
div.post_wrapper{background-color:#ccebff}
h5,div.username h4,div.content h3,div.content h4{color:black}
body{line-height:150%}
th{color:white}
a.new_win,li span,li.last span{padding-left:10px}
li.copyright{padding-left:18px}
div#topic_icons.description{height:120px}
span.stats_hour{width:30px}
li.reply_button,li.quote_button,li.notify_button,li.remove_button{background-color:cornsilk;font-size:120%}

Compare the text line spacing  before I did the line-height modification with after the modification.
The general text layout is now much better . . . it  is not all squashed up vertically.

(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/new-posts7.png)

Log in to see that I have made a lot of improvements and it now starting to look quite good when logged in.
I saw your orange/green plugin effect.
I can do that in the theme css if you want.
I think that the line of user info text is too small, it should be a bigger font and moved away from the yellow tabs, the dropdown lists sometimes cover it, which is not good.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 21 novembre 2015 à 23:08:48
In my web browser (Palemoon) the linux village header is fully visible with the welcome messages.
I deliberately used the following css code (background-size:cover;min-height:140px;) so that when a certain width of browser window is reached then the image will zoom in and the welcome messages will disappear out of the fixed 140px height frame.
I can tell from your screenshot that there is a wide blue area after the word village, so maybe the fixed height 140px and the zooming effect has already occured.
It is important not to vary the height of the frame as this will affect the positioning of some of my other elements below.
The frame width (not height) is intended to shrink and expand with the page width.
If you don't want that then I can just put a fixed width and fixed height banner that is the same as your old forum design.
It will get cut off on the right when the browser window is made narrow.
I was just trying to make it look adaptable and dynamic.
You probably just want fixed width and height (1323x150)px.
I will leave it for now and wait for your word on it.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 22 novembre 2015 à 00:44:38
There is something wrong with the way posts follow each other, on the test forum.

See here:
http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php?topic=48.0

compare with here:
http://forum.linuxvillage.org/index.php/topic,27.0.html

in the test forum, you can't really distinguish where the previous post stops, and where the new one starts. On the actual default theme, you can clearly see the difference. Is it something which you can get right?

This upper pages: http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php?board=2.0

is good now, of course!

For the buttons, yes, a little CSS would be nice, but no hurry for that part. There are still a few colors which I would want a little different, but I also try to get a few persons I know to come and bring their ideas about some tones.



Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 22 novembre 2015 à 06:55:57
FIXED
Now we have alternating background colours for adjacent posts.
Styling is not the same as your original default theme because it is the tabs-fun theme.
The tabs-fun style has been modified by the creator of the tabs-fun theme.
We can change it but it is better not to because simple changes have 'knock on' effects elsewhere and it is more work.
I have now made your header banner fixed width and fixed height so it behaves in the same way as in your existing forum.

For my screenshots I prefer to use mtPaint thank you.
I have an openbox right click menu shortcut, that does an instant screenshot and I am then able to instantly crop and save any part of the image.
http://forum.lxde.org/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=31525&start=10#p48805 (http://forum.lxde.org/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=31525&start=10#p48805)

The flat yellow arrow buttons could be made to look the same as the green arrow buttons......
I will wait for your comments before making any more changes.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 22 novembre 2015 à 19:37:44
Hi
I have made the sticky topic colours similar to your existing forum sticky topic colours.

(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/sticky1.png)
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 22 novembre 2015 à 19:59:32
These are the alternating colour posts, which can be distinguished from each other.

If you need any colour changes or textures or icons then just ask.

(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/posts1.png)

Personally, I think the light blue is a bit bright and makes it look like a 1990's email program.
The colours need to be somehow made softer and easier on the eyes.

(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/posts2.png)
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 22 novembre 2015 à 21:34:40
Hello,

It's much better. There is a glitch with some parts, as you can see here:
http://meets.free.fr/images/test-forum-sunday-22.png

http://meets.free.fr/images/2-test-forum-sunday-22.png

also the previous version of the header was better, when not fixed, because it was responsive. You can see here that the tabbed forum theme seems to be responsive:
http://meets.free.fr/images/test-forum-sunday-22-mobile.png

while the actual theme isn't. In Firefox, you can use Ctrl+Shift+m to change the view.

Let's leave the colors of the arrows for now, I still have to take a moment for that. About the colors of the tabs, the hover color would be better as main color, and the lighter main as second color for the hover.

I tried to reach your post at the lxde forum, but the forum was unreachable.

About soft colors : I also think the backgrounds in the posts are better with soft colors. If you use the same colors as the ones used here for the backgrounds of the posts, that could be a good choice.



Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 22 novembre 2015 à 22:22:51
I have added mkress-smf_kitBbcodeGfont-1-0.zip from http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=3478

which will allow for some font enhancements, as in this recent website I put up : http://bentovillage.me

I would like the welcome message which is in level 2 (just under the menus) to be orange and green:

.user_info {
  color: orange;
}
.user_info a {
  color: green;
}


if you don't think it's a bad idea, of course?

One more detai I just noticed, here:
http://meets.free.fr/images/test-forum-sunday-22.png

the breadcrumbs are one on top of the others, instead of being all on the same horizontal line, which makes the part in between "user info" and "author topic" higher than necessary and looks not nice.

Here on the official forum we have it all on the same line, for the present page:
Citer
LinuxVillage » LinuxVillage welcome » Rules and life of the forum » Répondre ( Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum? )

can you fix this part too?
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: rafaellaguna le 22 novembre 2015 à 23:21:38
Hi everybody. In my humble opinion I wouldn't use more than 2 colours if the background is a pure flat colour already. Multicolour can apply when the background is totally white. Otherwise it could look a bit childish.

We designers use to apply the 60 / 30 / 10 rule for colour balancing: http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/tips/tip-01.html

Also I'd use a message / conversation / balloon icon for the messages section.

Also, if a site is full of text you might consider having an colourfull page will bloat the reading and make it tiring. BUT this is always a matter of taste! :)
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 23 novembre 2015 à 01:36:14
Thanks for the good advice rafaellaguna, I agree, we don't want it to look like an explosion in a paint factory. Thanks for the link.
Melodie, I have done some more, hopefully correcting some of the the errors you mentioned.
I can see a few more minor errors, only small tweaks needed.
The colours are toned down and numbers of colours reduced.
I am busy tomorrow, I will be able to do a little, just not hours and hours.
Anyway, you probably need a few days to think about it and ask other people for their opinions.
http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php (http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php)
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 23 novembre 2015 à 02:07:09
Hello,

Thanks for such a good work. To tell you the truth, I don't know many more people through internet with graphic knowledge and skills. Next time, would you change the left green/yellow triangles for something else as Rafael suggested? Either message icons, or bubbles, either/or, what you think best?

Then instead of having them green/yellow, why not dark yellow (orange) and very light yellow, as in the tabs?

PS:
#linktree has a padding-top 54px, and " .user_info clearfix" has a height of 80px, which makes the space above the breadcrumbs still quite empty. Next time you work on it, if you could reduce this space a little, it would look better. (Perhaps lowering a lot the #linktree top padding for a start, let's say, to 5px and see how it looks like next?)

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 23 novembre 2015 à 08:57:19
Citer
Posté par: kjdixo le: 21 novembre 2015 à 20:40:54 :
I saw your orange/green plugin effect.
I can do that in the theme css if you want.
I think that the line of user info text is too small, it should be a bigger font and moved away from the yellow tabs, the dropdown lists sometimes cover it, which is not good.
1, I think that your orange / green text is too small, making it difficult to read.
2. I changed the orange to darkorange, it shows up better on a light background.

