Website Improvements

RoiEX

As you may have noticed, this forum has a new header, with the "old" tripleawarclub banner.
I'd like to hear your feedback on that!
My Plans are to do the same thing for the main content.
The problem is, that all graphics made for the "old warclub website" do not look good with this website:
Screenshot

I'm not sure, if it's a good idea to have a background image... the old forums didn't have a general background image either...

Tell me what you think!

Panther

I am afraid readability suffers a lot when underlying the text with this background image.
For my eyes the light text on a (dark) grey background (the status quo) is almost perfect.
So I would be fine with the new header and leaving the rest as it is now.

A compromise could be light text on a dark background relief, probably.

prastle

@RoiEX Agree with Panther Header reminds of the war club's history and looks good. Any further thoughts on the space beside the links and or the sides? Also would the dark icons look better in the header over the light ones? Just a thought.

Frostion

I think the new default colors of this forum are pretty pleasant now. Not to dark and not to bright. Also there is a good contrast between the different shades of grey/white. I only have three suggestions for improvements right now:

Is it possible to make the lines that separate posts in a thread a bit thicker? Alternately darker? So that they become more visible.

I have noticed that the text of “unread” topics are white and read topics seems to become grey. I think that the grey read is to dark. Try to lighten it a bit. Alternately you could try out dark red if they are read?

I don’t think the old Warclub header image is appropriate for this forum. I know it can remind people of the old forum, but the stripes and color scheme (orange/brown/yellow) in the image is totally different than the colors of this new forum (Grey/White). Also the image is not shown 100%, so it makes no sense and looks weird with the gun barrels sticking up from the bottom of the picture. I understand why people would like the banner for nostalgic reasons, but I can’t see that as a reason to use it.
Maybe you should try out replacing the banner with the very light grey background color of www.triplea-game.org. It would make the forum and the website seem more uniform and fit together. Alternately you could ask people to make a new banner for this forum? Then people could use the old Warclub theme as inspiration or maybe come up with a completely new design?

RoiEX

@Frostion Good Points...
Unfortunately we're pretty much limited to the forum software in terms of styling unless anyone wants to design his own nodebb theme...
Most of the colors in this forum are dependent on the skin...
If you change the forum skin inside your user settings, you might find a skin you'll like more than this one... (I personally use darkly).

Frostion

NodeBB seems pretty restricted when it comes to customization. If the options and possibilities of this current forum, like what features, widgets, polls, event planning, calendars etc. is just as limited, then this must be a problem (to come). What was the main reason this software was chosen? Perhaps the new TripleA forum should really consider shifting to https://mybb.com/ or https://www.phpbb.com/ software.

I messed around as admin of a phpbb forum once, like 10 years ago, and I remembered that it was VERY customizable and easy to use. Now I am reading on the web that myBB has become even easier to use.

Anyway, I don’t want to moan about this. So I will not mention this again and learn to live with the new forum.

RoiEX

@Frostion It's not, that NodeBB isn't customizeable, it's that it's so customizeable you will have to edit a complete theme to edit it...
This means a lot of work for us, and since we're not getting paid for this, less freetime for us.

RoiEX

@Frostion Let me be more precise. It would be possible to modify the theme as we like by copying it or whatever and linking it to nodebb manually...
This way we had full control of the design.
The problem I don't want to deal with is the part after that. We'd need to keep the design up to date. Patch problems on our own.
Currently if we have a problem I can open an issue at the repository and in a short amount of time they either fix it on their own, or I create a small PR after them telling me what to do...
(Nice people the developers)

This is the main reason I don't want to fiddle around with the templating code

prastle

@Frostion a new header design is also possible if someone wants to work on one.

prastle

@Frostion Also it would be nice to flesh out the sides and bottom I would love to hear ideas from you and all. Its our new home thus all should help and contribute.

Deltium

Hi - I think that the current layout is good for me.

Frostion

I think the forum setup with a category called “Maps & Mods” with two sub categories “Maps & Mods” and “General Discussion” should be replaced. I don’t think people will use the sub categories, especially the General discussion.

I would say Keep “Maps & Mods” for specific map and mod posts. Scrap the two sub categories. Add a new upper category called “Map Making”. This could be a replacement for the map general discussion sub category. And maybe placed before maps & mods.

Maybe the categories could be:

Announcements
Help & Questions
General
Map Making
Maps & Mods
Play By Email
Tournaments (with its sub categories)

prastle

@Frostion Np ill try to get it setup tomorrow.

prastle

@Frostion Maybe you could find a thumbnail image ya like for map making? I hope this looks the way ya wanted let me know.

Frostion

Nice! I think this will work well. Maybe you could add some helpfull text under the names, like:

Map Making
Discuss the technicalities of map making and XML editing.
Maps & Mods
Help out, share ideas and work on specific Maps and Mods.

Here are three images for thumbnails that might look good. Canyou choose the background of a thumbnail if it is transparent?

Frostion

Frostion

prastle

@Frostion I like most of them. The background is a separate color.

Frostion

Looks great But can someone tell me why I don't get any email notifications when someone writes in a thread i posted in? I have checked the thing i settings about me wanting to receive notifications. Does it work for you guys? I better look in my spam folder.

prastle

@Frostion i haven't got it on for me. I just loggin when i have time and check notifications here. But ya let me know cause it should work through the email settings in your profile. Maybe its going to spam? you could be correct.