MorphZone : : New Default Theme
Posted By: Targhan. on 2008/11/10 21:44:48
MorphZone has moved on to version 2.0 of the default theme.  This new theme should improve readability in higher screen resolutions.  If you prefer to keep the older theme, you may change the theme in your user profile settings after logging in.



There are a few notes to point out since moving to the new theme:

Our links to the "Hot and New" area and the "Submissions" pages are now on the left-side of the site.  We have spent a fair amount of time on the new MorphZone theme but are not yet finished improving the look.. Expect additional adjustments in the near future. 

Also, to all of our news-posters, we would like you to notice that we have completely overhauled the news categories which will hopefully make finding and differentiating news even easier.

Thanks again for all of your continued support,

Targhan
 
  • Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    Korni
    Joined: 2006/2/23
    Posts: 471
    From: the Planet of ...
    Cool! That's really nice. May i have some dark themes to choose? ;)
    http://korni.ppa.pl/modkowypaczek/ | My Rifle, My Bunny, and Me
  • »2008/11/10 22:26
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    tokai
    Joined: 2003/2/25
    Posts: 1289
    From: binaryriot
    Sadly too bright and broken in IBrowse (more broken than it was before). Also the site seems to load much longer now and eat even more screenspace (I have to vertically scroll now which is bad). Also Submission and Hot'n'New buttons should be more prominet on the page again (as it was before, was much better IMHO). Maybe merge it with the TopMenu and remove some less used stuff there (like bounties or such).

    Dunno if this update is really a step forward in the usability category. About design that's always matter of taste of course. Personally I would prefer some darker scheme which makes reading the forum less eye wearying.

    But good some stuff gets done at least.. slight change in direction and it will be for the better ;)
  • »2008/11/10 23:15
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    xyphoid
    Joined: 2008/7/11
    Posts: 870
    From: Delaware, USA
    Nice looks great on sputnik
  • »2008/11/11 3:57
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  • Moderator
    hooligan
    Joined: 2003/2/23
    Posts: 1948
    From: Lahti, Finland
    Maybe get rid of the poll-section in left. Who needs them anyways :-)
    www.mikseri.net/hooligan <- Free music
  • »2008/11/11 7:46
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    jcmarcos
    Joined: 2003/3/13
    Posts: 1178
    From: Pinto, Madrid ...
    For me, MorphZone thread pages take even longer to render than before. There's always been a problem, perhaps some HTML tag unclosed, or something like that, that makes my browser take, literally, forty seconds to render a not so long page, using 100% CPU.
    Could you please investigate? I guess it's not easy, but I'm sure that there's something wrong, surely related to a table element. With the previuos look, I could easily see that each post going down the page was narrower than the one above it.
    Does anybody know about an analysis tool that can find this defects in HTML?
  • »2008/11/11 7:54
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Zylesea
    Joined: 2003/6/4
    Posts: 2053
    From:
    Quote:


    hooligan Date: 2008/11/11 9:46:04

    Maybe get rid of the poll-section in left. Who needs them anyways



    Let's have a poll about that...
    --
    http://via.bckrs.de

    Whenever you're sad just remember the world is 4.543 billion years old and you somehow managed to exist at the same time as David Bowie.
    ...and Matthias , my friend - RIP
  • »2008/11/11 11:35
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    analogkid
    Joined: 2004/11/3
    Posts: 654
    From: near myself
    Looks nice in Firefox, but a little bit strange in IBrowse ;-)
  • »2008/11/11 12:38
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    SoundSquare
    Joined: 2004/12/1
    Posts: 1213
    From: Paris, France
    the new theme is sweet but :

    -the theme looks too small on high resolutions (1680x1050 here), everything becomes hard to read. I never had this feeling with the previous theme.
    -i agree that it's too bright, my favorite websites are the darkest ones, mostly because they become eyes-friendly in the evening :) Morphzone simply kills my eyes.
  • »2008/11/11 13:55
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  • Moderator
    hooligan
    Joined: 2003/2/23
    Posts: 1948
    From: Lahti, Finland
    Quote:

    Let's have a poll about that...


    I'm ready for such drastic measures also ;-)
    www.mikseri.net/hooligan <- Free music
  • »2008/11/11 14:42
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  • ASiegel
    Joined: 2003/2/15
    Posts: 1369
    From: Central Europe
    @ Korni

    Unfortunately, the current technical foundation of MorphZone prevents us from providing fundamentally different themes. There are specific parts of the website that stay the same no matter what theme is chosen.

    As you can imagine, a black theme with bright user interface elements would look rather odd. I am afraid that there is no easy solution to this problem for the time being.


    @ SoundSquare:

    I run the same resolution on a 21.3 inch monitor. That being said, any font size changes were focused on headlines (news titles), and the like. There should be no drastic differences for comments and forum posts.

    Regarding the brightness aspect, I would like to emphasize that quite a number of users suffer from misconfigured monitors. The optimal brightness for LCD monitors tends to be between 80 and 100 cd/m. For a monitor that has a maximum brightness of 400 cd/m, you would need to set the brightness to between 20 and 25%. If your monitor had a maximum brightness of 250 cd/m, you would need to set it up to run at roughly 30% of brightness.

    Another key aspect is your work environment. Sitting in a completely darkened room with no other light source but a monitor is generally discouraged by ergonomics experts. If you do so for hours, it is not uncommon that your eyes hurt or you end up suffering from a headache unless you stare at a screen that is mostly black.

