Forum Theme & News

DCurrent

DCurrent

Site Owner, OpenBOR Project Leader
Staff member
Hey guys, had to upgrade the forum to address a nasty security vulnerability. Unfortunately the old theme isn't compatible with latest forum software and it (the old theme) is no longer maintained. I've temporarily set the forum to its default theme to make sure everyone has full posting functionality while I find a more suitable theme for us to use.

The news page is also missing, but not the news posts themselves. They are in the News thread as always. Please bear with me for a few days while I get everything sorted out.

While I'm at it, I'll also see about getting the social network log in and donations tabs going, since both are oft requested.

Thanks,
DC

*Edit:* News is back up!

*Edit 2*: Donations are up.

*Edit 3*: Social logins for Facebook are up.
 
I kinda like this default theme - because its common in many places, so you feel yourself at home.
We could customize it instead of using a new one.
 
Nice! I don’t know if it would be possible now, but it would be great if we finally can edit/manage our upload pages and their uploaded game files! Or at least have the option to remove complete the old uploads/upload pages and then just reapload the newer versions of our games.

In my opinion this is really important, because for example right now, the download section is full with multiple versions of my games like the newer ones and the old outdated/buggy versions. And i don’t even have the option to edit just the information on the old versions for example to add there a warning that they are outdated  :(
Yeah, this is pretty bad stuff right now and i really hope it can be fixed in near future! Since i personally care on the forum functionality first and second on how it looks like.
 
magggas said:
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I agree with you man, but like I've said before, there's simply nothing I can do short of switching to a new forum software. There's nothing broken to fix... the TinyPortal file management system simply doesn't support that functionality. Or if it does, there is absolutely no documentation I can find.

Eventually I would like to move us off of SMF and all its outdated baggage, but that's a nightmare no one wants to deal with right at the moment.

@O'ill

The default SMF theme does look good on PC, but (big surprise) they never updated it to a responsive design. I've already had to field quite a few complaints from mobile users. We need a responsive theme ASAP.

DC

 
Oh that is sad, because this default template works way better on phones than the one we had before.
Its just a matter to move the donation box to the row at the right (and we doesn't need that search box there).

Either way, good luck. If I can help you with anything, drop me a line.
 
I really, really like the new forum colors & layouts. The darker blue/gray theme makes them avatars pop.
 
ELECTRO said:
I really, really like the new forum colors & layouts. The darker blue/gray theme makes them avatars pop.
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Glad you like it! There's still one last glitch with social logins, but I've put in a ticket for it.

Check out the new The Vault. It's an all new file management system - so much better than the old one.
 
I have to be honest: I didn't liked it at all.
To use a dark theme for a mobile view is a big no in UX rules. And dark blue against a dark background make it even worse :(

Can we have that option to let the use choose the theme, please?
 
Just tested the “Vault” which is the new upload/download system and it‘s awesome! This is exactly what i was talking about! So thank you thank you thank you!  ;D

Now about the new forum theme, i‘m not really sure how i feel about it but i think it‘s okay. I know, is hard to please everyone, so i don’t mind it.
Now the only things “missing” for me, are to maybe have the “recent posts” on the top-right side like before,  and then the “news” and  “welcome “ stuff on a front page.(?) But sure, i know all this needs its time.
 
O Ilusionista said:
I have to be honest: I didn't liked it at all.
To use a dark theme for a mobile view is a big no in UX rules. And dark blue against a dark background make it even worse :(
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I love this color scheme and think it is a nice change of pace. It reminds me a lot of Discord ad I know everyone likes Discord. But if I'm being honest, that's not why I picked it. Out of dozens of themes I went through, this was the only one remotely compatible with all of our stuff and also responsive. Even this one required me to write in a lot of custom code. Some of you (me included) might not care about mobile users, but I get a lot of feedback about the mobile experience - it's turned away quite a few users. Just telling people to turn off the sidebars doesn't cut it. We must have a fully responsive site.

What I can (and will) do is keep looking for other themes that give us the right functionality and has a look we can mostly agree on. There is one that allows users to switch between light/dark modes at will. It's pretty cool, but needs a lot more testing. What I can't do is:

Can we have that option to let the use choose the theme, please?
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...this. See above. I'm just stretched too thin to support more than one theme at a time. Sorry.  :(

magggas said:
This is exactly what i was talking about! So thank you thank you thank you!
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Glad you like! Hopefully members will start noticing and taking advantage of it.

Now the only things “missing” for me, are to maybe have the “recent posts” on the top-right side like before,  and then the “news” and  “welcome “ stuff on a front page.(?) But sure, i know all this needs its time.
Click to expand...

Those are totally gone for now, because they were part of Tiny Portal, which we only had in the first place for its (crappy) download manager. It's not responsive, and also a buggy mess that gave me all kinds of problems running the forum. You can't imagine how happy I am to be rid of it. That said, I always liked having sidebars and a nice front page too, so I am looking for some alternatives.

DC
 
Some of you (me included) might not care about mobile users, but I get a lot of feedback about the mobile experience - it's turned away quite a few users.
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I won't be the user who only complains (because we already are covered on this area, lol). But I think this could hurt way more than mobile experience issue.
Because that "issue" (which isn't an issue at all, unless you can't access the site) brings way less damage than having a too dark layout.

The is a big difference between not optimized for mobile and something which can ruin the experience at a level where you can't access the site. This is what happens when I access now from my mobile - I barely can read what is on the screen. This is a way serious issues than a not mobile friendly theme. The default theme, for example, works pretty fine in mobile - there are several Mugen foruns which uses it.

I think the theme is okay for desktop use and if people like it on mobile use too (even when some UX rules are gone), then let it be. I am cool with that and it looks cool.

I would just require to be able to choose to the default theme if I do prefer (I remember there is an option for that at the Admin area).
 
I've been waiting for the download system to be fixed in a very long time. I avoided uploading a mod because the download system didn't allow us to edit ours after upload. Thank you so much, DC. Now we have freedom to edit our downloads! ;D

O Ilusionista said:
Btw, I've tried the new Turn Lights on/off and is awesome. This solves the question :)
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I'm lost here. Where can I find an option to turn the light on/off?
 
Look for an icon in upper right comer of the header. It's a quarter moon when the forum is in day mode (default) and a sun burst when the forum is in night mode. Clicking it toggles between them.
 
Damon Caskey said:
Look for an icon in upper right comer of the header. It's a quarter moon when the forum is in day mode (default) and a sun burst when the forum is in night mode. Clicking it toggles between them.
Click to expand...

The two modes are great!
I love the new design of the page.
Great work DC!
 
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