The Ultimate Superheroines Forum

Suprise!

In case you've all been wondering what I've been working on, Ive been feverishly tweaking a new look for our forum!

Ok, I know its a big change and it's going to take some getting used to, so here's the deal. Try it out for the weekend, see what you think.

Technology has been rolling along at fast clip and I wanted something that would look good on computers, tablets and smartphones. This new look does all 3! (Looks great on your phone!)

Anyway, try it out for this weekend. After Sunday, I will allow you to choose whichever style you want. This, or the old style. I will also set up a LIGHT style, which is more like a conventional web page, instead of the dark background/light text look.

But, most importantly, I would like some feedback on what you think could be changed.

Be open-minded and play around with it


IF you want to see full images, all you need to do is click on them.

Ask questions, make suggestions!

MH

One other thing, I didn't get a chance to completely convert the gallery yet, but it's getting there. Stay tuned!

Wow! Love it! I like the light colors it's refreshing. The one thing I would suggest this far in is making the unread topics pop a little more. Before they were very easy to spot, and the banner could be bigger (or make it part of the gallery banner). Other than that, it looks fantastic to me!

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh.

HeroineFall84 wrote:Wow! Love it! I like the light colors it's refreshing. The one thing I would suggest this far in is making the unread topics pop a little more. Before they were very easy to spot, and the banner could be bigger (or make it part of the gallery banner). Other than that, it looks fantastic to me!

Good point about the unread topics. I will work on that. I know there is a different icon that shows up for unread topics but it's not as noticeable as a bold and brighter color.


The banner was made smaller on purpose. I felt it was taking up too much real estate. The reason everyone comes here is to see content and material. I felt the quicker we could present that, the better. The space to the right will be for announcements or special banners.

Thx for the feedback!

MightyHypnotic wrote:

HeroineFall84 wrote:Wow! Love it! I like the light colors it's refreshing. The one thing I would suggest this far in is making the unread topics pop a little more. Before they were very easy to spot, and the banner could be bigger (or make it part of the gallery banner). Other than that, it looks fantastic to me!

Good point about the unread topics. I will work on that. I know there is a different icon that shows up for unread topics but it's not as noticeable as a bold and brighter color.


The banner was made smaller on purpose. I felt it was taking up too much real estate. The reason everyone comes here is to see content and material. I felt the quicker we could present that, the better. The space to the right will be for announcements or special banners.

Thx for the feedback!

Oh ok, gotcha. Makes sense and does look a lot cleaner! Everything is much easier to read on the phone as well! I hope it sticks!

I'll miss the vintage look a bit, but things need to move on.

The new look is great, but is there any reason for not leaving the panel containing the user info & avatar on the left side of the screen? Don't know why but a message board feels "wrong" otherwise.

I like the "old" version myself.

Ezekiel wrote:I'll miss the vintage look a bit, but things need to move on.

The new look is great, but is there any reason for not leaving the panel containing the user info & avatar on the left side of the screen? Don't know why but a message board feels "wrong" otherwise.

I know what you mean. The reasoning behind this change was the content of the post is more important than the profile of the poster. Since we read from right to left, it makes sense that the post should start first.


HOWEVER, We're all used to seeing the profile on the other side. Im trying to get used to this new way myself, but it doesn't have to be if nobody wants it, and it's an easy change to make. I guess I will start making polls to see what people what.

Really love the changes as is, perhaps give a choice for dark or light theme, something that could be changed as per the viewers mood. Agree that unread topics should be more clearly seen, keep up the great work.

