ParanetOnline

The Site => Site Suggestions & Support => Topic started by: Aakaakaak on July 31, 2011, 04:45:59 PM

Title: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Aakaakaak on July 31, 2011, 04:45:59 PM
1. SMF Themes: You're using the generic theme right now. There are several others you could use. In fact, if you were so inclined you might have a theme creation contest, and/or a logo creation contest to celebrate it.

2. Good luck finding or creating a chatterbox that did everything the last one did. Or are you getting rid of it? (Also, if you use the standard generic chatterbox it will become a target for spammers. There's a redirect hack that people use. Simply turn off the account links in it and it's fixed.)

3. Do you or don't you plan in initiating the karma system that's built into SMF? I'm not suggesting either way.

4. SMF has plugins like Apple has aps. Which ones are we looking at using?

5. Would it be possible to have a simple page somewhere with "Jim's Suggested Reading List" or "What to read while waiting for the next book"? I consider myself a slow reader and I'm already done. People have got to be looking for more to read. If it's done right you might even be able to get some Amazon bucks out of the deal.

Congratulations on your..um....would calling it a rebirth be too corny considering the book that's out right now?
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: iago on July 31, 2011, 04:48:06 PM
2. Good luck finding or creating a chatterbox that did everything the last one did. Or are you getting rid of it? (Also, if you use the standard generic chatterbox it will become a target for spammers. There's a redirect hack that people use. Simply turn off the account links in it and it's fixed.)

2.0 got released very recently. That module doesn't install correctly at present. If it does get updated to work with the current version, I'll re-install.

Quote
3. Do you or don't you plan in initiating the karma system that's built into SMF? I'm not suggesting either way.

No, haven't in the past, don't see call for it now.

Quote
4. SMF has plugins like Apple has aps. Which ones are we looking at using?

Very few. :)

Quote
5. Would it be possible to have a simple page somewhere with "Jim's Suggested Reading List" or "What to read while waiting for the next book"? I consider myself a slow reader and I'm already done. People have got to be looking for more to read. If it's done right you might even be able to get some Amazon bucks out of the deal.

We did that over on the main site!
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Aakaakaak on July 31, 2011, 04:55:45 PM
5. AHA! I'll have to look again. I only remember the single post from Jim about Child of Fire. Thanks.

And thanks for answering everything. There are things you will and will not like about SMF I'm sure.
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: iago on July 31, 2011, 04:58:32 PM
5. AHA! I'll have to look again. I only remember the single post from Jim about Child of Fire. Thanks.

I may have answered too briskly. Yes, there was the COF post, and many pages of comments from the users about other ones to check out. Lots of good stuff in there. :)

I haven't felt like I should presume on Jim's time to get a recommendation list from him beyond what I've heard as a by-the-way. Worth thinking about. Wouldn't be over *here*, though, it'd be there.
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Priscellie on July 31, 2011, 05:03:52 PM
5. AHA! I'll have to look again. I only remember the single post from Jim about Child of Fire. Thanks.

And thanks for answering everything. There are things you will and will not like about SMF I'm sure.

There are a small of items Jim has recommended in the "Other Stuff Jim Likes" section of our store.  I'll have to update it sometime with other stuff he's recced.
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Aakaakaak on July 31, 2011, 05:08:49 PM
I've seen several threads with excellent book suggestions from the forum goers. More than anything, I was saying that if Jim was interested in doing something there would be an interest. I can also understand if there are legal restrictions or something related to a "Jim Suggests" page. Thanks again Iago. You do good work.

Priscellie, that section only has a Will Wheadon book and Shannon's Sentinel Wars. Again, you guys do good work.
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: KevinSig on July 31, 2011, 05:16:43 PM
I've no idea how hard this would be, but I wouldn't mind a slightly more intuitive URL button.  I don't get around much, but most of the forums I frequent, do a better job.

I select the text I want to be web linked, then get a pop up for the http address.  The the text is formatted as (URL=http:www.something.com)text I want linked(/URL).

Right now it just does (URL)(/URL) around anything I want to set up.
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Enjorous on August 01, 2011, 02:04:26 AM
Is there a way to bring the buddy list back? I quite liked knowing when people I know/talk to a lot are online.

Also is there a way to ensmallen the font in the reply boxes. To me it's gigantic.
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Howl on August 01, 2011, 08:26:38 AM
Is there a way to bring the buddy list back? I quite liked knowing when people I know/talk to a lot are online.

Also is there a way to ensmallen the font in the reply boxes. To me it's gigantic.

I was also wondering about the buddy list. It was very usefull to me :)
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: iago on August 01, 2011, 01:49:20 PM
We're sorting out what's up with the buddy list. Please remain patient. :)
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Jaeh on August 01, 2011, 02:10:39 PM
I've no idea how hard this would be, but I wouldn't mind a slightly more intuitive URL button.  I don't get around much, but most of the forums I frequent, do a better job.

