Pehpeh Approves New FCW Themes

The Conservationist

The Conservationist

Save The West
Moderator
Resistance Is Not Futile
As you will see, we have 24 new forum themes.

Most of old themes have been decommissioned, the three remaining old ones were chosen to span different colour schemes and were the more popular ones. They are labelled "legacy" in their names, and, might not be compatible with future upgrades we are considering for the forum.

A snapshot of the new dark theme (e.g., FCW Campfire) & semi-dark themes is here:

DarkThemes.png

And a snapshot of the new light themes is here:

LightThemes.png
 
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The new themes will probably need some fine tuning to their colours, banner image sizes, etc.

Depending on your browser configuration, a different banner image will show up.

If the banner image looks strange (e.g., cropped or white/grey spaces above or below it), then please do let us know, and it would be helpful if you could provide the following information: the theme you're using, a screenshot, your OS, your browser (e.g., Brave, Chrome, etc.), and, your Zoom level for your browser (e.g., 100%, 80%, 120%, etc.).


For mobile, FCW Wilderness ought to look something like this (e.g., Android/Samsung, typical browser settings):

Mobile.png



For Desktop, full screen mode, FCW Wilderness ought to look like (e.g., Linux OS, Brave browser, 100% zoom):

FullScreen.png



For Desktop, half screen mode, FCW Wilderness ought to look like (e.g., Linux OS, Brave browser, 100% zoom):

HalfScreen.png
 
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There aren't many different functionality features, will upload screenshots highlighting those later.

For now, a description is as follows:

  • in the top right, you will see a moon or light bulb symbol. Pressing on that will toggle your theme between a light theme (e.g., FCW Wilderness) and semi-dark theme (e.g., FCW Night Sky)
  • on the forum page (e.g., here), you will see a switch towards the centre right, which will toggle on or off some of the side menus (e.g., Clown World Counter, Members Online, etc.)

The rest will probably be self-evident, though will add more here if need be
 
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HOLY SWEET JESUS KILL IT WITH FIRE!! IT'S SO FUCKING UGLY AND PAINFUL TO USE REEEEEEEE!!!!

It looks like some fucking 80s reject of what they thought UIs would look like circa 2002. Is there any way to revert back?

I don't want to shit on you guys or what you do, but it's fucking atrocious, I'm sorry :(.
 
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Try different themes, there are 24 to chose from

The option to change them are at the top and bottom left of your screen, and, in your account preferences.

If need be we can re-instate a few of the old ones, but they might become incompatible with some future forum upgrades.
 
I have to agree slightly, I like a few of the new ones, but now Lake View and the old Night Sky is gone. Those were the best themes.
I don’t want all of them to be full of cartoon characters, it’s nice as an option but seems like an odd default for a forum about politics.

No offence TC, I like the new themes, but can you bring back a few of the old ones?
 
@the_pamplemoose
Three of the old themes have been brought back with a tag of 'legacy' in their names

These were the three that were most commonly used
 
@ovarieasy
I had considered that beforehand, people sometimes don't like change (which is probably more so true for conservatives).

I know I'm that way about many particular things.

That's part of why we went with 24 themes (rather than 10), to try to cover a wider range of possible colours schemes that might (1) decently mimic the old ones and (2) increase the likelihood that one of them would be to each person's liking.
 
Cool, I like the overall style with the top banner image and Pehpeh image on the top left.

If I could make two suggestions:
1. More or actual dark theme - none of them have the top stationary bar as dark/black, they are all some kind of light color.
2. The top stationary bar is a little to large vertically. It takes up a lot of space when scrolling through threads, especially when I'm 120% zoom on a 13" laptop.

Other than that I like them and the banner images look correct to me.

spez: Also I see featured badges aren't displaying?
 
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Thanks for the feedback Daru

More or actual dark theme - none of them have the top stationary bar as dark/black, they are all some kind of light color.
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That can be arranged, might not be for a week or so

Will give it some thought what the theme could be centred on (usually built the colour scheme out from the banner image).