Have to disagree about ' Looks great on your phone'
What I could see at a glance before now needs me to scroll several times (4, in point of fact) only to find there's nothing I'm interested in.
See attachments below - I took 3 screenshots of the new set up and it STILL didn't encompass all the old view.( you need to view the attachments to see the difference, )
White -on- grey isn't a winner for me either - whoever wants more grey in their life?- if you do keep this layout at least stick with yellow -on -black /white -on -black.
Also ( see first new screen shot ) theres nothing immediately obvious as to what the two pluses and minus symbols do at the top. Yes expand/ collapse or fwd/back but to what and why two pluses? 
On the positives side I like the online denotion across the avatars and I like the fact there's a start date under the thread.
But on the whole, a massive from me. (Sorry to decry your hard work) A heads up it was happening would have been advisable as with the shrunken banner and new layout only partially in view on my phone without scrolling I thought my phone had F'd up for a few minutes.
I will be keeping an open mind and if it wins me over by the end of the week I will say so, but I don't go on line on a tablet or pc, only my phone and for me its certainly not looking 'great'

Not getting on very well with the new layout at all I much prefer the old system as it was so easy to see exactly what I wanted to see.
Text appears much smaller and that just makes my time here difficult.

Preferred the old style better. Not because I hate change, but just because I liked the layout and colors better.

I also don't seem to be able to see the number of views in the story section( don't care about anywhere else but as a writer {well , I pretend} it was a useful means of gauging how well or not something was being received.

Looks good. I would repeat the concern about visibility of unread topics and posts.

tallyho wrote:Have to disagree about ' Looks great on your phone'
What I could see at a glance before now needs me to scroll several times (4, in point of fact) only to find there's nothing I'm interested in.
See attachments below - I took 3 screenshots of the new set up and it STILL didn't encompass all the old view.( you need to view the attachments to see the difference, )
White -on- grey isn't a winner for me either - whoever wants more grey in their life?- if you do keep this layout at least stick with yellow -on -black /white -on -black.
Also ( see first new screen shot ) theres nothing immediately obvious as to what the two pluses and minus symbols do at the top. Yes expand/ collapse or fwd/back but to what and why two pluses? 
On the positives side I like the online denotion across the avatars and I like the fact there's a start date under the thread.
But on the whole, a massive from me. (Sorry to decry your hard work) A heads up it was happening would have been advisable as with the shrunken banner and new layout only partially in view on my phone without scrolling I thought my phone had F'd up for a few minutes.
I will be keeping an open mind and if it wins me over by the end of the week I will say so, but I don't go on line on a tablet or pc, only my phone and for me its certainly not looking 'great'

First let me thank you for providing detailed feedback. I know it's a big change and I want to work through it with everyone to make sure you're all happy.

tallyho wrote:Have to disagree about ' Looks great on your phone'
What I could see at a glance before now needs me to scroll several times (4, in point of fact) only to find there's nothing I'm interested in.
See attachments below - I took 3 screenshots of the new set up and it STILL didn't encompass all the old view.( you need to view the attachments to see the difference, )

Personally, I love the fact that I can quick scroll through my phone and breeze through all the topics and sections, but I am using a newer Samsung smartphone where all do is flick my finger and everything flies up and down the screen. Before I had to resize and zero in on what I wanted to see.
This is a responsive design that reposistions the layout based on screen size. Of course, none of that means anything if you're not getting a good experience or if it winds up being more work for you. I will be making the old version available soon. I am forcing this version so everyone can view the change. If I change the forum setting so everyone has a choice, the older style will still default.

tallyho wrote:White -on- grey isn't a winner for me either - whoever wants more grey in their life?- if you do keep this layout at least stick with yellow -on -black /white -on -black.
Also ( see first new screen shot ) theres nothing immediately obvious as to what the two pluses and minus symbols do at the top. Yes expand/ collapse or fwd/back but to what and why two pluses? 

Agreed and those color changes are coming. Same for the icons, makes no sense. When they expand, the symbols are more meaningful. I will have to make some more intuitive smaller icons.

And now to be funny, this WAS your heads up

viking wrote:Looks good. I would repeat the concern about visibility of unread topics and posts.

Agree. Will be making those changes this week.

xxxwarriorxxx wrote:Preferred the old style better. Not because I hate change, but just because I liked the layout and colors better.

'I'd be interested to hear what you think after some changes are made.

tallyho wrote:I also don't seem to be able to see the number of views in the story section( don't care about anywhere else but as a writer {well , I pretend} it was a useful means of gauging how well or not something was being received.

