Forum upgrade

[jimdahl]

Just finished a huge forum upgrade.

There are lots of great features, some of which I may mention here later.

There are also undoubtedly lots of things broken. At a minimum, it's going to be quite a few hours before all the historical posts look correct (each one needs to be converted to a new format). Feel free to report problems here, but I'll also spend a lot of time this weekend hunting them down myself. It's going to do most of the conversion work overnight, so performance should be back to normal Saturday morning.

[GeauxSioux]

If you go to Siouxsports.com, all you get is a white blank page. To enter you need to go directly to the Forum page.

The Forum definitely has a crisp sharp look to it. Nice job Jim.

[UNDvince97-01]

Just finished a huge forum upgrade.

There are lots of great features, some of which I may mention here later.

There are also undoubtedly lots of things broken. At a minimum, it's going to be quite a few hours before all the historical posts look correct (each one needs to be converted to a new format). Feel free to report problems here, but I'll also spend a lot of time this weekend hunting them down myself. It's going to do most of the conversion work overnight, so performance should be back to normal Saturday morning.

Looks great Jim. Nice work.

[Shawn-O]

Looks great Jim. Nice work.

I agree. Thanks for the time you volunteer to do this, Jim.

[jimdahl]

If you go to Siouxsports.com, all you get is a white blank page. To enter you need to go directly to the Forum page.

The Forum definitely has a crisp sharp look to it. Nice job Jim.

Thanks. I forgot how dependent the front page is on the forum (tries to load forum posts, etc...), so the change in forum broke a few things.

It loads now, and should be back in perfect shape by the end of the weekend. For example, a few of the single login things dependent on the forum are broken.

[Hammersmith]

Starting to get used to it. Style still seems a little "clunky" to me. That's a comment about the IP Board software interface, not Jim's implementation of it, BTW. Two real comments, though. First, it looks like the favicon hasn't made the move. I'm getting the generic Invision Power blue V, not the Siouxsports Sioux head. Second, I'm noticing that it's hard to see the identity of a poster at a glance. Maybe I'm spoiled by vBulletin which makes it bloody obvious, but my eyes are just sliding off the username now. I think it's because the "Back to top" and "Report" buttons are so close, nearly the same color as the username, and are also comparatively large. If others are having the same problem, maybe increasing the size or changing the color of the font would help, or maybe changing the placement of the username by shifting it over to right a bit. After thinking about it some more, maybe centering the name over the profile information and bumping up the size one notch would do the trick.

[jimdahl]

Starting to get used to it. Style still seems a little "clunky" to me. That's a comment about the IP Board software interface, not Jim's implementation of it, BTW. Two real comments, though. First, it looks like the favicon hasn't made the move. I'm getting the generic Invision Power blue V, not the Siouxsports Sioux head. Second, I'm noticing that it's hard to see the identity of a poster at a glance. Maybe I'm spoiled by vBulletin which makes it bloody obvious, but my eyes are just sliding off the username now. I think it's because the "Back to top" and "Report" buttons are so close, nearly the same color as the username, and are also comparatively large. If others are having the same problem, maybe increasing the size or changing the color of the font would help, or maybe changing the placement of the username by shifting it over to right a bit. After thinking about it some more, maybe centering the name over the profile information and bumping up the size one notch would do the trick.

favicon is working for me. Maybe I have it cached, though, which is why I didn't notice.. I'll do some testing.

As to the names, which seems to be your biggest comment, this skin is a weird compromise between the old-school ikonboard (now invision)/vbulletin default which had a user-identification panel on the left, and the skin Bisonville uses, which has a user panel on the top of each post. I actually really dislike the user panel on the top of each post, because it takes up a lot of space (if you allow avatars) and I'd rather fill the vertical space with as many posts as possible. However, this particular skin somewhat strangely puts the username in a bar that spans the entire horizontal screen, but puts the rest of the user details in a left-hand bar. It's clearly modeled after the Invision default (see here) but doesn't work as well for the color reasons you mention. Up until this upgrade I had always taken the time to turn all the buttons green, which is honestly work I was hoping to get out of doing going forward, but it definitely did help brand the board somewhat uniquely.

