OFFICIAL **WHAT I'VE UPDATED** THREAD

[Ogre Mal Pannis]

I have done a few things to make our forum's appear more appealing to the eye. A couple of those things are temporary.

1. For now I have replaced the image sets with some on our host so that the forums appear correctly during the time the Clanpages host is down. (temporary, will be changed back to linked images once clanpages is back up.

2. Removed the Old Replica Props forum. (not needed)

3. Combined the two Roleplaying archives into a single forum and removed Archive II(no page or post limits on vBulletin forums so why have the uneeded clutter.

4. Locked down the read only forums and replaced the locked forum image with a blank 1X1 transparant one to keep the 'marked read' front page looking sharp.

I think thats about all for the time being. Any comments, questions or suggestions are welcomed.

[Champion of the Force]

I have just changed the editing options on the board so there is now NO limit on the time to edit.

Thrawn posted in the Comm forum about it. There was a 2 min time limit on editing. I have removed it.

PS. We should use this thread to keep updates on whenever we change things so we can keep track of what everyone is doing. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

Smilies lost in the problems we had with the server this morning , which are not due to the clanpages outage.

cringe.gif >_<
evilgrin.gif >D
arch.gif o_O
sick.gif :x
heh.gif ^^;;

We also lost the profile, quote and edit images that had been used to make threads have a little cleaner look.

[Champion of the Force]

Just changed the thread title. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

I made a slight change to those editing options, which is what I intended in the first place but set incorrectly earlier.

I set the option to not display "edited by XXXXX" until 2 minutes after posting, if edited. That way quick typos can be fixed without the edited by message.

[Champion of the Force]

Fine - I removed that initially so it would always display when edited like on ezboard. Thanks for informing me. :)

[Champion of the Force]

Would you like me to find an image that we can put in forum descriptions to replace 'forum is read only'? Would probably look better than having a description tacked on the end. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

Sounds like a cool idea. :)

[Champion of the Force]

Ok, how about some eyes :) :

http://www.knarma.f2s.com/Images/eyes.gif

Unfortunately I can't make the background on them transparent. :\

[TheHolo.Net]

I can make the BG transparent. :)

[Champion of the Force]

That would be grand. :)

Another thing - how many pages should we have displayed on the bottom that the user can browse through? I've set it to 10. Should we set it higher (maybe 20 - like ezboard)?

[TheHolo.Net]

Yeah, 20 sounds good, make them feel more at home maybe. :)

[Champion of the Force]

Ok, I'll go and change it. :)

I've also changed the member list so it displays 25 per page. Also the top posters list also displays the Top 25 (not Top 10 as previously).

[TheHolo.Net]

I have added the eye images to the read only forums, but am not certian I like them after the text. =/

[Champion of the Force]

Yeah - they're a tad big aren't they?

I tried putting on before the text on the RP archive. What do you think?

[TheHolo.Net]

hmmm, the size is a bit much. I'm thinking maybe of pirating the :eek image from ezboard and recoloring it. I'll just replace the eyes image on the server so we won't need to make any changes to the board to preview it.

[Champion of the Force]

That sounds ok.

Or we could just replace the entire description with 'Read only'. Most people know what an archive is. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

I think just changing the descriptions to 'read only' is a good plan.

[Champion of the Force]

I'll go do that then. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

I'm going to look into removing the moderator column from the front page and re-organizing the order of the columns in forum displays.(to be more like the majority of posters here are used to) I suspect both can be done with some editing of the templates.

[Champion of the Force]

:: shrugs ::

I actually like it the way it is setup now - most of the forums I peruse are setup just like this one. Ezboard is probably the only board out there that uses it's setup.

I think we should leave the moderator column though, as it tells posters instantly who moderates what forum. If you keep it we could probably get rid of the admin list in the FAQ.

[TheHolo.Net]

Moderator's are displayed at the top of the respective forums they are set to and Admins are not listed anywhere. :/

[Champion of the Force]

I still like the idea of moderators being displayed on the main page. I guess I'm just used to seeing it on so many other forums. :)

As for admins, you can solve that by assigning them as mods for whatever forums they generally moderate.

Failing all that, you could just assign 'SWFans.Net' as a mod for all forums, and do like we did on the old board - provide a link to the admin list in the FAQ.

[Nupraptor]

I'm going to pole around and look for things to tweak in a little bit. Any hacks or template editing I'm planning on doing will be listed in my thread in the Communications forum.

[Champion of the Force]

BTW, I'm thinking of removing the SW smilies I added yeasterday (Yoda, Maul Vader etc).

They were a bit of fun at first but they have no real practical use whatsoever.

[TheHolo.Net]

I agree, tho Yoda has a slight of a pratical use for Yog, but for one person isn't enough to be worth keeping.

BTW: I have switched a great deal of the image sets back to the clanpages host since its back up now.

[Champion of the Force]

Deleted the smilies.

[TheHolo.Net]

I have edited the following templates so that the moderator column is no longer visible.

forumdisplay_forumlist
forumhome
forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost
forumhome_forumbit_level1_post
forumhome_forumbit_level2_nopost
forumhome_forumbit_level2_post
forumhome_lastpostby

I will Add "Moderated by: SWFans.net" to each forum description and link it to the admin list. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

I modified the

forumdisplaybit
forumdisplay_announcement
forumdisplay_threadslist

templates to give our ezboard refugees (including myself) a more ezboard type layout of columns in forums.

[Champion of the Force]

And just after I had gotten used to the old setup. Oh well - I'll get used to it again I guess. :)

The switching of columns results in the threads taking up more screen real estate though.

[TheHolo.Net]

Its actually smaller in width on my display now. Odd.

[Champion of the Force]

Somethings gone wrong. All the colours have changed to green and all the banners, buttons etc. have defaulted to the standard vB type.

[TheHolo.Net]

That happened to me once earlier too. i went nto my options and set to basic then back to default. I have no idea what could be causing that. @_@

[Champion of the Force]

Weird.

Anyway, I tried what you suggested and it fixed it.

Once we get some time on our hand we really need to go through and get those alternate themes setup properly.

[TheHolo.Net]

I was playing with them some last night and even after creating a matching template set for the "Dark Green" scheme, it still changed the banners to the green ones when I started changing what I thought was the settings for the Dark Green Scheme. :\

[Champion of the Force]

Reclarifying my real estate comment - I mean vertically. The changing of the columns has resulted in each thread getting more 'space' above and below it, spreading the page up and down more.

