Major bugs in SDMB re-skin fixed. What do you think?

[BigT]

Warning for testers: the Green theme doesn’t allow you to switch back. The only way out is to hit the back button and then change the theme from the previous screen. You’ll need to switch to whatever them you weren’t using to fix it.

Or, well, just don’t try out the Green theme. It’s just a bit of a curiosity to me to see what the new theme looked like before they started messing with it.

[Senegoid]

Here’s one I don’t think I’ve seen mentioned yet:

I’m not seeing that “Scroll to Top” button that everybody’s jumping up and down about. BUT:

At the very very bottom of every page, I see this:
Not seeing a Scroll to Top Button? Go to our FAQ page for more info.

…where the blue underlined text is a link to [noparse]http://www.scrolltotop.com/[/noparse]

What in the world is that? No, I’m not going to click on it to find out.

[cochrane]

Yes! It’s good to see the old style back. I’ll definitely be switching ASAP.

[BigT]

@Senegoid

Here’s one I don’t think I’ve seen mentioned yet:

I’m not seeing that “Scroll to Top” button that everybody’s jumping up and down about. BUT:

At the very very bottom of every page, I see this:
Not seeing a Scroll to Top Button? Go to our FAQ page for more info.

…where the blue underlined text is a link to [noparse]http://www.scrolltotop.com/[/noparse]

What in the world is that? No, I’m not going to click on it to find out.

It’s a link to the site that provides the script for the scroll to top button. I’m sure the notice is there for troubleshooting purposes, if the thing doesn’t appear when it should.

Probably not something that needs to be kept on the production site, though.

[Folly]

Switching between is working like a charm so far. I’ll probably do the old theme for desktop and the new theme for my android phone. It’s too bad that the old theme means that guest location/post number is hidden though.

[BigT]

@BigT

It’s a link to the site that provides the script for the scroll to top button. I’m sure the notice is there for troubleshooting purposes, if the thing doesn’t appear when it should.

Probably not something that needs to be kept on the production site, though.

It should also only appear if you have disabled JavaScript or possibly if you are using NoScript and have the script not allowed.

[Kent_Clark]

I hate to whine, but nothing is really changing for me on either site (Chrome on a desktop.) The column widths are still wonky with the poster info not lined up, the fonts are still large, the highlight bar is still green on both this and the test site.

[Sam_Stone]

Is it a caching issue? Try clearing your browser cache.

[cmyk]

I logged in as admin/adm20!7, then my usual username & pass on these boards on my iPhone 7 (Safari), switched to the classic browser theme, and all the forums are mostly empty (yet the old style is back!). What’s going on?

ETA: And I’m getting ads, as if I’m not a paying member. Jebus. I might not pay up anymore of this is how it’s run. Good god.

[Irishman]

@Chronos

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.

As I have been saying, this skin has as its key feature that it adjusts what is displayed to fit the platform, browser, screen size, and maybe other features of the device viewing it. There is some sort of default ratio of column widths, whereby the “Thread” column is sizeable and the “last post” narrow. Adjusting the zoom setting affects whether the “am/pm” rolls to a new line.

@Channing_Idaho_Banks

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.

That is what I have been saying.
Thank you, Irishman. BTW, although the words are all incorrectly placed on a single line in either case, that is normally the only line, … but on Preview the code block is padded out with extra blank lines, presumably equal to the number of newlines in the original.

On my Samsung the number of lines matches the truncated list, but on my desktop all the additional lines post below the text in the code box.

@Ed_Zotti

As for the quote function automatically italicizing quoted text, I just checked an old board version and from what I can see that’s how quoting has always worked.

No it is not. There was some iteration that vB have the automatic italics as part of the formatting setting for quoted material when using the quote buttons. We complained about the change when it rolled out then, and eventually got Jerry to change that.

@RTFirefly

OK, this is weird. The width of the column seems to vary with the forum. I wrote the above while looking at the forum page for Cafe Society. But then I checked out the forum pages for Elections and the Game Room, and they’re both noticeably narrower, with way more white space on the page on account of that.

All a part of the “responsiveness” of the skin code name.

[BigT]

@kunilou

I hate to whine, but nothing is really changing for me on either site (Chrome on a desktop.) The column widths are still wonky with the poster info not lined up, the fonts are still large, the highlight bar is still green on both this and the test site.

Did you change the dropdown to the old style? It is by default the new style. When I switch back to the old style, it’s exactly right.

[MrDibble]

@Ed_Zotti

I’m not confident this is as easy as people think. I’ve asked my contractor; he doesn’t know and is inquiring. Don’t misunderstand - you can certainly add themes, and possibly the site administrator (i.e., me) can easily toggle between them (I’ve asked about this also), but I’m not about to take a flyer and have the whole board go south. I see nothing to suggest that individual users can be given the ability to toggle between themes, but have asked the theme developer. If it’s as easy as some say, fine, but - meaning no disrespect - I want authoritative reassurance on this point…

If your contractor doesn’t know this basic VB function and has to ask, you’ve hired the shittiest VB contractor ever.

[MrDibble]

@Ed_Zotti

Please give this a try and make sure all operates as expected and that all problems previously reported have resolved. Then report your results here. If there’s general confirmation that this works I’ll implement it on the production board, although cautious soul that I am I’ll wait 24 hours to see if any problems surface. Please understand that this doesn’t fix anything that was broken in the OLD theme; it just reverts to what we had before.

Works for me. Since there was nothing broken in the old theme, and I can happily go back to it now.

[Ed_Zotti]

@wolfpup

Thanks so much, Ed! It is a thing of beauty to see the old style back!

As always, of course, nothing is as simple as it seems. Main problem is that the user choice exists only during the login session. Once you log out, it’s back to the default, and stays that way with the next login unless you go to UserCP and make the selection again. It needs to stick, and it has to be in a device-specific way (like with a cookie) or people with both desktops and mobile devices are going to be unhappy.

But so far, in principle, it works!

I notice there is no real content in most forums on the test site, except Elections and Marketplace. I assume this is intentional for the test setup and not a bug.

You can make your favorite theme your personal default by navigating to UserCP > Edit Options > Miscellaneous Options > Forum Skin. Pick the desired theme from the dropdown list and that’s what you’ll see every time you log in.

As others have observed, there’s plenty of content on the test board; it’s just that we cloned the database in the spring and most of the content now is outside the default time horizon in the display settings. If you go to the Display Options navigation area at the bottom of thread list pages, you can adjust for a longer time horizon.

[Fenris]

@MrDibble

If your contractor doesn’t know this basic VB function and has to ask, you’ve hired the shittiest VB contractor ever.

I gotta second this comment Ed. If your contractor “doesn’t know and is inquiring” about as basic a vB feature as letting users choose their preferred themes, there’s something wrong with your contractor.

By way of analogy, it’s as if you took your car to a mechanic and the mechanic said “Wait, you think it’s possible for you, the driver, to spray windshield washer fluid ON the window while driving the car??? I don’t know if that’s possible, let me inquire about that.”

Seriously, if they have to look up if it’s possible, they’re um…not…skilled*. At all. You should really reconsider whoever you hired.

But thanks for looking into it and turning it on. I’m really looking forward to have the old theme back on my cell and computer (the new one actually isn’t bad on an iPad).

*And apparently never visited any vB site anywhere. This is the only board I can think of that doesn’t have the feature turned on.

[Ed_Zotti]

@MrDibble

If your contractor doesn’t know this basic VB function and has to ask, you’ve hired the shittiest VB contractor ever.

He’s not primarily a VB contractor and that’s why this process has been bumpy. The main job, which is way more complicated and not complete, is porting the SD home page and column archive to a WordPress platform. Installing a new theme for the SDMB was a relatively small part of the project and the route we wound up going wasn’t the one originally planned. So I can’t be too hard on him for not knowing VB’s fine points; he’s doing things neither he nor we expected he’d have to do.

[wolfpup]

@Ed_Zotti

You can make your favorite theme your personal default by navigating to UserCP > Edit Options > Miscellaneous Options > Forum Skin. Pick the desired theme from the dropdown list and that’s what you’ll see every time you log in.

As others have observed, there’s plenty of content on the test board; it’s just that we cloned the database in the spring and most of the content now is outside the default time horizon in the display settings. If you go to the Display Options navigation area at the bottom of thread list pages, you can adjust for a longer time horizon.

Beautiful! I really appreciate you doing this for us, Ed. I have to say that in my opinion, on my devices, the original forum skin is better in every way, including ways I hadn’t even remembered until seeing it again. The combination of the normal-looking font size and the very light gray almost-invisible bars between posts give the site a totally different, clean and professional look, IMO.

Really looking forward to you putting this on the production site as soon as you feel comfortable doing so!

[Budget_Player_Cadet]

@Ed_Zotti

You can make your favorite theme your personal default by navigating to UserCP > Edit Options > Miscellaneous Options > Forum Skin. Pick the desired theme from the dropdown list and that’s what you’ll see every time you log in.

This option is not available to me, the only thing under there is the editor settings. That said, I don’t really have too much of an issue with this theme as it stands right now, so it’s not the end of the world. Thanks for fixing page numbers.

[wolfpup]

@Budget_Player_Cadet

This option is not available to me, the only thing under there is the editor settings.

Ed is referring to the test site, on which a choice of forum skins is now enabled. Hopefully we will soon see this in production!

[Ed_Zotti]

@wolfpup

Ed is referring to the test site, on which a choice of forum skins is now enabled. Hopefully we will soon see this in production!

Right. Assuming no problems arise - I’m not expecting anything - I’ll switch on theme toggling for the production site tonight and post instructions in an ATMB sticky. The new theme will remain the site default so Google gives us credit for being mobile-friendly, but you can switch to whatever theme you want and make this your personal default.

Meanwhile, we’ll continue to tweak the new theme using the beta site. This won’t be of concern to most people but from time to time I’ll be encouraging those who are into this kind of thing to visit the beta site and check out the latest round of changes. IMO the new theme works better on phones for many users and I’d like to make it as good as we can. Thanks.