Mahoning Valley Forum

I have decided to change the colors on the website.
It seems when I look at it from different computers the non standard "blue-green" becomes mud.
It is REALLY UGLY.
This has been the case in about half the computers that I've checked. 
So I am going to go with something more standard... websafe colors

Maybe I will "decorate " for the Holidays and change it over in the new year.

I'm putting  it to a vote.
Vote here if you care.
I will say I am leaning toward earth tones.

The poll doesn't have enough options.  There should be another option of Other in your poll...I didn't vote, just this response.

I would like to see more options to choose from under the user profile options.  Each person could then set the color theme they find to be easiest for them to see.  Some people have different vision problems and acuity levels.  Some blends of color work great together, some don't for them.  That way you could give people more options to choose and make it less of a what you see is what you get forum.

If you decide to go this route, you probably want to give a high contrast in several color options, in addition to some of the others available out there.

I've found the colors in these screen shots to be very helpful with my vision (The gray tones down the brightness, and the white background still allows clear contrast...it's still a work in progress...I often wish for more color options on web forums):

Thanks very much for the feedback.

Just  a  note:
If you use mozilla products (firefox at least) you can take away ALL STYLES instantly in the view menu and make any page plain. 
It is an exceptional  feature that Internet Explorer does not offer. Try it! Very cool.
You can also  override any website's colors by choosing your own in your  browser settings.... both in IE and Mozilla.
They are simple changes though without many options.

I chose the default theme for the forum because I know it will work.  I can  change the CSS styles and save the default theme as different color schemes and offer them as theme changes - it will take a lot of time....  maybe in the future. I dealt with a server outage just today and with AOL bouncing emails  yesterday... it is always something.

I can also add optional "ready made" themes for the users to choose, but it can be very problematic. It would need to be "USER BEWARE" The forum is a software program and is developed open source. Anyone is able  to design  a theme. The problem is that some of the themes offered don't work right with the software and users report back many problems with the features. I can perhaps provide some links here to other forums using optional themes and get feedback.

I am a volunteer providing this site to the community and don't have the time to answer complaints about themes not behaving correctly.   I've made changes to the template code by putting navigation at the top and links at the bottom.  I am not  professional PHP programmer and tampering with code  any further without expertise can lead to HUGE security breaches. I am hosting other sites on this server and I can't open them up to security holes. I have modifications installed but they have been tested by the developers.

The main site is a content management system. I designed a simple template  for it to avoid formatting problems for most users and for use with most browsers. It is boring and is meant to be, because boring is functional. Again, it will take much time to come up with new color schemes and give users a choice. 

FM

I did vote, and chose "blues" simply for aesthetic purposes. (I like blue)  So, having said that, I'm not very picky.
:)

Quote from: ForumManager on November 14, 2006, 10:25:24 AM
Thanks very much for the feedback.

I understand all too well the dilemna that comes along with changes to forums and sites.  It can be a real pain.  I also understand the locking open source down aspect of things.  I've run into problems myself.

I would say to keep it as it appears today, with the blue.  It is not a bad setup at all in comparison to many I've seen and use each week.  Thanks for considering everyone's views.

I love the orange, light gray, dark gray, white color scheme that are in your screen captures.

Quote from: yfdgricker on November 14, 2006, 03:57:54 PM
I love the orange, light gray, dark gray, white color scheme that are in your screen captures.

I downloaded so many themes from MS's site (didn't trust anyone else saying they had free ones) to find everything to make this work.  If you do a search on MS someday, you'll find a ton of possibilities buried here or there.

The background picture was also snagged from another theme download, but I can't find the link for it.  I did find many other wonderful pics there that would fit in just as well.

The main basis was the Microsoft Zune Theme, available for free download by following this MS link:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=75078

Count me among the blues.

When I first set up my web site I had problems with text colors, and the background and finally threw up my hands and went with black since there was so much color at the top.

I've always found this site very comfortable visually and applaud you for your hard work.