I select the text I want to be web linked, then get a pop up for the http address.  The the text is formatted as (URL=http:www.something.com)text I want linked(/URL).

Right now it just does (URL)(/URL) around anything I want to set up.

not a problem for me - i just tend to do it manually. :D


also, hi. Um, is there any way for the letters to go smaller? or is it just my browser? whenever i edit or type to post? It's a little too big for me >.<
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Enjorous on August 01, 2011, 07:46:12 PM
We're sorting out what's up with the buddy list. Please remain patient. :)

Cool! Thanks Fred :D
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Howl on August 02, 2011, 08:34:45 AM
We're sorting out what's up with the buddy list. Please remain patient. :)

Great, thank's iago :)
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: iago on August 02, 2011, 02:42:20 PM
Buddy list should be back online.
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Enjorous on August 02, 2011, 04:22:01 PM
And they kept the buddies on the list!

Awesome work Fred!
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Howl on August 02, 2011, 05:27:24 PM
Yep, awesome work Fred. Thank you very much :)
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Phid on August 02, 2011, 07:04:15 PM
thanks Fred. you do great work
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Glorificus on August 02, 2011, 07:28:43 PM
I like the big type in the reply box. You can always preview it. The site looks much cleaner, and I see the who's-on-line thing has returned.

Now, if we could just get the vomitting and dancing smilies...

GREAT JOB, IAGO!!!!   ;D
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: laura118b on August 02, 2011, 07:33:41 PM
I like the new look on the whole, but the space for sigs at the bottom is just huge!  A lot of the posts in this thread the space taken up by the sigs is twice as big as the actual post, and at least for me I keep thinking there are two posts in the same spot when there is a quote in someone's sig.  The old forum shrunk those down to a smaller font it seemed like.
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: iago on August 02, 2011, 07:50:32 PM
I like the new look on the whole, but the space for sigs at the bottom is just huge!  A lot of the posts in this thread the space taken up by the sigs is twice as big as the actual post, and at least for me I keep thinking there are two posts in the same spot when there is a quote in someone's sig.  The old forum shrunk those down to a smaller font it seemed like.

Hm. The sigs look smaller on my browser, and I note when there's a lot of vertical space at the end of one it's because someone's avatar is taller than the content of their posts (see Howl's, above).
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Dina on August 02, 2011, 10:18:47 PM
Awesome job, Iago. I still think the main problem with the sigs are the quotes. Look at Enj sig, in this thread. Is ginormous!
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Aakaakaak on August 02, 2011, 10:35:43 PM
Awesome job, Iago. I still think the main problem with the sigs are the quotes. Look at Enj sig, in this thread. Is ginormous!

This is back in the index.css.

Quote
/* A quote, perhaps from another post. */
blockquote.bbc_standard_quote, blockquote.bbc_alternate_quote
{
   font-size: x-small;
   color: #000;
   line-height: 1.4em;
   background: url(../images/theme/quote.png) 0.1em 0.1em no-repeat;
   border-top: 2px solid #99A;
   border-bottom: 2px solid #99A;
   padding: 1.1em 1.4em;
   margin: 0.1em 0 0.3em 0;
   overflow: auto;
}

/* Alterate blockquote stylings */
blockquote.bbc_standard_quote
{
   background-color: #d7daec;
}
blockquote.bbc_alternate_quote
{
   background-color: #e7eafc;
}

Playing with    padding: 1.1em 1.4em; to maybe padding: 0.6em 0.7em; may trim the internal borders around the letters and effectively trim the fat.

If you already know how to do all this and I'm being annoying just tell me to shut up. Sometimes I overindulge in this kind of stuff and tread in people's territory. Sorry if I am.
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Amber on August 03, 2011, 04:19:19 AM
Profile > Modify Profile > Look and Layout Preferences > Don't show users sig lines

Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Howl on August 03, 2011, 06:32:16 AM
Hm. The sigs look smaller on my browser, and I note when there's a lot of vertical space at the end of one it's because someone's avatar is taller than the content of their posts (see Howl's, above).

I could change my avatar to be shorter if it's a problem? ???
And I see you managed to move the search bar so it doesn't cut the avatars in half any more. Nice work :)
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Aakaakaak on August 03, 2011, 10:27:49 AM
NPH is perfect just the way he is.
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Priscellie on August 03, 2011, 02:48:50 PM
Hm. The sigs look smaller on my browser, and I note when there's a lot of vertical space at the end of one it's because someone's avatar is taller than the content of their posts (see Howl's, above).

