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Forum Themes and Changes...


Gene Steinberg

Forum Super Hero
Staff member
Hi, we've made a few minor changes to the forum style, to make it look better.

Now you'll even get a decent presentation on a smartphone without using Tapatalk, due to XenForo's new Responsive Design feature. It's not perfect; there's a glitch or two. But we'll iron that out soon.

The other change: You have the choice of two themes now.

The first is the standard one, which we call Paracast Prime. The second is based on the vintage vBulletin 3 style, for those who preferred the old look and feel. To change the style simply click on the style name on the lower nav bar in our forum, at the left. You'll be able to choose among the pair of styles we offer. We may add some more later on.

Let us know what you think.
 
I've had a look around at some of the competition lately and despite the few glitches, this is still by far the best format I've seen for a regular desktop or laptop PC. I like the Vintage VB Theme. It's got more contrast for the toolbar and quote backgrounds. There is a problem with the date posted display though at the top left of each post ( on MSIE 10 anyway ).
 
Wait. I see what's up. We have a print add-on, which appears to be overlapping. For now, I disabled the add-on, so we should be OK.
 
Wait. I see what's up. We have a print add-on, which appears to be overlapping. For now, I disabled the add-on, so we should be OK.

Looks better. Thanks. You can probably also fix it and still keep the print add-on by adjusting the width of the div. First glance it looks like: <div class="messageInfo primaryContent">
 
I can see my Inbox and Alerts links, now. I'm very appreciative of that, thank you! Before it was a tiny (about 2 pixels) link I had to click, and half the time I clicked on the Search bar.
 
@ufology: It's more complicated than that. There is a Message Layout category consisting of a number of elements, but I wasn't able to dig up one that would suit. Some day, if you're inclined, I'll give you access to the style sheets (requires admin access) and let you play with a less-traveled forum and see what you can deliver as an optional style.
 
using vintage vb ( which i'm sort of partial to) and chrome browser the advertising/splash banner in the middle of the page runs into and blocks a couple of the more recent threads/posts
 
if it helps (at least on my display) when the advert is a green download button it doesn't really block anything but there appears to be some kiind of bleed through a couple of the recent posts announcements are wavy and distorted, like looking through Vaseline ( or something) it looks like some characters of the advert are getting mixed up with the forums posts. on the xbox/madden football banner it literally does run way over to the far right of the page and obliterate a few recent posts
 
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We are experimenting, also, with something called Responsive Design, which is supposed to allow a site to scale to different display sizes. There are apt to be some glitches, and we'll continue to work on them. We're using Google's code for the ads in the center of the page.
 
We are experimenting, also, with something called Responsive Design, which is supposed to allow a site to scale to different display sizes. There are apt to be some glitches, and we'll continue to work on them. We're using Google's code for the ads in the center of the page.
This site can probably be compressed down a lot before it degrades. But personally, I'm sick of catering to handheld users. HD is the emerging screen standard, and having to dumb everything down to the lowest common denominator to accommodate handheld users is a huge compromise. I'd literally have to build two separate sites to make the USI site work for both. Right now it works fine at 1024 x 768 or higher on any full featured frames capable browser, and all browsers should support that as a minimum standard ( but of course they don't ). Rumor has it that Apple and at least one other company are supposed to be coming out with Internet enabled wrist watches, which is going to take "responsive design" to a whole new level :rolleyes: .
 
We are experimenting, also, with something called Responsive Design, which is supposed to allow a site to scale to different display sizes. There are apt to be some glitches, and we'll continue to work on them. We're using Google's code for the ads in the center of the page.

Just to be clear even though I am a frequent hand held user (ufology im looking @ you) I was experiencing the issue on my portatop. Although I do have an android with a chrome browser I use tapatalk tbe vast majority of my mobile postings
 
Jerry is there a way to change the the bright back color no worries but that is the only complaint I have about the forum. maybe dark blue or black
 
Jerry? Well, that's "Apple blue," and has been part and parcel of my forums for the past 7 years. We use it as a brand identity. Yes, any color can be changed, but I'm not inclined to do so unless I find a new color.
 
Sorry i was talking to the new user myself too much.

Gene

I like the new forum design with VB wider screen and I can see the inbox now.
 
We've got three choices now. Paracast Prime is just the standard XF theme with a few of my customizations. Vintage vB mimics the vBulletin 3 look; Newest vB is the vBulletin 5 look; both with a few adjustments to fit into our branding.

I'll be working on other possibilities as time or mood permits.
 
I've noticed the "Latest Threads" area is missing while viewing the forums on my Ipad mini. Could it be because of Safari? That really is my favorite section :)
 
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