Forum Styling General Thread

[Kosheh]

Unless we switch to a fixed-width layout here, it won't really work. The reason it's possible over there is because we know what width the content is going to be at all times. Here, the content is a percentage of the screen so, unless the background is something that can tile and just fill what's visible behind the content, it's really not feasible. That does remind me that we need to prepare a new background though - we've skipped a couple of months due to work on the new version.

I don't know if I'm an actual baby here because I'm not quite getting this.

Are you saying that the reason we can't switch to the DYKG on the forums because we don't know what size the content's going to be when it's posted here...?
I remember you saying that new themes HERE are basically CSS edits, but I'm suggesting pretty much exporting the *.xml from there and opening it up over here as a new template and stylesheet theme, independent of the others. When DYKG updates their theme, you just update it here.

I mean, I get the difference between absolute and relative widths (their forum container is absolute, ours is relative) but I mean like, we can't just slap the theme onto the forum over here and then tweak it to be appropriate to the VG Resource?
Like I get that requires work and time, but I don't mind helpin' out with that work and time if you guys need it so long as it gets us a cool, customizable theme :V

EDIT: ACTUALLY, shortly before I was de-admined, I WAS working on a basic monthly-switcheroo theme with opaque text boxes (so you could see the background behind it)
Could we do something like that, instead and have a non-tiling background outlined in the CSS?

[Petie]

Are you saying that the reason we can't switch to the DYKG on the forums because we don't know what size the content's going to be when it's posted here...?

I've read this over like 10 times and still don't quite comprehend it. What do you mean by "switch to the DYKG" and why is forums emphasized?

I did say that the variants of our theme here are all CSS edits and that's important because they don't require separate template sets. The VGFacts theme has a ton of customization (included header and footer and CSS that relies on the main site, as a start) in addition to the fixed-width requirement that makes the backgrounds work over there. Those background aren't actually even changed on the forum side - there's a function on the main site that lets us change it directly.

Semi-transparent backgrounds on forum content are certainly possible but they never work quite as well in practice as they do in theory and making it work with the forum software would be more effort than it's worth, given all of the alternate colors that are used.

Also, you keep referring to "them" and "their" theme but you do realize that I manage both forums, right? So basically, you're saying that when I make changes to the VGFacts theme, I would then need to make those same changes over here but I'm really not seeing the utility of doing any of that. Maybe I'm just missing something here though so feel free to explain.

[Kosheh]

Are you saying that the reason we can't switch to the DYKG on the forums because we don't know what size the content's going to be when it's posted here...?

I've read this over like 10 times and still don't quite comprehend it. What do you mean by "switch to the DYKG" and why is forums emphasized?

Alas, the cruelty of typing half-tired
I forgot the word

"switch to the DYKG on the forums"

as in like, just have the theme available on the forums. For some reason, it sounds like both themes are heavily intertwined with each site's CMS, which...sounds kinda bonkers (but a good kinda bonkers, i swear, like a "that's so complex i can't fathom it right now" kinda bonkers) If that's the case, then I can perfectly see the reason for not porting the DYKG theme.

Also, you keep referring to "them" and "their" theme but you do realize that I manage both forums, right?

I knew this the whole time, and was kinda expecting you to reply to my last post.
It's "them and their" because they're a different community from us. We're not the same community. I wish we could just smush the two together sometimes ):

So basically, you're saying that when I make changes to the VGFacts theme, I would then need to make those same changes over here but I'm really not seeing the utility of doing any of that. Maybe I'm just missing something here though so feel free to explain.

Sure, no problem:

Obviously there's no utility to it. It's a forum theme. It's purely cosmetic. It doesn't have a long-lasting result. The result of it all would be that there would be two forums that look cool as hell instead of just one.
It's like commissioning a body shop to make a cool design on your car. It's not gonna make the car run faster or anything, but it'll turn heads. If that's not your cup of tea and there's bigger fish to fry...uh, that's...fine I guess?

As I said before, if it turns out that both forums' default themes are way too intertwined for such a process to actually work, and making the DYKG theme work on VGR would take a shitton of time and debugging of code to get it to even work correctly, then yeah I guess I understand why getting the DYKG theme ported over here would probably never happen.
...well, there's also the whole thing of two full-blown PHP templates you've gotta wade through to debug and all the work you do on updating the site would require doing it over multiple times. I didn't think about it original, but come to think of it, I can totally understand there, that's a pain in the ass to deal with, too. It was never fun doing that for the themes here on TSR :V

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As I type more here, I feel like I'm trying to have my cake here and eat it too :/

[Petie]

That's more or less what I meant. I understand that there's no functional utility on a theme but there's also no reason not to do it if doing it would be easy. It just wouldn't be in this case. The reason the VGFacts theme works so well is that it's an embedded part of the site. A lot of time and effort went into making that work correctly and it's possible because the forum only needs to serve one location. The VG Resource forum needs to serve four and, as a result, we can't achieve the same level of integration in terms of header and footer without specifically picking one of them. The system here is, at the same time, more complex due to the SSO system so trying to port one theme to the other would wind up being very difficult and far outweighs the potential gain of having a new theme over here, especially when that theme was custom made for another site (which, as you pointed out, is a separate community).

