# Major bugs in SDMB re-skin fixed. What do you think? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [September 6, 2017, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663 "2017-09-06T18:32:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 17
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663/321 "2017-09-12T14:13:40Z")
What’s with the dummy advertisements? I have to assume they’re embedded as part of the skin package, because they’re not blocked (entirely) in my browser-environment-of-choice (Firefox + uBlock Origin), and they’re non-clickable. And the only one that’s for an identifiable product is for a 4-5 year old Google tablet. Also, quote boxes shouldn’t apply italics to text. I want to italicize for accent or emphasis, and indicating a quote is already take care of by the mere fact that it’s in a quote box. And the “join date/location/post count” block wanders all over the right edge. That’s a little annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663/322 "2017-09-12T14:14:35Z")
Highlighting is now black text on a medium blue for me. Perfectly legible. (Windows 10, Firefox, **BigT** ’s script running.) ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663/323 "2017-09-12T14:25:41Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > Ed - if you can use help from anyone, please let us know. There are evidently several folks here with the knowledge and will to tackle this. If nothing else, it would take the time zone issue off the table (and possibly save some $$ as well). Appreciate the offer, but my guys don’t get paid till they fix this and by God that’s what’s going they’re going to do. I may be in touch privately with a few people re: tech issues. > [@](#): > > In addition to the coding help, I’ll warrant that you can find a healthy group of us to help you beta any further changes before you roll them out. I’ve had the same thought. My plan at the moment is to get the immediate problems fixed - color changes and such - then see where we are. If we need to start digging into the code I don’t want to be testing that on the production site. ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663/324 "2017-09-12T14:36:26Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Oh, and the super-excessive whitespace in the forum listings is back. Yes, because … > [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](#): > > The Last post column is not wide enough. I beefed about this. > [@Steve\_MB](#): > > For some reason, the “Reply With Quote” message box only takes up half the width of the browser (Chrome). I beefed about this too. > [@JKellyMap](#): > > Thanks to the Hamster Lords for fixing the color of the bar between each post! No prob. Also, multi-page navigation buttons now visible, REPLY and POST NEW THREAD buttons easier to read, VIEW FIRST UNREAD now visible in nav bar at top of thread display pages. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663/325 "2017-09-12T14:41:27Z")
Minor item:The search page only goes back a year. ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663/326 "2017-09-12T14:47:50Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Thanks for the feedback. Should I assume from this and your previous fixes list that nothing is going to be done about the gigantic fonts in the main body of posts? Not seeing this. Can you post a screen shot? What device and browser are you using? Not ignoring concerns but one thing at a time. > [@](#): > > That, and the floating “go to top” button on the bottom right-hand corner that just hangs there like a wart on the screen, are currently my two biggest complaints. I didn’t like this at first but it’s helpful on phones to get to the top nav bar if you’re at the bottom of a long thread. Now I think it’s handy. Give it a while. ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663/327 "2017-09-12T14:57:32Z")
> [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > That’s odd, it works differently for me. What type of device are you using? Samsung S7 Edge with chrome for Android. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663/328 "2017-09-12T15:29:50Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > It truly is. It’s pretty laughable. They appear able to only to address one issue a day. I see the page numbers are back, but something incredibly trivial like leaving the signature checkbox off by default remains unaddressed. > > I hope they’re not being paid for their “efforts”, otherwise the Reader is being seriously ripped off. > > Another baffling thing is all the wonderful fixes **bigT** made with his userscript is all commented, so the fixes could be so easily lifted from that and employed. Just… utterly baffling… I have a feeling **BigT** ’s script might just be a permanent solution for me. It’s far more elegant than what is out right now. Even the new gray bars in the fix are still too dark and distracting. BigT’s hit exactly the right shade. And the columns for the poster info fields are aligned. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663/329 "2017-09-12T16:04:50Z")
Actually, the width of the “Last Post” column appears to be inconsistent: In Cafe Society right now, there’s room to fit “Today 11:46 AM” on one line, but in GQ, the “AM” needs its own line. So apparently the width is being dynamically set somehow, and the way they’re dynamically setting it is stupid. EDIT: Looking at it more closely, it appears to be because the longest thread title in GQ is longer than the longest thread title in CS, which is forcing the title field to be wider. No thread title is wrapping. A better solution would be to give the “Last Post” column a minimum width that’s sufficient to fit everything in, and then to force the title field to wrap if necessary: That way, we’d only stretch vertically on those few threads that have long titles, not on every one. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663/330 "2017-09-12T16:54:53Z")
I can see page numbers and View First Unread again, FWIW. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663/331 "2017-09-12T17:08:55Z")
