VOGONS


Request for these forums

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First post, by Gambit37

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I didn't know where else to post this as there's no 'general' forum so I hope this is OK.

Is it possible to improve the skin for this forum? I ask because I am very familiar with phpBB software (I use it myself), and some things that are very useful have been removed:

1) No 'quick jump' on the index page to the latest post (this was a small arrow next to the posters' ID in the original subSilver template)

2) No page numbers for multi page topics except at bottom of page. By default, these appeared at top and bottom in subSilver -- it's very annoying having to scroll to the bottom of the page in this skin to then jump to the required page

3) No 'breadcrumb' trail for the forum you're in

4) Icons are indistinct and difficult to read

5) Buttons aren't cleasr as they've been made to look like all the other box elements

I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds it a bit frustrating using these forums. The previous one was better.

I hope you'll take on board my comments. Thanks

Reply 1 of 15, by eL_PuSHeR

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Let me guess: You have doubleposted because you weren't able to find the EDIT button, yes? 😜

Reply 2 of 15, by robertmo

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1,2 - right click on icon next to the topic
3 - at the top of the window there is"Forum Index :: Milliways ::" (i think thas is what you mean)
4,5 - Welcome to the Desert of the Real World
and a few other shorter threads on Milliways

Reply 3 of 15, by Gambit37

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Nah, the double post was a problem my end -- kept hanging while posting. Sorrr about that.

I realised after I'd written the breadcrumb trail comment that it had been added. It wasn't there originally when the new look went on line and I've had this post written for some time but only just got around to posting.

I've also just seen that my post was moved to this Milliways forum. I didn't notice this forum at first because it's in a completely unhelpful category of "Heart of Gold" -- I thought that was an old computer game that I hadn't heard of so didn't bother reading about it!

While I like these forums, and the wealth of information within, they really aren't very well organised or designed for new users.

Reply 5 of 15, by robertmo

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How about placing:

About VOGONS
· Is this some inside joke or something?

at the top of the FAQ?

I think it should be at the top cause you don't even have to Login and Register to read the forum.

Actually most people read the forum first and if they think they want to say something they register (this may happen even months after reading or even never).

Reply 6 of 15, by Snover

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I could TRY moving it... but... so much work!! 😉

Yes, it’s my fault.

Reply 7 of 15, by Gambit37

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Having read the background info on this site, I now understand all the HHGTG references. I didn't remember them coming here afresh as it's been so long since I read the books.

However, having sad that, I would seriously recommend that these help forums are signposted a bit better than simply "MILLIWAYS" -- it's not going to mean anything to anyone coming here who doesn't read the FAQ or know the 'in jokes'.

Also, would it be possible for you to provide a way of switiching themes in my profile? You currently have it so that the board settings override the user settings which isn't very helpful. I find it very difficult to read and use the vogons colour scheme and would prefer to use subSilver.

Reply 8 of 15, by vladr

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I agree the user interface for this forum could be much better. For one, too much Javascript for my (highy subjective 😀 ) taste. I use Mozilla on my laptop, and I like to open threads in new tabs. I cannot "click" the middle button (no such thing on the laptop, i.e. scrollable but not clickable) and it's awkward to press both right and left buttons together, but that wouldn't be bad if Ctr+Click worked - but it doesn't because the stupid links have onClick javascript handlers that make the contents of my current window change even though a new tab posp up! Oh well... I fell much better now. 😉 (Ranting always helps.)

V.

Reply 9 of 15, by Gambit37

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A second request for the ability to use subSilver. I've been using Vogons with Mozilla Firefox up til now, but now I'm using IE6 and there are all kinds of javascript errors. It's making the forums unusable. I would really appreciate it if you could let us use the default subSilver template. Thanks.

Reply 10 of 15, by Snover

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Serves you right for switching to an inferior browser. 😉
You can turn off those errors in the IE preferences. It's some option like "pop up a window for ever javascript error" or something. PS > the error is not in my code, IE thinks that background-color : inherit is invalid, but it is in fact a valid attribute for that property. The reason subSilver is not available is because I have done a lot of customization to the backend of phpBB that would make it impossible for subSilver to render correctly.

Yes, it’s my fault.

Reply 11 of 15, by Gambit37

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I didn't make that clear -- I use IE6 to test websites for compatibility, not for my regular browser! Give me Firefox any day --nice and compact, fast and standards compliant.

Shame you can't offer alternative styles as I really don't like this one! 🙁 Would it possible to add back some of the useful stuff that you removed from the standard template, such as the ability to jump to the most recent post from the home page, and the page numbers at the top of a topic as well as the bottom? That would certainly help in the usability of these forums.

Reply 12 of 15, by Snover

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Gambit37 wrote:

the ability to jump to the most recent post from the home page

This functionality exists. Click the icon to the left of the forum/post.

Yes, it’s my fault.

Reply 13 of 15, by Gambit37

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Hmm... it's not very clear that different things happen for the icon and the text because your 'hover' highlighting on the table row confuses the issue. I would really suggest removing all this javascript css guff as it's not very user friendly -- it conflicts with your structure. Can't you achieve something similar using pure html and css?

Reply 14 of 15, by Snover

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td:hover would work if IE wasn't broken. 😀

Yes, it’s my fault.

Reply 15 of 15, by dvwjr

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How about a one character "gutter" to the left and right of the text message area of these forums. It would improve the readabilty in the same way that it does in books, newspaper columns etc.

_How about a one character "gutter" to the left and right of the text message area of these_ _forums. It would improve the readabilty in the same way that it does in books, newspaper_ _columns etc.

_Just a thought...

_dvwjr