Defcon forums have a new style that matches dc16 theme...

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: Defcon forums have a new style that matches dc16 theme...

Anybody have thoughts on these points?

current emphasis, etc. are fine. site loads blisteringly fast for me, even when my connection is all Tor-tastic.

I've done more than my share of critiquing up until this time so now i'm officially wearing a "Go Team Neil" cheerleader outfit.

[neil]

Re: Defcon forums have a new style that matches dc16 theme...

Nice Neil. The only thing I would change is the white/blue Post title and the name under. The title of the post should be the brighter than the posters name on the new darker page. In other words if you just flip them around and leave everything else alone it's perfect including the colors, contrast, and fonts. I thought I'd test it again on dial-up for browser look and speed and there seems to be a slightly faster (albeit not as fast as original) page load. You might want to test the look and speed with different browsers too as that can change both the appearance and speed of loads on both LCD and CRT's. Otherwise, I think your there! {:~)

I think the size and weight of the post titles establish the hierarchy, they are visually more important despite their lower tonal value. The style that governs the names affect too many other things that it would "break" it visually to lower the contrast. I feel like it works as it is.

As for the load times, I only actually added about 25Kb of image weight to the entire site, which yes, adds about 5 seconds to load on 56k dial-up, but is in my opinion, acceptable for the vast majority of users...

Anybody have thoughts on these points?

[Greyhatter]

Re: Defcon forums have a new style that matches dc16 theme...

Nice Neil. The only thing I would change is the white/blue Post title and the name under. The title of the post should be the brighter than the posters name on the new darker page. In other words if you just flip them around and leave everything else alone it's perfect including the colors, contrast, and fonts. I thought I'd test it again on dial-up for browser look and speed and there seems to be a slightly faster (albeit not as fast as original) page load. You might want to test the look and speed with different browsers too as that can change both the appearance and speed of loads on both LCD and CRT's. Otherwise, I think your there! {:~)

[neil]

Re: Defcon forums have a new style that matches dc16 theme...

Glad to see you guys like it... and thank you for the kind words.

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: Defcon forums have a new style that matches dc16 theme...

I have split the difference on the font contrast, and added the tiniest hint of color...

i love it. You rock so hard for going through so many iterations with us. Thanks man, you kick ass. Great work!

(So, if the input forms are all Helvetica before Arial, does anyone know if there is a TrueType or OpenType helvetica font out there for us non-Mac folk?)

[DaKahuna]

Re: Defcon forums have a new style that matches dc16 theme...

Well, when all is said and done, I am using the current Default Main and am quite happy with it and admit that it is much better, due to the toned down contrast of the first attempt.
While I like some of the color Deviant added and would find that just as acceptable, I guess I am just too easy going and my lack of normal color vision makes it easy for me to accept just about anything that is not bright white on black.

To summerize - Neil - Damn fine work!

[xor]

Re: Defcon forums have a new style that matches dc16 theme...

(Even you xor, with your big CRT space heater! How's the cat?)

Baxter and Seth are great, that's Baxter sitting on my Caccess Point.

Hey, thanks for your time and effort on all of this!

As for Xor's cats, when he's not keeping them warm on an overly large monitor, he uses them for an antenna on his AP. The cats' eyes glow on Transmit.
http://www.v-system.net/images/IMG_0091.jpg

That cat is amazing. Very stunning! Basically what I'm trying to say is "it's real purtty"

Thanks. I like Siamese cats because they are very intelligent and they are vocally expressive. I speak English, Binary and Cat :-). When people ask me what they are like; I tell them imagine your favorite childhood stuffed animal coming to life and that is a Siamese cat. People have childhood memories of Lady and the Tramp and think Siamese are mean; it couldn't be further from the truth. However, they do tend to imprint(aka glue) on one or a just a few people in a family.

xor

[neil]

Re: Defcon forums have a new style that matches dc16 theme...

Alright guys,

I have split the difference on the font contrast, and added the tiniest hint of color...

[Nikita]

Re: Defcon forums have a new style that matches dc16 theme...

Hey, thanks for your time and effort on all of this!

As for Xor's cats, when he's not keeping them warm on an overly large monitor, he uses them for an antenna on his AP. The cats' eyes glow on Transmit.
http://www.v-system.net/images/IMG_0091.jpg

That cat is amazing. Very stunning! Basically what I'm trying to say is "it's real purtty"

[Thorn]

Re: Defcon forums have a new style that matches dc16 theme...

