defunct thread - info on changing site theme (thread closed)

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defunct thread - info on changing site theme (thread closed)

UODATE 3-25-08 THE FUNCTION TO CHANGE YOUR THEME IS NOT AVAILABLE UNLESS YOU'RE A SUBSCRIBER.

 

There have been quite a few glitches in our site configuration over the past few months. I'm referring mostly to overlapping windows particularly when viewed in internet explorer. I'm instituted somewhat of a "fix." You can now change the theme of the website by accessing your "My account" and clicking "edit" scroll down to near where you input your avatar and you will see a box that says "theme configuration." You can change your theme, and likely make the overlapping windows disappear. Keep in mind, the site will look very different with a different theme, however the poor color coordination (or an occasional oddly placed avatar) may not bother you nearly as much as the overlapping windows and the cutting off of posts.

As we have time and help, we'll customize those themes to make your RRS experience more aesthetically pleasing. Even ANONYMOUS users can edit their theme! Browsing our site in firefox would fix the problem as well.

IF YOU WERE EXPERIENCING OVERLAPPING WINDOWS BEFORE, PLEASE CHANGE YOUR THEME AND POST YOUR RESULTS HERE.

On a side note, does anyone have a spare server lying around that they don't need? Our current one is not handling our excess traffic well, it's gone on overload twice in two weeks now.

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Cool, that worked. I am not

Cool, that worked. I am not able to download Firefox at work, so that helps.


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Awesome! Thanks for filling

Awesome! Thanks for filling me in.

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Yes, much better. The

Yes, much better. The bluemarine theme, though certainly not perfect, is functionally the best for me. The 3rd one spaced out the posts a bit too much, but they both fix the overlapping problems.

On a possibly unrelated note, the quote button seems to be gone for replying to someone's post.

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I noticed the quote button

I noticed the quote button missing. We'll work on it.

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The "push button" one seems

The "push button" one seems to solve this and other problems.


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This is like, extremely

This is like, extremely minor, but I noticed posts only earn "1" point now rather than 2 for new threads and 4 for responses, not that the points really are used for anything right now, but not sure if you noticed.

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Thanks it'll be fixed soon.

Thanks it'll be fixed soon.

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For whatever reason, I'm not

For whatever reason, I'm not allowed to change or delete my current avatar.


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Christen wrote:For whatever

Christen wrote:
For whatever reason, I'm not allowed to change or delete my current avatar.

Did you try just uploading a new one?

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Sapient wrote:Christen

Sapient wrote:
Christen wrote:
For whatever reason, I'm not allowed to change or delete my current avatar.

Did you try just uploading a new one?

Yes, but I'll try again.


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I tried to upload a new

I tried to upload a new avatar, but that didn't work. I deleted my old avatar and that worked, but when I went in to add my new avatar, my old one popped back up again. The dimensions of my new avatar are 151x151 and 4.91 kb which should be within the guidelines, right?


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Send it to my email and I

Send it to my email and I think I could make it work as a temporary fix (maybe permanent fix).

Yes that's within the guidlines.

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I'm up and running. Thanks.

I'm up and running. Thanks.


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All looks well for me. The

All looks well for me. The only comment I had and I know I will probably be met with much disgust for it but I must say it. The design looks pretty awful :S . Sorry, but I'm a software developer - particularly in the web application side and I have to say, functionally everything is great. But the look and color scheme, font sizes are just not jiving for me. I'm not a designer so I know its easier for me to say. As far as spare server laying around I might be able to help on that front. Is this site running Rails or are you using PHP?


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melchisedec wrote:All looks

melchisedec wrote:
All looks well for me. The only comment I had and I know I will probably be met with much disgust for it but I must say it. The design looks pretty awful :S . Sorry, but I'm a software developer - particularly in the web application side and I have to say, functionally everything is great. But the look and color scheme, font sizes are just not jiving for me.

It's the colors and the fonts you don't like? Have a recommendation?

