Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Charismatic on June 20, 2006, 11:29:12 pm

Title: HLP Rant
Post by: Charismatic on June 20, 2006, 11:29:12 pm
Ok, so, HLP 3.0 was www.hard-light.net. That was the coolest, sharpest lookeing version of HLP to date. Was freaking aswem. Then we did some sort of total host or w\e change. Now we got this, no offence, but it does not look near as sharp and aswem as our last..version. What is this, 3.5? I know alot of hard work went into this but.. seriously, this was the tradeoff for custom buttons, search function, and a few new options?

What do you guys think (About the look of HLP, no personal cuts please)?
Leave your hatemail and flames at the door, please. Thank you all for your feedback.
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Falcon on June 20, 2006, 11:36:49 pm
Looks fine to me...
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: achtung on June 20, 2006, 11:44:49 pm
The forum was updated to SMF Release Canidate 2.  This was done so we could use the search feature again.  There was a downside however, the old theme can't be converted, so we have this until the next official release of SMF Forums.

Am I right?
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: ZylonBane on June 21, 2006, 01:30:41 am
The previous forum had a ludicrously cluttered layout, and this one isn't much better. Message boards are supposed to be about the messages, dammit, not making the screen look like a nuclear reactor control panel.
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Kie99 on June 21, 2006, 01:33:31 am
Aswem?
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Prophet on June 21, 2006, 01:42:34 am
These boards are pretty good currently me thinks. At least when you compare to some other horrible avatar galleries out there...
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Colonol Dekker on June 21, 2006, 03:50:05 am
The Boards are absolutely fine.
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: aldo_14 on June 21, 2006, 03:51:15 am
It's fine.

Anyways, content counts, not style.
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Setekh on June 21, 2006, 04:00:50 am
This is the final release candidate for SMF 1.1. Personally, I'm just waiting for the full version to come out before I go at it with a new set of graphics. I know Sandwich is the same in waiting to change the stylesheets.
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Fury on June 21, 2006, 04:02:13 am
AFAIK, there might be RC3 before final.
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: redsniper on June 21, 2006, 07:02:50 pm
I think maybe it should be a little more red rather than the kinda maroon color we have now. That's about it though.
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: WeatherOp on June 21, 2006, 09:47:30 pm
To tell the truth, I agree, I really liked the very sharp color we had. It just looked more like a active game site. Like the HLP website, it's very sharp, but now the forums have a very smooth look, dare I say it, allmost like the calm site of a dieing community.
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: IceFire on June 21, 2006, 10:54:15 pm
I think maybe it should be a little more red rather than the kinda maroon color we have now. That's about it though.
Nope...I fought that whole red thing tooth and nail.  Here's why:

1) Red is a very noticeable colour to human eyes.  Its very sharp and alarming in its tone so when you see alot of red it is a mental load.  Its likely part of a conditioned response to seeing blood and thus cause for alarm.

2) Your eyes do not see as many reds as they do blues and greens.  Red is a harder colour to see.

3) Those of us with sharp contrast brand new LCD monitors see what used to be those massively red borders like they were lighthouse beacons.  I turned my monitor brightness all over the board and it was just a horrible experience.  I started not visiting the forums for a while soley because I couldn't make heads or tails of what I was looking at easily.

Red is a VERY bad colour to use on the web in any quantity.  In terms of UI and HID its very bad.  What you want to do is accent titles or draw attention to certain items using red.  Other than that you should use more neutral tones that your eyes are used to seeing.  Maroon is more of an earthy tone and blues and greens are far less jarring unless  they are super bright as well but blue will never be as bad as red for this.

When we do move to a new scheme...I'm sort of hoping that we'll do a HLP Blue theme with similar styling but with a shade of blue or green.
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Windrunner on June 22, 2006, 01:55:00 am
I think maybe it should be a little more red rather than the kinda maroon color we have now. That's about it though.
Nope...I fought that whole red thing tooth and nail.  Here's why:

1) Red is a very noticeable colour to human eyes.  Its very sharp and alarming in its tone so when you see alot of red it is a mental load.  Its likely part of a conditioned response to seeing blood and thus cause for alarm.

2) Your eyes do not see as many reds as they do blues and greens.  Red is a harder colour to see.

3) Those of us with sharp contrast brand new LCD monitors see what used to be those massively red borders like they were lighthouse beacons.  I turned my monitor brightness all over the board and it was just a horrible experience.  I started not visiting the forums for a while soley because I couldn't make heads or tails of what I was looking at easily.

Red is a VERY bad colour to use on the web in any quantity.  In terms of UI and HID its very bad.  What you want to do is accent titles or draw attention to certain items using red.  Other than that you should use more neutral tones that your eyes are used to seeing.  Maroon is more of an earthy tone and blues and greens are far less jarring unless  they are super bright as well but blue will never be as bad as red for this.