The top stationary bar is a little to large vertically. It takes up a lot of space when scrolling through threads, especially when I'm 120% zoom on a 13" laptop.
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It does take quite a bit of room, and at first I really didn't like it

Eventually got used to it, but, I do agree that it takes up space that could otherwise be taken by threads.

The old themes also had the top navigation bar scroll downwards as you scroll down, but, it wasn't nearly as vertically thick

Will look into tweaking that

Also I see featured badges aren't displaying?
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Hadn't noticed that, will have to check what's going on there.

It might be an incompatibility with the forum upgrade, or, with the new themes themselves.

If the former, then we'll just have to wait for the add-on dev to update it

If the latter, will have to dig into it more carefully to see if there's a solution
 
Another thing for the top stationary banner, maybe it could also contain the user/notifications/search section?

1722860559746.png

And then move the Home/Forums/Members to the middle? Just an idea since there is a lot of empty middle space.
 
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@The Conservationist
I agreed with @Daru -- Search/Notification bar used to always be docked at the top, no matter what page, or where you are scrolled on any page. Now, I always have to scroll to VERY VERY top now to read any notifications, or perform a quick search, or send a DM, or logout. This needs fixing. Also, def need some non-cartoon themes... including the default. First time viewers might think this site is for kids and close the page before browsing. (some of us actually hate cartoon stuff full of pride colours)

Additionally, on mobile's thread views... the posts are too large vertically also. Where previously I could have all the stickies plus 3 or 4 posts visible on the screen, I now get only 2½ stickies on my screen. Finding something while scrolling is a bit more tedious now. Lots of wasted real estate.

Looks like it was a l lot of hard work. Kudos. Thanks for always trying to improve.

Other than the obvious visual differences, are there any new features to the UI ?
 
Search/Notification bar used to always be docked at the top, no matter what page, or where you are scrolled on any page. Now, I always have to scroll to VERY VERY top now to read any notifications, or perform a quick search, or send a DM, or logout. This needs fixing.
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There are two ways we could try to go about this.

Mimic the old structure, where the toolbar at the top always has this

Or make it so the tool bar doesn't scroll, and in that case I think the top tool bar with the functionality you speak of would remain there

For now, a tip, when you're scrolling down the page an "up arrow" ought to appear at the bottom right. Not ideal, but, it will bring you to the top of the screen quickly

Also, def need some non-cartoon themes... including the default.
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Sure, that can be done

First time viewers might think this site is for kids and close the page before browsing.
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Good point

That might partially depend on how much of a focal point the Pepes are.

For instance, FCW Harbourside only has one or two Pehpeh in the banner image, and they aren't focal.

Additionally, on mobile's thread views... the posts are too large vertically also. Where previously I could have all the stickies plus 3 or 4 posts visible on the screen, I now get only 2½ stickies on my screen. Finding something while scrolling is a bit more tedious now. Lots of wasted real estate.
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I'll check to see how to compress the threads vertically

Looks like it was a l lot of hard work. Kudos. Thanks for always trying to improve.
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Thank you, there was quite a bit of learning involved.

Had to figure out a lot of fine detailed things which weren't needed or considered for the old themes.

Other than the obvious visual differences, are there any new features to the UI ?
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Just the two I mentioned in the second post of this thread come to mind off hand

They are minor features.

However, the new themes will be more compatible with other future changes to the forum software that we are considering.

I don't believe the old themes are supported anymore, so they could become incompatible with the forum software if/when those changes are made.
 
Just some other random feedback after using it for a day on PC.

I like the new animations, it's overall much smoother. Also the "New" tags pop out much better.

User Profile Section (Beside Reply)
  • I like seeing the joined date and number of messages for the user.
  • I don't know how I feel about the green/red online status dots, as it looks bad on some profile pics. I think I liked the old one more where it only showed online and bottom center.

New Reply Post Top Bar
- The bar on the right is really large and doesn't have anything in it other than Undo? Could expand the Text or Insert boxes some more horizontally.
1722872364639.png

Thanks again for all your work on the upgrades
 
Thanks for the additional feedback Daru.

I like seeing the joined date and number of messages for the user.
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I'll check to see how it was done with the old themes, code wise, and try to replicate it. The challenge might be with space.

I don't know how I feel about the green/red online status dots, as it looks bad on some profile pics.
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Was on the fence about this as well.

I think there's an option to turn it off, will check later

The bar on the right is really large and doesn't have anything in it other than Undo? Could expand the Text or Insert boxes some more horizontally.
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Agreed, something else could go here
 
@The Conservationist
I like seeing the joined date and number of messages for the user.
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I'll check to see how it was done with the old themes, code wise, and try to replicate it. The challenge might be with space.
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Sorry if I wasn't clear. I like how it is in this new version. I don't think the old themes showed the date and messages unless you hovered over the picture.
 
Just so you guys are aware, the themes are not the main event here (although super cool) but the upgrade to newer XF version. We are shooting for a better experience for mobile users and this will let us do some other stuff

Thanks to @The Conservationist for his hard work he did this whole update by himself!
 
gigawasted screen real-estate at 4k 1722877553574.png
 
Huh, I tested a wide range of configurations on my Desktop, never saw anything like that before

What kind of device and settings are those?
 
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@Mashiki @goytoy
That explains it, I was testing below the ~2000 px width range.

I never use monitors, nor do I encounter people using them too often, and so it never occurred to me to check those types of dimensions.

I probably already know how to fix it (e.g., an extension of how the different browser configurations are already handled), will just take time to do (not a very quick fix)

It would be quicker to do on just one or two themes to test it out.

Goytoy prefers FCW Forest of the new ones, Mashiki do you have a preference for any of them?
 
@The Conservationist Ah that would explain it. It's a pretty common resolution in my job, since more screen real estate = better. At least I'm not one of those weirdos that uses their 4k monitor in portrait mode.

Nope no preferences on any of them. I'm not that picky or anything.
 
@Mashiki
Sounds good, thank you for pointing it out and the info

I don't have a 4k monitor to test on, but I can probably to use an HDMI cable with a relatively large television to experiment with it.

Will likely try to tackle this aspect as 4th on the list (with the 1st already done).
See below for the other items
 
@Mashiki
It'll get done. I've just been busy with non-forum tasks

If you haven't already, probably best to change to one of the legacy themes for now, and I'll let you know when it's done.
 
@Mashiki
Had a look into this tonight.

Tried using an HDMI with a larger TV to see if I could reproduce the issue, however, turns out that simply broadcasts 1:1 what was on my laptop to the screen.

Occurred to me there is a Desktop here with a larger monitor than my laptop, though probably not as large as your 4K screen.

The larger screen did have something like what you saw:

1.png

Using that browser screen, I found out that the issue was different than I had originally thought, in a manner that's quicker to fix.

Afterwards I also found a method to probe larger browser configurations with my laptop.

I have now implemented a possible solution, if you could try FCW Coastline, that theme has it, and then we can see whether that worked or not for your configuration.
 
@Mashiki
Thank you for the screen shot.

So it looks like it was at least four issues, rather than a single issue.

Specifically:
(1) thread content region not extending the full (or most of) the page width (this one is fixed now)
(2) the header bar with the forum logo and home/forums/members buttons not extending the full page width
(3) the user tool bar at the very top doesn't have the buttons extend the entire page width (e.g., it should have those buttons further to the right)
(4) the header background image not having the correct aspect ratio

The second and third ones will probably have a similar fix as the first one (with just a different property adjusted).

The fourth one is easy but a bit time consuming to fix. Will get it done.

Seeing your screen now, I'll need a better grasp of the dimensions we are working with, for sake of fixing (4).

In your browser, can you please right click on the header background image (roughly where my cursor is below), press "inspect", drag that inspect column as far to the right as you can, then share the dimensions you see in the "computed" box (for Brave that's the name on it, might be different in other browsers)?:

6.png



In my image, it was 1028 x 325 for the width x height in pixels, which is a slight underestimate of the actual width owing to the fact that the "inspect" column occupies some of the page width.

