Open Member Testing: ATS.5/3 Final Release Candidate

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

LOL, I would hit the "lol" emoticon but it makes me look like I'm trying to hold in a fart.

SkepticOverlord

dustytoad
I don't know if it's just a browser issue yet but the uploads page is all messed up for me.

It should be fixed.

Wow nice.

Working good now.

reply to post by dustytoad


Yeah the dark version is much easier to read.

The problem i had earlier today was that the thread titles didn't stand out enough from the page to make them easily readable. Now, even the smallest change makes it easier to read, for the dark version. The light version is still to... bright.

I almost want to say you could even go a little lighter on the titles, maybe a little bolder. The color sheme on the current ATS is really good, the way the thread title is highlight and how it is color coded to address content.

I think you should make the thread titles bold and white, while maintaining the same grey in the background.

Ok I've seen enough...

gonna log back into the old style and reminisce a bit before it disappears...

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


I'm noticing that the color BB codes don't seem to be working.

Kinda like the size codes in your OP weren't working at first. I noticed you fixed that though.

I am in the dark version now of 5.3.

I remember that a similar thing occurred at the onset of the previous design. The colors were initially dulled down, and there were no initial colors for the different forum descriptions in the recent posts list. That made things much harder to differentiate. It cleared up though when you added the forum colors. The flags and replies out to the right could also benefit from a different, brighter color, different from the forum name color.

The default text color here I am typing with appears to be a slight gray. That does not contrast with the dark background as well as pure white would. And I see that even if I wanted to, white is not an option in the formatting dropdown list. I think it may have been my straining to read this default gray that caused me to have problems earlier.

The dulled down green in the avatar mini profiles suffers from the same problem. Too hard to see. The previous bright green over black worked awesome. Those numbers jumped out at you. I'm still looking around...

reply to post by SkepticOverlord

Thats pretty sweet. I'll be using that alot!
Love that feature.

reply to post by TrueAmerican

Black ? Ok good that worked

Let's see now...

SkepticOverlord

abe froman
It's pretty, I'll give you that. Looks like it's in large print for the elderly.

This afternoon, while the site was live, I helped 5 members via private message and three via email realize their browser was zoomed-in and they didn't know it -- and they had the same complaint. The default font size for posts is only 2 pixels larger than the old design.

Make sure your browser window is 1:1.

Can you do something to slap that and the option to switch to a darker screen in every member's face? Apparently U2U doesn't work. I know nothing about the interwebs and the inner workings, but perhaps on actual launch day everyone could be auto logged out and get a prompt before they log back in? Maybe a banner? Everyone is auto logged out and gets a banner for a few seconds when they go to log in? Maybe something larger than a banner explaining the changes?

I may have missed it, but a link on every page (or that top banner) directed to a complete breakdown in infographic form of all the new functions and icons seems like a good idea.

I always hate new site designs. Then I grow to like them. I actually like pretty much everything about the new design and there isn't much I would personally change. I'm almost mad that I'm not mad. It's going to take some getting used to, but let's ignore the idiots that think the site has been ruined and are threatening to no longer post. Come on kids, you can learn a new format. This site is content driven.

Naysayers, give it 1 week of normal use and you are going to realize the redesign is awesome. I saw some member complaining the new look seemed like it was designed for kids. Completely disagree. We've got some minimalism and current design now.

To all the folks that worked on this, I say good job. The layout reminds me of some popular sites but with a little more user friendly aspects.

Change takes time, quit being idiots. Nothing fundamental has changed. The site just looks more grown up.

Another question, my ATS "hangout" is always the "New Topics" page because I like seeing the most flagged and most discussed over the 24hr period, as well as the newest threads all on the same page

This "triplicate" feature does not appear on this new web design and I cannot see where I can sort the "new" for "most flagged" or "most discussed".

If so, then point me in the right direction, if not then can we get the "flags" title to sort and add a "comments" title to also sort.

Do we have a fire-hose feature?

Am I having a blonde moment?

Not too bad at all.

