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23:13, 28th March 2024 (GMT+0)

New site design.

Posted by jase
SunRuanEr
subscriber, 136 posts
Mon 2 Sep 2019
at 16:15
  • msg #334

Re: RPoL Design Update

Whoo - colored thread icons! Thanks, jase.

What is the closed thread icon, anyway? I've never been able to make that one out...
Elohvey
member, 91 posts
This is awfully small.
Preposterous!
Mon 2 Sep 2019
at 21:24
  • msg #335

Re: RPoL Design Update

In reply to nauthiz (msg # 333):

Wooooo hoo!!!

Thanks Jase!
jase
admin, 3722 posts
Cogito, ergo procuro.
Carpe stultus!
Mon 2 Sep 2019
at 21:37

Re: RPoL Design Update

In reply to SunRuanEr (msg # 334):

Crossed short swords from memory.  They are about 20 years old.  (c;
evileeyore
member, 212 posts
GURPS GM and Player
Mon 2 Sep 2019
at 22:53
  • msg #337

Re: RPoL Design Update

jase:
Crossed short swords from memory.  They are about 20 years old.  (c;

That's what they look like blown waaaaaaaaaaaaaay up.
Mad Mick
member, 958 posts
GURPS beyond measure,
outlander
Tue 3 Sep 2019
at 04:29
  • msg #338

Re: RPoL Design Update

It looks like I am unable to create just a blank character sheet under Character Details on the responsive site. I'm being asked to fill out the field, but I'd like to leave it blank and let the player upload their character sheet.
horus
member, 871 posts
Wayfarer of the
Western Wastes
Tue 3 Sep 2019
at 06:23
  • msg #339

Re: RPoL Design Update

Thanks for full-color icons! They are much more useful now in a dark theme.
horus
member, 872 posts
Wayfarer of the
Western Wastes
Tue 3 Sep 2019
at 06:36
  • msg #340

Re: RPoL Design Update

Mad Mick:
It looks like I am unable to create just a blank character sheet under Character Details on the responsive site. I'm being asked to fill out the field, but I'd like to leave it blank and let the player upload their character sheet.


Aha!  I think I see what your getting at:  opening the Edit Window (Edit Character Sheet), if you delete previously stored data, you cannot completely blank the field and then update.  Right now, the work-around would be to leave one character (it can even be a space).

jase would have to answer the question as to whether this is a bug or a feature...
horus
member, 882 posts
Wayfarer of the
Western Wastes
Sat 7 Sep 2019
at 00:44
  • msg #341

Re: RPoL Design Update

I'm noticing some odd things on the responsive site regarding Private Messages and rMail:

In Thread Details, the data for whom the message is from is not displayed, but as soon as someone posts to the thread, their name is displayed as the last poster.

In rMail:  If rMail is from a Moderator, instead of displaying Moderator, it displays an actual poster's screen name...  Is that how it used to work?  (Funny... don't remember that.)
Mad Mick
member, 959 posts
GURPS beyond measure,
outlander
Sun 8 Sep 2019
at 21:54
  • msg #342

Re: RPoL Design Update

In reply to horus (msg # 340):

Yes, that's right. I've started a new game, and I went to Character Details -> Create Character Sheet for my new players so they could upload their sheets. On the current site, this is fine, but on the responsive site, I can't save a blank sheet. Your suggestion about leaving one character there is fine, but it would be nice to leave it blank for the characters to put their own sheets there. (I don't use a standard sheet.)
horus
member, 883 posts
Wayfarer of the
Western Wastes
Mon 9 Sep 2019
at 02:47
  • msg #343

Re: RPoL Design Update

Yeah, it's a work-around.  I leave it at the top-left (first column in Row 1).
Skald
moderator, 878 posts
Whatever it is,
I'm against it
Mon 9 Sep 2019
at 05:03
  • msg #344

Re: RPoL Design Update

horus:
In rMail:  If rMail is from a Moderator, instead of displaying Moderator, it displays an actual poster's screen name...  Is that how it used to work?

