Forum Update Forum Theme Update!

[jotnarr]

I'll look into this, cheers. What in particular bugs you? @Daryl is better at this than me so he will have a better input on this tbh.

This can also mean a number of things just tell me what bothers you
Is the readability bad? Too many buttons I need the exact things if possible because Personally I’m not bothered by anything really

i was thinking more like if you had any ideas for conciseness but
the home on the top, the lower home, & the mariana bay logo all redirect to the front page,
that seems like a place to get rid of some elements. maybe leave the logo as just an image?
there's also the icons above the staff online section, the icons on the bottom of the page, & the 'share this page' section. they could also just be merged into one. new media doesn't seem that important too.
just some ideas

Considering pirate related names for the boards and 4chan identifiers such as /x/ and /ic/ so people know what they are about, thoughts? I just changed General Discussion to 'The Tavern' to experiment.

Btw Entertainment and Hobbies has an easter egg on the icon if you read all the threads ;)

i think they should have full titles instead of the 4chinz scheme, it feels more unique.

 

[jotnarr]

mariana bay uses a bit of ram on my machine so.

 

[Dwayne]

i was thinking more like if you had any ideas for conciseness but
the home on the top, the lower home, & the mariana bay logo all redirect to the front page,
that seems like a place to get rid of some elements. maybe leave the logo as just an image?

Worth the consideration, I do like the home page being easy to access but you do have a point with the logo image redirecting back being unnecessary, especially with it not even being present now outside the home page lmao (on the new V1 style)

There's also the icons above the staff online section, the icons on the bottom of the page, & the 'share this page' section. they could also just be merged into one. new media doesn't seem that important too.
just some ideas

I'm keeping social icons as they make it easy to find the forums external pages and what not, people forget they exist as is haha. I could merge them into one but I dunno how necessary that is, will it even make a difference really? You might have a point about New Media tbh and general clutter at the bottom of the site, that may need some cleaning, I'll think on that.

i think they should have full titles instead of the 4chinz scheme, it feels more unique.

Yeah the idea was dumb and I've already decided against it. General Discussion is staying Tavern though as General Discussion just sounds so plain and boring and Tavern goes with our general pirate theme anyways.

mariana bay uses a bit of ram on my machine so.

Damn, in what sense? I need to look into forum image compression more perhaps, Xenforo don't natively support .webp so it can be annoying making stuff like this work but I'll research into this.

Since a lot of people want minimalism more I might make the main wallpaper a solid color and more detailed wallpapers being an optional choice or something, I'll see.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Punished_Senko]

@Dwayne I come back after a few days of inactivity only to see that you made the bay look like agora road.
New font sucks.

However i am pleased that you kept the OG look as an option, also i find it hilarious that you censor a-g-o-r-a.

 

[Dwayne]

Bruh I'm not going to make anyone happy with this UI update, I'm going to bed.

Cyberpunk background will be the default, fuck it.

 

[Dwayne]

@Dwayne I come back after a few days of inactivity only to see that you made the bay look like agora road.
New font sucks.

Wasn't even my intention, the blues went good with the cyberpunk coloration and in terms of colour theory it's good also for browsing threads as blue is relaxing to the eye.

@Dwayne
However i am pleased that you kept the OG look as an option,

I'm so perplexed with the old look, so many people told me it's shit so I've tried something new and now it turns out people like it so I dunno anymore. I kept it because I want to archive it and I feared for this lol. Maybe V3 I'll strike gold...

@Dwayne also i find it hilarious that you censor a-g-o-r-a.

I censored it as frankly these days I feel pretty awful what happened on there and just want to move on from it. It was all very stupid and just annoys me to see it still brought up two years on, I don't even hate them and do genuinely wish I acted better back then but here we are, ain't worth dwelling. Uncensored it because not like I can escape it anywho.

Going to bed.

 

[Punished_Senko]

Maybe V3 I'll strike gold...

There is no such thing as a "good" UI, there is only the crappy UI that you know and are used to or the crappy UI that you don't know and aren't used to, when you use one UI for a long period of time you get stockholm syndrome and start thinking it's good, this whole business of changing the "look" is frustrating for users and a huge waste of your time, and worst of all it's a sisyphean task, you're gonna keep doing it over and over again and everey time there will be people who aren't satisfied.
Consider for example someone like me who has been on here for the last 8 months i was initially ambivalent towards the "look" of the site because it's the only "look" i knew, eventually i got used to it and i was ok with it, but when you change the "look" like this what you're doing is you're pulling the rug from under the feet of the users who are used to the "look" and imposing a new "look" that is not necessarily better, just different, now they have to get used to this new "look" and before you know it you're gonna get the idea into your head to change it again.
I maintain that the only solution to this problem is to pick one "look" and stick to it forever.
I shall finish this off with a brilliant quote from a man who put it really well.