Width ways it's narrower for me as well, which I like :). It was too stretched out before.

[TheHolo.Net]

Ahh, I undersatand now and was aware of that. Its a result of how I reformatted the "Last Reply" column. It was the main culprit for stretching the width of the forum displays.

[Champion of the Force]

Originally posted by SWFans.Net
I was playing with them some last night and even after creating a matching template set for the "Dark Green" scheme, it still changed the banners to the green ones when I started changing what I thought was the settings for the Dark Green Scheme. :\
That's EXACTLY what happened to me a couple of days ago when I tried to create the basic scheme. I made the changes in 'Basic' but when I applied it affected the 'Default' scheme.

The only reason I can think of that would have made it do that was when I first created the 'Basic' theme - I set the Replcaement and Template sets to 'Deafult', so maybe it instantly affected the 'Default' theme as well. :\

[TheHolo.Net]

One drawback I have found so far with using vBulliten as opposed to ezboard. Its not so easy to set up a test forum and learn all the ins and outs of the software without afecting people.

Its minor, but it is a drawback.

[Champion of the Force]

Another gripe is the inability to mass select multiple threads and delete/move/whatever with them. You have to do each individually.

So there's 2 points for ezboard. vB still rules them anyway. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

Actually, what you just described can be done in the admin control panel and I also gave mods the ability to do it as well.

[Champion of the Force]

Really? I'll have a look. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

Not quite as slick and easy as the ezboard select boxes, but its effective. I was able to combine the two roleplaying Archives quite easily, even more easily then it would have been on ezboard. Mass deletions seem a little different. I may need to look at the mod control panel and see if its easier to find there.

[TheHolo.Net]

Prune threads by username should be effective with spam flooders or any other unwelcomed flooders.

[Champion of the Force]

Regarding the RP archives - with vB having no page limit, what exactly will they be used for? Very important threads?

I went throught the archive yesterday and there's an awful lot of junk in the later pages. Old rule threads, 'Who is the best roleplayer' threads from 18 months ago that turned into arguments etc.

Some of them could be deleted, or at least moved into the other forums, leaving the archive as a place for 'classic' threads that everyone loves. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

Yeah, "classic threads" sounds like a good clasification to me. I haven't taken the time to look thru them in a looooong time, but agree that some of the junk topics could be moved back to OOC, so that the archive's purpose is clear.

[Champion of the Force]

Or could just be deleted, depending on the circumstances.

There's also a lot of challenges etc. in there too. They could be moved back into the Rolepkaying forum probably. I don't think threads such as 'Rama vs. block of wood' are necessarily classic. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

That one in particular (just the name) sounds like a classic laugh. :lol

As it stands, I myself do not like deleteing anything unless it is completely without merit (example: absolutely pointless or spam or just plain wrong). Deletion in any instance is always my last choice.

[Champion of the Force]

I've already deleted some threads. Once was the aformentioned 'Best Roleplayer' thread - it had turned a bit bad during its later stages so I thought it would be best removed.

The other ones I removed were the old rules threads that were posted a few times over the course of last year. Since they only repeasted what has already been written down in the FAQ I got rid of them as well.

That 'Rama vs. block of wood' thread was from memory - I don't know if it actually was archived or not. A flashback to the more lazy days of roleplaying, when it was just you and your lightsaber. :)

[Force Master Hunter]

I always liked the idea of a "Classic" Roleplay archive, just so really good stuff doesnt get swamped in the archive. Just one or two pages, like an advertisment for what can be done.


Edit : Or I could imagine the "ELITEISM!!" cries if it was done that way :/

Then again, I suppose if there was no real need for an archive, it could be done would feathers ruffled.

[TheHolo.Net]

Yeah, I would prefer not to have any ego battles happening because of it. I really feel that the vast majority of what is already in the archives is of "classic" quality, and do hate to delete, or classify things as "the best".

[Ogre Mal Pannis]

I used this page:

http://www.swforums.net/forum/admin/email.php?action=start

to resend an activation email to all users in the "awaiting activation..." user group. Hopefully those who haven't yet activated their accounts will now be able to.

[Champion of the Force]

How about we just transfer the last 5-6 pages or so into the RP forum then?

I checked most of those threads not too long ago - mainly challenges which have had 0 views. They'd probably be better off in with the general stuff.

But anyways, you guys make the call. I don't roleplay, so what I consider junk could be someone elses treasure. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

Moving some to the General Roleplaying forum sounds good to me. :)


Back on topic:

1. Adjusted the cp.css file so that our Admin and Mod control panels have a more colorful and stylized feel. :)

2. Edited a few of the templates under the category: "User Info Display Templates" to change the look of user profiles some.

[Q]

I do hope you left the thread I archived by Kitty McQuade alone, Dave. That was one of the funniest things ever. :D

[Champion of the Force]

so that our Admin and Mod control panels have a more colorful and stylized feel.
I like. :)


2. Edited a few of the templates under the category: "User Info Display Templates" to change the look of user profiles some.
I don't like that as much. I prefer the old setup - this one looks like ezboard's profile setup 2 years ago. :\


I do hope you left the thread I archived by Kitty McQuade alone, Dave.
Whoops. :D

Just kidding. :)

[Q]

:: baps him :: :p

Here it is: http://www.swforums.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8685 :D

[Champion of the Force]

Ok, I went a moved all pages from 19 and onwards ino the roleplaying forum, barring a few (Dark Fury, Kala Stone etc). :)

Just a word of warning - when moving, be sure you're moving it to Star Wars Roleplaying (the forum), not Roleplaying (the category).

I lost 5000 posts there for 5 mins before I knew what was going on - thankfully I could just move them out of the category and back to their proper place. :o

I had a recheck of the posts after I moved them - I don't think I moved anything that should have remained in the archive, but if anyone finds something feel free to move it back. :)

Nup - :lol at that thread.