I was just about to test that by sending horus one rMail when I was logged in as a normal user and a second rMail when I was logged in as a Moderator ... but when I went into rMail on responsive I couldn't find the Compose a new rMail (or the Mark all as Read).

Was using Win 10+Firefox; both latest versions, but checked IE 11 and same problem.


I also noted that Firefox renders the RuBB version, generation time and Main | Forum | Top footer elements all on the same line (left, centre and right of screen respectively), which I like, whereas IE has all three footer elements in the centre of the screen on three lines.
horus
member, 885 posts
Wayfarer of the
Western Wastes
Mon 9 Sep 2019
at 05:15
  • msg #345

Re: RPoL Design Update

Skald:
I was just about to test that by sending horus one rMail when I was logged in as a normal user and a second rMail when I was logged in as a Moderator ... but when I went into rMail on responsive I couldn't find the Compose a new rMail (or the Mark all as Read).


Huh... I was just looking for the Compose rMail button myself.  Small world.
jase
admin, 3729 posts
Cogito, ergo procuro.
Carpe stultus!
Wed 11 Sep 2019
at 14:17

Re: RPoL Design Update

horus:
In Thread Details, the data for whom the message is from is not displayed, but as soon as someone posts to the thread, their name is displayed as the last poster.

Pretty sure it's the same on the current site.  No point having "Posted by jase, 0 replies, last reply by jase".  A) it's redundant and B) it's not actually a reply.

horus:
In rMail:  If rMail is from a Moderator, instead of displaying Moderator, it displays an actual poster's screen name...  Is that how it used to work?  (Funny... don't remember that.)

Yeah it should have the moderator's name.


Fixed the missing compose button for rMail, you can also create empty character sheets again.
SunRuanEr
subscriber, 143 posts
Sat 14 Sep 2019
at 16:11
  • msg #347

Re: RPoL Design Update

Are edits (not to the most-recent post, specifically) supposed to be flagging threads with new message icons? I'm still getting some wonky notifications (despite relogging and clearing cookies) but edits seem to be always pushing them - at least for me.

Also, do we have any kind of ETA for putting in the CSS stuff for adjusting the colors of the 'Step 1, Step 2, etc' on the dieroller page? I know you had mentioned a while ago just not having it put in yet, jase, but I'm curious if there's a timeline there. Not being able to see my dieroller is the only thing keeping me from full-on drinking the koolaid and going to the responsive site full-time, now. :)
jase
admin, 3735 posts
Cogito, ergo procuro.
Carpe stultus!
Sun 15 Sep 2019
at 13:01
  • msg #348

Re: RPoL Design Update

Have made a few more tweaks to the layout and adjusted some screens.
  1. Creating a game should now be responsive.
  2. Fixed a fair bit of the rMail layout and also made it more consistent with posting messages in games/forums.
  3. The post info "column" should now have a more sensible maximum width.  Previously it was 25% of the entire screen, which at 1400px meant 350px.  It's now 25% but up to a maximum of 220px, which is wide enough to fit 99.4% of character names plus their portrait.
  4. I've reduced the max page width to 1350px as 1400px was just too wide and looked crazy in some places, will see how this looks after a bit of use.  Despite the 50px reduction you've still got an extra 80px width for the message content due to the reduced maximum post information width.
  5. The above two rely on your browser supporting "calc" in CSS, which 98.2% of desktop browsers do.
  6. Bunch of other tweaks and fixes.  Bit more consistency around, added some more form validations.  Other things, whatever they were!

In reply to SunRuanEr (msg # 347):

I can't replicate the issue, whether editing the most recent post or an old post.  I've generally only edited the HTML layout so things like cookies shouldn't be affected in any way.

Diceroller I've been thinking about how to compact the layout without making it squashed.  Will do both the colours and layout at the same time.  Next page to fix up I think.
SunRuanEr
subscriber, 144 posts
Sun 15 Sep 2019
at 15:12
  • msg #349

Re: RPoL Design Update

jase:
I can't replicate the issue, whether editing the most recent post or an old post.  I've generally only edited the HTML layout so things like cookies shouldn't be affected in any way.

