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[Bagofcats]

I've been looking at swl-forums.com, a player driven old-tsw-like-forum for reddit allergics, which also is XenForo as ours -- very good and very useful, an oasis of moderation, urbanity and knowledge, I warmly recommend it. I noticed a few tweaks that are interesting, and maybe be doable just by activating a setting (asked Scythe at swl-forums about that). Unless of course we're running an older version that hasn't the capability.

• Koralis suggested on another thread that it's difficult to differentiate between unread and read threads (I agree, it's a bit difficult, and I'd say is a common failing or feature of almost all XenForo driven sites I've seen. Exactly the same suggestion has been made at swl-forums)
• posting a common garden URL will automagically transform it into the right BB-code, and use the actual page <title> as the visual link text (I duplicated the list about mods and add-ons at swl-forums, and it was so easy!)
• one of the tabs in Members is a list of Registered Members -- I've always missed that I can't see who the other members are, just the newest 12 or 16.
• @user-name in a post's text will ping the owner of user-name (and bring up a list of names with the same spelling to choose among). Don't know if it's implemented here, as I never even thought of trying. So, let's try, @Symmetric -- hmm, it seems it does, yay! (how do we mark this 'Implemented' - are there checkboxes in BBcode, or strikethrough?
• a tweak of looks, or to say it in Swedish, piffa upp? We've been around the same site for a long time, so obviously for us it's sort of well-known and routine, and I barely think about it myself. I'd like to hear what those coming to this forum with new eyes think about the forum and its looks

 

[Symmetric]

If they're using XenForo, then I'm sure I can install any addons or make any changes to make things consistent. We're running the very latest version of XenForo so any additional features swl-forums.com has are probably addons.

EDIT: Also I do want to change up the look of the forums again for the SWL relaunch, but XenForo 2.0 is on the way and I don't want to do a major rework of the site before a major update changes up the entire look-and-feel anyways.

 

[Bagofcats]

Then, as Scythe says, just switches in settings. They said they weren't using an add-on for this. And I totally agree on waiting for v 2.0, sensible

 

[Antomas]

Oh! Oh! I have a stupid question!!

...Is it somehow possible to change my username?
Kae was my first character in LoMS, but he didn't end up being my main.

 

[Bagofcats]

Oh! Oh! I have a stupid question!!

...Is it somehow possible to change my username?
Kae was my first character in LoMS, but he didn't end up being my main.

PM Beecher, she'll be able to do it for you

 

[Beecher]

Oh! Oh! I have a stupid question!!

...Is it somehow possible to change my username?
Kae was my first character in LoMS, but he didn't end up being my main.

Send me a PM with the name you want.

 

[Symmetric]

Gonna take a look at these today.

• Koralis suggested on another thread that it's difficult to differentiate between unread and read threads (I agree, it's a bit difficult, and I'd say is a common failing or feature of almost all XenForo driven sites I've seen. Exactly the same suggestion has been made at swl-forums)

Agree. I'll see if I can add a separator and a slightly different shade of background for stickied threads on the forum thread list to differentiate them from normal threads.

EDIT: Done.

• posting a common garden URL will automagically transform it into the right BB-code, and use the actual page <title> as the visual link text (I duplicated the list about mods and add-ons at swl-forums, and it was so easy!)

This sounds really useful and I don't know why this isn't automatically enabled in the first place. Will turn it on once I find where the setting for it is.

EDIT: Done. YouTube Twitter. It's what's happening. Hold onto your butts!

• one of the tabs in Members is a list of Registered Members -- I've always missed that I can't see who the other members are, just the newest 12 or 16.

You know, I never noticed that there is no way to pull up the full member list there. Will fix that.

EDIT: Done. Apparently this is enabled by default but it was turned off long ago because of "performance reasons". Our server has been upgraded significantly since then so I turned it back on. You can find it here: Registered Members | The League of Monster Slayers

• @user-name in a post's text will ping the owner of user-name (and bring up a list of names with the same spelling to choose among). Don't know if it's implemented here, as I never even thought of trying. So, let's try, @Symmetric -- hmm, it seems it does, yay! (how do we mark this 'Implemented' - are there checkboxes in BBcode, or strikethrough?

Not sure how checkboxes could remain persistent across users. Sounds like something useful for a wiki if we decide to add such a feature. Strikethrough should already work. BBCode for it is:

[S]strikethrough[/S]

You can also get to it from the editor through the Insert... button near the undo/redo buttons.

• a tweak of looks, or to say it in Swedish, piffa upp? We've been around the same site for a long time, so obviously for us it's sort of well-known and routine, and I barely think about it myself. I'd like to hear what those coming to this forum with new eyes think about the forum and its looks

Already mentioned earlier in thread, but holding off on any major reworks of the theme until XenForo 2.0 is out. It's currently in Developer Preview stage, which isn't suitable for production use. It should be entering Beta soon however; depending on how development goes and whether some of the core addons that our site uses (portal, events calendar, etc.) are compatible with it, I'll get us upgraded when it's appropriate. I guess we'd want to weigh the value of any useful new features 2.0 brings versus having to wait a bit for the final release to ensure everything works nicely.

For the short term, if we wanna change up the featured background picture again, I'm happy to take any high-res quality screenshots and use them for a new background.

Oh and one last thing - as you've likely noticed, we're not HTTPS-friendly. Doing that would require the purchase of a signed SSL certificate which is somewhere around $60-$80. It's not an absolute requirement but some web browsers are getting awfully noisy about submitting login data on unsecured websites. Figure that's something we should take care of at some point.

 

[Bagofcats]

Oh and one last thing - as you've likely noticed, we're not HTTPS-friendly. Doing that would require the purchase of a signed SSL certificate which is somewhere around $60-$80. It's not an absolute requirement but some web browsers are getting awfully noisy about submitting login data on unsecured websites. Figure that's something we should take care of at some point.

I agree https is important. Even if passwords are correctly hashed and encrypted, still getting to be an important security thing. And of course, browsers will become a pain if you have no https, as they should. Not to speak of the PR disaster if we ever became compromised.
I'd have no probs contributing to the kitty, I'm so far gainfully employed - for some values of gainfully and employed, but still more than enough for this. A few others I've spoken with have announced their willingness to sponsor LoMS in various ways ( @Beecher). But even so, have you considered Let's Encrypt? Let's Encrypt - Free SSL/TLS Certificates open source, free SSL - there's a nice analysis of pro's and con's of paid vs free SSL services here: On The (Perceived) Value of EV Certs, Commercial CAs, Phishing and Let's Encrypt

 

[koralis]

Gonna take a look at these today.

Agree. I'll see if I can add a separator and a slightly different shade of background for stickied threads on the forum thread list to differentiate them from normal threads.

EDIT: Done.
.

Separating out the sticky threads does help (thanks!), but I'd still like to see fully-read links be in a darker shade than white so that when you're browsing the non-sticky threads your eyes can just pass over the ones you've already processed. My brain is old and lazy... it doesn't want to have to determine read or unread based on thickness of letters!

 

[Bagofcats]

Separating out the sticky threads does help (thanks!), but I'd still like to see fully-read links be in a darker shade than white so that when you're browsing the non-sticky threads your eyes can just pass over the ones you've already processed. My brain is old and lazy... it doesn't want to have to determine read or unread based on thickness of letters!

unread got a cross thingy icon before them now

 

[koralis]

unread got a cross thingy icon before them now

I'm not seeing that... I see avatar, SWL "button" then the link. Is it something you have to configure?

 

[Bagofcats]

I'm not seeing that... I see avatar, SWL "button" then the link. Is it something you have to configure?

Between the avatar and the checkbox? The + says on hover 'Go to your first unread post' - If you still don't see it on an unread message maybe it's something that @Symmetric has to activate for all categories of forum members? But I shouldn't think so, it's a rather standard feature

 

[Symmetric]

Will look into making read links more distinguishable.

 

[Bagofcats]

The only setting I can see is changing the theme (your avatar top right > Preferences) to light or Default. It looses the mood, but threads with unread posts are more clear

 

[Symmetric]

Yeah, bold white text on black isn’t very distinguishable from regular white text. I’ll play with the style sheet a bit and see what works.

For xenForo 2.0 I’m definitely thinking of going back to a light style for our default look. Opinions and suggestions welcome, of course!

 

[Bagofcats]

I tend myself towards light, clean and minimal, so yes to that idea for 2.0. Too many decorations, knickknacks and geegaws (as in the default theme) distract from the business at hand, which is reading and writing. We can still have blood, gunk, fire and filth accents for ambiance. Let's say a contemporaneous Baroque rather than Rococo.

 

[koralis]

Between the avatar and the checkbox? The + says on hover 'Go to your first unread post' - If you still don't see it on an unread message maybe it's something that @Symmetric has to activate for all categories of forum members? But I shouldn't think so, it's a rather standard feature
View attachment 695

How strange... it's there now. Empty black space when read, a + when unread. When I posted there wasn't even room for where the + would go.

Could train myself to get used to that. But if Symmetric can tweak the style sheet too, that'd be great!

 

[Bagofcats]

How strange... it's there now. Empty black space when read, a + when unread. When I posted there wasn't even room for where the + would go.

Mind you, I don't remember the thing being there before either. I discovered it after you asked and I went looking for it. It's subtle, discrete, and I suspect an Illuminati conspiracy (I know it's a cross, but I don't think Templars would know subtle if it bit them on their ample collective posteriors)

 

[Jez]

I tend myself towards light, clean and minimal, so yes to that idea for 2.0. Too many decorations, knickknacks and geegaws (as in the default theme) distract from the business at hand, which is reading and writing. We can still have blood, gunk, fire and filth accents for ambiance. Let's say a contemporaneous Baroque rather than Rococo.

I would just like to request having one option for a dark background with a grayish font. I really like the dark one we have now, it is easiest on my eyes.
P.S. Thank you for all that you all are doing on the site. It is appreciated.

 

[Bagofcats]

I see it more as an alternative, not dumping this theme. We have now 3 themes, this dark one and two light ones, one of them the basic XenForo theme. The light ones are hard on the eyes. The idea is to produce a usable good light LoMSy one, still keep this dark one as a minimum, although having a second dark one based on a new light design would be good. More work, but good.

Then, which one to use as default defines what look will meet new and non-registered visitors. We can ourselves change wich theme to use, it's user's choice (Preferences > Style) .