🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Update on yesterday's work:

We rolled out new version of nodebb, which fixed stability issues, and cleaned up a few style things, as well as introduced a new layout for the category screen.

EDIT: Since i think the other post got buried, thanks again bskeet for all your help.

We then switched to a darker theme, applied @lulufulu85 's pic of the fieldhouse asa muted background, and then iterated over control styles until we came to a starting place for a dark theme we liked.

We'll see what people think on this, and be be making tweaks until we get to something we're happy with.

UPDATE : Link to other changes planned

Well guys, I updated the site to the latest the nodebb guys have on github. It looks like this fixed some stuff and introduced some interesting features to the site (looking at the recent stories, for instance). I think I had an incompatible database schema and it was causing trouble with the site I plead "no malice!"). Julian put me on the right path and I got it upgraded to latest. Thanks Julian.

approx, I really appreciate your hard work and the community you have brought together here, but I'm sorry, I just can't stand this new GUI.

I'm out of here unless you bring back a reasonable, unobtrusive look.

@parishawk Here's my opinion on the new layout:

The background image, which @lulufulu85 graciously gave us, has been muted so as to be easy on the eye.

The colors have been selected deliberately to be unobtrusive, the font colors were matched with the background colors (although there is still some tweaking to be done with font color), and the background colors were left solid so that reading would be easy on the eye. Being that obtrusivity is qualitative, I'm not sure where specifically there is an issue, though I'm not diminishing the importance of your gut reaction, it most certainly is important with design, I also believe that its important to let a new design sink in a
little while and see if your opinion remains the same.

This was our first attempt at a reskinning. I believe that this site needs a design that celebrates its identity as a community, and several other posters have made requests in that vein, so that is what we are going for. This is by no means a complete product, and we intend to tweak it, and see what the continued reaction to it is (again, thanks for reacting). Going back to the old theme wholesale is certainly an option, but that would be the nuclear option, if we simply cannot tweak it until it is someplace that gives the greatest satisfaction to the greatest number.

Also, to be sure that your browser hasn't cached part of the old theme, can you please hit Ctrl-F5, which clears out your browser's cache.

I like what you have given us @approxinfinity. I appreciate all your hard work. Rock Chalk.

I'm having a tough time too, with the white on dark blue. What if you went opposite? Dark on white background for the forumtext section? Regardless, i'm thankful for the site and will continue coming here no matter what. Just sharing my opinion.

Like the new look!!! Nice job & keep up the good work!!

@Blown I like that idea, let me play with a little bit and we can test that out as well ok? Thanks for the feedback!

Approx, I really appreciate the effort, but this is just a mess. I'd give it a full critique from my graphic designer point of view, but please just go back to the way it was, which was great (crisp, clean and readable). That would solve about 99% of the problems.

Top complaint: Reversed text (white on navy)... that's gotta go.

It's your baby, so take it for what it's worth.

@DanR

I'd give it a full critique from my graphic designer point of view

Please do, that could be helpful.

the way it was, which was great (crisp, clean and readable).

I agree it was clean, but it was also very vanilla. How can we make it personal to Jayhawk basketball while retaining the clean feeling? That's what I think we should strive for.

Top complaint: Reversed text (white on navy)... that's gotta go.

We can definitely fix that. I agree, that's the most important thing - legibility of the posts.

It's your baby, so take it for what it's worth.

I don't take anything personally on the design. The point is make something people enjoy. If you don't mind, please give me more granular details on the problems and I'd like to steer away from requests to revert completely. This is always an option, but not the first option. I also want to hear what people like better (for instance, I feel like graphics look good against the dark background), so that we can get consensus opinion. Let's talk more about the specifics of what works and what doesn't, please.

So appreciate all the work on this site. My 2 cents - this is a bit harder to read. Don't know if the font is smaller and /or the color contrast is off.

@JayhawkRock78 Changed the text from gray to white. Let me know if that helps.

Whatever is fine with me .. I just appreciate your work in getting this site set up.

Guys, I did some work on inverting the blue and white for the posts, but have some unfinished pieces that I still need to do, so I'm going to table this until this evening. Have some other stuff I need to do. In the meantime, I'll wait to hear some more about what other people think, good or bad. Please let me know, I really do appreciate the feedback regardless, even if you just want to blast it, though I'd prefer details, but if your options are blasting it or biting your tongue and you think its a monstrosity that cannot be saved..well just go ahead and blast it, I need to hear that too. Thanks guys!

@HighEliteMajor Thanks HEM. I appreciate you posting insightful Jayhawks critique. The site's just a canvas for that.

If you could get Jaybate to join is about the only thing that could be better. It could be hot pink with pictures of justin beaber and I wouldn't care, although if that tempts you, please don't :)

@approxinfinity Coming to this site is almost like opening Xmas presents every day--it's exciting to see the improvements and new developments.

The changes I see here are bold and I'm OK with them. They are way better than the new Weather Channel color scheme.

I can't give any advice from a color or design perspective. I only know what I like when I see it.

@parishawk I hope you are just kidding. We would miss you.

@approxinfinity The Unread section looks different. Let me see if I understand how it works now.

I can click on the item name on the left and go to the start of the article as in the past.

To go the latest comment (at the bottom of the article) I click on the word Replied on the far right.

Does that sound right?

@Careful_you thanks a lot for the words of encouragement. People have valid concerns about the legibility and I'll get that (hopefully) all straightened out tonight, very likely with dark text on white background for all posts.

As for the unread section, and all category views, yep! I think you got it right. Clicking on the right side takes you to the bottom.