When we do move to a new scheme...I'm sort of hoping that we'll do a HLP Blue theme with similar styling but with a shade of blue or green.

have to disagree with you collin, i don't know why but i also liked the sharp red collor
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: WMCoolmon on June 22, 2006, 02:05:38 am
Ok, so, HLP 3.0 was www.hard-light.net. That was the coolest, sharpest lookeing version of HLP to date. Was freaking aswem. Then we did some sort of total host or w\e change. Now we got this, no offence, but it does not look near as sharp and aswem as our last..version. What is this, 3.5? I know alot of hard work went into this but.. seriously, this was the tradeoff for custom buttons, search function, and a few new options?

Good tradeoff.
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Mars on June 22, 2006, 02:08:19 am
You people read way too much into the color of the Forum. I think the maroon we have is rather ugly (I would prefer blue or green) but I don't think it's an indicator of the status of the community.
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Fury on June 22, 2006, 02:27:13 am
Coming tomorrow: yellow/pink color style. :p
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Fineus on June 22, 2006, 03:05:57 am
Meh.. After we have the style itself sorted out I'd actually quite like to convert it to a blue/other version. We'll see when that time comes though.
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Fury on June 22, 2006, 05:52:06 am
The previous forum had a ludicrously cluttered layout, and this one isn't much better. Message boards are supposed to be about the messages, dammit, not making the screen look like a nuclear reactor control panel.
You know what? Disabling signatures helps a LOT. :p
(Profile > Look and Layout Preferences > Don't show other users' signatures)
If you want to, you can also disable avatars from Look and Layout Preferences as well.

People would probably complain if we'd go as far as disabling sigs alltogether. Personally I still prefer not to look at stupid sigs. :p
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Wobble73 on June 22, 2006, 05:57:11 am
The previous forum had a ludicrously cluttered layout, and this one isn't much better. Message boards are supposed to be about the messages, dammit, not making the screen look like a nuclear reactor control panel.
You know what? Disabling signatures helps a LOT. :p
(Profile > Look and Layout Preferences > Don't show other users' signatures)
If you want to, you can also disable avatars from Look and Layout Preferences as well.

People would probably complain if we'd go as far as disabling sigs alltogether. Personally I still prefer not to look at stupid sigs. :p

Then you're missing some cracking jokes!!

"There are 10 kinds of people in the world, Those who understand binary and those who don't" as one example
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Colonol Dekker on June 22, 2006, 05:58:46 am
Quote

WoBblE wuz 'ErE!



Apologises for the bunnies in the past. :rolleyes:
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Wobble73 on June 22, 2006, 06:01:33 am
Quote

WoBblE wuz 'ErE!



Apologises for the bunnies in the past. :rolleyes:

I know it's bad but I'm not as witty and smart as most on here! I'll try to find something better soon I promise, but then again I'm also lazy!
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Fury on June 22, 2006, 06:01:43 am
Then you're missing some cracking jokes!!

"There are 10 kinds of people in the world, Those who understand binary and those who don't" as one example

Sorry but there's just too many awful sigs that losing the good sigs is more than a viable tradeoff. :D :p I heartily recommend disabling sigs, then you can enjoy quite clean topics. :D
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Colonol Dekker on June 22, 2006, 06:06:33 am
IU wasn't slating your sig at all mate, If anything my dogs a piece of cr4p.
I just didn't wanna get my ass kicked for the bunny thing. :D
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Wobble73 on June 22, 2006, 06:11:16 am
IU wasn't slating your sig at all mate, If anything my dogs a piece of cr4p.
I just didn't wanna get my ass kicked for the bunny thing. :D

I was wondering if Milo ate the Dead Bunny, dogs can be like that ya know!
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Colonol Dekker on June 22, 2006, 06:15:17 am
Yep he ate a worm riddled putrifying corpse. :pimp: :yes:



         @..@
         (----)
       ( >__< )
     ^^ ~~ ^^

Some cheap ass frog action here if anyone wants it.


Now back on track, How hostile do most people find HLPBB compared to other forums / Earlier incarnations of HLP, its got slightly more stand-offish since PXO was up when i used to come here as LOA--JK47. IMO
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Fineus on June 22, 2006, 06:18:05 am
Meh, I've turned off sigs in my preferences as well. There's rarely anything in them these days that I really want to see - and they really clutter up threads if people go overboard with colors and font effects and such.
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Col. Fishguts on June 22, 2006, 06:19:46 am
Dekker, you do know how craptastic your sig looks in Firefox, right ?
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Colonol Dekker on June 22, 2006, 06:25:18 am
I dont use soviet super jets at work i have to use IE, any chance of a screen-grab?
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Col. Fishguts on June 22, 2006, 06:32:04 am
From the "Help please..." thread:

(http://n.ethz.ch/student/ebuerli/download/sig_disaster.jpg)
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Colonol Dekker on June 22, 2006, 06:37:56 am
Dont view web pages through Soviet jets then  :)
J/K

New streamlined minimalist sig online.....
"infinity lad = Best superhero ever !!!!"
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Prophet on June 22, 2006, 06:52:56 am
IE is the only thing those glowy text work. We Opera and Firefox users can manage without some girly glitter text anyway :p
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Col. Fishguts on June 22, 2006, 07:02:40 am
I've seen other glowy text working porperly in Firefox, but I'm not bothering to find out how.