FWIW: I'm not a web designer, and the few that volunteer around here stay busy in other jobs. I put my focus on activism and assume that die hards like myself will see past any aesthetic flaws.

Quote:
As far as spare server laying around I might be able to help on that front. Is this site running Rails or are you using PHP?

I hadn't heard of "Rails" before but I'm almost certain we're not on PHP, does that mean we must be using rails? I know we use Linux. I can ask my server administrator if needed.

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Quote: It's the colors and

Quote:

It's the colors and the fonts you don't like? Have a recommendation?

Well I think some of the fonts for the boxes on the left and right panels might be better scaled down. In fact I think alot of the boxes could be scaled down to provide more real estate. In the forum views, the avatars are pretty big. As far as colors go, I'd suggest something that compliments the banner. The banner is blue/white and the site is black and brownish.

Quote:

FWIW: I'm not a web designer, and the few that volunteer around here stay busy in other jobs. I put my focus on activism and assume that die hards like myself will see past any aesthetic flaws.

Certainly. The meat of the site if you will is ultimately what matters most. A pretty site and no content is worthless. However I do feel that a site that has a more refined design to it, helps attracts users. Users alot of times will discriminate based off appearance alone. If I'm being nit picky I appologize. I work with web applications everday , I can't help but to be critical.

Quote:

I hadn't heard of "Rails" before but I'm almost certain we're not on PHP, does that mean we must be using rails? I know we use Linux. I can ask my server administrator if needed.

Well rails is a framework for developing web applications just like this one. The URLs look a bit like rails ones, but I'm not certain. If you can find out that would be great.


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melchisedec

melchisedec wrote:
Quote:

It's the colors and the fonts you don't like? Have a recommendation?

Well I think some of the fonts for the boxes on the left and right panels might be better scaled down. In fact I think alot of the boxes could be scaled down to provide more real estate.

Agreed, the problem is getting the work done. I think that is done in the theming. If you are willing to work on the theme or anyone else is, I'd be willing to accept the help. I'm bad at theming and the two guys I have to do the work are too busy.

Quote:
In the forum views, the avatars are pretty big.

Yes, they are. I kind of like it like that though. I'm a big proponent of the previous change suggested.

Quote:
As far as colors go, I'd suggest something that compliments the banner. The banner is blue/white and the site is black and brownish.

Actually that's been on the docket for a while. We were gonna go the other route though and change the color of the banner to more of a silver.

Quote:

Certainly. The meat of the site if you will is ultimately what matters most. A pretty site and no content is worthless. However I do feel that a site that has a more refined design to it, helps attracts users.

Agreed.

Quote:
Users alot of times will discriminate based off appearance alone. If I'm being nit picky I appologize. I work with web applications everday , I can't help but to be critical.

Constructive criticism is always very much appreciated.

Quote:
Well rails is a framework for developing web applications just like this one. The URLs look a bit like rails ones, but I'm not certain. If you can find out that would be great.

The urls are worked through Drupal. It's a Drupal site. Is that your answer?

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Just to note, bigger

Just to note, bigger avatars/signatures do look cooler, but they don't do your server any favours regarding bandwidth. Especially when you host the images as well. A size reduction in avatars to 90x90 and a size limit of 3-5kb ea would relieve some server stress. Most forums end up with such limits when their member numbers start getting big.

 Just a suggestion.

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Hi Sapient, I was wondering

Hi Sapient, I was wondering what became of the "Search" button.  If there was a "search" button I could just search for that button myself. Smile


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MarthaSplatterhead

MarthaSplatterhead wrote:
Hi Sapient, I was wondering what became of the "Search" button.  If there was a "search" button I could just search for that button myself.
Hey Martha, my search box is still in the extreme upper left corner of the webpage - above the title boxes.

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Susan

Susan wrote:
MarthaSplatterhead wrote:
Hi Sapient, I was wondering what became of the "Search" button.  If there was a "search" button I could just search for that button myself.
Hey Martha, my search box is still in the extreme upper left corner of the webpage - above the title boxes.