    Of course, even if you had a perfectly calibrated computer screen and worked in an environment with ideal lighting, you might still belong to the minority of people who prefer dark themes. As I explained above, we would in fact like to offer an option for you but there are some technical limitations regarding how far we can go.

    [ Edited by ASiegel On 2008/11/11 17:22 ]
  • »2008/11/11 15:47
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  • Acolyte of the Butterfly
    Acolyte of the Butterfly
    Drako^lM
    Joined: 2005/8/10
    Posts: 144
    From: Poland , Chelm
    New skin looks very nice
    Hardware :
    Power Mac G5 2.3 Ghz & MorphOS 3.18 & OSX 10.5
    Mini G4 1.5 Ghz & MorphOS 3.18
    BlaBla Team Member -> http://blabla.ppa.pl
    AmiParty Team Member -> http://www.chal.pl/
  • »2008/11/11 16:37
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  • Targhan
    Joined: 2003/2/8
    Posts: 2833
    From: USA
    I would very much like to do a "Dark" and "Simplified" theme. As an alternative when using Efika instead of Pegasos2 (based mainly on the monitor I have the efika hooked up too). Keep in mind, that time must be permitting for such an activity, and if we can get around to that some of the buttons will really look out of place.

    For now, I need to fix the tables for IBrowse in the current theme. See ya'll laters.
    :idea:Targhan

    MorphOS portal? www.MorphZone.org
  • »2008/11/11 17:18
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  • Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    Korni
    Joined: 2006/2/23
    Posts: 471
    From: the Planet of ...
    @Targhan
    I think that a "Dark" and "Simpflied" theme is more a matter of taste than alternative when using some machines. Simpflied mode sounds interesting, get rid of most graphics and have full freedom in chosing themes :). Of course everything needs some time, it's already nice that there are some people that still take care of MorphZone. MorphOS-News seems to be dead though. Uh, i don't have IBrowse luckily :).

    @ASiegel

    I realise that's not so easy because first of all it's almost impossible to satisfy everyone. Anyway in current state gray theme wouldn't be a problem.
    http://korni.ppa.pl/modkowypaczek/ | My Rifle, My Bunny, and Me
  • »2008/11/11 18:12
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  • Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    Phantom
    Joined: 2004/9/7
    Posts: 381
    From:
    WOW! I thought that I entered a wrong site. Great job. Much nicer now. But there must be a darker skin though.

    @ Targhan

    Can you change the default date format please? You know... DD-MM-YYYY :-)

    [ Edited by Phantom On 2008/11/12 0:58 ]
  • »2008/11/11 21:56
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    jcmarcos
    Joined: 2003/3/13
    Posts: 1178
    From: Pinto, Madrid ...
    Quote:

    Targhan wrote:

    I would very much like to do a "Dark" and "Simplified" theme.


    I would like very much a simplified theme. By the way, I didn't say it before, but I do like the new skin. Matching the product's style is good. Andre has very good taste for user interfaces, one just has to see the original MorphOS 2.0 screenshots and realize how elegant they are.

    Quote:

    time must be permitting for such an activity


    Of course. Thankyou very much for your hard work.

    Quote:

    I need to fix the tables for IBrowse in the current theme.


    The broken tables are not a browser specific problem. But perhaps you've already fixed them: This thread page has rendered in a copule of seconds... Great!

    Wait, it seems there's no problem here, as this is a "news" item, rendered by a different program. But "vievtopic.php" still shows the same symptoms.

    [ Edited by jcmarcos On 2008/11/12 9:42 ]
  • »2008/11/12 7:10
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  • Targhan
    Joined: 2003/2/8
    Posts: 2833
    From: USA
    Hey hey!

    @jmarcos:
    Well, some of that speed up isn't a change in the code, but the graphics getting down into your browser's cache. Also, I wouldn't doubt after a few loads if the server doesn't start keeping things in cache.

    @Korni
    IBrowse is a fine browser as far as "Classic Amiga" browsers go. I have a copy here, and I do like the browser. It's just that more and more of the internet is passing it by. "Simplified" is kind of my personal code language for "it'll be really slow to develop."

    @all
    Thanks for the kind words, I, and I'm sure Andre too, appreciate them. I have to fix the forum stuff in IBrowse now though...

    @Tokai
    Will look at several of the items you pointed out. Sorry, I should have said something sooner.

    [ Edited by Targhan On 2008/11/12 11:46 ]
    :idea:Targhan

    MorphOS portal? www.MorphZone.org
  • »2008/11/12 16:44
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    jcmarcos
    Joined: 2003/3/13
    Posts: 1178
    From: Pinto, Madrid ...
    Quote:

    Targhan wrote:

    Well, some of that speed up isn't a change in the code, but the graphics getting down into your browser's cache. Also, I wouldn't doubt after a few loads if the server doesn't start keeping things in cache.


    No, Dave, there's something wrong in "viewtopic.php" that is not wrong in "article.php" (this page).
    For example, this page we are seeing now renders in mere seconds, while a similar length thread page (generated by "viewtopic.php") takes almost a minute.
    I've checked with the W3C validator, and it reports wrong closing of table elements.
  • »2008/11/13 7:53
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    poundsmack
    Joined: 2003/6/8
    Posts: 1346
    From: USA California
    The new theme looks very nice, thank you Targhan.
    "Poundsmack, official morphzone thread creator" -LorD
    "Wanna be lord of the avatars." -JKD
  • »2008/11/24 21:16
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