My eyes are thanking you ;)
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Colonol Dekker on June 22, 2006, 07:04:09 am
K, just remember my sacrifice when some bit of skirt comments on how bloody pretty they are or some gushy cr4p like that  :lol:
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: IceFire on June 22, 2006, 04:09:34 pm
I think maybe it should be a little more red rather than the kinda maroon color we have now. That's about it though.
Nope...I fought that whole red thing tooth and nail.  Here's why:

1) Red is a very noticeable colour to human eyes.  Its very sharp and alarming in its tone so when you see alot of red it is a mental load.  Its likely part of a conditioned response to seeing blood and thus cause for alarm.

2) Your eyes do not see as many reds as they do blues and greens.  Red is a harder colour to see.

3) Those of us with sharp contrast brand new LCD monitors see what used to be those massively red borders like they were lighthouse beacons.  I turned my monitor brightness all over the board and it was just a horrible experience.  I started not visiting the forums for a while soley because I couldn't make heads or tails of what I was looking at easily.

Red is a VERY bad colour to use on the web in any quantity.  In terms of UI and HID its very bad.  What you want to do is accent titles or draw attention to certain items using red.  Other than that you should use more neutral tones that your eyes are used to seeing.  Maroon is more of an earthy tone and blues and greens are far less jarring unless  they are super bright as well but blue will never be as bad as red for this.

When we do move to a new scheme...I'm sort of hoping that we'll do a HLP Blue theme with similar styling but with a shade of blue or green.

have to disagree with you collin, i don't know why but i also liked the sharp red collor
Speaking in terms of HID (Human Interface Design) using red as the primary interface on a computer screen is generally a bad idea for the reasons outlined above and for some other more detailed reasons that I don't really need to go in depth into (not relevant to the discussion).  Just saying...

And I didn't like it at all.  It was very cluttered and very difficult to read.
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: redsniper on June 22, 2006, 06:29:55 pm
Well, we could have multiple themes, like Game Warden. A red one for people who miss the old look, a blueish one for people who hated the old look, and a pure black one (including all text, buttons, etc.) for Nuke. :D
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Charismatic on June 23, 2006, 04:09:36 pm
LOL. I liked the old one. I loved the logos' and the sharp look. I think it felt organized, and not cluttered, alive. But thats just me. "Aswem' - 'Awsem" (You can figure out what i was trying to say.)

EDIT: Why the **** is all text on HLP smaller? This can be expecially noticed in quotes, even a single quote,(not a embeded quote) is basicaly unreadable.
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Taristin on June 23, 2006, 07:59:50 pm
While on the subject,I've disabled avatars and signatures. It looks a lot better without both. Avatars only seem.... arrogant. Especially since only administration can have them. Without them, it just feels... better.
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Sandwich on June 23, 2006, 08:07:42 pm
EDIT: Why the **** is all text on HLP smaller? This can be expecially noticed in quotes, even a single quote,(not a embeded quote) is basicaly unreadable.

Screenshot, please.
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Turambar on June 23, 2006, 08:46:17 pm
jeez sandwich, you know he can't read that!
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Kamikaze on June 23, 2006, 08:48:35 pm
I've seen other glowy text working porperly in Firefox, but I'm not bothering to find out how.

Probably using some of Mozilla's CSS extensions. I think some CSS 3 draft had glow properties too that were quickly removed from the spec.
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Charismatic on June 24, 2006, 01:53:01 am
EDIT: Why the **** is all text on HLP smaller? This can be expecially noticed in quotes, even a single quote,(not a embeded quote) is basicaly unreadable.

Screenshot, please.

I don't know how, but my computer worked it out and its back to normal. Earlier i was messin around with the computer cords in the back and i accidentally killed the power. The wonders of the magical 'restart'. But it sure was weird.
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Setekh on June 24, 2006, 02:07:26 am
EDIT: Why the **** is all text on HLP smaller? This can be expecially noticed in quotes, even a single quote,(not a embeded quote) is basicaly unreadable.

Oh, boy. You wouldn't believe how many problems we had with this when we first switched over to SMF. Anyway, glad it's fixed.
Title: Re: HLP Rant
Post by: Sandwich on June 24, 2006, 07:22:02 am
If it was fixed, than it's probably you using the mousewheel while pressing CTRL - that adjusts the font size in Firefox larger or smaller.