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w1hue Project Donor
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Message 1832801 - Posted: 27 Nov 2016, 4:10:50 UTC
Last modified: 27 Nov 2016, 4:11:51 UTC

I don't see any "settings" to turn off the green bar. And the "site search" is pretty useless -- same as before.
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Message 1832807 - Posted: 27 Nov 2016, 6:00:36 UTC

Change = good. Change for change's sake = bad.
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Message 1832808 - Posted: 27 Nov 2016, 6:02:58 UTC

OMG! We've been hit now with a deformed font. :-(
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Message 1832816 - Posted: 27 Nov 2016, 7:27:52 UTC

With all the changes being made, surprised that one change that would greatly improve the forums has not been made...

... username <50.
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Message 1832818 - Posted: 27 Nov 2016, 8:17:20 UTC
Last modified: 27 Nov 2016, 8:34:41 UTC

Well, I see a few issues I raised earlier today have been fixed.....at least for now.
The current font is now quite readable against the slate background.
It would appear that quoted text is now displaying in a normal size....although the quote marker bars to the left are barely visible. A step in the right direction.
And multiple open tabs are now displaying the beginning of the name of the page they have open. Much more convenient!

Thank you for those improvements! Hope they remain, or at least are further tweaked in a manner that does not break them again.

Now, that would leave from my original list......
1. The reason that the way my sig displays has changed.
2. The navigation headings on the home page not responding to a mouse over.
And
3. Whatever is causing some posts to not text wrap correctly whist others do. I have yet to identify why one post with long sentences wraps and other posts have long sentences that run off the right side of the page. It could be the manner in which they are composed.
Maybe the ones that appear to be wrapping are done by using a return to start a new line and are not really wrapping at all.

At least it would appear that somebody is reading here and making an attempt at resolving some issues.
Thank you again.

Meow.
"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

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Richard Haselgrove Project Donor
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Message 1832821 - Posted: 27 Nov 2016, 9:39:07 UTC

Another glitch for the buglist. Some of the tabular data tables have mis-aligned column headers. It's most noticeable on

but that's not an exhaustive list.

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Profile Jeff Buck Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
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Message 1832879 - Posted: 27 Nov 2016, 17:16:40 UTC

This might be worth a read:
The Dos and Don’ts of Dark Web Design

Several things that struck me in that article include:
With a dark design comes less readability, less appeal for most readers and less opportunity for conventional design elements.
....
A recent poll suggests that light designs are preferred by the general web-going audience by a whopping 47%. The main reason is readability. Most people don’t like viewing light text against a dark background on websites because it strains their eyes, making for a much less enjoyable experience.

FWIW, I'm solidly in that 47%.

Also, most of the dark page examples shown are ones that are image-heavy, not text-heavy, like S@H.

And then there's:
Offer a Style Switcher

While we have many good practices at our disposal to make dark web designs more appealing, no amount of effort will satisfy every user.

Be sure to include a style switcher, so that users ultimately have the option of viewing dark text on a light background.

Two style sheets are required for this, one for the default dark layout, and one for the alternative light layout.

Just sayin'.......
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Richard Haselgrove Project Donor
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Message 1832883 - Posted: 27 Nov 2016, 18:00:32 UTC - in response to Message 1832879.  

Interesting, Jeff. It chimes with something I posted at BOINC today, which led to me to ponder the difference between website development and website design.

Many of the terms in that document are familiar to me from an early exposure to typography and hot-metal typesetting, but may be less familiar to those who approach websites from a development, coding, perspective. For example:

  • Kerning - the process of adjusting the spacing between characters, to the extent that part of one character in a movable-type font may literally overhang its neighbour.
  • leading - pronounced ledding, from the metal plumbers use - came from the physical strips of metallic lead placed between lines of type to increase inter-line spacing.

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Message 1832893 - Posted: 27 Nov 2016, 20:05:42 UTC - in response to Message 1832892.  

A recent poll suggests that light designs are preferred by the general web-going audience by a whopping 47%

I read that as 53% don't, or aren't bothered. There is no mention of the ages polled. After the age of fifty, eyes will generally require more light than less so I see the reasoning behind providing an alternative for those users.

White website backgrounds do not give the same readability as black text on white paper. A better comparison would be reading text off a lit light bulb.

I like the changes.

Actually, I am finding, now that the font is nice and bright, the dark background is rather good on the eyes.
"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

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Profile Jeff Buck Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
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Message 1832895 - Posted: 27 Nov 2016, 20:20:29 UTC - in response to Message 1832892.  

I read that as 53% don't, or aren't bothered.

Well, that breakdown is actually:
...10% of those surveyed said that they always preferred dark backgrounds for websites, while another 36% said that the best choice would depend on the type of website.

Apparently only 7% just flat out didn't care. So, I guess it depends on what the "it depends" group's criteria is, which is unknown. My guess is that dark backgrounds are likely to be more acceptable on graphics-intensive sites than text-intensive ones. The article also states:
Generally speaking, dark works best for creative or elegant designs. For modern sleek websites, dark backgrounds add elegance.

Somehow, I don't see this site as needing much of either creativity or elegance. It's a site for presenting basic information in a textual format, not for dazzling visuals. "Readability" should be far and away the most compelling focus of any design decisions here.
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Message 1832896 - Posted: 27 Nov 2016, 20:28:43 UTC - in response to Message 1832879.  
Last modified: 27 Nov 2016, 20:28:55 UTC

A recent poll suggests that light designs are preferred by the general web-going audience by a whopping 47%. The main reason is readability. Most people don’t like viewing light text against a dark background on websites because it strains their eyes, making for a much less enjoyable experience.

