New Style and Software

Discuss anything you like about chess related matters in this forum.
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Carl Hibbard
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New Style and Software

Post by Carl Hibbard » Sat Jan 31, 2015 9:34 pm

So what do people think both good and bad points please?
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Paolo Casaschi
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Re: New Style and Software

Post by Paolo Casaschi » Sat Jan 31, 2015 9:55 pm

Browsing the forum with a smartphone is much better now; this improvement only would have been worth upgrading.

For using with a laptop/desktop computer, not much visible difference in functionality; the new theme looks nice and it's easy to find things around if you were familiar with the previous layout.

David Sedgwick
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Re: New Style and Software

Post by David Sedgwick » Sat Jan 31, 2015 10:52 pm

I'm a firm believer in the maxim "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I can't see that there was anything wrong with the old style.

I almost invariably use the active topics page. With the old look, you could hardly miss the link. It is now somewhat less obvious.

Edit: Having posted, I sought to log out. That too was not exactly obvious.

Is there any chance of your changing things back, please?

David Robertson

Re: New Style and Software

Post by David Robertson » Sat Jan 31, 2015 11:01 pm

David Sedgwick wrote:Is there any chance of your changing things back, please?
I suspect he means back before the 1832 Reform Act

David Sedgwick
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Re: New Style and Software

Post by David Sedgwick » Sat Jan 31, 2015 11:09 pm

David Robertson wrote:
David Sedgwick wrote:Is there any chance of your changing things back, please?
I suspect he means back before the 1832 Reform Act
I see that the new look hasn't in any way affected Professor Robertson's posting style.

Chris Rice
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Re: New Style and Software

Post by Chris Rice » Sun Feb 01, 2015 4:54 am

I agree with Paolo that accessing the forum on the smartphone is much better now. The only other comment is that the new format looks so much like "the other place" I feel I'm posting at the ECF forum now. Still after Ben Edgell and Paul Dargan's posts on that site under "why do we have a forum" I'm not sure it'll be an issue for too much longer. http://www.englishchess.org.uk/Forum/vi ... 1&start=10

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Carl Hibbard
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Re: New Style and Software

Post by Carl Hibbard » Sun Feb 01, 2015 8:09 am

David Sedgwick wrote:I'm a firm believer in the maxim "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I can't see that there was anything wrong with the old style.

I almost invariably use the active topics page. With the old look, you could hardly miss the link. It is now somewhat less obvious.

Edit: Having posted, I sought to log out. That too was not exactly obvious.

Is there any chance of your changing things back, please?
I think I too prefer the original subsilver style but only on my desktop pc but it has now been deprecated.

We just had no choice but to move with the times as sticking with the 3.0.x branch of the software given the nature of security issues and flaws with this sort of forum just was not really a sustainable option.

So I am sorry to say we have to go all in on this version although I am happy to look at alternate styles see if we can improve the look.
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Carl Hibbard
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Re: New Style and Software

Post by Carl Hibbard » Sun Feb 01, 2015 8:11 am

Chris Rice wrote:I agree with Paolo that accessing the forum on the smartphone is much better now. The only other comment is that the new format looks so much like "the other place" I feel I'm posting at the ECF forum now. Still after Ben Edgell and Paul Dargan's posts on that site under "why do we have a forum" I'm not sure it'll be an issue for too much longer. http://www.englishchess.org.uk/Forum/vi ... 1&start=10
If I change the logo at the top and we all stop posting the look will be complete.

I am a little concerned in the similar presentation even if they are running the old version but as I have pointed out there was little choice.
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Richard Haddrell

Re: New Style and Software

Post by Richard Haddrell » Sun Feb 01, 2015 9:22 am

On my laptop at least, we're not using the full screen width any more. Even the other place does that. Any chance of fixing this?

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Carl Hibbard
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Re: New Style and Software

Post by Carl Hibbard » Sun Feb 01, 2015 9:25 am

Richard Haddrell wrote:On my laptop at least, we're not using the full screen width any more. Even the other place does that. Any chance of fixing this?
I will look but I doubt it is easily altered.

This is the sort of thing I miss since I either use an iPad mini for here which now works a lot better or I am sitting in front of this enormous resolution monitor where nothing really fills the screen.
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Carl Hibbard
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Re: New Style and Software

Post by Carl Hibbard » Sun Feb 01, 2015 9:58 am

Richard Haddrell wrote:On my laptop at least, we're not using the full screen width any more. Even the other place does that. Any chance of fixing this?
Seems to scale on my laptop quite nicely Richard at 1440 x 990 in Safari so which browser and resolution do you have?
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Carl Hibbard
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Re: New Style and Software

Post by Carl Hibbard » Sun Feb 01, 2015 10:18 am

These mobile responsive type designs do tend to just scale the width so never really fill the screen.
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John Clarke
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Re: New Style and Software

Post by John Clarke » Sun Feb 01, 2015 10:22 am

I like the new feature enabling you to see, in the Index Page, what thread the last posting was made to in each topic, as well as who made it and when. (E.g., if you see there's something new under "General Chat", you don't now have to click on that subject to find out whether it was to the "New Style and Software" thread, or to something else.)

For those who don't like the absence of a Logout button right up front, or object to making an extra keystroke to access it: this seems to pretty much the standard nowadays. Better get used to it.
"The chess-board is the world ..... the player on the other side is hidden from us ..... he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance."
(He doesn't let you resign and start again, either.)

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Carl Hibbard
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Re: New Style and Software

Post by Carl Hibbard » Sun Feb 01, 2015 10:26 am

I do like being able to click on the last post topic on the right of the index page which takes me down to respond on that subject.
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Ian Thompson
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Re: New Style and Software

Post by Ian Thompson » Sun Feb 01, 2015 11:17 am

Carl Hibbard wrote:
Richard Haddrell wrote:On my laptop at least, we're not using the full screen width any more. Even the other place does that. Any chance of fixing this?
Seems to scale on my laptop quite nicely Richard at 1440 x 990 in Safari so which browser and resolution do you have?
Me too. It's only using about 75% of the screen width. I'm using Mozilla Firefox ESR 31.4.0. Screen resolution is 1600 x 900.