Page views is still there, it's encapsulated in an oval.

Ok just checked it on my phone. I see what you mean. I think if I make the topic icon smaller, I will be able to fit in page views.



Just a note everyone, it's Superbowl Sunday here, so I will not be on too much today. Work will resume on Monday! Have a good one!

Thanks for listening. I am not trying to be deliberately negative here, just speaking as I find.
There are some elements I like, as I said above, and if I find others I will mention them too , and thanks for the heads up!
Enjoy the game.

I don't consider it to be negative at all. I want to hear from everyone, and not just positive, "good Job!" comments, (Although they are my favorites, of course!) The last thing I want is for someone to stop using the forum because they don't like the layout so please keep that feedback coming, positive, negative or otherwise.

I don't take it personally. It's just colors and pixels that can be manipulated and changed.

I also am not crazy about the change. It worked well and was easy on the eyes before. This change was like Obama care a change that solved no problem.

I don't mind most of the changes. It think the new layout is okay. I don't really seen any big advantages, although it does appear to be a little cleaner.

The only thing I really don't like is the way images are being displayed as clipped with a scroll bar. Yes, I know I can just click the image to see the whole thing, but this is, quite frankly, a pain in the ass. I keep trying to scroll the page with the mouse wheel and if the mouse happens to be over an image, it scrolls the image instead of the page.

Also, I can't say I'm in love with having the avatars on the right instead of the left. Someone above made the point that the content of the post is more important than who posted it, so putting the avatar on the right makes sense. But I disagree. In almost every form of communication, it's extremely important to know who is speaking. Basically every forum, chat program, and pretty much every other form of communication in the world puts 'who is speaking' ahead of 'what is being said'. I don't think it's that big a deal, and I'm sure I will get used to it. It's certainly not a reason to stop using these forums, but I liked it better the other way.

Have not read this one posted yet, and maybe just me, but I noticed that when you get PM's there is not notification icon. I might just be missing something, but you have to click your name in the top right to see messages. If you have the notifications set up you willing get a "heads up" email, but before the messages showed clearly at first glance. Is it possible to have a icon pop up next to the name to let you know new mail has been received? I am actually getting used to this style, and more so on the iPhone. I see some don't like the phone option, but (like you stated) it is annoying pinching the screen to try and read a post that is spanned across the whole page. Lots of scrolling. I think with some tweaking this new theme will be far better than the old one.

I like it, nice work MH

I like it!

TIEnTEEZ wrote:I don't mind most of the changes. It think the new layout is okay. I don't really seen any big advantages, although it does appear to be a little cleaner.

The only thing I really don't like is the way images are being displayed as clipped with a scroll bar. Yes, I know I can just click the image to see the whole thing, but this is, quite frankly, a pain in the ass. I keep trying to scroll the page with the mouse wheel and if the mouse happens to be over an image, it scrolls the image instead of the page.

Also, I can't say I'm in love with having the avatars on the right instead of the left. Someone above made the point that the content of the post is more important than who posted it, so putting the avatar on the right makes sense. But I disagree. In almost every form of communication, it's extremely important to know who is speaking. Basically every forum, chat program, and pretty much every other form of communication in the world puts 'who is speaking' ahead of 'what is being said'. I don't think it's that big a deal, and I'm sure I will get used to it. It's certainly not a reason to stop using these forums, but I liked it better the other way.

The main advantage is, the coding behind the scenes. It's a lot cleaner, this style should load faster, and the mobile compatibility. Tweaks will need to be done and I am going to change the color scheme so it reflects the old style of the board.

I am working on the image issue right now. So those scroll bars should disappear. Also, I am going to move the profile block back to the left hand side.

ok that first screen is much better but I still don't like you don't see your PM unless you scroll down your tag.

I hate it!!!

Patience. It will resemble the old style in a lot of ways once I have finished with it.

I still need to alter some font sizes, move the profile block to the left hand side, change some colors and work on some of the icons. I will also fix the private message indicator but you should still be getting a pop-up regarding that.

I like it!