Quote from: Our 2¢ on November 14, 2006, 05:01:29 PM

Quote from: yfdgricker on November 14, 2006, 03:57:54 PM
I love the orange, light gray, dark gray, white color scheme that are in your screen captures.

I downloaded so many themes from MS's site (didn't trust anyone else saying they had free ones) to find everything to make this work.  If you do a search on MS someday, you'll find a ton of possibilities buried here or there.

The background picture was also snagged from another theme download, but I can't find the link for it.  I did find many other wonderful pics there that would fit in just as well.

The main basis was the Microsoft Zune Theme, available for free download by following this MS link:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=75078

Thank you for the link to that. I downloaded.and installed it. I might have to revamp all my computers with that theme :)

Quote from: yfdgricker on November 14, 2006, 07:01:54 PM
Thank you for the link to that. I downloaded.and installed it. I might have to revamp all my computers with that theme :)

Glad you liked it.   ;D

Although I like the zune theme personally...
It is more like a "gaming" theme and isn't exactly appropriate for a community information website.
There are  tested themes with similar color schemes available for this forum. 
I will research and see what I can come up with as possible choices for users.

Ok, so here's what I have decided to do.
This week I am going research themes for the forum.
(in my spare time)  LOL

I will offer several as choices for you to use.
Please be advised that most modifications I've added will not be available.
I will be leaving them as is OUT OF THE BOX .
They will have the developers logos on them, not mahoningvalley.
If you like a style let me know.
I will take everyone's feed back into consideration and will try to go with the flow, within reason.
Then I will modify the favorite as our default and still keep the others.

When using the themes, please feel free to let me know about glitches etc. on this thread.
If a theme's overall functionality  is good, but has a few flaws, I might be able to provide alternate similar  themes for pages that aren't cooperating.

USER BEWARE. Use the themes at your own risk.  They won't have spyware or viruses but could lock you up if they aren't up to snuff. They may also have links to outside sites that I haven't reveiwed.

I will announce theme additions.

Quote from: ForumManager on November 15, 2006, 08:43:54 AM
Although I like the zune theme personally...
It is more like a "gaming" theme and isn't exactly appropriate for a community information website.
There are  tested themes with similar color schemes available for this forum. 
I will research and see what I can come up with as possible choices for users.

I agree, it's great for a desktop theme.  I'm glad to see you looking into other theme options for us to help test out.  To be perfectly honest, I'm more happy to see this forum here and working, then to have you spend too much time on fluffing it up to try to make everyone happy.

Would it be easier to set up examples of the other themes you had in mind, and just post screen shots of them for us to decide which we like best.  I don't know exactly what the term "theme" encompasses in this context.  I'm assuming we're still talking about different color variations of what we already have.  If that's not the case, then just ignore me. :)

Quote from: westsider on November 15, 2006, 12:11:50 PM
Would it be easier to set up examples of the other themes you had in mind, and just post screen shots of them for us to decide which we like best.  I don't know exactly what the term "theme" encompasses in this context.  I'm assuming we're still talking about different color variations of what we already have.  If that's not the case, then just ignore me. :)

Theme is everything you see, from the colors, to the control links and options.  The more this subject is going on, the more I'm thinking they should just keep things the way they are.  Kind of the KISS (keep it simple) principle.

I'd need to install the themes to give you a screenshot...
so it might just be better if you test drive them.
You would be able to choose the theme in your profile settings.
It is the first item in "look and layout settings"
If you go there now you have a choice of this theme (default) and the classic theme I used before.   It is blue by the way.

I won't change the forum to a new theme without testing it personally in my own profile.

If other themes are used.
Pretty much everything would be available except the following.
no buttons at the top until a theme is chosen
no newsfeed links at the bottom until a theme is chosen
no fire/police text or graphic link

These are the installed mods that might not  be available

Users Online Today Mod  - just what it says
Global Announcements - announcements at the top of the boards
Enchanced post template  - adds some features to   posting
Googlebot & Spiders Mod - counts spiders

I have installed several new themes.
Some of them have optional color schemes.