Citer

Posté par: melodie le: le: 23 novembre 2015 à  02:07:09 :
#linktree has a padding-top 54px, and " .user_info clearfix" has a height of 80px, which makes the space above the breadcrumbs still quite empty.
1. I have to be careful here because this is one of the cases where the logged in and logged out interfaces are both affected by the same bit of css code.
When logged out the area contains the login form and if I reduce the height (logged in) then the breadcrumbs (not logged in) will overwrite the login form.

2. One suggestion I have is to put an eye catching graphic either side of the login form, which will be dynamic and look good when logged in and when logged out. It will fill the space and also be a useful clickable link(s).
In the same modification I could enlarge the orange/green user text and make it more thematically similar to the login form.
Also making sure that the dropdown tabs do not cover anything when hovered.
The dropdown tabs covering items below them might not be a concern for you.
What do you think?
If you like I can try a few of my ideas and then see if you like them or not.

Simple solution with minimal changes
1. Reduce the gap height as you requested, but only for the logged in interface (a bit tricky, but I will try).
2. Enlarge your orange/green text to be the same size as the other text (I think is a good idea).

Another point
Maybe to reduce the number of colours I could remove the lightskyblue border around each post and remove the additional green 1px border surrounding (hugging) the post contents, it would make the pages look less "busy" and make it more like your existing forum.

I can try all this at the end of today, this evening / tonight.
I will also try changing the green/yellow arrows to more "exciting (wow factor) descriptive" icons.

The look and layout needs to be fine-tuned and brushed-up so that when finished and thoroughly tested it will be difficult to criticise.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 23 novembre 2015 à 11:31:03
Hello!

Yes, agreed on everything! Looking forward to it.

Have a nice day.

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 24 novembre 2015 à 00:29:09
Hi,

I have had a look here: http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php?topic=48.0 and here: http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php?topic=6.0

It's coming pretty smooth and nice! It looks almost perfect to me, providing you do what you suggested in your last post, next time you can work on it. I'll just point to the breadcrumb "Forum test > Welcome > Rules of the forum > Rules of the forum  « previous next »" and  "Login with username, password and session length" which overlap, but this is my fault as I asked you to reduce the empty space in that area. Well you warned me! :D



   
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 24 novembre 2015 à 11:18:15
Melodie
Have a look now and tell me what you think.
You will only be able to see the pages for 'logged out' and 'logged in ordinary member'.
I have also worked extensively on the 'logged in administrator' pages.

I deliberately removed some components that are easily accessible from the tabs.
Before my modifications, there were (at times) 2 login boxes visible at the same time.
I removed all that clutter and also made the text bigger and easier to read.
It is now a clean interface . . . and quick and easy to navigate.
It was difficult to make, so I hope you like it.
The only problem might be:
I changed and added (injected) text content using css and the text I added was in english, so obviously those bits of text it won't display in french.
I have only been modifying one css file = style.css.
div.user_info.clearfix center:after{content:' - please login or register';color:green}
span.ie6_header:after{content:' with username, password and session length'}
To display that bit of text in french I would have to find where to modify the PHP code somewhere.

Anyway, if the layout is ok then I could go ahead and try to do that.

The left icon buttons for the topics are not yet changed, they are still green and yellow arrows.
I will experiment with new icons for them in the next day or two.

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 24 novembre 2015 à 19:25:12
Hello,

Yes, I like it a lot!

I still have proposition for a few parts to modify. Here it is:

div.post_wrapper {
    border: 2px solid #d0d0e0;
    margin-top: 4px;
    border-radius: 1em;
    padding: 8px;
}

div.user_info.clearfix center {
 /*   font-size: 120%; */
      font-size: 105%;
    margin-top: 10px;
}

blockquote {
    border: 1px solid #BABABF;

}
instead of:
blockquote {
...
/*    border: 1px solid #000; */
...
}

.quoteheader, .codeheader {
    text-decoration: none;
    font-style: normal;
    font-weight: bold;
    font-size: x-small;
    line-height: 1.2em;
    width: 100%;
    color: #666;  // instead of #000
}

code {
    color: #000;
    background-color: #DDD;
    display: block;
    font-family: "courier new","times new roman",monospace;
    font-size: x-medium;   //instead of x-small
    line-height: 1.5em;    // instead of 1.3em
    border: 1.5px solid #BABABF;  /instead of 1px solid #000
    margin: 1px auto;
    padding: 1px;
    width: 99%;
    overflow: auto;
    white-space: nowrap;
    max-height: 24em;
}

can we try that?

As for the languages, I looked they are in:
(root of the forum)/Themes/default/languages and the top message (I grepped) would be in the page : "index.french-utf8.php". Do you see one in the tabbed theme?


Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 24 novembre 2015 à 20:23:48
I have installed French and English Languages.
Did you see it when I changed the language to French?
Citer
Posté par: kjdixo  le: Aujourd'hui à 11:18:15
The only problem might be: . . . . . . .
div.user_info.clearfix center:after{content:' - please login or register';color:green}
span.ie6_header:after{content:' with username, password and session length'}
. . . . . . . . .To display that bit of text in french I would have to find where to modify the PHP code somewhere.

I have solved that problem.
In the file (root of the forum)/Themes/tabs-fun/languages/ThemeStrings.english.php
// kjdixo modification 2015-11-24-1900 it removes unecessary clutter from the login screen
// global (works for all languages and overrides the default theme text for 'quick_login_dec').
$txt['quick_login_dec'] = '';
?>

I will try out your css code suggestion.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 24 novembre 2015 à 21:27:50
That css code you gave me to try does work but it does not valdate it has errors
(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/errors.png)

I will try to fix them whilst not affecting the result.
It is better if the css validates properly.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 24 novembre 2015 à 21:39:49
Fixed.
The only real error was x-medium is not a font-sze.
I used medium instead to replace the original x-small.
All of the other errors were due to commenting incorrectly with // instead of  /* */ which is easy to do if you are in a hurry.
(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/errors-gone.png)
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 24 novembre 2015 à 21:49:50
Sorry, I thought you would have read the content and noticed!


/* corrected here, but needs you to read the content and associated comments */

div.post_wrapper {
    border: 2px solid #d0d0e0;
    margin-top: 4px;
    border-radius: 1em;
    padding: 8px;
}

/*   here you need to replace the  " font-size: 120%;" by this one: */
div.user_info.clearfix center {
      font-size: 105%;
}


/* here you need to replace the border in the blockquote section by this one */
blockquote {
    border: 1px solid #BABABF;

}


/* here you need to replace the color in the ".quoteheader, .codeheader" section by this one */
.quoteheader, .codeheader {
    color: #666; 
}

/* here you need to replace the three following lines in the code section by these ones */
code {
    font-size: medium; 
    line-height: 1.5em;   
    border: 1.5px solid #BABABF;
 
}

/* again sorry for the confusion I created! */

PS: you don't need to port the comments which are above  in your CSS file, of course.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 24 novembre 2015 à 22:09:18
When not connected, the user message on top is still 120%. It's too big. 100% should be enough, perhaps even 95% would be better (also when connected, unlike I suggested in my previous post).

Citer
Bienvenue, Invité Merci de vous connecter ou de vous inscrire.

Strangely, "bienvenue" on the test forum is smaller than the rest, and "invité" has a strong tag.

All fonts in the same line should be on the same level, same size. (There is already an emphasis with the orange/green colors). Do you have any idea why the word "Bienvenue" is clearly smaller than the other words on the line? I seem unable to see anything which could explain it.

I like the colors of the borders and the backgrounds of the posts and quotes/code blocks much better now. What is it that you think? Do you also like it that way?

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 24 novembre 2015 à 22:14:14
It seems the green looks bigger (color vibration). What about you do reverse?