That's because you're a mod hun.  The search box was removed (for all but mods) at the onset of blasphemy challenge because it is a drain on resources, and can lead to the site crashing.  Before we instituted a few small changes like that we would've crashed at 900 visitors, now we're at the point where yesterday we accomodated 2,600 users and still stayed afloat. 

We're getting a new server in first half of 07, and will put the search box back up as soon as we know the server can handle it.  Martha if there is a single post you need found and cant locate it send a mod the search terms (not to dish work off on her but try Susan) and we can search it and send you the link.

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hmm... Mine must be MIA.  I

hmm... Mine must be MIA.  I even tried to change to the different views on the edit page.


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Vastet wrote: Just to

Vastet wrote:

Just to note, bigger avatars/signatures do look cooler, but they don't do your server any favours regarding bandwidth. Especially when you host the images as well. A size reduction in avatars to 90x90 and a size limit of 3-5kb ea would relieve some server stress. Most forums end up with such limits when their member numbers start getting big.

 Just a suggestion.

 

Thanks for the idea, I'll review it with my server admin and get his thoughts on our resources and input on what would happen with the existing pics.

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Sapient wrote:  Martha if

Sapient wrote:

 Martha if there is a single post you need found and cant locate it send a mod the search terms (not to dish work off on her but try Susan) and we can search it and send you the link.

Happy to help if I can! 

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Sapient wrote: On a side

Sapient wrote:
On a side note, does anyone have a spare server lying around that they don't need? Our current one is not handling our excess traffic well, it's gone on overload twice in two weeks now.
Sapient... I have a quad Pentium 3 Xeon 500MHz (2.5GB RAM) server that I am currently overhauling. Problem is... I barely have enough bandwidth for what I do... putting your content on this server and putting it on my network probably wouldn't help you much. Though if someone is willing to pay the bill to upgrade my service to somewhere in the 3 to 6 Mbps range I'd be happy to help ~Wishfull thinking~.

Jason Herbert 


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Sapient wrote: melchisedec

Sapient wrote:
melchisedec wrote:
As far as spare server laying around I might be able to help on that front. Is this site running Rails or are you using PHP?
I hadn't heard of "Rails" before but I'm almost certain we're not on PHP, does that mean we must be using rails? I know we use Linux. I can ask my server administrator if needed.

This site is running Drupal, a content management system written in PHP. New themes can be created fairly simply with a new CSS, some PHP template files and some icons. I'm not a designer but I am a software engineer working in web development. I have plenty of experience with CSS's & PHP (though I mostly work with Java these days) and I was helping to manage a Drupal server for a bit a little while ago. I could come up with a 'cleaner' theme for the site if you like, but I'm sure there are plenty of designers & programmers here who would be willing to help. Perhaps you could run a competition and select the top three submissions to use as new themes for the site. I'd enter it Smiling

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my user name

I don't know if i was drunk at the time or wasn't paying attention (most likely the later as I seldom drink), but is it possible to change the user name and not lose this account?

I thought I had the user name Renshia, but Apparently not.

Renshia
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I just can’t believe that people waste all this time being one thing for something else, they waste all this time and energy on developing some mythological construct as an excuse to live as a person should. What a pathetic waste of energy.


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Renshia wrote:I don't know

Renshia wrote:

I don't know if i was drunk at the time or wasn't paying attention (most likely the later as I seldom drink), but is it possible to change the user name and not lose this account?

I thought I had the user name Renshia, but Apparently not.

Your wish is granted.


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Mr. Atheist wrote:Your wish

Mr. Atheist wrote:

Your wish is granted.

I believed and I was granted a miracle... YAHOOOO!!!!

on a non-delusional note

Thanks

Renshia
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I just can’t believe that people waste all this time being one thing for something else, they waste all this time and energy on developing some mythological construct as an excuse to live as a person should. What a pathetic waste of energy.