I will give a rundown tomorrow of what is on.  Feel free to play around with them.
If you comment please use the theme name as listed in your profile area.

If and when one is chosen as the forum default all logos will be changed and perhaps graphic headers will be removed or redesigned to to be appropriate for this site.

I have a few favorites already. Please be aware that I will choose and modify a default theme for its overall performances as well as its aesthetic appeal.  I want to give you all the opportunity to give your feedback though before I go ahead. You will always have the optional themes for your own use available unless I discover a security reason they should be removed.

I will personalize the themes for this site over times.

I am testing Christmas as I might like to use it this month.
I am loving Christmas except that my posting block is black.

I have the latest version of the forum software installed and many themes are available for previous version of the forum, but themes for the newest version are limited in number.  New Themes are being added to the fforum download pages all the time.

I like the slick pro graphite layout. Several of them do not show the live audio graphic but that's just something that will have to be coded into the finished product.

Greg

Thanks for the samples.  I tested a bit under each theme.  They all had interesting aspects.  It was neat to compare the gray & black options...including the Black Rain with its colors that match my desktop (too dark overall).

I was liking Proton, but decided it was way too bright.  Slim Blue has a contrast in color without being as severe as some of the darker gray themes. 

But, I also agree with Greg, the slick pro graphite is a nice layout with a good balance of darkness and clear text areas.  It keeps it looking professional.  The only thing I thought of, it doesn't match the main site...if that's a factor to you.

Quote from: yfdgricker on November 15, 2006, 11:19:44 PM
I like the slick pro graphite layout. Several of them do not show the live audio graphic but that's just something that will have to be coded into the finished product.

Greg

I will code in the audio graphics soon.  Too much to do right now.

I really like the slick pro too.  I am testing it.  Of all of them it imy favorite so far.
It had a rather large graphics package with it so I am wondering about speed with dial up.  But the colors and layout are VERY Clean and professional and it will be easy to make the main site match it somewhat.

Here is the list of themes recently added with random commentary.
In the case of color choices, that is done on the administrative end, but I might be able to copy each theme and offer the color choices as separate themes --- sometime in the future.

If a theme doesn't seem to fit in your screen, please  the themes are out of the box. There are some tweaks that can be made on the admin side to make them more universal.  I haven't looked at all the specs yet.

The themes that are considered safe are here if you are so inclined to look...
http://themes.simplemachines.org/
You are welcome to suggest additions.
 
This forum needs themes that are compatible with RC3. Others will not work.

X-mas Scene
cute- not perfect, but nice for the Holidays
   
English Steel
   
Pn-Pn (for 1.1 RC3)
This has multicolor options.
You can view the choices  here.
http://themes.simplemachines.org/index.php?action=download;lemma=5;id=25;image
very slick  - nice tabbed format

Sim Blue RC3
did someone say blue? !!!
   
Dilber Multicolor
This has multicolor options.
You can view the choices  here.
http://themes.simplemachines.org/index.php?lemma=80
   
Black22
   
SlickPro: Graphite
my personal favorite so far as it is very sleek and has nice contrast.
2 people are using this theme.
I will add the police/fire logo/link to this tonight since Greg likes it!
   
Proton
The babylon theme from Simple Machines.

Themis
   
Leviathan
This has multicolor options.
You can view the choices  here.
http://themes.simplemachines.org/index.php?lemma=142
Very nice looking and has optional settings for different widths etc.

Millenium
   
Neptune
dramatic blues
I really like this theme too...
Easy on the eyes, nice layout, will be easy to edit the logo and take out the top banner.
Blue green is what I was shooting for before and I ended up with a muddy blue-green.
It needs to have the messages in each thread be alternate shades so they stand out.  not a big issue to change. Although the calendar seems cramped due to that sidebar on the left and the width of the overall forum.
   
Black Rain
   
Aero79
2 color schemes avail
blue- brown
   
Absolute Container

I went back again:

Christmas is cute for the holidays.   ;)

I think I really like Leviathan (now that you pointed out the different settings).  I love that you can switch the colors, text size, page width, etc, on the fly.  That is an awesome interface for visual difficulty.  It is nice to switch depending on lighting, etc, without changing default browser settings.  It also has an option to hide headers if you want to conserve page viewing space.  One negative is it seems slower than SP Graphite.

