The New Skin Post!

[Jason Simonds]

So I installed a new skin.

 

Black Chrome!

 

you can check it out by picking 'Change Theme' In the lower left.

 

If you see any themes you like http://community.invisionpower.com/files/category/147-themed-skins/?dosort=1&sort_key=file_downloads&sort_order=desc&filter_key=all Just post the link here and I will look into it.

 

If you want to edit the banner you can download this.

logo.psd

 

 

Also having fun with emotions

[Tore]

I like the one called Memory 1.1.1.

[Jason Simonds]

Please post the link and I will look into this, Maybe we can pick a few and have a vote to see what ones users want to get 100% worked in

[Tore]

Memory:

 

http://community.invisionpower.com/files/file/5621-memory/

[Tore]

Btw, I can only see 3 skins in the "Change Theme" menu:

 

IP.Board
IP.Board Mobile
Animation: Master

 

- not a trace of Black Chrome...

[Jason Simonds]

I will be back at a computer in a few hours and will look into that. I bet I have enable something I did not add

[Darkwing]

Btw, I can only see 3 skins in the "Change Theme" menu:

 

IP.Board

IP.Board Mobile

Animation: Master

 

- not a trace of Black Chrome...

Same for me

[Jason Simonds]

I see what i did wrong now everyone but banned, bots and guest can see the new skin.

[Jason Simonds]

Ok i think the plan is this I'm going to leave this post up for a week or so then see what people like and what we can use. Then maybe a vote to see what ones people want to keep and have made fully supported. and see how that goes.

But all I can say is all this work to get the new forums going was so worth it I really like all of the fixes!

[Rodney]

But all I can say is all this work to get the new forums going was so worth it I really like all of the fixes!

 

 

Thanks for getting us here Jason.

 

 

I dunno. I like dark but the black chrome leaves a bit to be desired...

[NancyGormezano]

I dunno. I like dark but the black chrome leaves a bit to be desired...

 

 

white on black makes my eyeballs wobble - looks pretty, but hard to read for any length of time.

[Rodney]

As long as we have several options to choose from we should be doing fine.

More reason to check out that link Jason posted and get your favorite skin out and into the limelight.

 

I did note that they had one that looked almost exactly like the old forum and.... I was sorely tempted... but resisted... adding that into the theme options last night. Maybe we can add that (one version is a freebie) to soften the blow to those that can't deal with the change. Call it 'classic' or sumthin'.

 

Here's the link to the classic (read: old style theme) I think I was looking at:

 

http://community.invisionpower.com/files/file/6828-if34-ipboard-classic-blue-346/

[Rodney]

I think I fixed an overflow problem with the old banner 'Legacy Banner' theme (right and left of screen).

I'd be interested to know if anyone is still getting that overflow on a PC or Mac.

I don't recommend using the Legacy Banner theme for mobile.

[Jason Simonds]

The banner still over flows on FireFox and breaks scroll

[Jason Simonds]

Breaks scroll in IE too. Now I'm stuck haha!

[Rodney]

Fixed on my end for IE.... have to check Firefox.

 

Update: The fix for IE *appears* to have worked for firefox.

 

 

I do need to double check to make sure vertical scrolling isn't impacted.

[Jason Simonds]

IE 11 and FF30.0 still broke.

 

 

[Jason Simonds]

Attachment test!

 

I upped the attachment and thumbnail size. The old one was just to small for my liking. And we have a lot more room now.

[Rodney]

I reverted everything back to default in the legacy banner theme and IE and Firefox still had issues with scrolling.

I'm not sure what is going on there but that sure does explain why I use Chrome.

No matter what I tweaked Chrome kept everything in line and (best of all) kept working.

 

NIce image!

[Rodney]

Not quite fully formed but...

 

Working in IE, Firefox and Chrome.

Will have to check Safari...

 

Can't quite find the sweet spot for all browsers.

As soon as it's perfect on one it's broke in another.

As of this moment all appear to be working although not optimally.

[markw]

Can't say I like the Black Chrome. White lettering on black just wrecks your eyes after a short time reading it.

What do others think of these;
Nexus 1.4: http://community.invisionpower.com/files/file/2968-nexus-v14/
Silver Night 1.6.5: http://community.invisionpower.com/files/file/3736-silver-night/
Executive 1.1: http://community.invisionpower.com/files/file/3906-executive/

[Rodney]

Interesting.

