Forum Upgrade to Xenforo 2.2 Completed. Post any issues here.

overscan (PaulMM)

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I'm going to be closing the forum for a number of hours while I upgrade it to Xenforo 2.2. I'm also moving it to a new server with the latest Ubuntu OS and server software at the same time. I'll give more exact timings nearer the day.

I've done a test migration and it worked pretty well, thanks to dan_inbox for some great testing feedback, so not expecting too many issues.
 
Time updated. Forum will be closed for several hours.

After it reopens, there may be a day or two of tweaks and alterations.
 
Roger that. See you on the other side...thank you for all the hard work.
 
Note that there are currently 3 styles available:

SPF Light - The original blue and white look
SPF Dark - The existing Dark theme some people are using
SPF Dark 2.0 - this will be the default theme in the future but I've got a couple of minor issues I want to fix (scrollbars are dark grey and too hard to see)

To change style, simply click on the paintbrush at the bottom of the page:


Style Chooser.JPG
 
Its midnight here, so I'll be sleeping soon. You've got about 30 mins to log any problems otherwise I'll deal with them in the morning.
 
I've noticed that the "similar topics" function has some odd views on what constitutes similar at times. I still quite like it though.
 
Couldn't stand the black, changed it back to white-and-blue - what is called "SPF light".

Pretty funny moment... I was reading one of uk75 naval whatif threads and all of sudden, on the right of my screen I noted an explosion of many similar threads I had never seen before.

Knee jerk reflexion "Wow, UK75 has gone over the edge - he has just opened a whole bunch of new threads"

And then I realised, that window was no longer "recent posts" but "similar threads" o_O o_O o_O o_O :eek: ROTFL

(hey, I'm not complaining - I discovered many 2007-2013 whatifs I had missed back then !)
 
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I don't like that black either. Makes me feel as if I am doing something illegal on the dark web.
Why is that the default instead of the good old SPF Light?

Now I have to manually switch to SPF Light every time. It would be more convenient if that paintbrush-button would also be at the top of the screen and not only at the bottom.

And when I log in to post a message like this, or just to enlarge an attachment, I again get that black screen and again I have to manually switch to SPF Light.

My browser deletes all cookies when I close it, which is what I want, so tomorrow I will have the same nuisance again.
 
Make an exception for the secretprojects.co.uk cookie. That'll preserve your settings, and it allows you to stay logged in, which means you can take advantage of features like the 'new posts' list, and means you don't have to log in every time you want to do something.
 
is it normal that on some post the "post a answer box" (sorry ,not sure of the name in english) hide a part of some post for some reason?

thanks for your answer!
 
Make an exception for the secretprojects.co.uk cookie. That'll preserve your settings, and it allows you to stay logged in, which means you can take advantage of features like the 'new posts' list, and means you don't have to log in every time you want to do something.
I already thought of that but I couldn't figure out how that should be done in Firefox.

Moreover I doubt whether that would make a difference because in the mean time I noticed that after logging out I again immediately get a black screen. Apparently this website removes the cookie when a user logs out.
And when I refreshed the "New posts" screen, which was still open in another tab from before I logged in, that screen also turned black. So apparently the cookie that I set to use SPF Light before I logged in, is also removed by this site.

The default screen color should reflect the preference of the majority of the users on this forum, and I can't imagine that the majority prefers a black screen.

I certainly drives me crazy that I have to set it to SPF Light again and again and again and again, day after day, after day, after day, after day. But if I am the only one suffering then please ignore my comments.
 
Exceptions to cookie clearing in Firefox:

there are also extensions that allow you to manage cookies in more detail, e.g.:
 
1- sidebar
I like the "similar threads" sidebar, it should be useful to help limit the un-necessary duplication of threads.
However, I just ran into an undesirable side effect of it: when there are not many posts in the "current page", then the sidebar pushes the navigation bar waaaay down. See capture attached.
On this capture it is not too bad because I did it on a 2560x1600 desktop monitor, but on a 1280x768 laptop it is a pain, pushing down the bar so far down that it is necessary to scroll down a lot.
Maybe the vertical depth of the Similar Thread sidebar should be limited to the depth of displayed posts.

2- post editor
As you have already noted on the test forum, in dark mode the editor's background highlight color for selected text is exactly the same as the normal background, which means that it is invisible. OK, once we know it, us geeks can survive, but it is confusing and unwelcome. Could that color be changed? Maybe to some darkish blue or whatever. If is really can't be changed, then how about changing the foreground text's color? Big scroll-down space cause sidebar.jpg
 
I like the dark mode, seems to improve the contrast on images on a white 'field'.
 
1- sidebar
I like the "similar threads" sidebar, it should be useful to help limit the un-necessary duplication of threads.
However, I just ran into an undesirable side effect of it: when there are not many posts in the "current page", then the sidebar pushes the navigation bar waaaay down. See capture attached.
On this capture it is not too bad because I did it on a 2560x1600 desktop monitor, but on a 1280x768 laptop it is a pain, pushing down the bar so far down that it is necessary to scroll down a lot.
Maybe the vertical depth of the Similar Thread sidebar should be limited to the depth of displayed posts.

I can only change the number of posts to display globally, not dynamically. I've changed it back to 5 similar threads from 10, this was an experiment. Note however that the breadcrumb navigation menu is handily located at the top as well as the bottom.....

2- post editor
As you have already noted on the test forum, in dark mode the editor's background highlight color for selected text is exactly the same as the normal background, which means that it is invisible. OK, once we know it, us geeks can survive, but it is confusing and unwelcome. Could that color be changed? Maybe to some darkish blue or whatever. If is really can't be changed, then how about changing the foreground text's color?View attachment 642927

This is fixed now, selected text is highlighted in blue.
 
Luckily @edwest its your choice - you can change to "SPF Light" using the style chooser at the bottom of the page:

View attachment 642929


Thanks. I am also not enjoying various sites going from this new fiddely bit to another new fiddely bit as if these upgrades, like, to three dots, are improvements.

Respectfully,
Ed
 
This
I don't like that black either. Makes me feel as if I am doing something illegal on the dark web.
Why is that the default instead of the good old SPF Light?

Now I have to manually switch to SPF Light every time. It would be more convenient if that paintbrush-button would also be at the top of the screen and not only at the bottom.

And when I log in to post a message like this, or just to enlarge an attachment, I again get that black screen and again I have to manually switch to SPF Light.

My browser deletes all cookies when I close it, which is what I want, so tomorrow I will have the same nuisance again.

You really should be logged in to the forum when using it. Otherwise as you note you can't view images full size, post messages or replies, etc. The forum isn't really designed for the use case of a registered user who vever logs in but wants customised settings.

Cookies are not evil. The only use of the SPF cookie is to allow you to log back in automatically. Forum members will be able to see you onlne when you are logged in.

Having said that, I can change the default to SPF Light if there's demand for it. I personally find it hurts my eyes to view it, its so bright.

"Dark mode" is becoming more popular because it can save battery life by reducing screen power consumption. On an iPhone, enabling Dark Mode reduces power used by up to 30%.
 
They seemed to have optimized it for Chrome. It is very screwy and slow under Firefox. And this is after completely clearing the cache.
 
They seemed to have optimized it for Chrome. It is very screwy and slow under Firefox. And this is after completely clearing the cache.
I tested it on 80.0.1 (64-bit) on Firefox on Windows 10, didn't have any issues. In fact I'm using it to create this reply! What theme are you using? Try the "SPF Dark 2.0" version.
 
I've swapped the default to "SPF Dark 2.0" as I've fixed the scrollbar issue.

I'm going to run a survey on default look :)
 

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