I really like Slick Pro Graphite, it's a nice clean interface.  It plays nice with browser text size settings changes.  It's wide on the screen.  Just doesn't have quick on the fly settings like Leviathan...not that it needs it if Leviathan was a second option.

Neptune is very nice too.  The one thing I don't care for is the 3rd vertical row of links (where the search box is), and the wasted side space cramping the screen.  I obviously like the others as they are expanded out to the sides.

Sim Blue, is just overkill on the blue, now that I've played more with it.

I think Leviathan and Slick Pro Graphite are my favorites of what is available to test.  It would give several color options, etc.  Graphite is still looking to be my total favorite, with Leviathan as a nice option for bad vision days.

After playing around a little, I have decided that Leviathan is my favorite.  I like the easily changeable viewing options that are available.  I also like the medium tone colors for the text background.  Most forums have a standard white background, and this makes my eyes tired more quickly.

I'm not really a huge fan of Slick Pro Graphite.  It is too devoid of color for my tastes.

I like Leviathan as well.
The drawback seems to be the high use of graphic elements that might load slowly for dialup users.
Leviathan has a few formatting issues.
They noted on this page at the theme site.
http://themes.simplemachines.org/index.php?lemma=142

I am now also liking Dilber since I discovered that I can give the users the color choices.

Quote from: ForumManager on November 16, 2006, 03:40:37 PM
I like Leviathan as well.
The drawback seems to be the high use of graphic elements that might load slowly for dialup users.

I noted the slow page load in comparison to the others.

I tried Dilber.  It's nice that it also has the color drop down.  It doesn't have the greatest color choices when it comes to contrast.  The white writing in the menu bars tends to be lost somewhat for me with the lightness of the surrounding colors.  Is it possible to change the color options at all, or are they pre-set?  It does seem it may be a decent option for most people either way.

My favorite is the SP Graphite.  I've been going back to it the whole time I've been testing these out.

try Themis
very simple and to the point.

aero is also simple

I put in text where there are optional columns and banner sections.

Aero & Themis load very quick. 

I don't care for the Themis gray scheme, it needs something to offset so much gray.  Aero brown is ok to see...it's a simple balance.  I like the menu bar in Aero in comparison to Themis also. 

I noticed they both have banner & side bar space, which would allow some outside links that graphite doesn't have..at least in the current setup. 

I can code in the outside stuff.  Just don't have time to do it on all the themes at once.
I really like the fact that I don't have to open the PHp files to do it on some of these themes.  They have forms in their admin area where you can add coding in each section.  I am really impressed with that.

The steel theme is one to look at too.  It is simple gray but very sleek.

The colors of any theme can be adjusted somewhat with the CSS styles.

Hi All,

I was having trouble coding in the fire/police scanner image into the graphite theme... which I wanted to do because our fire/police scanner contributor Greg likes that theme.  Greg helped with the coding and got it all to fit nicely and even designed an awesome graphic logo for  MV. It is perfect!

So switch to that theme to see the results.

Thank you Greg!

maxina

New themes added - too many to list.

I love the logo and its fit into the graphite them.  That logo would fit the entire site.  Very nice work Greg. 

I see you have added quite a few themes.  I'll see if I can find time to check them out tomorrow.

Thank you, thank you! Please no autographs. :)

I checked out some of the new themes this evening. I like elements of pdx-dk03 RC3 but I don't know long term how it would hold up. It might get old quick. I still like the Graphite theme out of all of them so far.

I took off the "wiki" theme...
there was no profile link so you couldn't get to your settings!.
If something like that happens with any other themes...let me know.
I will remove the problem theme and you will be reset to the default theme.

Quote from: ForumManager on November 18, 2006, 09:15:30 AM
I took off the "wiki" theme...
there was no profile link so you couldn't get to your settings!.
If something like that happens with any other themes...let me know.
I will remove the problem theme and you will be reset to the default theme.