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by SWFans.Net
I have edited the following templates so that the moderator column is no longer visible.

forumdisplay_forumlist
forumhome
forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost
forumhome_forumbit_level1_post
forumhome_forumbit_level2_nopost
forumhome_forumbit_level2_post
forumhome_lastpostby

I will Add "Moderated by: SWFans.net" to each forum description and link it to the admin list. :)

I made a few small modifications to these templates again, so that the forum displays are a little less cluttered with repetitive icons and all the "go to post" image links are aligned at the right side of the table for a cleaner look.

[TheHolo.Net]

Repaired the "send to forum" hack, added a hack to let users select a date format, and added a simple search box to the top of all pages.

[Champion of the Force]

I don't know what's happened, but all the titles and other writing have doubled in size.

Is it the board or my browser?

[TheHolo.Net]

I forgot to mention that I added a small tweak that saves some HTML code(a considerable amount) that may be having the effect you are seeing. A few replcement variables have been replaced with CSS. Perhaps I should change it back, until we know about how much bandwidth we are using a month?

[Champion of the Force]

You do what you think is best, but it would be good if it could be turned back to the normal. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

Should be as it was now. :)

[Champion of the Force]

Thankee. :)

[Champion of the Force]

Oh dear - now it's gone back to the big writing again. :\

[Q]

I was having the same prob, Dave. But it looks to be normal now.

[TheHolo.Net]

Adds to notes: CSS and fonts don't mix well.

I have finally updated all of the icons/images to match our light blue/aqua color scheme. I do still have copies of all the originals for use with other styles if we ever get a handle on using and implementing them.

[Champion of the Force]

BTW, the day before I disabled posticons in all forums. It just seemed unnecessary to have them. So now when a user posts they standard datapad that Ogre made show up. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

I had removed the posticon column from forum display in the templates too. :) Having the data pads in the posts is cool. :D

[Champion of the Force]

A request - could we just stick with the one Hot Topic icon. The single red lightsaber pulsing?

In roleplaying I've caught sight of another one - red changing to blue. I don't think it stands out as well.

[TheHolo.Net]

That will take some reseach, since they are two seperate functions. One is unread and the other just hot.

Maybe I could use a yellow saber for thew hot unread and make them more easily distinguishable. That would be an easier solution.

[Champion of the Force]

Are they? I wasn't aware of that. I just thought they were 'Hot Topic 1' and 'Hot Topic 2' respectfully. :)

Maybe Yog or whoever made them can make the red/blue one a bit better. It doesn't appear to really glow - just switch from one to another.

[Champion of the Force]

Or maybe we could get rid of the 'Hot Topic' thing altogether?

Having an icon flash up every time a topic gets 50 posts/500 views isn't really a neccessity afterall.

On another note, I think we could use the ezboard 'Locked Thread' icon for locked forums/topics:

http://www.ezboard.com/themes/pastel/closeThread.gif

[Champion of the Force]

More updates:

* Added 2 new smilies - headache (:headache) and d'oh (:doh)

* Expanded smilie set so that it displays 50 smilies (ie. displays all of them now instead of 15).

* Expanded number of threads displayed from 25 to 30.

* Changed hot topic post requirement from 50 to 100 (50 isn't anything special - 100 indicates real interest).

[Nupraptor]

The 50 smilie thing looks really bad to me, as it stretches to table to ridiculous lengths.

[Champion of the Force]

Crap - I didn't see that. :\

I went back and rechanged it again. It now displays only 25, and I've set it to display 5 smilies across (instead of just 3).

How does that look?

[Nupraptor]

Much better :)

[TheHolo.Net]

It looks better now. :)

BTW: Where are those settings?

[Nupraptor]

I just disabled the smilies/quick vB code links at the reply screen in my User CP, so I don't really care what you do now. :)

[Champion of the Force]

Ogre - all this stuff is under 'Change Options' in the admin control panel. It pretty much covers all the general tinkering one can do. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

Thanks, I had looked there but not seen it, sooooo much stuff on that page. @_@

[TheHolo.Net]

Between Nup and I, we have added a spellcheck feature to the Reply and New Thread pages. :D

[Champion of the Force]

Bizarre.

The 'Current Members Logged In' and 'Private Message' headings have become centred like all the other headings.

The 'Current Members' one looks weird like that, since all the names are off the the left.

[TheHolo.Net]

It was me. I did it to match them up with the categories to see how it looked. I thought it looked a little odd, and wondered if anyone else would, so its changed back.

[TheHolo.Net]

Added a very small and unobtrusive pageview counter at the bottom of the forums. Its a MySQL addition that shouldn't effect load times at all.

[TheHolo.Net]

I made a change to the file "functions.php" file within the admin directory, so that only Mods and Admins see the "IP: Logged" text/link within posts. Mods do have the ability to look at IPs, both through that link, and within the "Who's Online" screen.

Now if I could just figure out how to get rid of the "Report Post to a Moderator" text for Admins and Mods. :\

[TheHolo.Net]

I have decided to remove the "Report post to moderator" link. I have yet to see or hear about anyone using it, other than a joke reagarding resisting the urge to use it for no reason.

I think it gives a much cleaner look to the post windows to the regular user to have neither the "Report Post" link or the "IP: Logged" link in each post. Only those with access to poster IP addresses can see the "IP: Logged" link now.

[TheHolo.Net]

I have removed the "basic" and "Dark Green" style sets, in an effort to try and resolve some of the issues I have noticed in the "Who's Online" screen.

I (under any name I log in as) am unable to see any images for send a PM, or send and email to a user, within those fields in that screen. I know they worked earlier in our ventures with this software.

[TheHolo.Net]

Looks like freddie from vBulletin Development/Support was able to resolve the Who's Online issue for us. :D

I have completely revamped the user profile screens so they now look a little like our snazzy Admin/Mod control panels. :)

[Champion of the Force]

I have completely revamped the user profile screens so they now look a little like our snazzy Admin/Mod control panels.
:\

Whilst it's fairly straightforward and laid out ok, I still prefer the original vB setup. It just goes with everything else so nicely IMHO - changing it is unneccessary.

On another note, for some reason half the profile keeps turing up in Times New Roman font instead of Verdana like the other half - it looks peculiar.

[TheHolo.Net]

They just seemed too generic for my tastes. :p

I have recreated the basic(vBulletin) style and also created another style that still needs just a bit of fine tuning. "Text Based" is the style name and as the name implies its almost exclusively text. I removed Avatar's and signatures but have yet to fix the images in the Private messaging or Calendar screens, and I also need to see if I can figure out how to make it automatically make inserted images into URLs without the user having to choose it in their control panel.