[Kosheh]

I'll let it rest, I guess. >

But I'll let you know Petie, that I read this

we can't achieve the same level of integration in terms of header and footer without specifically picking one of them. The system here is, at the same time, more complex due to the SSO system

and my head nearly exploded at the sight of "SSO" and then imagining just what kind of work goes into the backend between the sprite submission system and the forum API (or whatever. i'm a big ol' grandpa when it comes to this server-side web development stuff)



Though, to be fair I didn't mention it aloud, I was kinda hoping to imply that it would be just one theme represented, (but I didn't. oops sorry) and that one would be the blue VG resource theme. oops

[Petie]

Though, to be fair I didn't mention it aloud, I was kinda hoping to imply that it would be just one theme represented, (but I didn't. oops sorry) and that one would be the blue VG resource theme. oops

That is what you implied and how I took it. My point is that, since this forum doesn't really belong to any one site, we can't do the same thing we did at VGFacts because we'd have to choose where to pull the header info from or eliminate some of the information from it entirely to make it work here. Same with the footer. Things like "most popular games" are all site-dependent.

[Kosheh]

YO what the Hell guys im repostin this here for visibility. three whole months and not a single soul commented on these emoticons? dang

Gee. I just got off my shift at work and went to Gamestop hoping I could pick up the last copy of Battletoads. The staff told me they weren't selling the game - and what's worse, I'm now banned from the store for life for inciting a riot.
This day just can't get any worse...

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Hey, do you think you could spare writing up a tutorial for ripping from Wii U games? I'll do what I can to help the community, but I'm...just kind of a dope when it comes to coding

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Hey, I'm interested in ripping from Smash Bros, because I'd really like to get ahold of Zero Suit Samus' assets...if you know what I mean.
> : J

(heck could this just replace the other one?)

Shocked could be typed as (@_@)

Or it could be typed as O_O;

EDIT: And a little something extra, for Vipershark. :V

apparently :v is a recognized emoticon on Facebook now, too?

also 'cos I just told Vipershark via text and he literally had no idea what I was talking about so he agreed i repost them here


ouch

[Petie]

I actually may have entirely missed this the first time around because I don't remember this post (though it obviously exists since I clicked the back link). Unfortunately, I'm just now leaving and will likely completely forget about it again so hopefully someone else will get to it!

[kipdoc.hq]

Hi guys, I am new to the community

[Gors]

this is not ther ight place to introduce yourself

try this section here

[Kosheh]

I am so glad this topic exists. It's like a topic just for me -w-
Super low priority but it's annoying me enough to beg an inquiry

While Bran's made the inquiry about acquiring the forum stars, I can't help but to notice how...tight that area is to the left. It's nearly unnoticable with the administration due to the way the staff title images are situated (and the fact that most of us who AREN'T are graphically inclined here) , but the stars generally touch user's avatars and it looks kinda...eh

Would it be possible to add like, 2px of padding on the top of users' avatars (or...the bottom of the stars. whatever works) so they look just a wee bit more centered?

And uh, just an aesthetic suggestion: What if we put the staff title images underneath the avatars and just above the postbit info
[Image: keanu_reeves_revelation.jpeg]

[Vipershark]

I'll look into the padding later since I'm not home but the staff titles actually used to be under the avatars back when we did the most recent major upgrade that screwed up the styles and it looks worse with them there.
Not to mention that it makes more sense to have the staff icon (visual flair) with the stars (visual flair) and user title (text flair).

[Kosheh]

Using the Dark Resource theme and while scrollin' down I noticed that the td.tfoot a class is a kind-of-actually-hard-to-see, melancholy #444. Can we change that to #CCC, or #FFF even so it's up to par with the other white text on the page?

tl;dr the "Next Oldest | Next Newest" text is terribly out of place with the other link colors that exist around the theme.


EDIT: Also, maybe changing the border of div.post_author (?) to something that's not #FFF might be kinda dope? Like, the same #dedede (lol) as the textbox corners in the Quick Reply field?

[Vipershark]

Changed the tfoot links, but from what I can see there's no post_author that's FFF, nor do I see what you're talking about on the page anyway.
Can I get a screenshot?

[Kosheh]

Thanks for gettin' on that so fast!!

Changed the tfoot links, but from what I can see there's no post_author that's FFF, nor do I see what you're talking about on the page anyway.
Can I get a screenshot?

Notice how the author box is outlined in this grody solid #FFF?

#333, #555, or even #000 would look the part better than it does now. :/

EDIT: FOUND IT!!!

Code:

.post.classic .post_author {
    border-color: #222 #222 #222 -moz-use-text-color;
}

it's ONLY OPTIMIZED FOR FIREFOX

!!!!!!! WAHT YOU LITERALLY DIDN'T WRITE IT FOR CHROME AND IE!!!! WHAT THE HECK
EVERYBODY NEEDS A CHANCE

JUST DO THIS

Code:

.post.classic .post_author {
    border-color: #555 #555 #555 -moz-use-text-color;
    border-color: #555 #555 #555;
}

YOU DID IT!! YOU BEAT THE MONSTER

(i liked #555 better so i just slapped it in. change it if u want u boring billy goat)