    Bienvenue, Invité Merci de vous connecter ou de vous inscrire.

Wouldn't it look better? (I know, I'm probably knitpicking… :p )
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 24 novembre 2015 à 23:58:10
Login orange-green swap and size and font-weight (strong tags in HTML)
(i) smf/Themes/tabs-fun/index.template.php
//echo '<center>', $txt['hello_guest'], ' <strong>', $txt['guest'], '</strong></center>'; commented out

echo '<center>', $txt['hello_guest'], ' ', $txt['guest'], '</center>';
// kjdixo modification 2015-11-24-2230 removed <strong> and </strong> tags.

(ii) style.css
Changed 105% back to 120% and several other inter-related font-size tweaks.
div.user_info.clearfix center {/*Melodie 2015-11-24*/
 /*   font-size: 120%; */
      font-size: 120%;
    margin-top: 10px;
}

(iii) style.css
Swapped orange and green
.user_info {color:green}
.user_info a{color:darkorange}

Don't worry about being picky . . . . getting it right is very important.
I can still see lots of minor imperfections, I will probably fix them when I get time.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 25 novembre 2015 à 08:58:06
Hi
Citer
Do you have any idea why the word "Bienvenue" is clearly smaller than the other words on the line? I seem unable to see anything which could explain it.

It was the same size as the other text on that line, until your css font-size changes were added, that is what caused the word "Bienvenue" to be a different size.
I had previously made sure that everything on that line was the same size (except for the bold strong guest name)  . . . getting it all the same size safely was tricky due to the countless css classes where every change in the css needs to be thoroughly checked to make sure it has not caused an adverse effect somewhere else (like in the 'logged in' interface).
It makes me want to write my own bulletin board forum code with simpler layout and easier to modify styles, that are more local and less global. Then any changes I do will only affect the elements I am looking at. It is true that there are developer tools that can "Copy unique selector" and help to untangle what is going on. My approach would be to not have such a complicated tangle in the first place.
We have done well to get it looking like it is now.
Citer
It seems the green looks bigger (color vibration). What about you do reverse? . . . .
Wouldn't it look better? (I know, I'm probably knitpicking… :p )

I am not sure which is better, I think I liked it with the login and register links as green because that gives them more emphasis and importance . . . . from a functional point of view.
From an aesthetic point of view it might look better how it is now, but that is a matter of taste.
ps. it is good to knitpick. :)
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 25 novembre 2015 à 14:17:02
Hello,

I understand that it makes you feel to create a full theme from the ground up. :-(

Ok, let's be in the details. I am doing 2 screenshots, 1 to show you my point about reversing the colors, and one with a different size font for the "user_info clearfix" sentence. What I notice besides the color vibration, is that there is too much yellow next to the other. And the fonts are still too big being 100%. 90 or 95% is better.

The next two pics show that. If the colors will be reversed, it could be less hard on the sight while still providing emphasis. I would like you to try it. But, I noticed while testing, that when not logged in, the ".user_info" line have the two first words which suddenly aren't on the same horizontal line than the rest of the sentence.

While when logged in, it does not happen.

Also : when logged out, the whole sentence is aligned left, while when logged in the whole sentence that replaces it is centered, which I find being much better.

http://meets.free.fr/images/forum-test-yellow-and-green.png
http://meets.free.fr/images/forum-test-yellow-and-green-logged-in-95percent.png

And one detail we talked about several days ago, to not be forgotten : when users are logged out, I would like them to be able to see if there are new messages. While I'm at it, I don't understand how the green + of the message bubbles work : is it supposed to show "new message" or to show "no new message" ? It's unclear to me. How do we know which is what? Is there a tootip for it?

I look forward to your new improvements, related to these details and others you mentioned. :)
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 25 novembre 2015 à 19:11:10
Citer
I understand that it makes you feel to create a full theme from the ground up. :-(
No [:-( . . .  what makes you think that?], I am quite happy and don't care either way.
I think you misunderstood the purpose of my previous post.
It was not to complain or to say that I was fed up or anything like that.
I was just answering some of your questions that I had over-looked and missed due to concentrating on other parts of the thread. Plus I was making it clear and obvious (for the record) how certain errors crept in.
When small changes in one place affect the layout in other places it is not always as easy as it looks.
I am not a web designer and I do this for a hobby (I am self taught for 10+ years) because it is fun, that is all.
I also want your Linux Forum to be a success because I am also a Linux user and believe that more people should adopt Linux for their OSs.
Now to the code:
1. I have swapped orange and green again. Actually it is dark orange, is that better?
2. I changed the font size to 90% as you indicated.
3. Are you saying you want the orange/green font-size the same when logged-in as when logged-out?
4. I don't understand the term 'colour vibration'. Yellow? Are you saying the orange is too 'yellowy'?
5. The line is fractured and cannot be made into a perfectly horizontal single line.
Citer
I noticed while testing, that when not logged in, the ".user_info" line have the two first words which suddenly aren't on the same horizontal line than the rest of the sentence.
Yes I agree, I noticed that too and I spent quite a while trying to fix it, but 1px +/- changes make it too high or too low. The two lines cannot be made to line up by adjusting the top/bottom margin offsets. I think it is something to do with the font magnification percentages.
So I suggest that I 'brute force' change the HTML somewhere so that the 2 sentences are on a straight line.
Now that I have already made small changes to the theme HTML a few more changes won't hurt.
6. Logged-out users seeing the new topic and new post status.
Citer
when users are logged out, I would like them to be able to see if there are new messages
I have not found out how to do that yet.
Does the SMF default theme  . . . your existing forum have that feature?
I will have to search around on the internet to see if someone has an answer.
I checked the code and it seems to not be implemented.
So I think it will be another PHP hack and not just simply css.
7. Centering the logged-out welcome text.
Citer
when logged out, the whole sentence is aligned left, while when logged in the whole sentence that replaces it is centered, which I find being much better.
Yes that should be easy and it is good that you mentioned it whilst talking about #5 {above).
The 2 modifications can be done together I think.
Citer
I look forward to your new improvements
Sorry the comments came first.
It helps me to think about the task by creating a listed reply.
Also you can correct me on anything that you think I mis-understood.
Thanks
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 25 novembre 2015 à 20:18:00
Hey,
How does that look?
(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/posts3.png)

The original HTML specifies 2 lines with each line in between <center> tags.
So it is easy to do and solves both problems #5 and #7.

(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/posts4.png)

The vertical position might need slight adjustment.
The breadcrumbs are a little bit close but not too bad.
And the empty area / gap height at the top has not changed and is the same logged-in and logged-out,

(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/posts5.png)

Is the difference in font-size between logged-in and logged-out ok.
Should they be the same size?
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 25 novembre 2015 à 21:51:14
I have now done the PHP hack to correct the HTML.
The 'welcome guest' and 'login/register prompt message' are all on one line.
The HTML and css validates correctly.
I think the modification is 'rock solid' and won't cause any problems.
It is documented in my comments contained within smf/Themes/tabs-fun/index.template.php

(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/posts6.png)

The tabs-fun theme style.css has a few more changes.
I am sure it will need a few more tweaks before this project is finished.

(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/posts7.png)

Let me know what you think.
Thanks Melodie
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 26 novembre 2015 à 00:03:52
Hello,

It looks like it will soon be perfect!

Here: http://forum.linuxvillage.org/index.php/topic,732.msg4206.html#msg4206

I asked about swapping the orange/yellow for the green and vice versa. The orange color as it it on the test forum is perfect. I just suggested that if the colors are swapped it will be better, because there is already a full line of orange with the tabs which are just above.