I'm with you there -- I find the dark theme harder on my eyes and would very much appreciate an option for a more traditional coloring scheme.
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Message 1832899 - Posted: 27 Nov 2016, 20:34:28 UTC
Last modified: 27 Nov 2016, 20:39:32 UTC

And I think I 'may' have a small clue as to the text wrapping problem to offer.
I think this 'may' be related to the thread stretching problem we used to have with the old format, which was fixed. I believe it used to happen with oversized picture posts that would stretch the entire thread.

Notice the blue bar at the top of each thread in this current format. In threads where there are no non-wrapping posts, that blue bar stays within the screen, at the same width as it is over the forum thread index.
Now, when there posts running off of the right of the screen, that blue bar does also.

So, I think what we may actually have here is a thread stretching problem......that blue bar should never change in width and should remain the same at all times. It should not change the page width.
That blue bar should be the page format, a constant, and long sentences should be wrapped to conform to it, not stretch it.

This is just a theory, but the first thing I have been able to tie together with posts that do not wrap.

Meow?
"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

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Message 1832911 - Posted: 27 Nov 2016, 21:29:33 UTC - in response to Message 1832896.  

A recent poll suggests that light designs are preferred by the general web-going audience by a whopping 47%. The main reason is readability. Most people don’t like viewing light text against a dark background on websites because it strains their eyes, making for a much less enjoyable experience.
I'm with you there -- I find the dark theme harder on my eyes and would very much appreciate an option for a more traditional coloring scheme.
It probably also depends a lot on the quality of the monitor they own, and the ambient lighting in the room they're using it in.
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Message 1832916 - Posted: 27 Nov 2016, 21:55:38 UTC - in response to Message 1832911.  

It probably also depends a lot on the quality of the monitor they own, and the ambient lighting in the room they're using it in.

Even time-of-day can factor into it. I run an app called f.lux here on my daily driver. It adjusts the brightness and softens some of the colors after sunset by making "... the color of your computer's display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day. " I've been using it for about a year and find it really makes things easier on the old eyes in the evening.

Also, my observations here are solely directed at how difficult it is to read text on this new "dark web", compared to the old schema. I'm not personally a fan of stark white backgrounds, either. If I had my druthers, the background for black text would be a pale blue ($00FFF3D4), which is what I have my local window background set to. I've been using a similar shade for about 25 years, ever since my first experience with Windows 3.0 (which was a bit of a shock after many, many years of staring at 3270/3278 CRT screens). Unfortunately, that window background color doesn't apply to web pages. Take a look at some screenshots from PSPad that I posted about a month ago to see what my own personal preference looks like. However, I wouldn't presume to impose that on a mass audience without achieving some sort of consensus first.
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Message 1832920 - Posted: 27 Nov 2016, 22:28:42 UTC - in response to Message 1832916.  

And seasonal changes come into play, too. I wonder if it's coincidental that we're discussing a new, darker theme during the Northern hemisphere winter - long evenings with just low-energy artificial light for competition and comparison?

And like you, I have personal environmental issues to consider: my house is like a mini-stonehenge, where for a few weeks each year (either side of, but not including, the winter solstice), the rising sun finds its way through the lounge window and the open-plan kitchen to fall directly on the monitor. Half an hour extra for coffee in the mornings, before I can see what's going on - whatever the colour scheme.

There's no way that should be allowed to influence the design choice here, of course, but it may go some way towards explaining why you can never satisfy all the users, all the time.
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Message 1832926 - Posted: 27 Nov 2016, 23:01:04 UTC - in response to Message 1832435.  
Last modified: 27 Nov 2016, 23:01:59 UTC

quoting myself:
Wow. Big change. OK.

Normally I'm severely allergic to "upgrades" like these but I gotta admit... this is rather nice :)


Ha! No wonder I'm OK with this new color scheme!

I've been using it for years and didn't even notice 'till now.

It's the "Planets" theme from Gmail :)
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Message 1832927 - Posted: 27 Nov 2016, 23:37:27 UTC

The new background color makes me hunger for dark chocolate.
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Message 1832935 - Posted: 28 Nov 2016, 0:02:16 UTC - in response to Message 1832916.  
Last modified: 28 Nov 2016, 0:07:14 UTC

Unfortunately, that window background color doesn't apply to web pages

Something was nagging at the back of my brain after I made that statement, and I finally figured out what it was. It's that Firefox actually does let you specify an option to "Use system colors", but that only applies when a web page allows any of its colors to default to the browser settings. So, in rare cases (not here, though), a Windows window background color may actually apply to a web page.. And if you choose "Always" for "Override the colors specified by the page with my selections above:", it will even override this page's colors. Unfortunately, it overrides all of the background colors and fonts in every element on the page. So, that's probably not a real good choice, either.
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Message 1832984 - Posted: 28 Nov 2016, 9:15:53 UTC - in response to Message 1832935.  

Simply put, the new scheme looks awful.
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Message 1832990 - Posted: 28 Nov 2016, 10:59:29 UTC

Too much dark.
"Download" link is not so easy to find as I think it should be, to attract new users.
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