[TheHolo.Net]

Changed the maximum displayed smilies back to 24 as showing all of them in the reply screen is too large and cumbersome. (don't know how they got changed back to showing all)

Added Reply, Edit, and Quote links above Avatars for redundancy.

Made username into a profile link within displayed threads.

[Champion of the Force]

1. Sorry - I changed it after removing the 'doh' smilie (everyone seems happy to use the >_< smilie) and forgot to double-check it (again).

2. Nice, but somewhat redundant as you stated. The board has been up for nearly a month, now, do we need to keep changing stuff to reflect ezboard, considering that ezboard is one of the only bulletin boards out there that sets itself up the way it does?

3. Related to Point 2 - I've never liked ezboard's way of linking to profiles via the username doing it at all and prefer vB/UBB/UltraB/YaBB/pretty much every other bulletin board's way.

:: shrugs ::

As I've stated before, I'm biased when it comes to the way the board is setup, because I was posting on UBB and Ultra Board well before I ever heard of ezboard, and as such I've never been happy with ezboard's layout. I didn't mind it whilst we were still on ezboard because there was no way to change it, but now we're here on vB it's depressing for me to have all the options change to reflect ezboard's personal style. :(

[Champion of the Force]

One other thing.

Can we possibly remove 'Location' when displaying posts? Not only does it look weird having it underneath the avatar by itself, but a lot of people haven't even bothered to fill it in (making it look even weirder).

[Champion of the Force]

>_<

Arrgghh - I didn't see that the old profile, quote, edit etc. options were still where they used to be. I thought you had replaced them completely.

I still think it's unneccessary and redundant, but you can ignore my previous post on the subject. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

I kind of like the novelty of the location field, and know when we first opened the board that the posters did too. Maybe I could just move it above the avatar with the rest of the user info, and it wouldn’t look so out of place, even empty.

Its not so much that I am trying to make it look like ezboard as I am trying to make it convenient and even comfortable for the majority of our posters who aren’t like you. Most of our posters are big users of ezboard and have very little experience with anything else. Many of them have expressed to me that they aren’t very comfortable with the vBulletin system and I think its mainly because its so different. So I am trying to facilitate and raise that comfort level, so we can keep our current posters and this place striving and growing, which I know shouldn’t be a problem when Ep II comes out, but in the interim…

[Champion of the Force]

It looks better now - having 'Location' down by itself before made it look a bit lonely. Especially when nobody bothered to put anything in it. :)

I wasn't aware of people contacting you about vB being unfamiliar - I was just basing my comments on the fact that no one appears to be saying that kind of stuff on the forums and as such changing it would seem unneccessary.

However my main beef with the change was that I thought these changes were replacing the old setup - which it hasn't (blasted pics didn't load up quickly enough for me to see). So whilst it's still a pity we have to retain the an ezboard legacy here, I'm ok with it. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

Sounds like its all good. :)

I don't intend to make this an exact replica of ezboard and probably could come pretty damn close if I really tried, but I wouldn't want to sully this awesome software with such a thing. Just trying to make it better/comfortable for the majority of our users, who are most comfortable with that inferior product.

[Champion of the Force]

Done some more browsing, and discovered some interesting stuff:

1. A 'sticky' icon, that could replace 'Top:'

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/images/pin.gif

2. Another 'announcement' icon:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/images/announce.gif

(they both might need a bit of editing if they are to be used here)

3. I noticed that for your shipyard forums you've had to bury them under 2 sets of subforums in Storytelling:

Storytelling
--->Shipyards
------>Group Yards

I'm assuming you did this so that all the seperate group yard forums wouldn't be displayed in Storytelling correct?

If so, I was looking through the Options in the admin control panel, and I discovered this little option buried under 'Forum Display Options':


Depth of Forums

Depth of forums to show on forum display when displaying subforums. Do not go too large on this value for performance reasons.

It's currently set to 2. I tampered with it and disovered that if you set it to 1, it will only display the subforum 'Shipyards', meaning that you can have all the seperate group yards under it directly instead of buried under yet another subforum.

Let me know what you think. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

1 and 2. I like the thought, but neither of those icons really catches my attention, though the first one is very close.

3. Yes, your assumtion is correct. And yes, I found and experimented with that feature as well.(depth of forums) Did you happen to look at the main(front) page after setting the depth to 1? I did, and its not pretty.

[TheHolo.Net]

1 and 2 reprise: After a little adjustement and experimentation, I think I do like those icons now, though I may change the pin icon just a little more soon, to make it look as if there is some writting on the paper.

[Champion of the Force]

3. Yes, your assumtion is correct. And yes, I found and experimented with that feature as well.(depth of forums) Did you happen to look at the main(front) page after setting the depth to 1? I did, and its not pretty.
???

I have it set on '1' right now, and I'm looking at the main page. Even after multiple refrshes (even 'super' refrshes) I can see no difference.

Do realise that there are 2 options titled 'Depth of Forums':

One of them is for the main page. Now that one does change the appearance of the first page. I haven't touched that one.

The other one changes the viewing of subforums within the main forums. That's the one I've been tampering with.

I'll go and reset the option now just in case, however I think you might be referring to the wrong one Ogre. :)

Then again, it's possible that my browser isn't giving me a proper refresh.

Let me know. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

I missed the fact there were two of the same option with different functions. >_<

Now the question is: Can the Forums be moved up a level without having to recreate them all and/or losing the topics?

[Champion of the Force]

Now that I don't know. I would have thought there'd be an option to move forums around to be under different categories and the like (like I did when I put this forum under 'Private').

I'm taking a look now.

[Champion of the Force]

:: comes back ::

Yes you can. All we have to do is go into the 'Edit' area of each forum, and change the forum parent from 'Group Yards' to 'Shipyards'. :)

I've already moved the GJO forum, but I've left the rest until you can take a look. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

Yep, figured it out. :)

[Champion of the Force]

Sweet. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

Thanks for the help. :)

[Champion of the Force]

Your welcome. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

I have added a new vBcode that allows people who wish to post spoilers, but make it even more of an effort than skipping spoiler space to see said spoiler, can utilize it.

EXAMPLE: (highlight to see spoiler text)

Anakin is cloned in Ep 2...j/k.