I hear you man, and I don't begrudge you the comfort of your eyes one bit... the reality is that everyone has a different experience (monitor, vision, OS, browser) and that's a hard fight to win... I do have a little breathing room to up the contrast on the text font a bit without going back to the almost white "bleeding" gray that I had originally... we shall see how it works out.

You guys use these forums quite a bit and I hope to find a way to make them work for all.

(Even you xor, with your big CRT space heater! How's the cat?)

Hey, thanks for your time and effort on all of this!

As for Xor's cats, when he's not keeping them warm on an overly large monitor, he uses them for an antenna on his AP. The cats' eyes glow on Transmit.
http://www.v-system.net/images/IMG_0091.jpg

[neil]

Re: Defcon forums have a new style that matches dc16 theme...

Sorry Neil, but after trying to live with the new theme, I've switched back to Legacy. While I do like the new graphics, the main issue for me is the lack of contrast on the fonts to the background was causing too much eyestrain. At my advanced age, eyestrain is a real issue.

I hear you man, and I don't begrudge you the comfort of your eyes one bit... the reality is that everyone has a different experience (monitor, vision, OS, browser) and that's a hard fight to win... I do have a little breathing room to up the contrast on the text font a bit without going back to the almost white "bleeding" gray that I had originally... we shall see how it works out.

You guys use these forums quite a bit and I hope to find a way to make them work for all.

(Even you xor, with your big CRT space heater! How's the cat?)

[Thorn]

Re: Defcon forums have a new style that matches dc16 theme...

Sorry Neil, but after trying to live with the new theme, I've switched back to Legacy. While I do like the new graphics, the main issue for me is the lack of contrast on the fonts to the background was causing too much eyestrain. At my advanced age, eyestrain is a real issue.

[neil]

Re: Defcon forums have a new style that matches dc16 theme...

Hey, has anyone else noticed one other shift? In all forms where you can type, the font that appears as you do so is no longer Tahoma but is instead Arial. Maybe if it were Helvetica (to match the control menu links) or something that ties in more to the theme it would be a little more slick.

Goddamn, is there no end to my obnoxious nit-picking?

I believe it is set as helvetica, arial, sans... I always put helvetica in front, if i'm using a sans font. Helvetica, from my experience, isn't usually installed in windows by default (but I've been on a mac exclusively for a few years now, so that may have changed), unless I missed it somewhere...

As for the font color, I am not against adding a bit of color, but I have to keep the contrast down, as that was the biggest complaint (aside from the borders) i have been hearing. I went pretty drastic with that, however, so there is room to come back toward the middle.

At least I've got it growing on you now....

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: Defcon forums have a new style that matches dc16 theme...

Hey, has anyone else noticed one other shift? In all forms where you can type, the font that appears as you do so is no longer Tahoma but is instead Arial. Maybe if it were Helvetica (to match the control menu links) or something that ties in more to the theme it would be a little more slick.

Goddamn, is there no end to my obnoxious nit-picking?

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: Defcon forums have a new style that matches dc16 theme...

So, here's the rundown with screenshots (click for larger, non-distorted images)

here's the legacy theme


this is the "main" theme we are using now


this is converge's modified theme. (great contrast, but rashly-bright dotted borders)


here's a variant of the "main" theme that incorporates Converge's level of contrast while keeping the borders subdued (the most accessible perhaps?)


now, just for me (hehe) i've made up examples of how the forums could look with just a little color in the text. the first attempt was way too yellow


then i subdued that a bit and was pretty happy


i even tried one that's a little bit of a greenish-yellow variant

your thoughts? am i the only one out there who likes just a hint of color in the text? that's ok, i'm used to standing alone and wouldn't be sad if we never had any color at all in the post text. however, i would like to see the brightness closer to converge's level of contrast (the one labeled as perhaps the most accessible)

essentially, the comparison between the current main theme and a slightly brighter text variant of that theme is where i'd like to hear people's opinions. it's interesting, i've spent about an hour now this morning with Neil's new theme as i've made screenshots, photoshopped, etc. and it's really grown on me. i'd love to have it as my main setting. if we can just get it a touch more readable (say, with this text brightness) i'd use it instantly.