> [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > Not seeing this. Can you post a screen shot? What device and browser are you using? > > Not ignoring concerns but one thing at a time. Firefox 55.0.3 64-bit, Windows 7, Dell U2412M 1920x1200, however it doesn’t really matter as it also looks big on other PCs with smaller monitors and on the laptop. Also, between the two complaint threads here quite a few other folks have made similar comments about the oversize font size. The only device on which the main text in post bodies doesn’t appear unusually large is on the 7" tablet. [Here is a screen shot.](https://imgur.com/a/uMPxv) In order to see the large font issue properly I think you really have to download the image and view it actual size. There is some text over on the left displayed in Word which is Times New Roman @ 12-point and is a reasonable reading size on most monitors. This is approximately the size of the text that now appears in quotes. Before, quotes and the main post body were both that size. Notice how huge the fonts in the main body of posts looks compared to the normal reading size fonts in the Word windows on the left; the big fonts look to be approximately equivalent to 14-point, which is more like a headline or chapter heading font than a normal reading font. The way a post (with or without quotes) displays when doing a “Preview Post” is the way it looked before and the way in my opinion it should look, at least on desktops. As soon as it’s actually posted, the font size goes up 2 points and it looks like my screen shot. > [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > I didn’t like this at first but it’s helpful on phones to get to the top nav bar if you’re at the bottom of a long thread. Now I think it’s handy. Give it a while. OK, but can it be changed to display the transparent up arrow with a circle everywhere, like it does on the PC? On my tablet it appears as a dropdown box with the name of the forum and a “Go” button, which obscures part of the screen in an annoying way. > [@Steve\_MB](#): > > For some reason, the “Reply With Quote” message box only takes up half the width of the browser (Chrome). Just noticed this, too, in Firefox. This is a new problem as I have done “Reply with Quote” a lot in the past few days and didn’t have this issue. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663/332 "2017-09-12T17:26:29Z")
Bloody hell! That obtrusive drop-down box in the bottom right that I only used to see on the tablet now displays on the PC, too! The reply with quote windows is still half-size, squished on the left half of the windows, and the amount of white space between thread titles has tripled because of bad formatting of the info on the right-hand side which spills over onto multiple lines. It’s getting worse instead of better! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663/333 "2017-09-12T17:46:36Z")
Looks a little better now, thanks. And the page numbers for multipage threads are now visible, which is good. ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663/334 "2017-09-12T18:03:33Z")
Last post column was widened, an improvement, but not enough. user names that are too long still cause a bunch-up. The thread title column is too wide. Lots of thread titles extend to the second line. this is not a problem because the last post entry is already that deep. The thread title column doesn’t need to be as wide as possible. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663/335 "2017-09-12T18:38:10Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > Also, quote boxes shouldn’t apply italics to text. I want to italicize for accent or emphasis, and **indicating a quote is already take care of by the mere fact that it’s in a quote box.** I agree with most of this. But the part of your message I’ve italicized (:)) must refer to the OLD design. On the new design, the boundary of the quote box is **almost completely invisible.** _ **I have already had trouble identifying quotes.** _ _BTW, I am one who occasionally indents for good reasons (though not in this case)._ Like Code, indentation is no longer available — unless the invisible quote box boundary is fixed indentation is now how quotes are distinguished. And I’m surprised that no one else is screaming about CODE tags. Fixing minor color errors, like white-on-white text, will be easily solved. **BigT** can do it in five seconds (or outsource to India as a $35 task. :eek: ) But more complicated bugs like the breaking of Code and Preview are intolerable and much more difficult for the $35 guy to fix. They should be addressed _first_ to test the $35 guy. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663/336 "2017-09-12T18:40:10Z")
The change from blue bars to grey might be construed as paying homage to The Confederacy. I think we should petition to have those grey bars torn down and replace with good ol’ Union Blue. I keed, I keed! ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663/337 "2017-09-12T19:04:05Z")
> [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > I didn’t like this at first but it’s helpful on phones to get to the top nav bar if you’re at the bottom of a long thread. But I’m not using a phone, Ed! Why should I have to see this at all? The ability to display pages differently on different devices was added to HTML years ago – have your overseas programmers not learned that part of HTML yet? P.S. Newspapers of your owner, the Sun-Times Media Group, have published a fair number of editorials over the years arguing against outsourcing American jobs overseas. But that seems to be what you have done with this redesign. Why? Did they give you the lowest price? Seems like you’re getting the quality of work appropriate to that price. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663/338 "2017-09-12T19:04:54Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > I agree with most of this. But the part of your message I’ve italicized (:)) must refer to the OLD design. On the new design, the boundary of the quote box is **almost completely invisible.** _ **I have already had trouble identifying quotes.** _ Quotes look exactly the same to me as they did on the old interface, with a distinct black line forming a box around them with the word “Quote” just outside, making them unmistakable. Must be your device or browser – the new interface does seem to like presenting different features to different devices. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663/339 "2017-09-12T19:20:12Z")
Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, I didn’t read all of today’s posts. Yes, I can see page numbers now, but the Reply buttons (top and bottom of the page) are now completely invisible. When the changes were first made, the background of these buttons was invisible but the words were there so you could at least see those. Now both are invisible. Windows 8.1, IE 11. Note: the buttons look normal on Chrome. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663/340 "2017-09-12T19:24:43Z")
The search function was never that great, but it currently doesn’t allow searches of anything further back in time than 1 year. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663.md?page=16) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/major-bugs-in-sdmb-re-skin-fixed-what-do-you-think/795663.md?page=18)