Posted August 7, 2013 Things are slowly starting to pick up again around here. After taking advantage of the slower summer season to do the forum software upgrade, development has mostly gone into a lull. In a way, it makes perfect sense. The board is up to date and stable. No reason to fix something that isn't broken. During the upgrade process it was noted that several skins would be disappearing and some new ones would eventually be making an appearance. Today, the first new theme is being released. Those of you who have used other forums that may be running different software may quickly recognize the look. The new theme is VB5, based on the look of that software. Anyone currently using Simple Blue should certainly take a look, as it retains a similar clean appearance while (IMO) having a bit nicer layout. A couple of preview images are attached below. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 7, 2013 I like the new skin. It looks different, also quite simple. Few changes in the layout, as statictics moved on the right side freeing up the down of the boards. One thing I do not like though is the grey background of the user's profile card. Avatars seems a little bit of the place. I will give that skin a go. Will see whether I will adapt to it or switch back to the basic one which I love. Can I ask a question? Do you make them (skins) by yourself from scratch or they are available for particular version of forums software and then you can modify it the way you like? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 7, 2013 Can I ask a question? Do you make them (skins) by yourself from scratch or they are available for particular version of forums software and then you can modify it the way you like? The skins are pre-made designs. I take it from the provided files and make small changes here and there to fit within the site. Such as the case with the new skin, widening the author info to the left of posts because we allow larger than average avatars, removing group title references, etc. In this case some code for showing the list of new members also had to be removed because it didn't fit properly having the stats moved to the right side. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 8, 2013 Thank you for explanation. May I suggest to add more different colours in the future skins then? I can see dominant white in current ones so it would be nice to have something different in that terms. Or perhaps have one where you can customize your own theme like it was before. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 12, 2013 I can see dominant white in current ones so it would be nice to have something different in that terms. At one time we did have a dark theme that used inverted colors (black background, white text) but no one used it. Another problem is that certain items have to be set one way or the other like smilies. If we have a dark skin, you will see white borders around the smilies. It's not a big thing but little glitches like that are one reason I haven't really bothered with any more dark themes. I will try to work on something that isn't so bright though in the future, but probably not a fully inverted theme. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 12, 2013 you will see white borders around the smilies Right, I know what you mean here. I saw this before and indeed, although it is not a big deal but looks a little bit glitchy and odd. So I agree. I feel completely fine with white, don't get me wrong. Still can't get enough of default skin here, haha. So yeah, no rush and no complains really. It just I remember there was one skin with red borders (or what the right word for it ?!) and the one where you can just customize colours. Perhaps something like those, just to have some different look. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