The feedback is helpful. And i'm glad everyone is patient through the experimentation.

I agree simpler is usually better and that dark tex on a light background is more legible.

The background image is fun and I think it's nice to use some of the members' contributions. But it's. Also too busy to run text across without sacrificing legibility. So I think we should try to find another way to use that image.

Anyway... don't leave the site... This platform is pretty rich in features and actively being developed. I think it can be a great place for us for years to come, thanks to Approx.

Thanks @bskeet for gutting it out with me last night and figure out a thematic starting point for us to iterate from. The exciting thing is, we know we can do it, and now its just a matter of getting it where we want it.

I think you're right in mentioning the background image as well. We should look at what it looks like either masking that further or eliminating it, although it makes me happy seeing banners in the background too.

Switched the background for postings from blue to gray. I wanted to get an iteration of this in before reexamining the black on white tonight to see if people like this better than the dark blue. I had noticed than when scrolling down fast on the phone, the blue background would cause the white text to appear pink. The grey alleviates this. I think the contrast is better.

To me, simple is good. Busy is distracting. I like black on white without complex background.

The beauty of this site has been its simplicity. The discussion content is why we come here. It doesn't need to be gussied up.

Just my $0.02. I'm also grateful for all the work done by approx and others to give us a forum to discuss our common passion.

Minor point: In the Unread screen, it was nice to have a bit of text shown with the latest comments on the right, rather than just the tiny user's icon (which is too small now for my old eyes to identify).

@tundrahok I too liked the 'bit of text' on the Unread items but I always clicked on the text any way so I'm not sure how much it added. I do like the poster's icon and the time since the comment was made. The other info included in the listing of each item is useful too.

NICE! I totally dig the new format. Thank you for using my photo of AFH! Glad I can contribute. I'll post a few more photos soon

@approxinfinity Here's a thought about the photos. I have set my wife's computer to randomly display a photo from her 'favorites' folder as wallpaper, and to change it every 20 seconds or so. Her computer screen shows something interesting all the time now.

Could this work for this site? Just askin'

Thanks approx, YES the white text is easier for these old eyes to read than grey. Also, meant to tell you I love AFH in the background.

@approxinfinity I like vanilla!

aww man! My picture is gone! Ah well, win some lose some.

@lulufulu85 sorry lulu... Democracy in action :) We'll work it in, don't worry. But background may be too busy...

I also like the Vanilla !! My biggest need / request ... is to make the text font size 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0 points LARGER !! I vote for simplicity i.e. no background pictures that clutters the page. I'm here to "read" and "learn" and NOT to be distracted by the background images. Pictures scattered out throughout the articles are OK !!

Thanks for ALL of the WORK from the "KU Buckets TEAM" ... You are NOW RANKED near the top of the class!!

Thanks approx, my old eyes breathed a sigh of relief when I checked the site this morning. I like lulu's photos, but more when I'm focused on them and can appreciate them.

Sure guys. Thanks for letting us experiment. I saved off that dark theme, maybe bring it back next Halloween ;)

@RedRooster I played a little with making the font bigger but it's already at 14 point, and 16 point looked pretty spaced out. I'll keep looking into if there is any way to make the text better.. maybe a different font.

Also, you guys might already know this, but to blow up the font in a browser, you can hold down Ctrl while you use scroll-wheel up on the mouse, then shrink it back with Ctrl scroll-wheel down. This may help. When my eyes have trouble with a site I'll blow up the font a little bit this way.

@approxinfinity if the text boxes stay white the background could probably be altered without making the page too dark. Just my two cents.

@approxinfinity. There is a lot of good information available in the Internet on what are the better combination of fonts and colors to improve legibility.

We are conditioned and are most familiar with whatever more closely resembles written text, i.e. black text on white background, even when it might not necessarily be the most readable or easiest on the eyes. I did a lot of reading on the subject yesterday while looking at the different iterations of the layouts, and in the end , it is still a highly subjective issue.

Also, a lot of the work was done when CRTs with slower refresh rates (flicker) were prevalent. The new LCDs and LEDs monitors, and particularly how well they are adjusted, has a big influence in legibility. I work with computers for a living and you would be surprised with the high percentage of users that have the brightness cranked up really high. After I turned it down they initially think it does not look as good but invariably after a couple of days they report how much more legible and easier on the eyes it is .

Again, do what in your opinion looks best, you will not be able to please every body regardless of what settings you use.

Thank You ... for looking after my 75 year old eyes. Now knowing the size of the font ... I feel better about it now! Perhaps dark letters via a "font change" ... Tahoma, or Ariel. .... Hey ... I'm not complaining and I do appreciate ALL YOU DO !!

And yes ... I'm aware of the holding down the CTRL key and rolling the cursor to get larger letters. I couldn't live without that standard feature.

White background is fine, so I'm back.

Thanks for acting on the feedback.

On another note, same iPhone problems:

• recent posts don't show up at the bottom of threads
• elevator doesn't close when I choose an option.

@redrooster never know what people know and what they don't, just trying to cover all bases. I'll experiment with Tahoma and Ariel, thanks for the suggestions.

@parishawk Welcome back. Glad we're back to normal. I'll look into the iphone problems. I thought the nodebb upgrade I did would have fixed the problem, because I'm not seeing connectivity issues, but I didn't restart the data store in the upgrade process and its been running for several weeks without a restart (which its supposed to be able to do) but maybe that will be necessary. Will look into it. Thanks for letting me know.

Hey @approxinfinity -- YouTube embed plugin has landed! ↗

Nice, thanks @julian!

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Kick A$s!