[Champion of the Force]

That would be a neat thing.

My own update: removed the '-' that were in between the Communications - FAQ - vBulletin links up the top. They seemed kind of unneccessary now that we have actually graphics up there instead of ye old text links (which did need a divider of some sort). :)

I'm also currently looking at making an 'Advanced' button for the search field up the top that can replace the 'Click here for Advanced search' text.

[Champion of the Force]

I've done some updates to the admin list:

1. Put myself back in, but this time under the 'Star Wars' category (instead of 'SWFans.Net'). I think this placement is a little more appropriate. I've also put back the admin title under my name.

2. I've made all the category titles links to their respective category pages ('Star Wars' goes to the SW category, 'Roleplaying' to the RPing, 'SWFans.Net Forums' to the main forum page etc.)

I've also decentred the list and put all the mod/admin names on one line to condense the list, but that's mainly due to personal preference. :)

In the near future I'd also like to explore the possibility of adding another one or 2 mods for the SW category, since with the retirements of both CMJ and jjwr there's only me left. FMH also does check the category but he's RP dedicated.

It might be quiet now, but with the Ep. 2 trailer slated for November I'd expect traffic to slowly pick up starting from next month, and it would be nice to already have some staff allocated. :)

[Champion of the Force]

More updates:

1. I've replaced the 'SWForums FAQ' graphic with a single 'FAQ' graphic. All I did was removed the 'SWForums' part of the top. Since we've been going by the name 'SWFans.Net Forums' since Day 3 I felt that the SWForums part seemed out of place.

2. I created a graphic to use for the 'Add Reply' button in closed threads. I was going to create a button, but since people can't post in locked threads I instead created a simple 2x2 pixel black graphic for the image. It's so small that no one can see it (or even press it), making it look as though there's no reply option in locked threads.

Both the aforementioned graphics can be found here on my own webspace:

http://www.knarma.f2s.com/pictures/vfaq.gif

http://www.knarma.f2s.com/pictures/blank.gif

If you're happy with them I would recommend they be uploaded to the same server as all the other graphics so they're all in one place. :)

[Champion of the Force]

And yes, I've changed my username again. :p

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Kar Doniash
2. I created a graphic to use for the 'Add Reply' button in closed threads. I was going to create a button, but since people can't post in locked threads I instead created a simple 2x2 pixel black graphic for the image. It's so small that no one can see it (or even press it), making it look as though there's no reply option in locked threads.I am unable to locate a template specifically for closed threads. I see one for pollresults_closed but not for simple closed topics. If there were one that I could find, the image could be removed entirely.

I'm uploading both the Advanced search button and the FAQ graphic to the webspace and will make the appropriate changes when through.

You also mentioned in the other topic that we could maybe align the simple search field to the right, but I think I am going to give taking it out of the table it is in and centering it in its current position, a try first, to see how that looks, since without the link above it, it should not have quite as large a height profile.

[TheHolo.Net]

As you can see, I decided to place the search field on the right. Just didn’t look proper at all being centered along with the advanced button. I also trimmed up the height profile of the entire header, as I thought that it taking up nearly half of one of my browser windows(not full screen mind you, only windowed) was just a bit too much.

If anyone has any suggestions for other changes or recommendations on how to reformat the header or anything else for that matter, I am very willing to listen and give them a shot. :)

[Champion of the Force]

You beat me by 1 min Ogre - I put my suggestions in the other thread. :)

No matter. Regarding the placement of the buttons though, if they were taking up that much space for you then leave them. I suggested putting them back to the way they were originally, but I've got all the room in the world so I'm not the perfect audience to comment on that little issues.

[TheHolo.Net]

Yep, I saw your other post and made the change to the placement of the "Go" button. I too have tons of space at 1600 X 1200 resolution, but view my browser windows in much smaller windows to help me get a closer feel of what people at lower resolutions see and experiance, since from my understanding, the vast majority of internet users run anywhere between 640 X 480 and 1024 X 768.

[TheHolo.Net]

I have changed the postbit template some, adding back several of the vBulletin exclusive abilities, and reorganizing where the time display was placed as well as a few of the icons.

Icons/links added:

Add to Buddy list
Add to Ignore List
Search for more posts by user
Send PM to user
Show IP

I converted the link that only mods and admins see for IP adresses into an icon and moved it down out of the post portion of the table.

[Champion of the Force]

And I only just got used to looking underneath the post for the time - guess I'll have to get used to it all over again. :)

Everything else looks nice - except the 'Search' button, which stands out with its blue background compared to the simple image and text of the remaining buttons.

I might try and edit it a bit and bring it back here for you to look at. :)

[Champion of the Force]

Ok, here's one I knocked up in 5 secs:

http://www.knarma.f2s.com/pictures/find.gif

All I did was cut off the 'Search' part and slightly adjusted the remainder of the magnifying glass.

I created another one - this time with some text added as well:

http://www.knarma.f2s.com/pictures/findtext.gif

The problem with that one is that it looks a bit blurred and I was guessing the font type and size, so it might not fit in with the other buttons. :\

Happy editing. :)

[Champion of the Force]

:: looks to side ::

That's better - even better than mine. :p

[TheHolo.Net]

I switched the text from the original to yours and cropped off all the extra black space. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

I changed the default date display to m-d-y, to shorten all the fields where the date is displayed for users too lazy or oblivious to the fact that it can be customized within their control panel.

[TheHolo.Net]

I made some semi extensive changes to the Who's Online and Private Message displays on the Forum Home page. They are now trimmer and include less text, decreasing the height profile of them both, but still including all the information that was present before.

[Champion of the Force]

It all looks good. :)

BTW, can we possibly have a theme created that looks like this:

http://www.knarma.f2s.com/pictures/TFNsample.jpg

It's the original scheme of the TFN forums. I personally loved its simplicty. Could we have a theme created with the same colours possibly?

I'd do it myself, except that after what happened a month ago I'm still not game enough to fiddle too much with the templates and styles. :\

[TheHolo.Net]

What would you like the theme to be called? I can set up the Style, Replacement Variables, and Templates for you and you can start fiddling. (I think that is the key, having all three matching sets..ie: the same name.)