I notice you fixed the look of the login box. Great! I was sure you had noticed, this is why I hadn't mentioned.

I am happy to know that you do this theme hacking for pleasure, and I hope you will have lots of pleasure using it and being around at least once a while after it will be installed!

For the matter of messages seen as new when logged in or not, logged in, maybe it's somewhere in the administration. I will check. If it's not there, I'll seek too.



Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 26 novembre 2015 à 00:43:39
Thank you.
I will do more tomorrow.
There are a few minor layout issues that have suddenly appeared on some of the logged-in pages.
They should be easy to fix (tomorrow).
I found a few articles, but not much, about the recent post status for the logged-out index page.
I think it might be necessary to copy some code from another theme.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/smf-help-recent-active-topics-on-main-page-can-it-be-done.379235
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=91822.0
http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/SMF2.0:Themes_and_Layout
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=401535.msg2809033#msg2809033

I will continue looking and experimenting until it is fixed.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 26 novembre 2015 à 00:47:15
Thank you very much. Do you use IRC? I am logged on the #smf chan on freenode, where I asked the question. I had only one answer so far and not very encouraging. I don't know if the answer is the right one, or if we can try to find a more encouraging one.
Citer
<Oldiesmann> SMF doesn't track whether there are new posts for guests or not
<Oldiesmann> So there's no way to do that really

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 26 novembre 2015 à 01:08:43
Sorry, I don't use IRC and the answer you were given by Oldiesmann says that it is not implemented, which is what I suspected.
However, if something is not possible with the current forum code, then perhaps modification of the code somewhere might provide that function. I will look at it tomorrow.

2. I forgot that you can't see my PHP code, so here is the modification I did to fix the welcome/login text.
smf/Themes/tabs-fun/index.template.php
Line 464
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
echo ''; // this once echoed the line commented out below.
// echo '<center>', $txt['hello_guest'], ' <strong>', $txt['guest'], '</strong></center>'; this line has closing tags so can be completely removed
// kjdixo modification 2015-11-25-1930 moved the line above to inside of <form></form> tags on line 530
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Line 517
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// kjdixo modification 2015-11-25-1930
    //  line 530 align="center" removed from <div>, now need to add </center> after </div>
    // moved welcome inside form
    // Made sure <center><div ... ><form ...> closed with </form></div></center>
    // Validated new HTML
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   


else

{

echo '<center><div ', empty($options['collapse_header']) ? '' : ' style="display: none;"', '>

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="', $settings['default_theme_url'], '/scripts/sha1.js"></script>

<form action="', $scripturl, '?action=login2" method="post" accept-charset="', $context['character_set'], '" ', empty($context['disable_login_hashing']) ? ' onsubmit="hashLoginPassword(this, \'' . $context['session_id'] . '\');"' : '', '>

', $txt['hello_guest'], ' ', $txt['guest'], '

' , $txt['login_or_register'], '<br />

<input type="text" name="user" size="10" />

<input type="password" name="passwrd" size="10" />

<select name="cookielength">

<option value="60">', $txt['one_hour'], '</option>

<option value="1440">', $txt['one_day'], '</option>

<option value="10080">', $txt['one_week'], '</option>

<option value="43200">', $txt['one_month'], '</option>

<option value="-1" selected="selected">', $txt['forever'], '</option>

</select>

<input type="submit" value="', $txt['login'], '" /><br />

', $txt['quick_login_dec'];



if (!empty($modSettings['enableOpenID']))

echo'

<br />

<input type="text" name="openid_url" id="openid_url" size="25" class="openid_login" />';



echo '

<input type="hidden" name="hash_passwrd" value="" />

</form></div></center>';

}

this line was taken from outside of the form and is now inside the form (now displays as one line):
', $txt['hello_guest'], ' ', $txt['guest'], '
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 26 novembre 2015 à 18:41:26
Hello,

I am now about to create the new presentation for Bento Openbox (there is a new version out since a pair of days). So the new skin here and the new presentation could happen almost at the same time.

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 26 novembre 2015 à 22:07:51
I was very busy today (and tired).
I will do some more as soon as possible.
Sorry for the delay.
Titre: Re : Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 26 novembre 2015 à 23:58:51
I was very busy today (and tired).
I will do some more as soon as possible.
Sorry for the delay.


Well same here. I haven't worked on the presentation project. Well, I'll wait for you and the forum will too, don't worry! :D

Take care!

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 29 novembre 2015 à 10:04:36
Due to other priorities and lack of time, I am fixing problems with the forum layout one at a time.
There are still a few little problems, but nothing major.
1. Orange drop-down tabs when hovered - the width is incorrect and I need to make it the same width as the text.

(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/fix2.png)

2.  The menu toggle button was white on a light background which was nearly invisible.
(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/fix0.png)
I tried to make it into a css green arrow, but the arrow has a flattened point so that needs correcting.
(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/fix1.png)

Here you can see the green arrow above the language setting menu.
(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/fix4.png)
But there is a problem with the layout when the menu is toggled.
The left side panel forces the menu downwards.
(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/fix3.png)
I have tried a few methods and was able to fix it, but there were other consequences and I want to find the correct 'rock solid' fix.
I want to fix these problems and a few others soon, but I am travelling all Monday and Tuesday.
Today I am busy getting ready to travel.
I might find some spare time later today.
Wednesday I will be ready to look at this again and then Wednesday onwards I will have lots of spare time for 3 weeks. So I can hopefully finish this on Wednesday or Thursday.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 29 novembre 2015 à 12:42:11
Hi,

Thanks for your news.

I will be travelling too, on thursday and friday. I will be able to read the news from the forum, and participate, but nothing more.


Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 11 décembre 2015 à 16:46:19
Sorry that I have not posted anything for the last week.
I fixed all the problems a week ago . . . except for the icon NEW POST status for guests, when not logged in.
There seem to be modifications available to try and I tried some, but they did not work for me.
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=3380
I also read
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=16281.0
I read somewhere in a forum post, by one of the SMF developers (kindred'), that because a guest is not logged in and is anonymous  then that means there is no information available to measure whether the guest is seeing 'new' posts or 'old' posts.
We could maybe grab the data from the '24-48-72 hour plugin' and use that to change the icons. But itt might be a difficult project (or maybe easy). That data also is only available when logged in. If I can make the 24-48-72 hour plugin work when 'not logged in' as a guest then I think that would be a good start, to try to have '4-state' icons. No posts, 24 hr old, 48 hour old and 72 hour old.
What do you think?
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 12 décembre 2015 à 00:18:34
Hello!

It's ok and very natural to have some time busy elsewere, right? :)

Hope you are fine and everything went as you wished. About the plugin, leave it as is, there is nothing to worry about it. I just wondered why we can't get some "new posts" as on other forum types.

Here is what I am planning to add, anyway: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=3782
and perhaps, just for a complement to this one:
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=3826

but I am afraid it could pull too much resources on the server. And at last I have also had a glance at this one which might be nice, not sure: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1338
perhaps in the future, if more people not used to this type of forums come it would be nice to have a sandbox area… never saw one myself, but why not if there would be the need for it.

Let me know what you think? And btw, have you seen the last Bento ISO mini which came out? (Just finished a new one, even lighter and smaller which I will need to test now).



Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 13 décembre 2015 à 10:06:08
Hi Melodie
Citer
Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
« Réponse #61 le: 25 novembre 2015 à 14:17:02 »

And one detail we talked about several days ago, to not be forgotten : when users are logged out, I would like them to be able to see if there are new messages. While I'm at it, I don't understand how the green + of the message bubbles work : is it supposed to show "new message" or to show "no new message" ? It's unclear to me. How do we know which is what? Is there a tootip for it?