I'll chalk it up to my browser being possessed or something, then, and keep seeing if I can get it to reliably replicate. Thanks for looking.
jase
admin, 3736 posts
Cogito, ergo procuro.
Carpe stultus!
Wed 18 Sep 2019
at 13:41
  • msg #350

Re: RPoL Design Update

SunRuanEr:
Also, do we have any kind of ETA for putting in the CSS stuff for adjusting the colors of the 'Step 1, Step 2, etc' on the dieroller page?

Update your custom theme, you should then get the colours for the die roller.  Compacted the layout a few days ago.
SunRuanEr
subscriber, 147 posts
Wed 18 Sep 2019
at 15:48
  • msg #351

Re: RPoL Design Update

Yay! Thanks, jase!

*moves in full-time*
Escribblings
member, 37 posts
Wed 18 Sep 2019
at 19:29
  • msg #352

Re: RPoL Design Update

I posted this on the asthetics thread...

escribblings:
Don't know if it's just me...

I have a Samsung Note 10+.  This has curved screen edges.

Would there be a possiblity of a couple of pixels of padding on the left and right of the page?

It's going right to the edge, round the curve, and although it isn't, it feels like it's cutting a bit off and I constantly have the urge to scroll, where no scroll is available.


I raise this again because today I had a further issue.

The text entry box also goes right to the edge, round the curve of the screen.

Today I had a hell of a job trying to get the cursor to the end of the line with my finger...

Managed it by rotating the phone in the end, but it's a nuisance.

So if you could add some side padding, it would be really appreciated.
nauthiz
subscriber, 632 posts
Wed 18 Sep 2019
at 23:57
  • msg #353

Re: RPoL Design Update

As a workaround for the moment, if you're using the Samsung default keyboard you might look into enabling "cursor control".

Google's keyboard has a similar feature which I find very helpful on RPoL.
SunRuanEr
subscriber, 157 posts
Wed 2 Oct 2019
at 03:19
  • msg #354

Re: RPoL Design Update

Noticed a problem with viewing character descriptions that have pictures in them tonight when on a phone (or when the site is narrowed all the way down on a desktop). Actually, a pair of problems.

Problem #1: Photos put in where the image is the very first thing at the top of the description, are getting shifted down below the character portrait (as I would expect them to be if they're too wide to display next to it, since they're the very first thing in the description), BUT they are getting the first five lines of text (what normally appears next to the portrait) above them and the rest of the text below them. Essentially, they're "splitting" the text, instead of appearing all before it as I would expect, since the image source tag is entirely before the text.

I realize, upon going back to the old site and checking, that the same thing happens when you size down a browser window on it. I had never noticed this before because it doesn't do that when viewed on my phone, and you'd have to pretty deliberately narrow your browser all the way - but it still feels like it would look a lot better if the image stayed by itself at the top and had all of the text follow it, IF it's the first thing in the description window, instead of being in the middle of the text when the window is narrow. Stat blocks next to portraits look kind of... well, cruddy, when they're broken up. (Edit: This happens with both right- and left-aligned photos. At first I thought it was only the right ones, but alas, it isn't.)

Problem #2: Wide photos in a description prevent it from narrowing to the proper size (it will only go as narrow as the widest image), and results in having some of the text "hanging out" to the right, over the normally-empty space beneath the Forum and Account menus. This doesn't happen in a regular thread - the same image posted in a thread gets resized to fit the thread-content portion of the window if the window narrows beyond the image's normal size. (On the plus side, this at least keeps photos normally in the upper right corner from splitting the stat blocks, so there's that... but it does make it pretty impossible to read, especially if using a theme where the text block background isn't the same as the background-background.)