[Champion of the Force]

I don't care. My Internet is about to log off so I have to go now. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

I have created one called "White and Gray". There is a Style, a Replacement Variable set, and a Template set, for it. If you would like to use custom images, let me know and I can create an image directory specifically for that set and upload whatever you may need. :) I think right now, it will look like the standard or "basic" style we already have, minus a few changes I made to the header.

[Champion of the Force]

Thanks. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

I fiddled with the colors to try and match the example you gave to some extent, as well as modified the postbit template to make it similar to what you showed. I already made it an individual image directory, but for the moment it only has a single custom image, which doesn't even have to be kept (the purple SWFans mini banner).

[Champion of the Force]

:: applies scheme for first time ::

Though a few things will have to be adjusted, I'm already in heaven. :)

Thanks Ogre.

[Champion of the Force]

... like an EDIT option. :p

[Q]

What about changing the lines in the categories so that they're just a dark blue, or something? I think that would look nice.

[TheHolo.Net]

oops, missed edit and quote. >_< Added them back. I'll let David play with everything else.

[Q]

I meant on the current layout. Just curious to see what it would look like. But don't sweat it.

[Champion of the Force]

Thanks for that. :)

And yes, this is my private little theme. So everyone else butt out - except for when I need your help to fix my screwups. :p

Seriously, one little problem I have found is that within the threads the posts appear to have a gap on the left hand side. You notice it when you have a post with a grey background - there's a white gap there.

I think it might also be occuring in the other themes as well, but since the post backgrounds as well as the background tables are all the same colour you don't notice it. :\

[Champion of the Force]

Well after an hour of fiddling around, I've picked up on some things that may be an issue should we decide to create multiple themes:

1. Times/dates - at the moment only the 'Default' scheme allows you to change how the time/date is displayed. On the other themes (well my one at least) there isn't an option, so it just defaults back to the default (mm-dd-yy).

That leads to another issue - only the 'Default' scheme has all the enhancements Ogre has been making over the last couple of days. All the others are still set on the default vB setup.

2. Star ranks - on lighter backgrounds the blue/silver stars don't stand out very well. The gold (admin) stars however look quite good - perhaps we should just use gold stars for all the ranks and just vary their number?

3. Personal problem - I can't find anyway to edit the background on my theme, so at the moment it's still stuck on grey. Editing the 'Page Background' field only changes the table behind the forums/threads, but the background behind that remains the same. Like some help there please on how that works. :)

EDIT: Forget No. 3 - I fixed it for myself by resetting the main table width to go right across the forum and the backgrounds on the header and footer set to the same colour. Not quite what I was hoping for but it leaves a nice grey border around the forums :). I checked it in Opera and it seems to have no problems (let me know though if something's screwed up).

That's it so far. Ogre pretty much got my theme right first go. I've only had to make some minor alterations on some of the colours. :)

EDIT AGAIN:

I've made some images to go wih the style. If you think they're ok I'd like to have them uploaded and set with the theme:

Forum Unread: http://www.knarma.f2s.com/pictures/onbulb.gif

Forum Read: http://www.knarma.f2s.com/pictures/offbulb.gif

Forum Locked/Thread Locked: http://www.knarma.f2s.com/pictures/closed.gif

(The default 'Thread Locked' image doesn't stand out very much since it's padlock is so small against the folder background - I think an outright padlock by itself would be better).

What do you think? :)

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Kar Doniash
Seriously, one little problem I have found is that within the threads the posts appear to have a gap on the left hand side. You notice it when you have a post with a grey background - there's a white gap there.
I'm pretty sure that is due to the fact that I did set table borders in that style and their color is white.


1. Actually. I did add the time display options to the basic and Text Based themes. It involves making a couple changes to the user control panel templates. I’ll get to that for that theme as well, since I did forget.
That leads to another issue - only the 'Default' scheme has all the enhancements Ogre has been making over the last couple of days. All the others are still set on the default vB setup.If you want any of the “enhancements done to that theme, you’ll need to be specific, because I have done a great deal of tweaks to the default one. :p

2. I was noticing the star color issue myself and thinking of leaving them blue but changing them just a little so that they would have a faint black outline, but your idea is better.

3. the BODY tag within the Style setup for that style is where you edit the background color or image.

[TheHolo.Net]

I'm still not sure what you are referring to Nup. O_o

[TheHolo.Net]

Hope you don't mind David, I changed the icon set for the topics that are for user functions...ie: Profile, PM, Mail...etc. Of course they can be changed to anything else of your liking, I just wanted to use some that weren't quite as large as the default set and wouldn't require more than a single line to be displayed at lower resolutions.

[Champion of the Force]

Not at all - I was actually hoping to make some myself to replace the default ones, but you've saved me the trouble. :)

1. Thanks - I managed to fix this problem for my own personal account by setting the time/date setup whilst under the 'Default' theme, then changing over the 'White & Grey'. The problem with doing this is that if you ever change your options again whilst under the 'White & Grey' theme it would revert back to the default time/date setup.

I'm not worried really about any enhancements you've made personally (I'm happy with the defualt vB setup as I'm sure you're aware :)) - I was just noting it so that should we ever decide to start mass-producing themes that we were aware of it.

2. You could do that with the blue/silver stars. I doesn't concern me either way. :)

3. Thanks for that info.

I've noticed you've applied the 'Read/Unread' icons to the forums - thanks for that. However I also noticed you set read threads to the unlit lightbulb too. Could you possibly change them back to the default folder icon for them?

One last thing - is there anyway to get rid of the signature line (_________) like you did with the 'Default' theme? It's just that it looks silly with signatures like mine which have their own divided line. Also, it might be wise to set the default font size in signatures to be "1" so that they can be easily distinguished from the normal post (if you haven't done so already).

EDIT: Another thing - can we get rid of the moderator column? I take back any previous arguments for keeping it - it looks plain dodgy, especially for roleplaying which has 4 names in it. :)

As it stands, I'm very happy with my little theme. I'll probably keep tinkering with it for a while but at the moment I like it a lot. Thanks for your help. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Kar Doniash
I've noticed you've applied the 'Read/Unread' icons to the forums - thanks for that. However I also noticed you set read threads to the unlit lightbulb too. Could you possibly change them back to the default folder icon for them?

