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Astralis
Senior Member
USA
1218 Posts |
 Posted - 04 February 2004 : 03:34:40
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Time is catching up with Snitz - at least the look and feel.
I've been looking at other forums and sites and have noticed that Snitz is looking so 1999.
Of course the code can be modified for users to update it with their preferences such as ServerHacker's modded and HuwR's modded forum. A few other sites also have updated their look and feel but the base Snitz code still retains the HTML of long ago.
It's not a priority, of course, but whoever is working on the next edition may consider updating the site's look. I think the Mac/Windows XP look is here to stay for a few years and seems to be the standard on which other sites design. |
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RichardKinser
Snitz Forums Admin
USA
16655 Posts |
Posted - 04 February 2004 : 04:02:49
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Personally, I like how vBulletin 3 has redone their interface. I like how they have the options in drop down menus instead of using icons (such as viewing someone's profile, or visiting their homepage). Same with Thread Options such as "send to friend" or "printer friendly". I like a clean interface, the less icons the better.
Before any changes are made though, we really need to be using CSS. But, as far as I know, there has been no decision on how to do so, there just hasn't been any discussion about it. Would the CSS be generated with each page, or would we use an external file? We would need to define all of the classes so that we have as few as possible that still cover all situations. I know you can use multiple classes like this: class="class1 class2" in IE6 and Firebird, but does it work in all browsers? I don't know enough about it to be sure.
If we decide to use an external style sheet (which would be preferable) how do we make it easy to edit? Right now we just have an option page in the Admin Options, but to be able to write to an external file, we would have to require the Scripting.FileSystemObject be available. So, that's not very feasible.
For now, the look we have is still functional. It's not meant to be flashy. |
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Astralis
Senior Member
USA
1218 Posts |
Posted - 04 February 2004 : 04:18:01
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Yes, vBulletin's look is nice. Snitz still has a classic look and it can hold up for a few years - I'm not switching. A new paint job wouldn't hurt, though. 
One part of a few board designs that I don't like is the addition of a box which tells the user what s/he can and can't do such as:
Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
This is ridiculous IMO. Too much information.
CSS is a beast, but once it's switched it's easily updated for new browsers, styles, functions, etc... It really is powerful. I wouldn't design it for IE6.0 in the beginning. I'd stick with IE4.0/5.0 and Netscape (I forget the version numbers now because I no longer pay attention to the one percent who are using Netscape).
Making the CSS customizable isn't any more difficult as it is having users customize the colors of the cells, backgrounds, and borders of the current Snitz. Adding new functions to the CSS would be a matter of choice and saving the critical changes for version updates.
At least Snitz doesn't look ugly and clunky as some older sites. It has a classic but definitely a dated look.
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Jezmeister
Senior Member
United Kingdom
1141 Posts |
Posted - 04 February 2004 : 07:54:32
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| i dont no... i like the classic & simple look - and i have no intention of having to change my forums... lol |
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mios
Junior Member
United Kingdom
101 Posts |
Posted - 04 February 2004 : 08:40:44
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I've been looking at asp-dev XM forum as it use stylesheets.
They use an asp page as a style sheet stylecss.asp so that you can still edit colors/fonts via the admin, and also add extra styles if you really want to go mad: http://www.asp-dev.com/forum/default.asp?$sid=&skin=osx for example
They also use Dropdowns instead od some icons 
A few items to consider. |
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sr_erick
Senior Member
USA
1318 Posts |
Posted - 04 February 2004 : 09:34:57
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I agree Astralis. It is kinda 1999, out there to compete with the old UBB. I think CSS is a must. I personally like the look of a stock invision power board. I think if something like that could be accomplished for the next version it would gain a lot of popularity. It would be quite a job to vonvert everything, but it would probably make this one of the biggest and best releases of Snitz ever. Fast and very stylish, easliy skinable. There could be something like winamp has, a classic skin for the normal Snitz look and feel and then the modern one.  |
Erick
Snowmobile Fanatics
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Edited by - sr_erick on 04 February 2004 09:41:47 |
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redbrad0
Advanced Member
USA
3725 Posts |
Posted - 04 February 2004 : 10:15:01
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Why not just have it like the small CSS for now where its all listed in the inc_header.asp file? There are really not to many different CSS clases that would have to be set.