Not sure if there's any fix to the first one, since it does that on live too, unless there's a way to force the site to keep whatever is entered first at the top no matter the window width, but the second one feels like maybe there's a fix, since wide pictures don't cause the same problem in actual threads? Maybe? *fingers crossed*

Edit: Took me a bit to find a description in one of my games that didn't have a photo, but those don't seem to be scaling to fit the smaller screen window well, either. Images in a description that are narrow (not the ones causing Problem #2) are scaling to fit my phone screen, and forcing all the accompanying description text to fit the screen as well - just like it would in a game thread (which looks, well, normal). Descriptions without any image at all are leaving a swath of border around the text (about 1/2 of an inch on each side on my phone, and my screen is small) and forcing all of the description text into a narrow column down the middle. The narrow line around the description box is still there, reining it in just like the thread-text window in a thread, but unlike in the threads (which push that left-hand and right-hand space to the top and bottom when the screen is narrow), that space is never getting pushed away so that the actual information box can fill the screen.
This message was last edited by the user at 14:25, Wed 02 Oct 2019.
Mittens
member, 2 posts
bio pt 1
bio pt 2
Fri 4 Oct 2019
at 05:03
  • msg #355

Re: RPoL Design Update

Looking great so far!  Thumbs up for the bigger font and un-cluttered layout!

Dark theme is very important to me due to the eye strain that white theme causes.  This was the very fist thing I tried out.  It worked everywhere except the main page.  But logging out of rpol.net and re-logging r.rpol.net fixed that.  Yay!  Thanks again for these great improvements for the visually impaired!  Please keep it up!  <3
Zag24
supporter, 600 posts
Mon 14 Oct 2019
at 03:54
  • msg #356

Re: RPoL Design Update

I've been away from RPoL for a few years, and been back for about a month.  I've been using the new site since returning and I wanted to give it a good trial before commenting.

Generally, I like the clean lines.  I personally don't care much about responsiveness because I'm only on RPoL on full sized computers, but I do understand that not everyone is at their screens as much as I am.  I think you've done a great job of allowing for responsiveness without giving up much when it isn't needed.

One bit I do miss from the other site is how the controls stayed on the screen all the time.  If I'm scrolling through a thread on Community Chat and decide I'm not interested, I have to scroll back to the top of the screen to get to the Home for Forum buttons (if I'm a few screens in and the back button doesn't make sense).  I realize that having dedicated real estate like that is anathema to responsive design that will work on small screens.  I just wanted to make sure that the dissenting opinion is out there.  If the consensus is for androids and iPhones, then I'm happy to bow to the majority.
steelsmiter
member, 2058 posts
BESM, Fate, Indies, PBTA
NO FREEFORM! NO d20!
Mon 14 Oct 2019
at 04:01
  • msg #357

Re: RPoL Design Update

Zag24:
One bit I do miss from the other site is how the controls stayed on the screen all the time.  If I'm scrolling through a thread on Community Chat and decide I'm not interested, I have to scroll back to the top of the screen to get to the Home for Forum buttons (if I'm a few screens in and the back button doesn't make sense).

Same. I've seen other sites use a floating up/down arrow off to the side that vanishes after a moment of scrolling. I really like those.


Spoiler for Necessitated longer reply that was basically irrelevant: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
And I suppose since I'm getting a warning about not quoting so much text for such a short reply I better go ahead and extend it a little by saying my favorite design I've seen in a while is Blue Moon Roleplaying (though I'm not especially happy with the blue color scheme). Not that it's relevant, but... ya know... a longer reply.

This message was last edited by the user at 04:02, Mon 14 Oct 2019.
MythZarya
member, 30 posts
Mon 14 Oct 2019
at 07:40
  • msg #358

Re: RPoL Design Update


Ditto on the sidebar.

On the original interface (within a game), the Menu bar is always visible no matter how far down the page I scroll. I frequently right-click on a Menu item at the top of the screen and open in a new tab, so that I can stay right where I'm at on the first tab/screen.

On the new interface this isn't possible. The Menu items aren't visible when I scroll down the page. I would prefer (as steelsmiter mentioned) a 'floating' or 'scrolling' sidebar.
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