The only problem I had was after reading a thread and going back to the forum list. You don't get back to the location you were at before reading the thread. Kind of a pain having to scroll back down to where I was.

This only happens after another page of threads are loaded.

Is there a "small icons" option?
As opposed to the current "visually disabled childrens" icons that fill half the page?

Edit - how the wasted space looks on my screen:

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


This seems better than earlier today. Getting used to it a bit.

One issue: When clicking on a link from my posts page it takes me to the beginning of the OP, not to the actual post I had made. That happened during the beta as well.
XP Firefox 23.0

I was just looking at the new ATS theme and it's starting to look really good imo, well the dark theme definitely looks great. In terms of looks, the new candidate version is definitely superior to this version of ATS and I look forward to using it.

However a lot of functionality is being lost at the same time. Personally I can live without the friend an foe system and the profile comments system, but it does make ATS less of a social platform and from a business perspective that may not be the best thing. Either way I'm not too concerned about that though.

A functionality problem which does concern me however is the removal of the ribbon. I read through the other beta topic and SkepticOverlord justified this action by saying that the persistent top-menu is a sufficient substitute. It does not, however, offer the ability to view a live feed of the top, hot and new topics all in one compact window like the ribbon does.

I cannot stress enough how useful it is to have the functionality provided by the "current topics" button on the ribbon, I would highly suggest adding similar functionality somewhere on the persistent top-menu (unless there already is a function like that but I missed it?). If there's one thing in this post which gets done please make it that.

The only other thing in terms of functionality which is worth mentioning is that the profile page no longer appears to provide a small overview of my recent posts and recent threads. I can see them by visiting separate pages in my profile but I cannot get an overview of both on the same page, which is annoying, because I actually used my profile page as my homepage and main entry point for ATS.

But other than that I really like the new look, it's modern and nice on the eyes. The only real problem with the theme is the smilies, and it seems like 99% of people agree with me on that so I would highly suggest that the staff consider changing back to the old ones or create better smilies... those ones being used now on the test site are simply not sufficient.

Just received a message and it kicked me back to ATS classic, not sure if this is a bug or not just thought i would mention it.

FortAnthem
reply to post by SkepticOverlord

 

I'm noticing that the color BB codes don't seem to be working.

Colors work fine...
black
red
yellow
pink
Text Green
Text Orange
Text Purple
Text Blue
Text Beige
Text Brown
Text Teal
Text Navy
Text Maroon
Text LimeGreen

I am on my Dell laptop (FF 23.0.1, winxp).

When i scroll on a webpage, I typically click both mouse buttons at once, which brings up this scrolling tool that moves by moving the mouse up/down

On the new design, when I do that and then start to scroll in either direction, it jumps before starting to scroll.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


when you post there is a screen that tells you all the stuff that it is doing in the background. THis screen almost blinded me just now.

If i am dark mode, can this screen also be dark? My retinas burn.....

bigfatfurrytexan
On the new design, when I do that and then start to scroll in either direction, it jumps before starting to scroll.

That's a browser issue I also encountered on another project -- it also affects Mac Safari, especially when at the bottom of a page.

It has something to do with HTML5 on pages with hidden components, I don't know why.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Over all I really like it. The Beta was nice, but I like the feel of the colors here. The general rounded features make navigation smoother and more conducive to finding what you are looking for.

I like how you guys broke everything down into its own area. I feel you have really taken advantage of every inch of screen without cluttering it all up with nonsense people will never use.

In short I have almost nothing negative to say about it. I LOVE the fact that you took away the need to scroll through page after page of recent posts to find a thread you saw but missed your chance to look at in depth because it was buried. I feel this will give ATS more traffic since someone popping in will have more topics to look through before either finding what he came here for or not and leaving. That much selection translates into more types of people being served.

I like how the ribbon is eliminated in favor of a pop up tab. I cant wait to try it on my phone.

I have not tried all the new features but this interface is much easier on the eyes and so I am not that worried about it. I know I will get to them all because all the features are well represented and visible.

I do have one more compliment.....it reminds me of Lcars from star trek. THAT is the best part.

very nice.




these are cool too.....