My last post was merely suggesting an easy way to affect the speech bubble icons, by somehow tapping into the 24-48-72 hour plugin data.
I reasoned that if the bubble icons could be made to display the states of the 24-48-72 hour plugin data then it would be very easy because the work is already done.
The 'tapping in' would have to be done 'passively' without affecting the plugin (no changes to the plugin).

You can try the plugins you suggested and they might be exactly what you want. Good luck (also tell me if you want me to test them).
If it was my forum I would try to reduce the number of plugins and keep things simple.
Even though the extra plugins are easy to install, they look complicated to me and it is just more 'code bloat' and more to have to deal with.

Citer
. . . have you seen the last Bento ISO mini which came out? (Just finished a new one, even lighter and smaller which I will need to test now).

I tried to find it but was not sure which one it is.
Is it here: http://phillw.net/isos/bento-ubuntu-remix/
Could you post me a link to it today or early monday please?
A direct link to "the last Bento ISO mini which came out".
I am on holiday running on mobile sim card data and have to use up 3GB before monday 14th 24:00 midnight. "Use it or lose it".
So it is an ideal time to download distros.
However I won't be able to burn them to disc until after christmas as I did not bring my usb cd drives with me.
Also . . . I always use a "sacrificial computer" to do testing on, I did not bring one on holiday with me, sorry.
I did not bring any laptops or netbooks on holiday.
I brought along an old motherboard (powered from a mini itx sw mode psu) and I am using a TV for my computer screen (expanded area using xrandr).
I also brought my full size illuminated keyboard, it is great, just like being at home.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 14 décembre 2015 à 00:23:28
Hello,

Here is the very last one, 341MB, works on machines having a 64bits processor.
http://phillw.net/isos/bento-ubuntu-remix/bento-sushi-14.04.3-5-x86_64.iso
http://phillw.net/isos/bento-ubuntu-remix/bento-sushi-14.04.3-5-x86_64.iso.md5sum

I also have an illuminated keyboard. :) (but not old motherboard with whatever it is you have). And you don't need to burn CD's to test, you can do that with a usb stick (there are many ways to setup a bootable stick, one which is quite nice is the one with grub2 where you can have the full ISOs booted, this way: http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/1846 or following this tutorial:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/ISOBoot

It's also possible to boot from ISO (poor man install method), with the ISO located in the / of a primary partition, and using hdmedia files (provided on the servers at Ubuntu, or at Debian if you want to do that with a Debian iso).

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 14 décembre 2015 à 10:53:04
Thanks for the links to the 64bit iso.
I have always installed 32bit in the past.
The point I was making is that whilst away from home with only a single computer (bare board with wires, fans and components exposed)  and no backup computer, I am not going to risk testing unknown operating systems.
I will do any testing in January on a spare 'sacrificial' computer.
I do not want to risk breaking the only computer I have access to.
As for the usb boot methods (sd card etc), yes I have done all that before, (raspberry pi and tiny core linux) and also with slitaz on a standard computer.
Also I have always used grub2, but not to boot to an iso image . . . so I might look at that. Thanks for the link.
My current OS is puppy linux tahr 6.05 (ubuntu repo compatible), this particular puppy I have found to be nice and quick and reliable.
Whenever I decide to go 'distro hopping' I always eventually return to puppy linux.
For other people who are more familiar with windows os, I try to set them up with a version of Linux mint (cinnamon).
Though I might set them up with a version of Bento if my testing of it goes well in January.
Tell me when you would like to do any more changes to the Linux Village Forum.
I will leave the tabs-fun themed "Forum Test" on my website until after you have completed the necessary changes to your Linux Village Forum.
In addition to changes in the theme's stylesheet style.css. There are also changes in Sources/subs.php (to do with the orange tabs) and also in tabs-fun/index.template.php (to do with the "hello guest" on "one line" fix) and in tabs-fun/languages/ThemeStrings.english.php. If you do a search in a text editor for kjdixo you should find the changes. I have also changed some icons graphically (speech bubbles and some of the admin icons were white on a light background, so I made them green), whilst I have left their filenames unchanged . . . it is an easy method to change the look without code changes.
If you implement the basic changes then I can look at your Forum and tell you the extra tweaks you need to do.
Good Luck.

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 14 décembre 2015 à 13:06:44
Citer
Here is the very last one, 341MB, works on machines having a 64bits processor.
http://phillw.net/isos/bento-ubuntu-remix/bento-sushi-14.04.3-5-x86_64.iso
http://phillw.net/isos/bento-ubuntu-remix/bento-sushi-14.04.3-5-x86_64.iso.md5sum

I downloaded from your link. Thank you.
Titre: Re : Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 14 décembre 2015 à 13:39:01
I downloaded from your link. Thank you.

Hello,

I have done one more, a bit smaller and lighter, it's now 339M, and in Virtualbox it used 91 to 93Mb RAM when idle. Getting under the 100Mb RAM used with an Ubuntu remix was kind of a challenge.

http://phillw.net/isos/bento-ubuntu-remix/bento-sushi-14.04.3-6-x86_64.iso
http://phillw.net/isos/bento-ubuntu-remix/bento-sushi-14.04.3-6-x86_64.iso.md5sum

You'll find the full list:
http://phillw.net/isos/bento-ubuntu-remix/

if your screen allows you to display the page, of course.

I ask information about the plugin http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=3782 on the #smf IRC chan, because I am not sure it does what I am looking for. I'll tell you about it once I get the info. Then, I can install the new theme whenever you think it's ready. And yes, if it's simple for you to pipe the 24/48/72 plugin to make the "new posts icon" reflect it, please do it! :-)

Enjoy your vacation! Where on/in the world are you? (If not on another planet… :p )

PS: for the people familiar with Windows OS, I suggest the full fledged Bento, which I have installed for many people now (IRL). The small version is for people who want to customize to the maximum extend possible.
Here is the latest full fledged, updated on December 8th:
i386 672M:
bento-openbox-14.04.3-i386.iso (http://phillw.net/isos/bento-ubuntu-remix/bento-openbox-14.04.3-i386.iso)
bento-openbox-14.04.3-i386.iso.md5sum (http://phillw.net/isos/bento-ubuntu-remix/bento-openbox-14.04.3-i386.iso.md5sum)

x86_64 689M:
bento-openbox-14.04.3-x86_64.iso (http://phillw.net/isos/bento-ubuntu-remix/bento-openbox-14.04.3-x86_64.iso)
bento-openbox-14.04.3-x86_64.iso.md5sum (http://phillw.net/isos/bento-ubuntu-remix/bento-openbox-14.04.3-x86_64.iso.md5sum)

PS2: Bento is interesting because it is very light, however it does not yet have what's needed to boot to UEFI, so when I have an install to do on a UEFI capable machine I install Xubuntu. I am not a great fan of Cinnamon or Gnome3, I would probably like Mate better… what is the most important is that the user you install for can get your help, so you need to know your desktop very well…
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 14 décembre 2015 à 15:37:53
Thank you.
I downloaded all of those isos (I am using up my vodafone 4GB before midnight tonight), then i will have to go out early tomorrow and buy another 4GB for 7 days (6.5 days in reality) for 12euro50cents.

