Club ASVS is up

[Tyralak]

Two other things:

1. I checked the test site and I see another problem, rather obvious: the profile in the sidebar. With the name, the avatar, the status, the points, the icons, the subtexts and all other junk, it stretches the height of a post's area on the screen even if one writes only one line. I generally dislike boards where the space between each post is vast, and this is really pushing it.

I noticed that too. I plan on condensing and/or eliminating a lot of that information. Right now, we're mostly testing out the features available.

2. I tried several themes at ASVS, but they're all more or less messy. I'd suggest making available some very simple and yet clear themes, with minimal usage of complicated GIFs. I'd suggest one largely relying on white and shades of soft grey so that you don't get the impression of having a two tens inches neon shoved in your face, but which remains clear enough.

There is the default one, (The white one) that's the one that comes standard with the software. I personally don't use it because it tends to leave scorch marks in my retinas. There's also a utilitarian mobile skin, but it's almost too basic. I will have a basic no-frills option with the new software. Something Thelea and a couple of others mentioned, was that the current board looks too "busy". I tend to agree. In fact, I usually turn most of the things on the side off. We will have a lot of the extra features and statuses, etc hidden from immediate view on the new software. People will still be able to get to them from a tab, but it shouldn't clutter up the whole screen. Do you like the effect on the test board of the foreground moving independently of the background? A lot of people liked it, but I'm sure a few won't. I intend to have a more basic skin available. I appreciate your input on it. My goal is to have enough features to make it unique, but not look like a hoarders apartment.

[User1390]

hi i think i have the same probelm as mr orgagan . I cannot seem to get registered because of the human test at the end

i am human!

[Tyralak]

hi i think i have the same probelm as mr orgagan . I cannot seem to get registered because of the human test at the end

i am human!

I doubt that very much. Clearly you're a bot. :D Are you talking about the main site www.asvs.us or the test site tb1.asvs.org ? In any event I'll remove the human verification thing. It's stupid anyway. I can take care of spambits on my own.

[Mr. Oragahn]

There is the default one, (The white one) that's the one that comes standard with the software. I personally don't use it because it tends to leave scorch marks in my retinas.

Yes, the point about the neon. I tried all of them even before writing the post.
I think SDN, SBC and SFJN have layouts and colours sober enough, all that's needed is finding smoother contrasts and other hues that fit.

I'm not a big fan of the cluttered layouts, the charged backgrounds and blinking icons with a thousand colours in them.
I'll try to post links here when I see a layout or a theme, even if it's from a blog, that I find could be good as an inspiration.

There's also a utilitarian mobile skin, but it's almost too basic. I will have a basic no-frills option with the new software. Something Thelea and a couple of others mentioned, was that the current board looks too "busy". I tend to agree. In fact, I usually turn most of the things on the side off. We will have a lot of the extra features and statuses, etc hidden from immediate view on the new software. People will still be able to get to them from a tab, but it shouldn't clutter up the whole screen. Do you like the effect on the test board of the foreground moving independently of the background? A lot of people liked it, but I'm sure a few won't.

I'm not against the background that stays put while the main body of the text frame scrolls up and down, but I'm more of the watermark style background. And I don't really like when the text frame is transparent. If there should be some, I'd tend to pus the opacity at above 92% (going by Photoshop ratios).

I intend to have a more basic skin available. I appreciate your input on it. My goal is to have enough features to make it unique, but not look like a hoarders apartment.

Yes, besides the cleaner it looks, the more inviting it is. When it's too messy, it conveys a feeling of obscurity about the community, and in general, in terms of ad hoc communication/marketing, that's like saying we're ol' greasy nerds who don't give much about what the board looks like as we understand ourselves well enough. It's repulsive, and you surely want to avoid that.

[User1390]

hi i think i have the same probelm as mr orgagan . I cannot seem to get registered because of the human test at the end

i am human!

I doubt that very much. Clearly you're a bot. :D Are you talking about the main site http://www.asvs.us or the test site tb1.asvs.org ? In any event I'll remove the human verification thing. It's stupid anyway. I can take care of spambits on my own.

I don't know how I am messing this up but it tells me that my email is already in use by a memeber I made a brand new hotmail and it still says it .

i am no skinjob sir

[Tyralak]

I don't know how I am messing this up but it tells me that my email is already in use by a memeber I made a brand new hotmail and it still says it .

i am no skinjob sir

Hmmmm, I don't know either. Send me a PM here with the name you want to register under, and the email address. I'll manually create an account for you at both boards.

[Tyralak]

Due to an unexpected and irritating expense, our transition to Vbulliten will have to be put off for a bit. So, in the meantime I will address some of the issues people have mentioned with the existing software. Oragahn, I'm posting a picture of exactly where the button is to turn off the crap on the sidebars. Let me know if that addresses your concerns about the clutter, or if there were other issues you had in mind? I'm considering just turning all that crap off by default, because nobody really uses it.

[Praeothmin]

Please turn off the "crap in the sidebars"... :)

[Mr. Oragahn]

Yup, turned the sidebar off, way better.

I use Gothic2 style. It's far from being the best thing, but it avoids a good number of the 90s-internet style design pitfalls, yet it still comes with its own horrors.
If I knew how to create a new template it would probably be faster for me to show you what I wish for though.

The banner is all wrong. It's clutter right from the beginning, plenty of text stacking over big pictures.
The Deridex is cut.
The tagline (the ... *sigh... the second one, Free Speech thing) is too close to the border of the main horizontal menu (it shows if you click on "Reputation History"). It's also hard to read.

I don't know why the Welcome frame with the citation need to be green fluo and so huge.

The Gateworld boards are better, visually speaking. Yet, I think they quite suck in comparison to what they were before. I hate their listing layout with a passion, it's really a disaster... before that their former style (they changed it several months ago) was much, much clearer and less cluttered.
But if you check some random thread, you'll see that it's a simple layout, clear enough yet without the whiter colours being needles-in-the-eyes flashy, and the quote boxes are very sharp and clear as well.

Anyway, I'll keep looking for examples.

[Tyralak]

Yup, turned the sidebar off, way better.

The sidebar stuff is off permanently now. We had a database hiccup the other day, and had to do some maintenance. So we just disabled them all.

I use Gothic2 style. It's far from being the best thing, but it avoids a good number of the 90s-internet style design pitfalls, yet it still comes with its own horrors.
If I knew how to create a new template it would probably be faster for me to show you what I wish for though.

The original "Gothic" style was damn near perfect, but the designer stopped supporting it, and it wasn't compatible with the new IPB version. His "updated" version, Gothic 2 is fixed width and is ridiculously narrow. It makes a lot of stuff cramped.

The banner is all wrong. It's clutter right from the beginning, plenty of text stacking over big pictures.
The Deridex is cut.

The D'Deridex and the ISD being partially cut was a design choice to give the impression of it coming out at you. But the banner can always be changed.

The tagline (the ... *sigh... the second one, Free Speech thing) is too close to the border of the main horizontal menu (it shows if you click on "Reputation History"). It's also hard to read.

I didn't realize it bled over like that. What browser and resolution are you using? I've been thinking about getting rid of the "Free speech sci-fi community" tagline, as it was originally a dig at SDN and SB. There really isn't any need for it now, since anyone who spends five minutes there knows the kind of place it is.

I don't know why the Welcome frame with the citation need to be green fluo and so huge.

That's been changed. It's smaller now. Not sure what other color would really work though.

The Gateworld boards are better, visually speaking. Yet, I think they quite suck in comparison to what they were before. I hate their listing layout with a passion, it's really a disaster... before that their former style (they changed it several months ago) was much, much clearer and less cluttered.
But if you check some random thread, you'll see that it's a simple layout, clear enough yet without the whiter colours being needles-in-the-eyes flashy, and the quote boxes are very sharp and clear as well.

Anyway, I'll keep looking for examples.

Thanks. I very much appreciate the time you've taken to help me out. It appears that we may continue to be using IPB for the time being, as real life seems to always find a way to encroach on my hobby spending. :D It may be a month or two before I can afford the change, so I'm going to work on streamlining what I have for now. Here is a new one I found. What is your opinion of this: http://rpgfrontier.net/index.php?

[Tyralak]

I went ahead and added it. Tell me what you think.

[Praeothmin]

I like the new skin, although it's a bit dark...

[Mr. Oragahn]

A bit dark, but simple enough:
http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=48089378

http://rpgfrontier.net/forum/89-cantina/ - menu kills my eyes, and the transparency eats my framerate.
http://rpgfrontier.net/topic/850-anime/ - near white fonts over an ebony background hurts.

Why not try something like black fonts over a light brown/dust background?

[Mr. Oragahn]

Another one:
http://www.subspace-comms.net/index.php?topic=3507.0

A very good design. The cons: too much space between posts and perhaps the typo being a little tiny bit too gray, but that's all. Everything else is ace, the colours and background pictures make a very coherent theme.

[Mr. Oragahn]

Crypto-green style, sober but effective. Plus it has a scrolling middle frame with a DS in the background that doesn't hamper reading at all.