That said, I'm thrilled with this skin (w/my color modifications) over the Invision default linked above, which I find to be way too web-2.0 (e.g. digg) wannabe. But I have worked much more on the index screens than the individual thread screens.

Honestly, I hate change as much (more?) as anyone and definitely prefer the craigslist look to the ebay look, but the new features here were enough to finally push me to move.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Hammersmith]

favicon is working for me. Maybe I have it cached, though, which is why I didn't notice.. I'll do some testing.

As to the names, which seems to be your biggest comment, this skin is a weird compromise between the old-school ikonboard (now invision)/vbulletin default which had a user-identification panel on the left, and the skin Bisonville uses, which has a user panel on the top of each post. I actually really dislike the user panel on the top of each post, because it takes up a lot of space (if you allow avatars) and I'd rather fill the vertical space with as many posts as possible. However, this particular skin somewhat strangely puts the username in a bar that spans the entire horizontal screen, but puts the rest of the user details in a left-hand bar. It's clearly modeled after the Invision default (see here) but doesn't work as well for the color reasons you mention. Up until this upgrade I had always taken the time to turn all the buttons green, which is honestly work I was hoping to get out of doing going forward, but it definitely did help brand the board somewhat uniquely.

That said, I'm thrilled with this skin (w/my color modifications) over the Invision default linked above, which I find to be way too web-2.0 (e.g. digg) wannabe. But I have worked much more on the index screens than the individual thread screens.

Honestly, I hate change as much (more?) as anyone and definitely prefer the craigslist look to the ebay look, but the new features here were enough to finally push me to move.

Thanks for the feedback.

Unless you already did something to fix the favicon issue, never mind. The problem may have been on my end. I flushed my cache(I forgot to do that before I posted - and I know better, too) and the arrowhead is back.

I do like your skin over the default, and for the same reasons. And overall I like the user layout area better than vBulletin - which has always struck me as a little garish. I've never tried setting up a message board, but I can imagine all the work in the details that must go into it. I'm sure it's hard to tell, but I'm something of a perfectionist. You've gotten this skin to the point where it's just little nitpicks to comment on.

A few of those really minor nitpicks - not problems, just aesthetic choices:

- On the forum pages(not the thread pages), the green in the bars for "UND Sports," "UND Community," etc. is dark enough that it blends in with the charcoal bars below. That line created by the shading in the middle of the green bar is also a little off(I also see it in the default skin you linked to, but it doesn't show up as much in the blue). Maybe a single color gradation from top to bottom instead of two gradations, meeting in the middle? And it might look worse, but I wonder if putting the dark end of the gradation at the top and the light at the bottom might give the border between the green and gray more definition.

- I actually like the black buttons. It's too easy to go overboard with school colors <cough>bisonsports&sdsufans<cough>. It's just that alignment issue that's the problem. I was originally thinking of the username switching to green, but I think that would make it even worse.

- I don't like the placement of the friend and pm icons. If you(IP Board "you", not jimdahl "you") have to have them, I think they would be better underneath the profile info(Joined date). This is one area where I like vBulletin over IP Board; I've really come to like the drop down menus for those sorts of things.

- This one is super-nitpicky: I don't like the way the main bars, background side bars, and the boxes interact at the top of the page. It's like an irregular step-in. The main bars go to the edges, then you've got the white background field with the gray sidebands, then you step in again with the forum/thread/message boxes(depending on the page). I think what's causing it to look wrong to me is that the horizontal distances aren't the same or they're not different enough. I think they're in the no man's land in between(if that makes any sense). It's probably just one of those things I'm noticing because it's new, and my eye won't see it a week from now.

- I like the code function much better than the old IP Board software(that pink and gray box was annoying). It's going to come in real handy when I need to post a list or chart. I wanted to scream when I tried posting one on the ORU board and saw that phpBB doesn't use Lucinda Console for the code font. What's the point if you don't do that?

As always, thanks for the work you put in here.