Citer
I am not a great fan of Cinnamon or Gnome3, I would probably like Mate better

Yes I agree with that, I am not a fan of cinnamon/gnome3 either (hate it), I only use it for other people.
I am a fan of openbox and that is what I use in puppy linux.
I am not a fan of ROX file manager although it does have its uses, I always uninstall that from puppy and install XFE file manager.
Puppy linux tends to integrate a lot of puppy programs with ROX, so I had to hack each program's code to replace any instances of the word ROX with the word XFE (pmount for example). I got it all working how I want.
You might remember that I described my minimal desktop setup with multiple right click menus to you (a year or two ago).
Citer
Enjoy your vacation!
Portugal - Algarve
I am not a beach lover though.
Cycling a lot (in the sunshine) and computers is more my idea of fun.
I am currently working on improving this:
http://pt.kdworld7.net/
Some of it is incorrect - I know it is -  I am trying to learn Portuguese and design this carry-anywhere web page for my samsung galaxy tablet.
I am currently trying to add new verbs every day.
Thanks again for the isos, I will install them soon after christmas.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 18 décembre 2015 à 21:52:50
Added this today:
Guests can now see the most recent posts.

(http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/show-recent.png)

Recent posts were enabled by changing a setting in the admin current theme menu,
currently I am displaying 100 recent posts . . . below the board categories at the bottom of the index page.

    Forum test >
    Administration Center >
    Themes and Layout >
    Manage and Install

Configuration
Current Theme

Number of recent posts to display on board index:
To disable the recent posts bar set this value to zero.

It was 0 and I changed it to 100.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Then I made the upshrink icon more visible (lime green) in style.css.
img[id='upshrink_ic']{cursor:pointer;width:0px;height:0px;border-left:20px solid #0f0;border-top:10px solid transparent;border-bottom:10px solid transparent}

I am wondering whether to use the upshrink icon to toggle the recent posts / board categories (display:inline / display:none) or to swap them (top to bottom / bottom to top) ... reverse the divs display order ... when the icon is clicked, so that you can have the information section (with recent posts) at the top or bottom..

My idea to use data from the 24-48-72 plugin
I spent a while looking at the 24-48-72 hour plugin modifications and the default smf/Sources/Recent.php
and I have now decided to forget that method, there is a lot of PHP, it would probably be easy to do, but I have now found an easier way.
It is better to do the simple fix I showed above (using the admin settings) and maybe some simple css and javascript to show / hide the information (recent posts).
I think the recent posts list is quite nice to look at and most importantly it is functional and compact.
What do you think Melodie?
Titre: Re : Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 18 décembre 2015 à 22:15:39
What do you think Melodie?

I agree, it looks like it will be the best way. Let's try it?

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 23 janvier 2016 à 23:53:46
kjdixo! I miss you, where have you gone?  :o  :'(
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 24 janvier 2016 à 14:26:46
Happy 2016 Melodie and friends.
I am still here.
Sorry for not posting anything recently.
Let me know when you would like to change the forum style.
Now a month has gone by, it would be best if I spend a day or two looking at what I did in December.
I can then post a summary of what to do.
A list of tried and tested instructions, so that we can be 100% sure that there won't be problems.

I tried out your Bento distro and it looked very polished and stable.
Another ubuntu-mini remix you linked to, wanted me to connect to the internet during installation, so I gave it a miss.
My current distro is puppy.
I look here at the Linux Village Forum every few days, so if you post a comment I will respond (sorry for not responding to "I agree, it looks like it will be the best way. Let's try it?").
I decided to take a break from it as we had reached a stable point in the development.
My M$ outlook webmail flagged your happy new year email as possibly fraudulent, so to be safe I deleted it.
I was going to wish you happy new year on your forum thread, later today, anyway here I have done it.
Happy New Year.

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 24 janvier 2016 à 14:37:45
Hi Kjdixo!

I am happy to see you are well, and not missing because of some trouble of some kind. Happy New Year to you too!

Yes, I am looking forward to install your beautiful skin on this one forum. I have even taken the background to place it on the main site! http://linuxvillage.org

There is just one little thingy which I would want you to change, but it's not very much in a hurry. I'll tell you when you will have taken the time to check what you did in December.

Humm about webmail, you might want to follow the progress on that one project: https://caliopen.org/

Best regards,
Mélodie

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 24 janvier 2016 à 15:06:31
Hi Melodie
It is nice to know I am appreciated . . . and missed when I disappear.
I will look at setting up the new tabs-fun style and I will post details here in the next few days.
I am tired this morning as I was online until 2am last night.
The Caliopen site looks interesting, thank you.
Best Regards
Kevin
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 24 janvier 2016 à 16:52:08
Yes, have some rest. We all need some at times, don't we?

I just looked inside what change I'd like to ask from you. Here it is, with a picture, and the related code:

(http://pix.toile-libre.org/upload/thumb/1453650425.png) (http://pix.toile-libre.org/?img=1453650425.png)
(Clic for full size)

.user_info {
  color: #41A700;
  font-family: Dejavu Sans;
}
.user_info a {
  color: #025797;
  font-family: Dejavu Sans;
    font-weight: bold;
  font-variant: small-caps;
}

About the CSS, beware about the "font-type" which was not right, and the name of the font family. I took information from the two pages here after:
http://www.w3schools.com/CSS/css_font.asp

http://www.cssfontstack.com/Dejavu-Sans

and used Stylish to do the tests against the test forum. I hope you like this new idea for the colors in the Welcome message?
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 24 janvier 2016 à 20:10:49
Yes it looks really nice with the new colours.
It is strange that you had some css errors as I tested the xhtml and the css using the W3C embedded links.
http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php validates using the XHTML http://validator.w3.org/check/referer link at the bottom of the my example forumpage. http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php (http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php)

Then on the XHTML validation page there is an official W3C link named:

Citer
Validating CSS Style Sheets

If you use CSS in your document, you can check it using the W3C CSS Validation Service."
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

where http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php validates correctly as css3.

Anyway you can put in whatever code you wish.
I will look at it in more detail another day.
It looks good.
I definitely do prefer the blue/green combination, it is much better than using orange I think.

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 24 janvier 2016 à 20:40:05
I added your css code to the end of style.css in the tabs-fun theme.
I also checked it validates ok.
Everything seems fine.
Did you want to apply the deja vu sans font everywhere, or only on user_info?
Titre: Re : Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 24 janvier 2016 à 20:51:24
I added your css code to the end of style.css in the tabs-fun theme.
I also checked it validates ok.

I was already somewhere in the theme, where I had found it. You might need to check with the search feature of your editor.

Citer
Did you want to apply the deja vu sans font everywhere, or only on user_info?

Same thing, I don't know where it is elsewhere in the theme, in that one part, it was so:

{font-style: dejavu-sans;}

which as Stylish made me notice, was wrong.

Once you have finished creating the theme, we could probably ask someone keen with CSS to review it?




Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 24 janvier 2016 à 23:12:16
okay I have now found out what Stylish is.
It is a third party browser extension you have used client-side to over-ride the styles of the forum test page.
That explains how you styled my web page and took a screenshot (clever).
The wikipedia article on Stylish states
Citer
Stylish is often compared to Greasemonkey, another Mozilla extension that allows client-side manipulation of web pages.

I myself have always tried to avoid using Greasemonkey or similar 3rd party browser plugins.
Anyway you only used it to tinker with the styles at your end to get a nice appearance.
I don't have a problem with any suggested style changes and I also always write valid CSS, that is not a problem.
I validate my CSS using the W3C checker, which I trust to be correct and I have used it for many years.
I don't really want to complicate things by looking through 3rd party plugin additions to the CSS as that could become a nightmare. Be cautious about trusting 3rd party error messages, that might be due to interactions caused by the plugin.
So to keep it simple I would rather you show me a screenshot, like you did before (Stylish or no Stylish, I don't mind) and I will hand code the CSS to look the same.
You located the font code easily enough and now from that we know what to apply globally, if you want that font across the whole forum. I can do that.
Please check my updated forum test page http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php (http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php) (in a browser without Stylish modifying the stlye) and indicate any changes you would like and we can continue as before.
Hope this is ok.
Thanks.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 25 janvier 2016 à 00:10:18
Hello,

Yes, Stylish is a plugin which allows modifying on the client side, it allows to test how something would look. Believe me : when I saw the error message about "font-type", first thing I hit the page I have pointed you to to check, because I know there is a font-something else when it comes to the kind of font. That was "font-family", of course which was the right one. Then the name "dejavu-sans" seemed weird to me too.

