DGN Updates/Upgrades 2018

[TronRP]

OK all, thank you for your patience and please excuse my learning curve.  I missed Goth by a mile this time with the green.  Headed for another redo. 

[Draco1958]

34 minutes ago, TronRP said:

OK all, thank you for your patience and please excuse my learning curve.  I missed Goth by a mile this time with the green.  Headed for another redo. 

Green is for Irish Goths.

[TronRP]

4 minutes ago, Draco1958 said:

Green is for Irish Goths.

I had used the color of a crushed velvet skirt that my Vampire/Goth friend had worn to an underground hangout we went to when I had visited Ohio.  I just missed the mark is all.

[TronRP]

Better Version

Current Desktop Version - Forum Front Page: JUNE

[TronRP]

I find it funny that I'm getting the color schemes from a search called "Gothic Background" and it still wasn't "Goth" enough.  I hope the traditional black, white, gray and red is better received.

 

I will continue to educate myself on this topic so that I can continue to help DGN maintain the proper presence. 

[Nitewolf]

the coloring looks great to me

[TronRP]

1 hour ago, Nitewolf said:

the coloring looks great to me

Yes, I went back to the traditional "Goth" colors.  I was a bit too ambitious before.

 

Some of the grays are difficult to edit because most of the categories are mislabeled.  It took me two days just to find the correct category to change the "Save" button to red.

Edited June 6, 2018 by TronRP

[Troy Spiral (13)]

You are doing a great job Tron and it lets me not worry so much about DGN, and worry about the 25 other things a bit more. hah.

Here is an actual article about how to design the look of 'gothic websites'  the (short) history of goth, and characteristics of gothic websites, even if you use zero of the ideas it's a pretty fascinating read.  I'd try not to confuse "gothic" with "horror" even though "gothic horror" is a thing, goth is more about a mood than a blatant in your face sort of 'terror blood and guts" type thing.   The red color of the degoons (and the color of were it says "founder <---" in my profile is the red I was thinking about (not that that's an issue just thinking totally randomly out loud)  For the background a black heavy thing maybe with some sort of Victorian-ish or crazy Halloween style pattern that reminds one of say the classic Bram Stoker era pattern (darkl gray on black usually looks good) then you can layer flares of color here and there rather than having any big "bocks" of color.  Google "Tim Burton Style" which is also pretty good.  The red you have now is fine, just its pixelated on a large screen. (again not that its a big deal I'm more worried about 'behind the scenes" stuff than the visual look of dgn, although it is a thing. 

http://www.instantshift.com/2014/05/20/gothic-web-design-style/

 

Some time quite awhile ago signatures disappeared from DGN.  Part of me was relieved because of the INSANELY HUGE DUMBASS signatures some people had, but some small sized one seems like something people would like.  Is that an on/off toggle somewhere? Hopefully with a way to restrict the size to a bare minimum. I couldn't find it, not that I looked for a huge amount of time.  Ugh.. damn life. 

NONE OF THIS IS A SPECIFIC SUGGESTION JUST SOME IDEAS MAYBE AS A STARTING POINT

                                                                                       (this one is the actual house spiral "mendala")

 

The oscar wild quote one is just more that I love that border style.  How to get that to go "all around the board" I have no idea. Again just random out loud thoughts don't take any of this too seriously.  In terms of fonts (if that ever becomes an issue, not that I'm seeing a reason for it right now) the class of fonts called "blackletter" is great.  The official DGN font forever was "Blackletter Gothic" but there are plenty of neat ones here :  (and free) http://www.1001fonts.com/search.html?search=blackletter&amp;x=0&amp;y=0

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, remember mobile.  That is how the vast majority of people will see this site.  The pretty stuff we can do with the desktop is lost on almost all visitors. Working smaller versions of it into mobile will be a challenge.  (and keep the end goal in mind, over everything else the goal is to get more, active posters WTGP  Will. This. Get. Posters. ?  Often the look CAN help get posters but 'ease of use' is the main thing.  One way that FB and all the other shitty social media sites get more activity is non-email notifications.  I'm not sure if IPB can do that or not.  Actually, any website can do that, i just don't know if its easy or super involved.  (the notifications that show up on a cell phone). 

 

Love the raven pic on the DGN survival block.  I poked around trying to figure out how to get a small version of that to show up somewhere obvious (not all the way at the bottom) on mobile.  Nothing poped out at me but like most IBP stuff there is a lot of time spent just figuring things out that later feel obvious. 

At some point, I want to find a script that will remove all "subscriptions" because right now peoples emails get spammed to shit with email notifications.  Then set the board so that only posts that someone created themselves, quoted/tagged you or you choose manually to follow will be the only posts you get notified of.  We have lost MANY emails and been blocked by a lot of users due to the overabundance of notifications.  ... HOOOOOOOOOOLY novel batman.  *random hugs* 

 

 

gallery_1_337_1436_clipped_rev_1.ico <-- ignore this stupid thing i just cant seem to delete it. 

[TronRP]

@Troy Spiral

Thank you for the input.

 

Everything you posted is doable.  I found the edits in the Admin area earlier after the 4.3 update.  Just tell me specifics and I will do my best to take care of it. 

 

Also, as I mentioned before, I keep the Mobile version 100% in mind every time I make a board edit, but as I stated before, CARBON (which is the theme we are using) hardwired the majority of Mobile function to code.  That is why I said I was learning the code for myself so I will have the ability to make Mobile (or any other) edits as needed.

 

About the "Look" I had asked members about the color scheme having actual color and, online, I saw all the same stuff you presented above (with the exception of the Red Silk Scarf and the House Spiral Medallion)...I just accidentally got a little too creative.  You have final word.

 

I'll change the red to the one you like.  I just didn't know that was on purpose because it was such a bright red it was almost shockingly neon in large quantities, so I went with blood red and burgundy.  But so far, that is the only color that is acceptable.

 

I will start hammering out these changes asap.  I always check the edits using both desktop and mobile.  I am sorry there is so little that I can do with the mobile version at the moment, but I can contact the theme creator to have them do edits faster if they agree to that.

 

As for the current background, I put up something to get rid of the "forestry" green, as I was informed it was confusing the site to be wiccan/nature lover and they like. 

[TronRP]

Current Desktop Version - Forum Front Page: JUNE

[TronRP]

To be honest, I actually like this current color scheme.  The "Red Silk Cloth" background really adds a nice dimension to the overall look. 

 

However, the only way I could work in getting the "Donation Goal" to show up first was by switching the "Sidebar" to the left.  On the mobile version, the Donation Goal is the first thing you will see and you will have to scroll down to the "Forums".  So I am thinking of placing some kind of image breaker there to emphasis the start of that section. 

[TronRP]

@Troy Spiral

By the way, as far as the signatures go, it's still there (see above: TTFN TronRP).  What was happening was people were adding large pictures and/or gifs to their signature thus making some signatures take up half the screen.  You actually have a community promotion how-to as your signature.  That's the place where people were adding custom made signature pictures and other images along with text.

[TronRP]

@Troy Spiral

And I apologize about the site before.  I was just getting tired of seeing everyone's "Goth" sites with the same look.  I just wanted DGN to not look so much like everyone else especially with all the various options there are.  But if the look is scaring people away, then by all means, I will copy the norm.  It is about what you want as the final say.  I don't want you to feel embarrassed to promote your own site.

[TronRP]

@Troy Spiral

As I do not use FB on a regular basis, I am not sure what a non-email notification is in terms of DGN.  DGN has a numerical bubble that shows up once you sign in (I am assuming that is what you are referring to).  It shows the notifications to stuff you follow or have been tagged in.  This also appears in the Mobile version.

 

Also, I set the email notifications to be able to be edited by DGN members.  The only thing is they will have to sign in to set the notifications so they do not receive emails notifying them of certain content. 

[Trene4000]

I like the look.

[TronRP]

On 6/6/2018 at 1:01 AM, Draco1958 said:

Green is for Irish Goths.

 

Actually, our resident "Irish Goth" liked the green.

[TronRP]

@Troy Spiral

Just a note.  There are 66 versions of "Blackletter Gothic".  Did you have a particular font in mind...😅

[TronRP]

I just noticed that although I resized the images, it only takes effect on the attachments.  I will look to see if I can do a resize for downloaded images also.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

On 6/7/2018 at 7:56 AM, TronRP said:

@Troy Spiral

By the way, as far as the signatures go, it's still there (see above: TTFN TronRP).  What was happening was people were adding large pictures and/or gifs to their signature thus making some signatures take up half the screen.  You actually have a community promotion how-to as your signature.  That's the place where people were adding custom made signature pictures and other images along with text.

You see signatures? It must be a setting I'll have to find. I've not seen a signature in like 3 years. 

[Troy Spiral (13)]

The donations graphic looks sweet on the desktop but is HUGE in terms of how much screen space it takes up on mobile.  I shrunk it down a lot but its probably still too big. (maybe not, not sure).  Since it only takes PayPal I couldn't directly donate to it (an empty tip jar stays empty) I can send anyone reading this like 10 bucks or 5 bucks or whatever if they can donate it just so the restaurant doesn't look empty.  

 

Navigating the board on mobile is confusing as heck.  I know its a product of the awkward way we have to mix & match mobile & desktop.  But when someone shows up on forums, they expect to see forums not a long list of posts... topics... although they DO want to see 'new posts' and "hot topics" just not to the exclusion of all else.  I dicked around with it for awhile, couldn't seem to change it.  The "new posts" and "hot topics" and such should be small little things and the forums section should be large and overpower everything else.  How to get it that way I'm having trouble with.   I had a few people at the gathering try to use the mobile version of DGN and all 3 seemed really confused.  Myself I wasn't confused I just knew things were the way they were at the moment.  

Its not going to happen overnight but we really do need to figure out the mobile aspect and make it the slickest 'version' of DGN.   Rome wasn't built in a day.

[TronRP]

@Troy Spiral

Maybe I should PM you, because going off of your posts in this particular thread, I am not sure if you are reading what I'm writing to you.

[TronRP]

@Troy Spiral

Do you want me to have the Desktop Version forced so it will automatically show up on the phone.  Unless I am misunderstanding you, it seems as though you now want the Forum to show up instead of the Donations.

 

I'm starting to feel like only me and firekitten are the last DGNers to use Desktop computers.

 

I know you mentioned some way that FB does it, but I do not use FB on my phone so I apologies for my ignorance in that area.  So I do not know how to help you set that up.  What I can do since everyone is on their phones is just to remove the confusing categories so as not to scare off all the potential DGNers.

 

I suppose the new skin is the issue, but I tried to hold off as long as possible before getting something new for this very reason.

 

I will do some resets.  Since the stats are that mobile is the main user, the site will only look weird to a few people.

[TronRP]

 

1 hour ago, Troy Spiral said:

You see signatures? It must be a setting I'll have to find. I've not seen a signature in like 3 years. 

For Desktop Version

Use pull down menu next to your member name

Go to "Account Settings"

Go to Signature

[TronRP]

For Mobile Version

Click the Menu (3 lines) at the top of the screen

Choose Account

Choose Account Settings

Click the Settings Area pull down menu (3 lines)

Click Signature

[TronRP]

1 hour ago, Troy Spiral said:

The donations graphic looks sweet on the desktop but is HUGE in terms of how much screen space it takes up on mobile.  I shrunk it down a lot but its probably still too big. (maybe not, not sure).  Since it only takes PayPal I couldn't directly donate to it (an empty tip jar stays empty) I can send anyone reading this like 10 bucks or 5 bucks or whatever if they can donate it just so the restaurant doesn't look empty.  

 

Navigating the board on mobile is confusing as heck.  I know its a product of the awkward way we have to mix & match mobile & desktop.  But when someone shows up on forums, they expect to see forums not a long list of posts... topics... although they DO want to see 'new posts' and "hot topics" just not to the exclusion of all else.  I dicked around with it for awhile, couldn't seem to change it.  The "new posts" and "hot topics" and such should be small little things and the forums section should be large and overpower everything else.  How to get it that way I'm having trouble with.   I had a few people at the gathering try to use the mobile version of DGN and all 3 seemed really confused.  Myself I wasn't confused I just knew things were the way they were at the moment.  

Its not going to happen overnight but we really do need to figure out the mobile aspect and make it the slickest 'version' of DGN.   Rome wasn't built in a day.

 

The only reason DGN became awkward to navigate was so the Donation block could show up first.  I fixed it.  We are now back to normal as far as the mobile is concerned.  The Desktop will look interesting because there is no way to edit the width of the box the relocated Donation block shows up in so the line for donations stretches across 3/4 of the forum board.  But statistically only a few people will ever see that so it should not affect potential mobile members.

 

But I must say, if someone is scared off from the board because of the location of a donation box, then they probably were not interested in the site as a whole in the first place...