 

There is something I like about 'executive' not quite sure what it is. It says, "Time to get to work!" which is something we need.

Silver Night is a step up *in the right direction* from Black Chrome... much more readable.

If Nexus was personalized enough... adding a nice image banner etc... it might be worth exploring.

 

Of the three I personally like executive but I don't think I'd use it for all of the forum... just where the serious work needs to get done (i.e. Community Projects). It'd be like saying to everyone else, "When you are done playing, let us know when you want to get some real work done." Or if all of the official 'Learning' forums were branded in such a way it'd be a subtle yet easy to figure where you were at in the forums.

 

I'm trying to picture some A:M related branding in Silver Night but not coming up with anything. Once branded,it would make a nice theme for someone's Special Topics forum.

 

Given the above I'd say executive is the most universal.

All three are fairly easy on the eyes (executive and nexus... almost relaxingly so at times)

They are all free which is certainly the right price.

 

I note that you didn't say which of the three YOU most liked!

 

Edit: I note that there is a free mobile skin that comes with executive. I don't see that with the others.

[markw]

...I note that you didn't say which of the three YOU most liked! ...

 

 

Ah, you caught me!

In truth I couldn't decide completely about them either, they all have some merit I think.

I like your idea of different skins for different areas in the forums, I hadn't thought of that. Some restraint might be necessary as to how many skins are used or things could just start to look messy and uncoordinated.

And look, I've still not answered your question!

So since you ask, for me Nexus and Executive were neck a neck, followed by Silver Night.

[Rodney]

Some restraint might be necessary as to how many skins are used or things could just start to look messy and uncoordinated.

 

I agree. Not that most people noticed but there were ten or so different skins being used in the old forum, you just couldn't select them from the drop down menu. Most were just slightly different than the primary theme but a few were highly experimental (actually... all were). The most likely place we should see more customization would be in the special topics but it's hard to predict what might catch on in the future. It makes sense that some customization would help us learn better as we press forward into new content. As a for instance, what might a training track look like for a bunch of 13 year old students learning A:M? I'm willing to guess it might not look like what most of us want.

 

It remains to be seen what the extent of personalization each forum user has when selecting a skin/theme.

If they choose a particular theme will that cause them to miss out on targeted (presumably higher quality) content?

This is what Robert was talking about above when he suggested that all forums should retain the filmstrip banner.

I'm a fan of the filmstrip banner... the author of it... but I don't want to miss out on something better if it shows up.

That's one reason I like the idea of customizing the special topics as they are cyclical, renewable, on/off.

When someone comes up with a great idea we can say, "Show us what you've got!"

 

Edit: The more I look at 'executive' the more I like it. It'd make for a really nice (at least partially read only) Help Desk/FAQ.

[Jason Simonds]

Ok I only put a few minutes in to this but. I think this will be a good fit for images/banner we can link to anything, we just need to pick a width and they rotate with out the page reloading. And since it's easy to edit I think i can get it to work with any picked skin.

 

http://www.hash.com/banner.php

 

I also think i can over lay like a filmstrip image too if we want that again. I really like the one showed before but it was really hard to edit and took up a but more room then I thought we should use for a banner.

[Rodney]

Need to see more! Sell us multiple copies of A:M with those images!

 

I have a few questions but most aren't relevant at this point.

I guess the ultimate question is: Who will update/maintain the banner?

 

My concern (because it was something of a bottleneck issue way back when):

If the images and links are only editable by *an Administrator of the server* that puts a lot of responsibility on that person. I don't recommend this but not my decision to make.

Currently the images/links in the banner can be changed by *any Administrator of the forum* with knowledge of how to copy/paste a url.

 

While it would be best to document the process used to update any banner so that others can get 'er done I intentionally wrote myself out of the loop when implementing the current banner. The previous rotating images hooked in from A:M Stills and A:M Films were broke... for years... because that could only be fixed by a server admin.

One of the reasons I update that banner as often as I do is that I remember those very painful years.

[Jason Simonds]

The banner is easy to edit, I will see if can make edit as part of the forums admin UI but I will be be able to look into that till Monday. If that does not work it would be easy to make a ftp edit account. Put all the is needed in one folder that admins can log into. But the goal is to make it UI editable threw the admin cp of the forums.

 

I got one user made banner already.

[Rodney]

the goal is to make it UI editable threw the admin cp of the forums.

 

 

That would be great.

 

Nice Tar banner!