No I don't want you to put "Dejavu Sans" everywhere on the forum, just at that place it was already in the code, as "dejavu-sans".

Stylish allows creating custom styles which can also be deactivated or activated on the fly with a check box. I deactivated it and looked at the actual look. Do you know what? It looks fine to me.

So how does that work? I can see in the source code several CSS, some from the default theme and some from the tabs-fun theme:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/style.css?rc1" />

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/default/css/print.css?rc1" media="print" />

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/default/css/ff.css" />

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" id="compat_css" href="http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/default/css/compat.css" />


Do you plan to make a standalone theme out of them?


PS: even if seeing the final install of the theme very close to us, it's not a reason for you not to take the rest you need… :-)

PS2: the CSS for tabs-fun has twice ".user_info" and ".user_info a" as said previously:
view-source:http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/Themes/tabs-fun/style.css?rc1

Here:
Citer
.search_box
{
   position: absolute;
   top: 25px;
   right: 15px;
}

.user_info
{
    text-align: center;
   padding: 5px 0 5px 0;
   color: #004272;
}
.user_info a
{
   color: #004272;
}

/* DropDownMenu */

and the one from my additions which you added at the end of the page. Perhaps would you want to merge them? Which in this case would mean the "color" property above should not be needed anymore? (If I understand some bits of CSS…  :P)


Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 25 janvier 2016 à 00:35:55
Notes
1. Too late I have changed all fonts in style.css of tabs-fun theme to Dejavu Sans.
Look again at the forum test page and see if it is alright (but for this test not 'through the lens' of Stylish).
2. In answer to you pointing out that there are many css style sheets:
Yes that is true and throughout the whole process through December and today I have been very careful to only modify the one stylesheet style.css in the tabs-fun theme.
3. It works by prioritizing style sheets. The theme's modified stylesheet has a higher priority and overrides the default style sheet wherever you need changes.
There are also specific PHP changes on PHP pages dotted throughout the thread and I have documented them all somewhere.
I will need to find them all and condense all the changes into one short list.
4. Yes I will do a simplification and merging to clean up the style sheet, I will do that last of all.
I hope that explains it for you.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 25 janvier 2016 à 00:49:08
Hello Kevin,

Yes, it explains it all. Yes I have looked at the site with Stylish deactivated, as I told you it's easy to do, just a box to untick.

At all the places where you have changed the font for "Dejavu Sans", but not on the ".user_info" and ".user_info a" classes, it seems to me that before, there was a generic font after the main one, such as "Sans", perhaps? (Not everywhere either I guess).

Here is a test:
http://www.kdworld7.net/smf/index.php?topic=9.0

I must say, I do have Dejavu Sans installed in all my systems… I can't test without it right now.

I forgot to say: after I posted, the page didn't return to the post.

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 25 janvier 2016 à 01:14:03
1.
Citer
I forgot to say: after I posted, the page didn't return to the post.
That might be fixable by changing a setting in the forum admin. I will look tomorrow.

2. Yes I think we might need to adjust the font styles a bit so the pages look normal and consistent and are easy to read. We should do that next.
edit: or maybe leave it as it is for now. . . what do you think?

It is improving . . . I will need to do a final run through of testing all of the admin and user pages to see there are no problems.
Then write the list of steps to install it all.
Then do a test run of a fresh install.
Also let you look at the admin pages (you will need an admin account for that).
Then when you are happy . . . you can apply the changes to your forum.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 25 janvier 2016 à 22:10:06
Hi,

I guess you will have to make a package? Best thing if you could put it inside the SMF repos. Anyway, I will look forward to seeing the newly installed test forum.

Thanks again for this beautiful work.

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 26 janvier 2016 à 13:44:27
Melodie
I look forward to helping you implement all of the changes in the next few days.
Sorry if  I make things seem complicated sometimes . . . it is very simple to do.
I need to collect my thoughts and notes and write a list.
It would be prudent for me to test everything by installing a 2nd forum (fresh install) on my website.
If that works then I will be 100% confident.
Thanks
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 26 janvier 2016 à 23:17:31
Hello,

Yes, I am looking forward to test the new test forum, and to install the new theme.  :)
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 30 janvier 2016 à 02:51:47
http://www.kdworld7.net/lxv/
http://www.kdworld7.net/dir/

Instructions for installing on your website. . . please wait until tomorrow Saturday.
Thanks
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 01 février 2016 à 10:01:43
@Melodie
You can try out the new style forum now if you like.
If there are problems then simply put it back how it was.
It might be a good idea for me to be online to answer questions and advise you whilst you implement it.
That means you won;t have to wait for answers.
I know you have installed Themes before and you know what to do.
So go ahead and install if you want to . . . when you are ready.
No hurry though.
Thanks
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 01 février 2016 à 23:21:09
Hello,

I'll sure try to put my head into it before the end of the week! Meawhile will try to call out the members of the forum for a look!

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 09 février 2016 à 23:04:41
@Melodie
I see you uploaded the new style.
It looks good.
I will try posting a few items and check it out.
Maybe it is a little bright and 'loud', it can be made softer with softer borders and less pronounced colour differences.
I think it is a very good start and a good basis from which to apply further minor improvements.

Messages récents are not showing at the bottom of the index page.
Also I think the message bubble icons need renaming . . . off.png and on.png filenames need swapping I think.

I am enjoying using the new style it seems clearer and easier to read than the old style.
It is easier and faster to navigate through the topics IMHO.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 09 février 2016 à 23:52:33
Melodie
Recent Messages on Index page:
You need to go into ADMIN
 
To display 100 recent posts at bottom of index page. >'Administration Center'
Themes and Layout' >'Manage and Install'
Then select ... Configuration ... Current Theme ... Number of recent posts to
display on board index [text box] Set it to 100 and save.
Hope this helps

PS it is a little bit difficult to find . . . the text box has 0 as default value. Change to 100 and save.
There are two view modes in ADMIN, one has a list of categories on the left hand side.
The other view mode is drop down lists.
I prefer to use the list on the left hand side.

==================================
Well done . . . . . I see you fixed it !!!
Titre: Re: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 10 février 2016 à 00:11:50
Melodie
Recent Messages on Index page:
You need to go into ADMIN
 
To display 100 recent posts at bottom of index page

Hello,

Nice idea, but 10 is just enough. 100 looked too crowded. :)

What about working a bit more on the theme? The threads have a strange look here. ( 1680x1050     59.95*+ on a 21" screen).

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 10 février 2016 à 00:20:20
10 recent messages looks okay.
Yes the theme might need some more work.

I too am viewing with 1680x1050.

Well actually 2 x 1680x1050 vertically stacked one above the other (NVIDIA twin-view).

I need an early night and will be out tomorrow morning . . .  so will look at this again tomorrow evening.
Make a list of things to fix and I will try to fix them.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 10 février 2016 à 00:43:03
Hi,

I'm preparing several screenshots, so you can see for yourself. :)


Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 10 février 2016 à 00:53:40
Well, the whole range of buttons at the bottom of the last post is missing (just the texts, but not in buttons). Then, please compare:
http://meets.free.fr/images/forum/forum-look-with-default-theme.png with http://meets.free.fr/images/forum/forum-look-with-tabs-fun.png to see what is missing to make it right (I can help with that, just let's see if we see the same things).