When you do this, please use your typical browser settings (e.g., your larger monitor, your typical browser, your usual zoom %, etc.).
 
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How I'd fix FCW and make it less bloat/intuitive...
1. Lakeview default
2. Merge subforums into General
3. Make general home & delete /forums/
4. gut the footer
5. stop pinning shit
 
Sounds like a campaign ad

More seriously, as for the ideas:
1. FCW Night Sky was chosen specifically because it was relatively close to the colour scheme of FCW Lakeview (compared to the other ones) ... I would have preferred the default theme be a more summer centric theme than winter centric, but, this is where the inspiration took me for the colour schemes ... given the various feedback, will probably try to come up with a new theme that better mimics FCW Lakeview to be the new default
2. Alternative idea: since the prepping and memes subforums aren't frequently used, they could be thrown into Archives as subforums there ... and simply move relevant threads to those subforums to keep some organization as needed once they are auto-moved to Archives ... this would achieve the intended goal of your suggestion to clear up space on General ... the main drawback to this is many threads probably wouldn't end up in the correct subforums afterwards, rather, be buried in Archives, because its easy to forget to manually move them ... there might be a better way to automate this process, will have to give that thought
3. Don't really see an issue here
4. I generally agree about the footer, however it is necessary unfortunately, for the branding of XF and DohThemes. To remove the branding costs several hundred USD, which isn't worth it. One could hypothetically bypass that with CSS code, but, that isn't something we want to do.
5. Disagree on pins, not sure why they would be viewed as not useful?
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Here's a compilation of most of the suggestions for the new themes, roughly in the order I think I'll tackle them:

1. reduce vertical thickness of scrolling navigation bar (reduced it by 25 px on the top and 20 px on the bottom)
2. the scrolling navigation bar should also contain the user/notifications/search-section/etc. + maybe move the home/forums/members to the centre of it (or remove it entirely)
3. for mobile the thread boxes are too vertically thick, reduce the size of these (might also be the case for Desktop to a lesser degree)
4. adapt the themes better to a few more device/browser configurations, particularly for Mashiki's device which is the worst case I've seen
5. new themes without any Pepes + that more closely mimic the old themes
5b. a new default theme that more closely resembles FCW Lakeview + without Pepes
5c. new darker theme that more like FCW Midnight & that has a darker sticky background + a darker top bar (near black)
5d. new light theme that is more like FCW Arctic (legacy)
6. add additional options to the 'new reply' in the top toolbar
7. get badges to display
8. remove or modify the online/offline (green/red dots) from Avatars
9. remove the 'email' option from the bottom left within threads
10. move prepping & memes subforums to Archive or the main page to open up more space
11. add/remove some URLs to/from the "Home" button menu
 
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Setting FCW Lakeview as the default for now until a few of the more noticeable issues are handled with the new themes.

The new themes will remain available via user selection.
 
The only dark theme (Campfire) has some bright parts to it which don't fit the idea of being a dark theme, namely the top banner and pinned threads.

It's actually pretty jarring to see when they show up. I wanna use it but these elements put me off from it, so gonna stick with the classic Midnight theme for now.

1723116515157.png
 
I'll add that to the list of things to change, or, re-label that one as "semi-dark" when a darker theme is created.

Dark themes are where I'll need more feedback in terms of colour schemes, because I use light themes myself and thus have a better sense for those
 
Minor late feedback... I have been struggling to use the top navigation bar. It opens notifications just fine but most of the other buttons don't respond. For example, I get no response when I click on my avatar in the top bar to navigate to my personal page, or when I click on the moon to switch to dark mode.
(Samsung, android, Brave browser.)
Edit: after playing around, it seems like the button size is very small, much smaller than the icon. I can get it to click sometimes, but still feels hit and miss.
 
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Thank you, I hadn't noticed it until you pointed it out.

Yeah, clicking the button can be done, but it takes more moving the cursor around to find the right spot than it ought to.

Have added it to the mental list of theme improvements.

Will return to these improvements again later on when I have more time on my hands
 
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