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

[drad_dog]

If this is a query I’m thinking I don’t like this look. It’s harder to read. There’s a lot of blank space on the screen. Why go backwards?

I came here originally thinking that I could adjust my settings. Can I?

[silenus]

Nobody is going to come here if this is the way things are going to be “fixed.” There was never any reason to shift to a “mobile-friendly” format in the first place.

[Itself]

Ugly layout, ugly fonts, annoying blue bars, and intrusive ads. It’s cool that you’re trying to make the board easier to read on mobile devices, but screwing up the desktop user-experience in the process isn’t helpful.

[Tim_T-Bonham.net]

Does multi-quote not work anymore? I can’t figure out how to do it.

I used to click multi quote for each message I wanted to quote, then click quote on the last one, and I got a reply box with all those posts quoted. But in the new version, I do that, but only the last one is there – the earlier multi-quoted ones are lost.

---

And Yes, it’s ugly as hell on desktops. And that’s what most of the contributors are using. But they are an older group, and don’t buy much (and mostly have ad-blockers anyway). The mobile users are mostly younger, and a better-selling demographic for ad buyers. So SMDB is being changed to make it more attractive to advertisers.

[TreacherousCretin]

@penultima_thule

You’re doing fine Ed.

It’s different but I don’t come here for the décor.

Same here. I don’t care for it, but BFD.

[Bone]

@Folly

You can see the bar in the pic linked to in post 38. Thanks for that, by the way, as I am not experiencing the green highlighting and had no idea what people were talking about.

I can’t remember what used to be between the posts of a thread. Was it just a thinner line?

This is what a thread used to look like. I had an old window that hadn’t been refreshed yet. The bar between posts was much less noticeable. The quoted text was clearly set aside. The bottom right options to quote was an image with text embedded, not separated.

[Kent_Clark]

@Bone

Here is what I see at 100% sizing in Chrome, Win 10, on a 22" monitor.

Here are the issues I can see just on that page:
[ul]
[li]The join/location/post count do not align. There are three different positions and on other pages there are even more.[/li][li]The blue bars that go across are really distracting, and at work, make the page very obvious.[/li][li]The font size in quoted text is reduced from the post itself. eta: same thing happening with text in the bulleted items[/li][li]The options in the bottom right of each post for replying/quote etc. are really intrusive with both text and an image. Should be one or the other.[/li][li]The arrow at the bottom right is also pretty intrusive.[/li][/ul]
Not pictured, highlighting text is a odd shade of green now.

Same here, plus the almost invisible shading of the Quote box.

Things like font size, shading, and alignment may seem to be simply “aesthetics” but as other posters have pointed out, they can be confusing to the point where they muck up trying to tread and post.

[kopek]

I can live with it.

[Enola_Gay]

@MikeS

The “Multi Quote” text link doesn’t do anything on either Safari or Chrome under Mac OS 10.12. The icon next to it works fine, but not the link. For the other reply tools (“Reply with Quote” and “Quick Reply”), both the icon and the text link work.

I stopped in to say this. Multi-quote doesn’t do anything.

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

Current Firefox, Win 8.1.

No Like Buttons (was there one?)

The Reply With Quote, Multi Quote, and Quick Reply Buttons–aren’t buttons.
Just blue bars, with titles above them.

[Evan_Drake]

@t-bonham@scc.net

Does multi-quote not work anymore? I can’t figure out how to do it.

I used to click multi quote for each message I wanted to quote, then click quote on the last one, and I got a reply box with all those posts quoted. But in the new version, I do that, but only the last one is there – the earlier multi-quoted ones are lost.

Just click on the symbol — with the Cross, which then changes to a Double Quote symbol.

I do not know why the text labels are there.

And Yes, it’s ugly as hell on desktops. And that’s what most of the contributors are using. But they are an older group, and don’t buy much (and mostly have ad-blockers anyway). The mobile users are mostly younger, and a better-selling demographic for ad buyers. So SMDB is being changed to make it more attractive to advertisers.

Does anyone ever actually buy stuff from a random advert ?

[kopek]

@Evan_Drake

Just click on the symbol — with the Cross, which then changes to a Double Quote symbol.

Firefox and a MAC here ----- its not working for me either but as I recall the other versions version didn’t work very well either.

[dtilque]

@El_Kabong

Still using IE; highlighted text is medium blue there.

@Bone

Here is an example of the green shade when highlighting.

Using Ubintu here. Highlighted text is pink if I highlight the thread, but in the text-entry box (where I’m typing this) it’s more of an orange. The difference is probably due to the background colors being different.

I have no problem with these colors.

[wolfpup]

@Itself

Ugly layout, ugly fonts, annoying blue bars, and intrusive ads. It’s cool that you’re trying to make the board easier to read on mobile devices, but screwing up the desktop user-experience in the process isn’t helpful.

Pretty much this. With Firefox on a normal Windows PC platform and in most desktop situations with most monitors, the big problem as I and others have mentioned is the ugly giant fonts which make the site look like a child’s reading primer – and, no, CTRL +/- is not the answer because not all text elements are the same and reducing the zoom which makes normal text look normal again also makes quotes, list elements, and many other text elements too small. Before this “improvement”, everything was matched and the same reasonable size.

What unfortunately complicates matters is the rather extraordinary extent to which the appearance and problems are different on different browsers and platforms, which suggests that this software may be trying to change its behavior for different environments, but if so, it’s making a complete mess of it and doing almost nothing right. For instance there is absolutely no way that the fonts comprising the main body of posts should look so huge on most PC desktops. Yet when I look at it on my tablet, those fonts look about right, and the quoted text looks too small. Before, everything looked fine on all platforms that I tried it on.

Also on the tablet, the “Reply” button is red but on the PC it’s blue. And on the tablet, the “go to top” floating arrow becomes a rectangular box containing the name of the thread and a green “Go” button. Both are annoying, IMHO. And for some reason even the embedded ads are different – ads which never appeared before this change.

I don’t know what to suggest as this seems to be an extremely buggy implementation with a great many problems that makes things worse for almost everyone except maybe a minority of mobile users. Personally I’d be looking at rolling back the whole thing, but hey, I don’t run the place. At the very least, I think PC users should have the font scaling look like it did before. It’s more than just ugly or mildly annoying like some of the other stuff – to me, the visual impression is that something is seriously broken, especially with the font size inconsistencies.

[Kent_Clark]

On re-reading this thread, I see someone has noted that the we actually have to hit the buttons for Reply and Multi Quote. I wish I’d seen that before I tried to reply and multi-quote.

[silenus]

It actually looks better to me on my iPhone than it does on the desktop. I can see where they are trying to go, at least. The bolding problems I am having seem to be font related on my desktop.

On the phone, the quote buttons are just buttons, but in Firefox and IE they are messed up.

Fix it for desktop and it might fly.

[Fenris]

@Idle_Thoughts

You italicized the quote that you quoted in your post. This counts as changing the quote. DO NOT DO THIS AGAIN.
Just a note…this time.

Just kidding.

You italicised MY quote without attribution and per the rules, even Admins (let alone mere mods like you) are subject to the QUOTE BOXES ARE SACROSANCT rule.

I have placed you on double-secret probation and in addition to mystery penalties, condemn you to eating meatloaf the correct way, with onions.

[engineer_comp_geek]

@silenus

There was never any reason to shift to a “mobile-friendly” format in the first place.

One of the biggest complaints we’ve had in recent years is that this site isn’t mobile friendly.

[Fenris]

@Itself

Ugly layout, ugly fonts, annoying blue bars, and intrusive ads. It’s cool that you’re trying to make the board easier to read on mobile devices, but screwing up the desktop user-experience in the process isn’t helpful.

That should be “you’re trying (although failing horribly) to make the boards easier to read on mobile devices…”

It’s nigh-on unreadable on an iPhone, IMO

[Fenris]

@engineer_comp_geek

One of the biggest complaints we’ve had in recent years is that this site isn’t mobile friendly.

But it’s not an either/or choice. vB allows as part of it’s plain, default, vanilla package an option to let the user chose the skin they prefer.

It takes absolutely no configuring (other than building the new skins) and it’s like 5 button clicks for an admin to activate.

So why not let the users choose which skin works best for them? Those who love the new skin can have it, those who don’t can have the old skin with about 2 clicks.

And POOF: everyone’s happy.