Then please have a look in the admin part: the default theme in the section meant to switch themes: http://meets.free.fr/images/forum/admin-theme-selection-with-default-theme.png and http://meets.free.fr/images/forum/admin-theme-selection-with-tabs-fun-theme.png, and also have a look at that part, on one of your test forums? http://meets.free.fr/images/forum/admin-look-with-default-theme.png

Thank you.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 10 février 2016 à 00:54:08
PS: that last post above, has a really strange look.  :o
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 10 février 2016 à 10:26:42
Hi Melodie
Yes there are layout and button differences between the default theme and the tabs-fun "tabs-fun theme" design by KahneFan.
That is why I made 4 test forums for you to test them and be happy with them, before 'taking the plunge' and uploading to your forum.
I also gave you the admin passwords of my test forums so you could thoroughly check of all the admin interfaces first.
The purpose of that was so you could point out to me anything not quite right or changes you wanted implemented.
Also I can only work intensively on the code if it is on my server.
Also it saves the embarrassment of showing the world on your finished forum anything that may not have been sorted out properly.

No worries, I will carry on the development as you wish, on my test forums.
The two most recent test forums are these . . . noted in previous posts on this thread (I emailed you the admin passwords, but maybe you have not logged into them yet).
http://www.kdworld7.net/lxv/
http://www.kdworld7.net/dir/


If you check out the original tabs-fun theme by KahneFan, I think it has some of the unwanted changes too (the breadcrumb trail at the bottom of the page is missing).
I have only worked on KahneFan's modified design tabs-fun . . . under your instructions.

Leave it with me, I am busy today so I will look again this evening.
Thanks for the screen shots.
Please check you can log-in to the admins on my test forums, then we can continue to develop this further.
Thanks
 

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 10 février 2016 à 10:30:50
I noticed that another issue is zooming in with the browser, the left hand avatar columns get jumbled with adjacent details of post1 spilling over onto post2 etc.
Maybe it is best if you put the forum back to the default theme and we can continue to sort out all the problems on my test forums as before.
What do you think?

PS the zooming error is the same as you describe ... a strange look and it gets worse when you zoom.
Never noticed that before.
We need to go back to the test forums and try to replicate that.
It might not have been noticed before because nobody with an avatar posted anything on my test forums.
Best to put your forum back to default until we get this fixed.
Thanks.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 10 février 2016 à 14:07:05
I think my next task should be to put a breadcrumb trail for navigation at the bottom of the page and tidy that section so it looks good.
I will try that on my test forum.
Then I will try creating some avatars to see whether they disrupt the page layout on my test forum.
One of your posts seems to have shifted everything to the right.
I might be able to fix all this easily and quickly.

UPDATE:
I was able to put another breadcrumb trail at the bottom of the page . . . then my website provider had a power cut and so their servers went down.
I have to wait until they fix the servers.


Also the breadcrumb trail is located within a unique div id and so cannot be repeated unless the new div has another id. eg. linktree and linktree2. If they both have the same div id then it will fail the w3c validation.
It just means I need to change some php in the index.template file within the tabs-fun theme.

Also I might need to look at the technique of 'clearfix' more closely, it is used here, it might have something to do with the layout problems.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 10 février 2016 à 20:19:32
Very good! Thanks for your hard work!!!

And no, I'm not about to switch : users can switch in their profile, so there is no real issue regarding their (occasional) use of the forum. I'll just wait for your next shot.

Keep on well!
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 12 février 2016 à 19:49:19
I made some improvements you can see them here . . . login to admin or user if you have a password.
http://www.kdworld7.net/lxv/

Also I think I fixed the avatar alignment problem.

A stroke of genius . . the first thing I tried when I looked at the avatar alignment problem.
I tried the following code in style.css . . .and it worked . . I couldn't believe it, I was expecting it to be really difficult to solve. Also the answer came into my head, I did not hunt for a solution or try lots of things.

div.post_wrapper{overflow:hidden}
http://kdworld7.net/lxv/index.php?topic=5.0 (http://kdworld7.net/lxv/index.php?topic=5.0)

Looks like it is fixed.



Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 12 février 2016 à 22:06:58
Citer
. . . the whole range of buttons at the bottom of the last post is missing (just the texts, but not in buttons).
Those buttons were removed at the beginning of the modifications, when I removed the red and black buttons that were part of the tabs-fun theme.
The style.css originally linked to red and black button images.
I explained at the time what I had done and that the buttons were changed to links.
If you want to have buttons instead, then an easy way would be to put some css styling on the links to make them look prettier and look like buttons. Or use the original method of images, (which do take time to load and also need to be created - maybe by changing the colour of the existing images from red/black to orange/yellow to suit this new look forum).

I will try styling the links with css first of all and if that is not good enough then we can use images.
Personally I thought that the plain hyperlinks were okay, but if you prefer buttons . . . that is fine.

Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 13 février 2016 à 00:25:43
Hello!

If you can do it with CSS, then great! I know it's lighter, and websites and forums should be always as light as it can be.

Thanks!

Titre: Re : Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 13 février 2016 à 00:27:12

Also I think I fixed the avatar alignment problem.

A stroke of genius . . the first thing I tried when I looked at the avatar alignment problem.
I tried the following code in style.css . . .and it worked . . I couldn't believe it, I was expecting it to be really difficult to solve. Also the answer came into my head, I did not hunt for a solution or try lots of things.

div.post_wrapper{overflow:hidden}


Good get!


Citer
Looks like it is fixed.

Wonderful, thanks again! When you will have fixed a few more details, maybe can we try to install your next new version. (Not before the week-end that comes after next week, though… in any case)


Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 05 mars 2016 à 14:23:46
I noticed that your forum as it is now, has bad layout problems when I respond to posts, some of the text is missing and hidden. . . I think if I implement the modifications we discussed, then it will be fixed.
It would be a good idea to update the tabs-fun theme to the one I described in my last post on this thread.
I will email you the tabs-fun-extra-tabs folder in a .zip file.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 05 mars 2016 à 22:47:13
Hi, nice to see you! I'll look forward to your update, thanks. :)
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 13 mars 2016 à 13:31:24
Hello!

I have switched the theme tabs fun theme and now this thread is repaired (the post where it was going sideways does not anymore). Just now, the index has a weird look with each part in it's rectangle. How come?

And also the options below the answer field looks a bit strange too.
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: kjdixo le 14 mars 2016 à 09:19:08
Hi Melodie
Everything is the same as my 4 test forums which I demonstrated to you before you went ahead with the changes to your forum.
I was expecting you to comment on anything you didn't like before you updated your forum, that was the whole point of me showing you my 4 test forums.
Could you please post an image of the parts of the theme you don't like and I will try to make them how you want.
Thanks.
PS. I think it looks very good as it is . . . and it functions correctly (the previous errors are fixed).
Titre: Re : Turning point for Linuxvillage and it's forum?
Posté par: melodie le 14 mars 2016 à 20:54:43
Hi Kevin,

Yes, it seems to have reached a point where adding improvements will be only for some tiny cosmetic details. Let's say, I appreciate when the lines surrounding fields have a smooth look, with more than 1 pixel thick. I think it looks nicer. Perhaps would you want to switch your profile to the old default theme to compare both somehow, or I could do it, with two windows, and make a screenshot of each side by side.

But, there is no hurry, whereas I'm in the middle of a big prep to do this month, for some events. :D

Meanwhile, if you find things of interest to share, I would gladly read from you on the forums!

(I have put up the pieces of a machine for someone, and right now heard about the HWE, and I'm pretty excited because it will solve an issue I was foreseeing! - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack )