Forum Customization? Maybe?

[Baingil]

I've been talking with Eldo about customizing the forum. I've played around a bit with CSS and such; and it would be possible to change the layout quite a bit if we wanted to.

So, does anyone have any ideas about how you'd like to change the forum appearance (and perhaps layout)? Or would you rather not change it at all? Or... any comments at all about this?

[Ringdrotten]

Perhaps a little more green and Shire-like?

[Kafria]

Well, I like the idea of some more customiation, it's lovely having the forumshire name and the logos look great. I like the general layout - fairly used to that now. But it wouldn't hurt to try a few things and see what we think.
Being a bit tech naive I don'thave any idea what would be possible so no suggestions (although I could happily go with a diff colour theme as a change to the blue!)

[Pettytyrant101]

Like Kafria I am not sure about changing the layout of the forum, I'm getting on it takes me an age to learn new things these days, but brightening it up sounds fun. What exacty can you do? Can we have a background picture or is it just changing the colours?

[Baingil]

I probably wouldn't change the layout much, but I could customize colors and pictures. Buttons like "Post Reply" and such could be fancier, and the header could be all one picture. I'm working on an experimental forum in which I'm playing around with stuff here, just to see how it would work. Note: Experimental forum still in progress, and things are liable to look weird on occasion.

And yes, a background picture is possible.

[Ally]

That's the kind of banner I was on about! Though it's rendering a little blurry for me (though that could be intentional?) but it is awesome! A background would look great too, or maybe not a background, just a kind of banner which fits around the forum and logo?

But the experimental forum at the mo looks great (better than that old 'political theme' before that half the time would not load!!!)

[Pettytyrant101]

Agree the banner is a little fuzzy looking but that stuff can be worked out once youve got a template set in mind. I like the green, easy on the eyes, the blue is a bit cold. Good work Baingil. I'd already vote in favour of the green colour scheme and full banner for here. Anything I can do to assisst please ask.

[Ringdrotten]

Perfect, Baingil I don't really mind the blurry banner either, reminds me of a picture my grandmother used to have in her living room

[Eldorion]

I actually like the blurry banner for a couple of reasons. First, it's inescapable when zooming into the picture close enough to see Gandalf and Bilbo. Second, I think it gives a nice artsy look to the banner, as opposed to, say, a movie still. But perhaps that's just me.

Other than that, I have to second what everyone else said. The test forum looks brilliant and I especially love the customized images! My only quibble would be that the background color for posts is a bit too dark, although that could probably be remedied just by changing the text color to black.

Awesome job, Baingil!

[Pettytyrant101]

Might be possible to find the same picture at a higher resolution then it wouldn't blur so much when blown up.

[Pettytyrant101]

I couldn't find a higher res version of the picture Baingil used but there are these ones at high quality we could use as well. No idea what the actual size needs to be so these are just examples for the moment for comment.

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[Ringdrotten]

Beautiful I think my favourite must be the first one, or the second. Nothing wrong with the third one, but I'm quite in love with the green layout and the other two would fit right in with that That said, I also liked the blurry one. Too many choices! Should we do like Petty suggested earlier, change the banners every once in a while to keep things fresh?

[Pettytyrant101]

I think rotating them just to keep things fresh would be a good idea. If we can get say 6 everyone likes we can change the banner every two months-and maybe the odd special occasion one- I'll try and find a nice snow one for xmas!

[Ringdrotten]

Sounds good

[Pettytyrant101]

Couple of winter alternatives.


[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[Baingil]

My only quibble would be that the background color for posts is a bit too dark, although that could probably be remedied just by changing the text color to black.

Or I can just lighten the background color a bit. Doesn't take much effort. Look now.

An advantage of the blurry header is that I have to actually do this with two pictures, since the banner (it turns out) determines the size of the header itself. I could probably change that with some tinkering, but at present I'm doing two pictures - and a blurry header hides my mistakes in matching the positioning properly. Also, resizing stuff _does_ make it blurry. The main dimension I need to worry about is length; 1257 or 1258 pixels would be the optimum size. And less height could be good, too, though I've got Petty's first banner up now.

Figured out an easier way to do the header. So, optimum size is about 1257 X 145-150.

[Baingil]

Aaaand changed it some more.

[Eldorion]

I think it looks great, and I'd love to see what it looks like on the actual forum. We can of course change it more later, but if there are no immediate objections, then I'd move ahead as soon as we confirm the copyright status of the header image (which I know Baingil is on already).

[Pettytyrant101]

Resized one of the banners for you to try, but looks quite squashed now, would really have to do one from scratch again I think.

[img][/img]

[Baingil]

Hmm, yeah, pretty squished. Would be better to have a different one, or crop it.

[Pettytyrant101]

Good work getting the banner up.

[Eldorion]

Awesome work, Baingil -- the forum is looking great!

[Pettytyrant101]

Agreed!

[Pettytyrant101]

Another potential banner.

[img][/img]

[Baingil]

Hope everyone likes the new forum colors and header!

And it would help if the banners were longer and thinner, Petty.