Announcements Response Topic

[Nadaz, voice of the host]

I wold prefer that the profile, help, and logout buttons be lower on the screen.

[Jetthebinturong]

You asked for any complaints, and I had complaints. I'm not just complaining for the sake of it, you know. This isn't a personal attack. In case you've forgotten, you also made the last theme of this forum, which I liked.

Generally I think of the Loamhedge forum as derelict. You certainly did not advertise that you were testing anything big or tell people they should give feedback, so acting like it was an obvious thing to do is incredibly disingenuous. And yes, while often websites are redesigned and the users have no say, the users still complain even when there's nobody listening.

Explaining why things have been done the way they are is not addressing complaints. And I fail to see how moving Who's Online makes the forum more mobile friendly (which, speaking as someone who has accessed the forum on mobile on several occasions, it basically already was).

It's not unreasonable to be annoyed about a perfectly functioning theme being trashed (and not even saved as a possible alternate theme) in favour of something that looks worse.

[The Skarzs]

Well, James is asking for thoughts here. We really had no idea what this all looked like until now, so now we can work it out.

[Maudie]

Hmm, my first reaction was that I didn't like it, but I think it's starting to grow on me...

My biggest complaint would be that it isn't as "Redwall-y" as the previous theme. The other theme had more of a Redwall vibe, whereas this theme seems more modern and streamlined. I don't really care for the large boxes of dull brown color--I quite liked the previous mottled background. It was a little more engaging to the eye. A different color scheme  (maybe some dusty/sandstone red to add Redwall-iness?) or some borders to break up all that open space might make it less bland.

Eh, don't love the font either, to be honest. Or the fact that everything but the actual posts is in a different font.

Also, the help, etc. buttons at the top are...not my favorite. Hard pass on rounded corners.

The announcement banner seems a little out of place. Maybe make it maroon like the PM banner?

Beyond that, I have no feedback. That may change, though

[Nadaz, voice of the host]

@James Gryphon  thanks for putting the colour back to normal!

[Gonff the Mousethief]

I know you are probably in the middle of changing things, but the mobile version has a lot of empty space at the top and around that area. Is my version just glitching out?

[The Skarzs]

No, it's for me, too.

[Maudie]

New changes are muy bien.

[James Gryphon]

Regarding the mobile display trouble, if it'd be possible to provide a screenshot, that'd really help with tracking it down -- I only have an iPhone 5S, besides desktop emulation.

[The Skarzs]

Spoiler

[close]

[James Gryphon]

Whew, that's grotesque, both the news header and the giant text. I'll definitely want to look into that.

For reference sake, which model of phone and OS are you using?

[The Skarzs]

Ehh. . . LG g5 phone.

[James Gryphon]

What browser?

Also, if you refresh/do whatever you need to do to clear CSS files, what's it look like now?

[The Skarzs]

Google Crome (version 63.0.3239.111 if that helps).

Not sure how to clear the CSS file. . . I am not that intuitive.

[Cornflower MM]

I have just seen the new changes properly (not on mobile) for the first time and I am.... Honestly? A bit appalled and even a little repulsed. I can and have gotten past the Thanking feature being removed, although I do wish that had been more thought out. I'm going to have to write a better, more in depth, post when I have time and have been able to think things over and not say something stupid although I would like to address one thing:

Throughout the time I've been working on the forum, I've always kept a number of people around to ask about the theme and similar decisions. True, I didn't ask you or a number of other people on the forum, but that doesn't imply a total lack of seeking feedback. If they would, Chipster, Kitsune, Banya, Tumbler, and others can all attest that I've bounced things off of them at some point or another in time. And frankly, that is the most practical way of doing things: as I'm sure you've found out if you've ever worked on any large project, if you base all of your decisions on the response you get from a committee, you're never going to get anything done.

More to it, though, my working process has always been fairly transparent, as far as developers go. This work wasn't all done in a secret room somewhere. The LAF has been up all this time, usually demonstrating the effects of various changes I made, and I'm available to answer questions by PM, email, instant messaging, or even on the forum itself, in the Suggestions board. If someone didn't ever keep up with any of my work or get in contact with me, I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that they weren't all that invested in it. And even after releasing these projects, it is not uncommon -- I would dare say, more often than not, in fact -- for me to change or add something in response to some piece of input.

You wanna maybe list some active examples? Chipster and Tumbler are the only two you just named that haven't left and how often is Twinny (Tumbler) on?
Also, how many people knew that LAF was still up and getting changes? I did, but do you ever think I ever thought about checking it? No. I didn't even really know you were doing stuff. You could have made a quick announcement post and said "hey I need feedback can yall take a look at this?" Your defense of being open and transparent falls a wee bit flat when you don't bother broadcasting anything.