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak. -Thomas Carlyle

 

[Dwayne]

There is no such thing as a "good" UI, there is only the crappy UI that you know and are used to or the crappy UI that you don't know and aren't used to, when you use one UI for a long period of time you get stockholm syndrome and start thinking it's good, this whole business of changing the "look" is frustrating for users and a huge waste of your time, and worst of all it's a sisyphean task, you're gonna keep doing it over and over again and everey time there will be people who aren't satisfied.
Consider for example someone like me who has been on here for the last 8 months i was initially ambivalent towards the "look" of the site because it's the only "look" i knew, eventually i got used to it and i was ok with it, but when you change the "look" like this what you're doing is you're pulling the rug from under the feet of the users who are used to the "look" and imposing a new "look" that is not necessarily better, just different, now they have to get used to this new "look" and before you know it you're gonna get the idea into your head to change it again.
I maintain that the only solution to this problem is to pick one "look" and stick to it forever.
I shall finish this off with a brilliant quote from a man who put it really well.

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak. -Thomas Carlyle

Great feedback and observation, thanks for this. I only wanted a forum makeover as, like I've said a few times above, the forum's general look and aesthetics were the most harshly criticised thing about the forum. I collected the complaints of some of my forum's harshest criticis and tried to mold something from that while at the same time acknowledging not everyone will like the new look and preserving the old style also. I do not feel these new makeovers will be something everyone can agree on but same time I feel its worth experimenting and trying new directions so not only people have plenty of choice and can find a site layout that suits their fancy but moreover I can learn from the feedback and know how to proceed forward in giving a better forum experience from there.

I'll be honest I like this new aesthetic much more and feel it makes the site look cleaner so it ain't going no where but I respect those who prefer and are loyal to the old style, and I'll still make small tweaks in the future to the legacy styles so it's not like I'm forgetting them. I'm better than most site managers tbh who just throw the old styling in the bin and tell people to deal with the new one haha.

Whenever in the far future V2 comes out I think I'll want it to be a mix of Mariana Bay Classic and V1, somewhat of a perfect equilibrium between the two with elements both sides of the debate can agree on.

 

[Bibr]

i hereby come with another minor annoyance
the site partners are off (and I can't upload images ?)

There's different font in preview and on website after making a post. ngl that preview font is so much better

 

[Khastle]

i hereby come with another minor annoyance
the site partners are off (and I can't upload images ?)

One of the incompetent jannies (probably me) will look into that later, some reason certain browsers have been having issues with the site partners and I have no idea why, I literally have the files for the banners stored on the site ffs.

That image one is very odd, can you send a pic of what it's showing you as that shouldn't be happening at all, especially having the VIP role and etc.

There's different font in preview and on website after making a post. ngl that preview font is so much be better.

What's it called? Do you know? I don't mind looking into it and seeing if it's an agreeable replacement, I do like this cyberpunk esc new one tho ngl.

 

[Bibr]

here is comparison Direct link
Pay attention to letter "e". It's really hard to read it with current font. Somehow it's way better in that preview window.

about pictures... no idea. On both old and new view. I can't insert an image from ctrl + v, drag and drop also doesn't work. When I press ctrl + p (insert image) I can't add any local media. It's only accepting by url. I will check at home with different browser

 

[Khastle]

here is comparison Direct link
Pay attention to letter "e". It's really hard to read it with current font. Somehow it's way better in that preview window.

about pictures... no idea. On both old and new view. I can't insert an image from ctrl + v, drag and drop also doesn't work. When I press ctrl + p (insert image) I can't add any local media. It's only accepting by url. I will check at home with different browser

I see... I don't have that same thing in my browser as the font is the same as my preview box. Considering right now to keep the cyberpunk font on the headers and maybe choose something more basic for the normal writing font perhaps.

 

[Bibr]

With great pain i move myself to different browser. Chrome that is for now. lemme see if it's any better

also, i still can't upload pictures in chrome. Can someone else check if it's just me ?

screenshot with comparison. Left is firefox and right is vanila chrome Screenshot

 

[V]

With great pain i move myself to different browser. Chrome that is for now. lemme see if it's any better

also, i still can't upload pictures in chrome. Can someone else check if it's just me ?

screenshot with comparison. Left is firefox and right is vanila chrome Screenshot

works on firefox

 

[Dwayne]

@Bibr @Punished_Senko @jotnarr
Look through here: https://fonts.google.com/
And tell me what will look better as the body content font (normal posts font basically). If I agree and others do too then after experimenting I'll keep it. I'm keeping this font as the ones for headers though as I think it looks cool.

 

[Dwayne]

I brought back the old font on V1, we prefer this for messages?