Now that you mention it... I'm still using the Leviathan theme, and at the top where the those links used to be--including profile--there is just a seemingly non-functional horizontal scroll bar.  If you're sure that you'll be abandoning this theme, I'll just switch to something else.

I just switched to Leviathan to see what you are talking about and I am not seeing it here.
I checked in both firefox and Internet Explorer.
The links are right under the words mahoningvalley.info and the leviathan logo.
That is only  IF you haven't clicked the little triangles in the top right corner
Are you able to post a screenshot?
I was hoping to keep leviathan as an optional theme...
If it has big bugs, it is outta here!

Leviathan has a cool thing called a dashboad... in your profile, you can switch to dashboard and see large icons for the sections.

I don't have the main site links coded in.  I am going to wait and decide which themes to keep and which to toss and them code in the links.  We are definitely keeping  the graphite theme as an option because it is sleek and functional.

Here's a screenshot.  I think I might have had the same problem at work, but I can't be sure.

At home, I'm using Firefox, and at work, I use Explorer.

Now that is weird.

it is a graphic.  it must not be loading for you.
I guess leviathan is out of here, unless I can figure out the issue.

use this link to get to your profile to change out
http://mahoningvalley.info/forum/index.php?action=profile

attached is what it should look like

The strange part is, it did look like that at first.  I remember using the profile button to go try out other themes.

Leviathan is pretty neat especially when using the blue option (I like the stormy blue/grays.) I don't like the brown background or the fact that there are no table borders. However, the last two items are quite easy to modify at the code level.

The fact you can make the template expand to several settings is interesting.

I'm going to check out the 'dashboard' next.

I'll keep it for now.
I really like it too.  The features are cool.
Maybe when I have more time, I  can look into your  issue, Westsider.

Maybe Try a "reset" or change sizes  and see if that helps any.

As noted before, there can be issues and that is always why I gavitated toward the default template.
This is kind of fun though!

Two of the themes didn't install correctly.  I fixed them but they have no thumbnail previews,
Simplicity had to go because it had  parse errors  when trying to read messages and time is limited.

no profile button in VB green

I'm still loving graphite.  The only thing that I've noticed not working, are the missing stars.

I will add some stars.  I noticed them too.

Quote from: ForumManager on November 21, 2006, 01:40:57 PM
I will add some stars.  I noticed them too.

I'm happy to hear that it's not just on my end.  ;)

Stars should be fixed now. Let me know if any are still missing.

They sure are.   :)

Here's the scoop
The new Slick pro graphite  template has several glitches.
There are numerous errors that occur, but don't occur when I have the forum default theme activated in my account. There are also missing features.  I have modified code manually and there is much more tweaking  to be done.

This is what I've decided to do.
Next week  I am planning to modify the color scheme of the "SMF default"  template. (which is the second choice in your list) I will add a top section with the site  logos and links to closely match the slick pro theme.  The screen layout won't be exactly like slick pro but the color scheme will be nearly identical.

We'll  keep the slick pro graphite theme in the choices for those of you that really like the layout.
But please note that the theme has glitchiness...is that a word?

Quote from: ForumManager on January 23, 2007, 09:17:45 AM
glitchiness...is that a word?

It is now that you've used it!  Quick, copyright it before Stephen Colbert claims it.   :laugh: 
(For those that don't watch the show, he has made up words ending in "-iness" and they end up all over the place in use.  The big one was Truthiness:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truthiness (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truthiness) )

As for the board, I haven't had a single problem with any pages in quite a while...while using the SPG theme.  I'll probably keep using it, but I will check out the SMF setup once you have it configured to compare it.

It is  weird that some folks are having problems and others are not.
Things are not visible for some people, but that's not the cause for my concern. Whenever anyone posts there are dozens of errors logged.  I guess if it is not causing the users problems, it is  not a big issue.  Although, people rarely complain when there are  problems.  They just stop visiting sites when they are glitchy.