.TableHeader
.TableBody1
.TableBody2
Just make it simple like that even though I know there will be more I didnt have time to pull up the list |
Brad
Oklahoma City Online Entertainment Guide
Oklahoma Event Tickets |
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zeth
Junior Member
United Kingdom
117 Posts |
Posted - 04 February 2004 : 10:50:01
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D3mon's recent and very successful experiments with style sheets show that they can be integrated nicely with Snitz.
The advantage of style sheets is that they enable of Snitz to be integrated into a website easily, they make smaller file sizes and they help with accessibility.
The disadvantage is that CSS are still not fully supported by Internet Explorer so if you use style sheets according to the strictest standards of the w3 then the result will look very strange in IE.
I personally would go for a static external style sheet so the database doesn’t have to be used for the most basic formatting and it makes it very easy to adapt.
However what about the lowest tech users who don't even dare to open a style-sheet in Notepad? I think the answer is either good documentation or a little utility that will output a style sheet for them.
In my humble opinion if a user can add a MOD then they definitely can change a few colour codes in a style sheet.
How about a roadmap like this?:
3.4.04 > 4 (language support) > 5 (CSS support)
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THEOLOGY.ME.UK CROSSRING.COM |
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i011877
Junior Member
Denmark
169 Posts |
Posted - 04 February 2004 : 13:28:35
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I also changed look and feel, by altering the all the graphics.
Besides that, I find the Snitz forum to be to bright. My own site(www.myforum.dk) are perhaps too dark, but somewhere in between would be nice.
If anyone at Snitz are interested in my iconpack for testing, please let me know.
You could make a contest like the one with the logo, to see if an upgrade of the graphics would make a fresher look.!?!
This is not to ditch the forum, and I know that you guys belong in the coding-category and not in the graphics-category, but think about it.
Cheers to all at Snitz |
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sr_erick
Senior Member
USA
1318 Posts |
Posted - 04 February 2004 : 14:08:03
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| Yes I wouldn't at all mind an icon and gradient/layout contest. I think it would be kinda fun. |
Erick
Snowmobile Fanatics
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Jezmeister
Senior Member
United Kingdom
1141 Posts |
Posted - 04 February 2004 : 14:12:48
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| my chat rooms use CSS - reeaally easy to edit... itd be good... |
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redbrad0
Advanced Member
USA
3725 Posts |
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Jezmeister
Senior Member
United Kingdom
1141 Posts |
Posted - 04 February 2004 : 14:25:15
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| almost as bad as .TK redirecting... *shudders at the memory of using .TK* lol |
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i011877
Junior Member
Denmark
169 Posts |
Posted - 04 February 2004 : 15:03:14
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quote:
Originally posted by redbrad0
i011877, I tried to goto your site and its very slow
Whooops! Sorry about that.
Had some memory/cpu-consuming applications running just now.
Should be okay now.. |
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seven
Senior Member
USA
1037 Posts |
Posted - 04 February 2004 : 17:52:26
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| I thought Robbear7 had Snitz pretty well CSS'd, but if I remember right there was an issue with some of the ways it was done. I don't know... |
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Roland
Advanced Member
Netherlands
9335 Posts |
Posted - 15 February 2004 : 10:04:51
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quote:
Originally posted by redbrad0
Why not just have it like the small CSS for now where its all listed in the inc_header.asp file? There are really not to many different CSS clases that would have to be set.
.TableHeader
.TableBody1
.TableBody2
Just make it simple like that even though I know there will be more I didnt have time to pull up the list
Then what about alternating colors between the different columns? You know people will ask for it, and since it'd require a large amount of editing the files to get rid of the bgcolor attributes already, adding an extra class wouldn't hurt.
Maybe the "basic" settings could be in inc_header.asp and the more "advanced" classes in an external style sheet.
I like the idea I read about to use a "utility" to create CSS files, but you could also try to team up with a company that makes a good CSS editor. Snitz promotes their software and when people then buy a copy through Snitz, either they get a small discount or Snitz gets a "donation". |
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