Hi, I like the new look other than the read/unread icons need to be a little clearer.

On a slightly different point, despite ticking the "Stay logged in" box, I still have to log in each time I enter the site. Could that be fixed.

Thanks

Yes, I like the white-on-black much better.

Ok, I realize there are still some changes to be made, but we're getting there!

I am working on the Bold/Regular font face for New topic replies as well as some other changes.

Hey, what happened? This afternoon the site was back to the old white-on-black and the avatars were on the left. Now they are back on the right and everything is gray.

It's probably in your cache. Hit Shift + reload. We didn't change the color scheme.

MightyHypnotic wrote:It's probably in your cache. Hit Shift + reload. We didn't change the color scheme.

Oh. That worked.

Cupid69 wrote:Hi, I like the new look other than the read/unread icons need to be a little clearer.

On a slightly different point, despite ticking the "Stay logged in" box, I still have to log in each time I enter the site. Could that be fixed.

Thanks

Are you still having troubles with staying logged in?

Well I said I'd post about the good aswell as the bad.

I like the alternate shading when multiple quotes are quoted. ie you get a quote within a quote that then a third party responds to. Makes who said what easier to follow. It may have been there on the old version but now the light-dark-light combinations are better and it stands out much more.

It's getting there MH and is much better for the changes you've done so far to what was originally unveiled.(Imho, anyway)

My only complaint is the size of the text is too small. I have to squint to read it (although I suppose I could use the zoom feature on my computer). The font in the signature lines is larger than the text.

I have windows Vista installed on my laptop.
Anyone here having problems viewing the new format??

Finally saw a laptop version and it's way better than on my phone.
In vertical viewing on the phone I can't see number of posters nor number of views, in horizontal I can see number of posters only.
On laptop it's all there.
I hope you can get the views on the phone versions as that's 95% of the times I access the site (I appreciate you are on the case this isn't intended as hassle just pointing out it's still off in case you thought it was fixed as its ok on my laptop)

I really like the new look. As you said, it will take a bit of getting used to, but I don't think it will be THAT difficult. The only thing I am having trouble with is the small font. Luckily I can use ctrl + in Firefox to zoom in and make the fonts larger, but that's zooming the whole screen on EVERY page...even once I leave the forum. So maybe increase the font size a bit.

Otherwise, thanks for providing this forum MH. Man it sure has come a LONNNGGGG ways since those early days. LOL!

On problem I noticed... when you click a link that takes you to a particular reply, the page isn't scrolled correct. It scrolls such that the subject of the post is out of view.

I'm not explaining it very clearly. But what I usually do is go to "View unread posts" and then I click the link for each one that takes me to the latest post I haven't read. So it open the thread to the latest message, but at the top of the screen, it shows the text of the message. The subject/title of the post is not in view. This is very annoying, since I open up all of the unread posts each in it's own tab, so then when I go to read them, I can't see the subject line and I have to scroll up for context.

GMan2 wrote:I really like the new look. As you said, it will take a bit of getting used to, but I don't think it will be THAT difficult. The only thing I am having trouble with is the small font. Luckily I can use ctrl + in Firefox to zoom in and make the fonts larger, but that's zooming the whole screen on EVERY page...even once I leave the forum. So maybe increase the font size a bit.

Otherwise, thanks for providing this forum MH. Man it sure has come a LONNNGGGG ways since those early days. LOL!

I agree, that font needs to be bigger. I will make those changes tonight.

Oh yeah it really has come a long way! I am glad that there are still a lot of you that have stuck around too!

I am also aware that emails are not being sent out for some reason. This was NOT by design. A change was made on the server regarding email policy and I am trying to find out what exactly changed so I can re-code to make them work again.

Stay tuned!

Re:- staying logged in.

I am still having trouble staying logged in.

Thanks

Cupid69 wrote:Re:- staying logged in.

I am still having trouble staying logged in.

Thanks

At the bottom, try clicking on Delete all board cookies, then log out, then log back in again and see if that fixes the issue.


MH

Loving the recent changes to the site. It's like the best of both!