One last thing - is there anyway to get rid of the signature line (_________) like you did with the 'Default' theme? It's just that it looks silly with signatures like mine which have their own divided line. Also, it might be wise to set the default font size in signatures to be "1" so that they can be easily distinguished from the normal post (if you haven't done so already).


All fixed. :)

EDIT: I'll get to work on removing the moderator column for you, it'll take a little time since it requires the editing of several templates.

[Champion of the Force]

Way, way cool. You rock Ogre. :)

Ok, some more things. Only do these things if you've got time of course - they aren't necessities or anything. :)

1. The Last Post/Recent Thread etc images:

http://www.swforums.net/forum/wbimages/sortasc.gif
http://www.swforums.net/forum/wbimages/lastpost.gif
http://www.swforums.net/forum/wbimages/vb_bullet.gif

etc etc etc

The purple looks nice, but I prefer the old yellow coloured ones from yesterday. I've actually been going throgh and removing a lot of the purple text with blue and other lighter colours.

2. The 'Currently Online'/'Private Messages' section - could you set this up to be like the Default one (with minimal lines and text)?

3. Purely aesthetic preference, I've noticed you've centred all the category headings. Well I like them on the left like the vB default (yes, I'm pushing things here :) - this one isn't very important).

I suppose now would be a nice time to ask where exactly you go to change all this stuff? If I knew I might be able to do half of this myself rather than asking for your help all the time. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

1, 2, 3. Done

Th place where most of these changes are made, is within the templates, which are located at the bottom of the left sidebar of the control panel. There are tons of them there with so many possibilities for HTML changes its not even funny. Just be sure to make changes to the corresponding Style set, and you can always "revert to original" if there are problems, though the ones already displayed as black text have been changed and reverting them to original will disable any customizations already done.

Took me a little toying to get used to the templates, but the customization possibilities they provide are nearly limitless. Have fun. :)

[Champion of the Force]

I figured it would probably be in there somewhere, but I wasn't sure and going through those options is like looking for a needle in a haystack at first. :)

I've already done a little editing myself. I've now set the background to white like I wanted to do. I've also removed all the control panel/register/calendar etc etc buttons and have just replaced them with text like UBB does it.

[TheHolo.Net]

I went through and cleaned out old topics in the Communication forum. I deleted all the ezboard transferred threads figuring that we didn't need any of that stuff from the old board, since a good portion of it was in regards to ezboard and or issues at the old board...ie. Rep Props, archive requests, etc.

[Champion of the Force]

I set the character limit in Private Messages from 1000 to 5000 after getting hit by the limit whilst trying to respond to a user.

We also have the option to make it unlimited, but I was wondering if that would be too big a strain on the database if everyone was allowed to send huge PMs to one another. :\

[Champion of the Force]

Ogre - I was wondering if you could upload and replace the 'Forum Unread' lightbulb with this one:

http://www.knarma.f2s.com/pictures/on.gif

I know you removed the glow off the current one, but at higher reolutions it is a bit difficult to tell it apart from the white lightbulbs. This time though I've only done a slight 'glow' around it so it stands out more, but not too much like the old one. :)

[Champion of the Force]

I have just renamed the White and Gray theme 'Basic - Light'.

I've also been looking around the Star Wars Galaxies forum and have been admiring the scheme they have:

http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/starwars/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro&BypassCookie=true

I was thinking that perhaps in the near future we can adopt a similar scheme for a theme and call it 'Basic - Dark'. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

That theme is actually very similar to the text based one we already have.

[Q]

Actually, they're roleplaying section is so close to ours, I'd be inclined to think they borrowed a few things. They have nearly the same definitons for things like godmoding, open threads, etc. I think I'm going to register and play around a bit there.

Edit ~ Scratch that... there's too many hoops to jump through to register there. First, you got to register with Sony. Then you have to register with the SW Galaxies site... and I couldn't even find out where to do that. Plus, someone already registered my name. :| Might have been me... if so, I've forgotten.

[Ogre Mal Pannis]

I have created a new Style, "Default - Gold", which uses the same template set as the Default one, while using a seperate Style and Replacement Variable set. I plan to make about three more color variations of the Default set over the next couple of weeks. I think diversity is good. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

Note to self: Redo User Profiles in default templates, so that their color definations are based on Replacement Variables.

[Champion of the Force]

Originally posted by Q
Actually, they're roleplaying section is so close to ours, I'd be inclined to think they borrowed a few things. They have nearly the same definitons for things like godmoding, open threads, etc. I think I'm going to register and play around a bit there.

Edit ~ Scratch that... there's too many hoops to jump through to register there. First, you got to register with Sony. Then you have to register with the SW Galaxies site... and I couldn't even find out where to do that. Plus, someone already registered my name. :| Might have been me... if so, I've forgotten.
Well things like God-moding, OOC, open/closed threads are not specific to here - I have seen plenty of roleplaying systems (both on and offline) that use the same terms.

Speaking of roleplaying, our little niche here might get some serious competition soon - both TFN and the Official site are considering adding Roleplaying forums to their own boards (maybe - it's still being investigated).

As for the registration part, yeah it's a damn complicated setup. I managed to register after going through a ton of screens but by that stage of was fed up with it.

[Champion of the Force]

Ogre - it appears as though the default notepad icon that's displayed next to the threads has disappeared:

http://www.swforums.net/forum/wbimages/icons/icon1.gif

Could you correct it? Although it doesn't really serve a purpose it adds another column into the display and ensures the threads are in the 'light' column so they're easier to read. :)

[Champion of the Force]

:: looks again ::

Not quite :). The original ones were yellowish, not green and black. They went better with the scheme. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

We are running into space problems on the server. :\ Which really is confusing since our forum directory is less than 3 MB and we are aloted 200 MB. The loss and deletion of the topics from the old Props forums and the communications forums should have helped, but it looks like Avatars may be hurting us now, as whenever someone adds one, it bites into our space used pretty baddly.

I tried removing as many of the non essential images as possible and shuffled a few things around, so there are bound to be a few missing things here and there which I will try to rectify if at all possible.

[Champion of the Force]

:eek

Maybe we should have enforced greater restrictions on the Avatars - maybe 100x100 and a max filesize of 10K?

[TheHolo.Net]

From what I can tell right now, though its in no way precise; When someone adds a 6 KB Avatar, it bites about 20 KB into our server, maybe more.