This might be a good time to remind folks that we ask everyone to keep their avatar limited to 125x125 (with the standard 100x100 being preferred) and their sig below about 80 pixels, or 5 lines of text.
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Enjorous on August 03, 2011, 03:15:43 PM
My sig is made up of two quotes at one line a piece. But with the new way that quotes work it seems quite a bit bigger. Is that something I should tone down?
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Aakaakaak on August 03, 2011, 04:42:03 PM
This might be a good time to remind folks that we ask everyone to keep their avatar limited to 125x125 (with the standard 100x100 being preferred) and their sig below about 80 pixels, or 5 lines of text.

Heh, I had never paid it any attention before.
*checks*
OOPS! Fixed.

We could probably shrink it further by removing the yellow karma bar everyone has, since we're not intending to use karma.
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: iago on August 03, 2011, 04:49:29 PM
We could probably shrink it further by removing the yellow karma bar everyone has, since we're not intending to use karma.

The "karma bar" is what we had before, stars indicating membership level. Assuming we're talking about the same thing. :)
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: laura118b on August 03, 2011, 05:01:17 PM
Profile > Modify Profile > Look and Layout Preferences > Don't show users sig lines
:(  I know that, I didn't want to get rid of them they amuse me.

And the quotes are really different now, they used to shrink a bit in the sig line and now, well yes Enjorous is spot on what I'm talking about.  But it's funny, Priscellie's is still the same size as before even with the E-bay ticker. :)

I'm just throwing this out there in case it's a bug or something similar.  I can live with it no problem. :D
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Aakaakaak on August 03, 2011, 06:19:30 PM
The "karma bar" is what we had before, stars indicating membership level. Assuming we're talking about the same thing. :)

Ah, yeah. Membership level bar. I've seen it done as a karma bar before. Nevermind that then.
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Howl on August 03, 2011, 09:02:22 PM
This might be a good time to remind folks that we ask everyone to keep their avatar limited to 125x125 (with the standard 100x100 being preferred) and their sig below about 80 pixels, or 5 lines of text.

Fixed, should be smaller now :)
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Aakaakaak on August 03, 2011, 10:29:03 PM
NPH is HUUUUGE! But the image is good methinks. :D
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Howl on August 03, 2011, 10:33:43 PM
NPH is HUUUUGE! But the image is good methinks. :D


I can shrink the image but it is impossible to make NPH less awesome 8)
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: shades of grey on August 03, 2011, 10:34:11 PM
Fixed, should be smaller now :)

But still looks fabulous!   ;D
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Howl on August 03, 2011, 10:35:47 PM
Why thank you shades. ;D
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: shades of grey on August 03, 2011, 10:37:16 PM
Also, fairly huge round of applause for Iago and his inherent awesomeness.
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Howl on August 03, 2011, 10:40:17 PM
Also, fairly huge round of applause for Iago and his inherent awesomeness.

*applauds*
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Shecky on August 03, 2011, 10:40:32 PM
Also, fairly huge round of applause for Iago and his inherent awesomeness.

Every time I think the man's established just where customer service should TRY to get to, he goes and raises the bar AGAIN. I don't think he's human.
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: shades of grey on August 03, 2011, 10:42:21 PM
Human or not, I for one am glad he does.
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Dina on August 04, 2011, 12:31:57 AM
Also, fairly huge round of applause for Iago and his inherent awesomeness.
*applauds enthusiastically, if late*
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Glorificus on August 04, 2011, 02:42:29 AM
How come Aak3 gets to use more sig space than anyone else? Lots more than 5 lines.

And I can't even get a vomitting smilie.
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Aakaakaak on August 04, 2011, 03:01:05 AM
Five lines? It's been this way for...um...a year and a half?

I'm breaking all sorts of rules then. I shall correct myself.

I really should pay attention to these things.

Edit: If I were a preacher this would be practicing, yes?
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Amber on August 04, 2011, 04:49:11 AM
It's possible in the Admin center for admins to put a hard limit on sig size.
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Serack on August 04, 2011, 09:53:26 AM
And I see you managed to move the search bar so it doesn't cut the avatars in half any more. Nice work :)

Yah I just noticed that, I'm pretty happy about it too.  GJ Iago :)

There are a small of items Jim has recommended in the "Other Stuff Jim Likes" section of our store.  I'll have to update it sometime with other stuff he's recced.

I'll be paying close attention to that in my next WoJ carousing within the next few months and I'll proally start a new WoJ sticky on the topic.  I'll actually proally start it within the next week and seed it with the stuff he recommended within the past week.

Edit:  Ooooh, I just had the idea that I might go through the effort to figure out how to have the individual books linked in such a way that the forum benefits from any purchases.
Title: Re: Things for the new forum.
Post by: Glorificus on August 05, 2011, 12:05:36 AM
Five lines? It's been this way for...um...a year and a half?

I'm breaking all sorts of rules then. I shall correct myself.

I really should pay attention to these things.

Edit: If I were a preacher this would be practicing, yes?

I didn't know there was a recommended size until someone said recently. I'm just trying to get vomitting and dancing smilies. But thanks for the modification, I think it's easier to read on one line.   ;D