Oh, and I like the green for the quote boxes. I guess it's part of the default skin, but it works nice on a green-themed board.

[jimdahl]

Oh, and I like the green for the quote boxes. I guess it's part of the default skin, but it works nice on a green-themed board.

Tough to say -- the way I do it is work on the front (index) page replacing colors until I think it looks good, BUT I do global replacements so the other pages inherit those color choices. For the default skin here, that generally means changing blues to greens and tweaking some of the grays to provide better contrast.

That leaves us as at a point like this where the color scheme is consistent, but perhaps not optimally laid out for the thread-viewing pages. I'll work on that in coming weeks, little tweaks often make a big difference.

- On the forum pages(not the thread pages), the green in the bars for "UND Sports," "UND Community," etc. is dark enough that it blends in with the charcoal bars below. That line created by the shading in the middle of the green bar is also a little off(I also see it in the default skin you linked to, but it doesn't show up as much in the blue). Maybe a single color gradation from top to bottom instead of two gradations, meeting in the middle? And it might look worse, but I wonder if putting the dark end of the gradation at the top and the light at the bottom might give the border between the green and gray more definition.

This is definitely a monitor difference. They're very distinct on the two I've tested it on, but that's one of the challenges of these things... making it look good for everyone. I just need a little more contrast, either lighten up the green or (more likely) lighten up the gray.

- I actually like the black buttons. It's too easy to go overboard with school colors <cough>bisonsports&sdsufans<cough>. It's just that alignment issue that's the problem. I was originally thinking of the username switching to green, but I think that would make it even worse.

The buttons are pretty distinctly gray for me, I wonder if your monitor is noticeably darker, which would also exacerbate the above...

- This one is super-nitpicky: I don't like the way the main bars, background side bars, and the boxes interact at the top of the page. It's like an irregular step-in. The main bars go to the edges, then you've got the white background field with the gray sidebands, then you step in again with the forum/thread/message boxes(depending on the page). I think what's causing it to look wrong to me is that the horizontal distances aren't the same or they're not different enough. I think they're in the no man's land in between(if that makes any sense). It's probably just one of those things I'm noticing because it's new, and my eye won't see it a week from now.

I agree, the gray sidebands are unnecessarily fancy -- a good example of the designer trying a little too hard, IMHO. I would personally increase the width of the white padding and get rid of the gray (whether I actually do so remains to be seen )

- I like the code function much better than the old IP Board software(that pink and gray box was annoying). It's going to come in real handy when I need to post a list or chart. I wanted to scream when I tried posting one on the ORU board and saw that phpBB doesn't use Lucinda Console for the code font. What's the point if you don't do that?

The editor and post layout in general are one area that has seen big improvements. The old one was built in an era when rich text editing didn't really work and no one wanted to embed media.

[SiouxMD]

jim

When I go to create a link the pop-up box is over justified left and there is no wording...only two blank boxes on top and a green box on bottom. Is there something I need to do? Adjust settings?

Thanks.

[jimdahl]

jim

When I go to create a link the pop-up box is over justified left and there is no wording...only two blank boxes on top and a green box on bottom. Is there something I need to do? Adjust settings?

Thanks.

Testing

CNN

Hmmm... good for me. What's your browser (and version if you know it)?

[SiouxMD]

Testing

CNN

Hmmm... good for me. What's your browser (and version if you know it)?

MIE 6.0

I am stuck with this browser/version as I do not have admin priviledges at work.

[jimdahl]

MIE 6.0

I am stuck with this browser/version as I do not have admin priviledges at work.

Just tested with 7 and it works. Poor MS has been begging companies to move off IE6 for years. I would guess that everyone is finally going to give up on XP and move to 7 within the next couple years, which should get rid of 6 once and for all.

The product notes did note that things wouldn't work perfectly under IE6, but for now, just under 5% of our traffic still comes via that browser, so I'll definitely do what I can. Point out anything else you see.

[Fetch]

does it help ignore mpls buffalo ? :' )

[Henderson]

Jim -

Do you still have a lofi version? If so, can you provide the link?

