Style Feedback: Simplistic (Public Beta) - Bug Reporting

[Nick]

It's been a while since our last public beta. The last one we had was way back in March!

Though I can pretty much tell what needs to be fixed now that it's actually on the forum, I'm opening up public beta for users who are interested in testing the style. It'll be greatly appreciated. The style's called "Simplistic" - you'll find it easily, it's the last style and it ends with (Beta), so you know that it's the beta of it. That way we don't have a ton of new threads reporting style problems about it. Click here to switch to Simplistic.

The purpose of this style is to provide users a go-to style for when they're browsing on platforms like mobile devices (phones, iPods, iPads) and small netbooks. It provides post limited post information.

Posts have a different layout because of that. The only things shown is the controls to edit, quote, report, etc., the message, the username, the title of the thread/post, and the date it was posted on... to avoid from thread bumping. It's styled in a different way that looks more like a LiveJournal than a forum. So, what I'm asking you all to do is to use the style for a few days, whether you like it or not (though, if you don't like it, nobody's going to force you to use it, of course) and just note some things that you find along the way in this thread so I can fix.

Known Issues / Bugs | To Do List:
1. Profile problem - tables are messed up: Working on a new template for the member info, so that's going to stay like that for quite some time.
2. New Posts link.
3. Privacy Statement issue.
4. Search bar.
5. Subscribed threads section in User CP.
6. Rep bars with post comments.
7. Blog statistics.

I'll try to keep the above list updated with all the bugs that need to be exterminated. Until then, happy hunting! :)

 

[Abnegation]

• Blog statistics and the likes aren't floating on the left correctly for me.
• User CP doesn't function well. Subscribed threads section is messed up, there is also rep bars beside post comments.
• Dislike not having a search bar or option.
• No "New Posts" option.
• Privacy Statement doesn't work.
  

 

[Nick]

Search bar will be added, certainly. I was trying to add it but the code wasn't cooperating with me and I couldn't get it the way I wanted, so I just scrapped it. It'll certainly be in the final version as will new posts.

Can't say much about the blogs, since I don't have that version installed so I don't have the templates for that. That'll be something I need to do ASAP. Adding them all to the list, regardless.

 

[Cherrim]

Well, I'm not going to get too far into the theme itself because it's really, really... really not my thing. But there's one part I can't ignore and that's the font. You have essentially no images up so the text is really important and it's basically unreadable for me. Using serif fonts when they're so small is okay for books, but when it comes to designs on screens, it's actually pretty painful. The green on white is hard on the eyes and the lack of colours and hard lines makes it difficult to distinguish headers/links and makes everything just blur together.

At the very least, don't mess around with the text-size. If people want to view more text on screen or have very small text-sizes, they'll change that setting themselves in their browser. Don't force it, especially on a text-based theme. :/ And don't be afraid of lines--on the internet especially, it's needed to help guide a user's eyes down the page. Taking them out completely or making them a very faint grey on white just hurts the eyes and with no guide, it's really hard to read anything. So if you're trying to concentrate on posts and posting, this isn't a good way to do it.

I think we do need a more text-based theme for people who use smartphones, so maybe you should turn your efforts toward making this theme for those kinds of users? Otherwise I can't really think of many people who would prefer browsing text-only. That'll sort of cut down on the number of "features" you're expected to include, like a lot of the social networking things. :p

 

[moments.]

I actually really, really like this theme and the colours are lovely.

One problem, for those people using the McPadding profiles, it gets destroyed...

Spoiler:

The Visitor Messages get all cramped, and that continues all the way down the page.

 

[Melody]

...I'm going to have to agree with Lightning on this one...but I do believe she is right, you could most certainly optimize it for Portable Device Viewing fairly easily from this point and still retain the intent and spirit of the style you have in mind. Definitely make the text more readable, I'd enjoy the green/white theme a lot better if lines were black or a dark color though, because that does bring a sort of logical flow to the entire theme which it does desperately need right now. If we could focus on the content of posts and such in this theme and make it friendly to devices with small screens, I could see this skin getting lots of kudos and praise. :3

All of the CC aside, I think in it's current state, it's looking quite nice. Perhaps a dark version is also in order, because you know there are some of us who are deathly allergic to that much white in a screen. ;3

 

[Rukario]

I like the theme.. its basic, open and very lightweight.

I like the idea of no lines, minimal borders and so on.

The main text font does need a bit of tweeking, but it does grow on you a bit, so may be ok in the long run.

Keep up the good work, and squish the bugs before changing the style muchly.

 

[Melody]

Wow. It's rare that Steve actually takes an open liking to a skin. Kudos much for that one man. :3

I suppose once the bugs are squashed and the theme is tweaked slightly for readability, that it could very well easily grow on ya. Much like Caramel Sentret grows on you. ;P

 

[Nick]

Okay, this is now a project for a go-to style for users on mobile devices and small netbooks (since I've had some people comment on how it's easier to browse on those, idk? never used a netbook before).

 

[Morgnarok]

I truely love it and glad theres a mobile style since in my house the only person with a computer is my grandmother and shes on it most the time so i use my nintendo dsi for internet.

 

[JakeyBoy]

The main page is hard to read, it almost looks like a clutter of words, maybe should be spaced out a bit. And I'm not a fan of how big the post titles are, it's quite annoying seeing "re: simplistic (public beta) - bug reporting" so much. And it would probably make sense if the positioning usernames and post titles were swapped, it just makes sense to have the username right next to the avatar.

The threads look really nice though, and pretty easy to read to me. Any chance of a darker version? I'm that kinda guy.

 

[Spherical Ice]

I'll probably not use this as it's too...cold, for me. One problem; in my current theme, I toggled some forums to be hidden, and when I switched to Simplistic, there's no way to toggle them to show again (or hide others). I also agree with JakeyBoy that the "re: etc." is too large, especially for something that's really not that important.

 

[Vrai]

When I was VMing someone, I couldn't choose to disable smilies. I'm really a stickler on using :) instead of the stupid yellow smilie that PC gives me.