I'm going to investigate Avatar linking from other hosts. I saw a hack on the vBulletin Support forums that allows such a thing, and it'll basically be just like ezboard. As it is right now, I am surprised we are even able to post since our disk quota has been reached. :x

[Champion of the Force]

Reminds me of a cartoon I once saw at Real Life Comics:

"Dammit, what do you mean the database is at 115% capacity?!?!? It's either full or it isn't!"

:)

The remote linking idea sounds good. My only question is whether or not we'll still be able to set filesize and physical size requirements like we can now?

[TheHolo.Net]

For the moment, I have disabled all Avatar uploading until a solution can be found for our space problems.

Your question is a very valid one, that I don't know the answer to at this point.

[Q]

I just e-mailed them regarding both telnet access, and the unusual size of the database. I hope they get back to me quickly.

[Ogre Mal Pannis]

Avatars have been re-enabled, and our space issue handled, we are now back down to only 2.5 MB of 200 MB used. Log files were bogging things down.

[TheHolo.Net]

I added a semi large handful of styles today and will over time clean each of them up so they look a bit better, especialy the Default - Red one. :x

[TheHolo.Net]

ooooo, the replacement variable signature works. :D

[Q]

Overall, they all look very nice. Good work.

[TheHolo.Net]

Thanks. :) Made some adjustments to the Default - Red, so it is actually red and not a mix between red and orange. I plan to make a Default - Light, then look into Fett's idea of creating a Rebel, Jedi, Imp, Sith, and maybe a couple planet sets.

Point of order/discussion:

Does anyone else think we should move the announcement, "FAQ for new posters", into the actual FAQ Forum as a permanent part of it, and maybe consider removing the announcement soon?

[Champion of the Force]

We could do that, or just incoporate it into the General FAQ (sidenote: should probably have a link the the vB FAQ in the General FAQ as well).

Either way, it would probably be best to remove the Announcement shortly, otherwise people will assume its up there for good and then come to ignore it completely, rendering it useless for whenever we wish to have another announcement.

[TheHolo.Net]

Good ideas, all of them. Incorporating a link into the vB FAQ to our general FAQ shouldn't be too difficult through some template edits, but it will need to be done to all four existing template sets.

For any more Style sets I create, I am trying to avoid any new template additions, so as to make global board changes a little easier.

[TheHolo.Net]

I went ahead and incorporated the FAQ's into the General one, and made some small changes to the vB FAQ templates, linking them together. If there is anything you wish to change or clarify, please feel free. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

I created a Sith Style, added a Style Display and hot link under the poster location in the default and basic templates, and added a quick style chooser table at the bottom of every style. I am considering changing it some for the text based style but I'm not sure, since its only about 3 or 4 KB total.

[TheHolo.Net]

I created a custom style for the Shipyard forums that will overide a user's defaults, but only for those forums. As soon as you leave the shipyard forums it takes you back to your chosen style.

[Champion of the Force]

:\

I think I have to give the thumbs down for that one.

The purpose of the different styles is to give users the choice of how they want the board to appear. Why then force certain forums (in this case the Shipyards) to be a set style? It kind of defeats the purpose IMHO (especially if posters don't like the style in the first place).

The other problem with it is that every time a newbie wanders into those forums it'll probably result in "Why does my style change in those forums?" questions all the time.

Of course, if it was defaulted to the 'Basic - Light' theme, I wouldn't be complaining. :p

[TheHolo.Net]

I see it like this. More than 90% of our current users are more accustomed to ezboard than they are vBulletin. Of that percentage, almost all are still using the “Default” style. Those that aren’t for the most part are fairly hip to what is going on with the boards. A very low number of posters even visit the shipyard forums as in a way, they are more or less, closed to each group which they represent.

Of the vast majority of users on this board, being used to ezboard, which is commonplace to have different looks for individual forums, that should not be any kind of surprise. Heck it could be a welcome thing, to actually see some forums that are different than what they are used to.

As of yet, I have only seen you using the Basic – Light style, and a single user using the Text – Based style, so I really don’t think having a custom set for those SUB-forums, will really cause any issues, except in the very small minority like you, who are set in their style. :p

[Champion of the Force]

... so I really don’t think having a custom set for those SUB-forums, will really cause any issues

So what? What is to be gained by setting them to a specific style, as opposed to just letting them default to whatever style the user chooses?

That's what I'm failing to understand - all this stuff about it being similar to ezboard etc. is IMHO irrelevant because if a user wants it to be like ezboard, vB or whatever they want they'll just select the style they want and be happy. No need to start forcing forums to be a select style.

That's the big thing I'm picking out in all this. If a person has their theme set to Default they won't care because all the Shipard forums are set so close to the Default scheme they probably won't even notice - which kind of defeats the purpose. For anone else who however who have their's set to another theme that's different it benefits them in no way whatsoever because they want the forums to be set to the style they've chosen and to have the Shipyards set to something else gives them no benefit and may only put them off.

Even if the Shipyards only get 2 visitotrs a day, the point still stands. How exactly does this really benefit anybody? Just let the user choose and be happy. :)

And yes, I'm being stubborn today. :)



___________________________________
Footnote: Above argument has been prepared on the asssumption that the Shipyards don't get any major benefits as a result of their style that normal themes can't already do.

[TheHolo.Net]

As of yet, the only feedback I have gotten from people that checked the thread I started in the GJO Shipyard forum has been positive, so I'm basing my stance on that.

[Champion of the Force]

Well you do what you think is best. :)

I still stand by my reservations however because it still goes against the ability of users to set their own styles for the board.

I'd much rather give users the freedom to choose their style for all the forums than to try and force certain forums to be a set style.

[Champion of the Force]

PS. And I threw in a negative comment into that thread of yours, so :mneh. :D

[TheHolo.Net]

Tis your prerogative. :)

I have added a new/beta hack for marking individual forums read. There appears to only be a couple minor bugs with the hack as of this time.

One being the message you get when you click mark forum read. It says that all forums have been marked read as opposed to a single forum.

The second issue, I am trying to work with the hack’s developer to get resolved. The “View New Posts” link at the top of the Forum home page is currently non functional.

[Champion of the Force]

Minor update: I just tweaked the colours of the 'Text only' theme a bit so it didn't look so dull (no one appears to be using the theme anyway so I doubt many would notice).