[jimdahl]

Jim -

Do you still have a lofi version? If so, can you provide the link?

Yes, but it's much improved -- instead of being a separate URL, it's just a different "skin". That way there's a single address for each post, forum, etc..., but each client can view it however they need to. Plus, since it's now just a skin on the regular forum, it fully supports all the functions of the normal forum, including posting.

There are two ways to access it:

1) If you're coming in from an iPhone, Blackberry, etc..., it should autodetect that and provide you the simpler, more mobile-appropriate skin by default

2) Even from a regular web browser, in the lower left corner of each page is a skin selector that currently says "SiouxSports.com Default Skin". Change that to "IP.Board Mobile" to get the lightweight skin.

The mobile skin still has a bit more blue where I'd like green, but it's a brand new feature that still has some bugs that are preventing from fixing it. Hopefully in the next month or two it will look more like a lightweight version of the main forum.

[dakotadan]

It probably has nothing to do with the upgrade and has probably always been this way. But are we limited to 10 images per post?

[Speez]

I may not be as tech savy as some of the comments here, but my main comment is:

Thanks Jim

I have had many years of enjoyment from all the work you have done for us "Sioux Fans".

All the things that you have done to this forum has made it a pleasure to come to almost every day.

I may not post as much as some others here, but I am still here.

I enjoy the forum as much now as I did 10 years ago when I first joined.

I hope this forum & I are still around when my grandsons play for the Sioux.

Thanks again for all your work.

[Shawn-O]

Maybe this was done pre-upgrade but the site is now working fantastic on the Blackberry. Not sure if mobile was a part of this upgrade or something prior.

[Goon]

Maybe this was done pre-upgrade but the site is now working fantastic on the Blackberry. Not sure if mobile was a part of this upgrade or something prior.

I haven't looked at this site on my blackberry since the up grade, but is it easy to post and read. In other words is there a mobile version of Sioux Sports?

[jimdahl]

I haven't looked at this site on my blackberry since the up grade, but is it easy to post and read. In other words is there a mobile version of Sioux Sports?

Yep, I described it a bit in this post. It's a mobile skin for the SiouxSports forum (the rest of the site is under way). When you go to the regular forum URL from a recognized phone, it gives you a phone friendly skin automatically. It's still a little buggy (I sometimes get the wrong skin on iPhone, but a reload always fixes it), and I haven't been able to customize it much (it's more blue than I'd like ), but unlike the old lo-fi version it's a fully functional, same URL, mobile-friendly version of the forum.

[82SiouxGuy]

Yep, I described it a bit in this post. It's a mobile skin for the SiouxSports forum (the rest of the site is under way). When you go to the regular forum URL from a recognized phone, it gives you a phone friendly skin automatically. It's still a little buggy (I sometimes get the wrong skin on iPhone, but a reload always fixes it), and I haven't been able to customize it much (it's more blue than I'd like ), but unlike the old lo-fi version it's a fully functional, same URL, mobile-friendly version of the forum.

I've tried it with my Blackberry a few times in the last couple of days. The only issue I've had was it didn't allow a post one time (said there was some kind of connection error IIRC). I backed out, looked at another page, then went back to the original page. That time the post took. Thanks for all the time and work you put into this site.

[jimdahl]

Spent some time on the "skin" today -- lightened it up quite a bit, removed a lot of (IMHO) unnecessary and overbearing gradients and extra decorative elements. The new one is quite a bit simpler, cleaner, and more like the old one. I also fixed the few remaining bugs I knew about.

You can check it out using the skin selector in the lower left corner and switching to SiouxSports.com Test Skin. I'll switch everyone over to it in the next few days.

[jimdahl]

I'll switch everyone over to it in the next few days.

Done. The "SiouxSports.com Skin" is now the default.

[mjchewy]

Is anyone else having problems viewing the home page. The forum links and news articles look fine, but the menu on the left side of the screen for hockey and football is super small, i cannot even read it. The same goes for the right side of the screen and the blog posts and twitter feeds. Any solutions or ideas on my issue would be great.