New AFF Website

[admin]

Selecting the design of any website is a thankless process! We all have our individual preferences, so it is impossible to please everyone.

The new AFF style was therefore developed by professional designers using state-of-the-art Material Design with the additional brief of using existing AFF branding and keeping it as close as possible to the old vBulletin style.

I think the new style is great, and so do many other members as you can see from the posts on this thread…

… but there are also posts from members who don’t like the new style. While I’m hoping it’s just a question of getting used to something new and that in time we will all embrace my enthusiasm, I realise that it may not suite everyone.

So, and as an interim measure, I have enabled the standard Xenforo style for our GOLD and SILVER members. You can select this by selecting “Xenforo Standard Style” from the Style Choose at the bottom of the page. See image below.

Some things to note about using the “Xenforo Standard Style”:
1. It’s identical to the default style which ships with Xenforo. The only change is the AFF logo in the top left hand corner.
2. It’s not the “official” AFF style and won’t be maintained. I also can’t guarantee that all the AFF add-ons will work on this style.
3. Using this style is entirely optional. You can go back to the supported AFF style at any time.
4. If the use of the style causes any technical issues/ conflicts, it will be disabled.
3. It's only available to paid members, as the advertisements have not been optimised on this style. As you know, paid member’s don’t see ads anyway!

Hope this helps some members

 

[bismarck]

Selecting the design of any website is a thankless process! We all have our individual preferences, so it is impossible to please everyone.

Agreed!!

I think the new style is great, and so do many other members as you can see from the posts on this thread…

Agreed x 2

So, and as an interim measure, I have enabled the standard Xenforo style for our GOLD and SILVER members. You can select this by selecting “Xenforo Standard Style” from the Style Choose at the bottom of the page.

Very generous. Must admit, I don't understand the 'washed out' complaint (Yes, I'm young, but I also wear glasses).

 

[Milboo]

How big are the photos you are trying to upload.
From an early post by @samh004 the current limit is 5Mb (though I think it should be a lot lower).
The old website had a auto-compression engine that brought most photos to under 100k (to be honest all that is needed on a screen).

If they're too big. Try and resize them to a smaller size - say something like 640 wide.

Check out this post from @support on some of the variables and how best to post: Guide to Using Our Forum Software (XenForo)

This is the bit in the guide that was confusing me:
There is no limit on the number of photos or total storage used by photos when you upload to forum threads in this way, other than a limit of 10 files per post.

My photos are just standard off the iPhone so didn't think there was a file size issue there.

 

[samh004]

This is the bit in the guide that was confusing me:
There is no limit on the number of photos or total storage used by photos when you upload to forum threads in this way, other than a limit of 10 files per post.

My photos are just standard off the iPhone so didn't think there was a file size issue there.

The following is taken from another website, but illustrates the issue.

An iPhone has a 12 MegaPixel camera on the back, this produces images that are roughly 4000 x 3000 pixels.

Each pixel has 3 components, one each for red, green and blue. That brings the total number of bytes to 4000 x 3000 X 3 = 36,000,000 bytes, or about 34 megabytes. (Using the convention of 1kB = 1024 bytes and 1MB = 1,048,576 bytes, which is common in the computer world).

How is it that my images contain 34MB of data, but the file sizes are so very much smaller, only around 5 or 2.5MB on average?

The answer, is JPEG compression. This is influenced by two main factors:

• amount of subject detail in the picture
• chosen level of compression

A sharply focussed photo of lots of finely detailed foliage will likely be very large. On the other hand a photo of a subject against a plain, out of focus or very dark background may be very much smaller.

Now I know that's all a bit complicated, but the end result is that some images taken on your phone can be quite a lot larger than we'd like them to be. This is good sometimes, as it ensures the detail and quality remains, but bad other times when we want to send a file and it eats up a lot of data.

The lack of a limit on total storage means that you won't be stopped from uploading images because you've used all your space up with large photos, as can happen on some websites.

 

[TheRealTMA]

I’ll say your statement is half true. Google is dropping page rank to non-HTTPS sites.

However, the former site did have HTTPS, it just wasn’t forced.

And chrome will flag the site and annoy you if it's not HTTPS.

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-is-requiring-https-for-secure-data-in-chrome/183756/

 

[kpc]

So, and as an interim measure, I have enabled the standard Xenforo style for our GOLD and SILVER members. You can select this by selecting “Xenforo Standard Style” from the Style Choose at the bottom of the page. See image below.

Some things to note about using the “Xenforo Standard Style”:
1. It’s identical to the default style which ships with Xenforo. The only change is the AFF logo in the top left hand corner.
2. It’s not the “official” AFF style and won’t be maintained. I also can’t guarantee that all the AFF add-ons will work on this style.
3. Using this style is entirely optional. You can go back to the supported AFF style at any time.
4. If the use of the style causes any technical issues/ conflicts, it will be disabled.
3. It's only available to paid members, as the advertisements have not been optimised on this style. As you know, paid member’s don’t see ads anyway!

Hope this helps some members

View attachment 105941

OK thanks....I have switched to the standard Xenforo style and will see which I prefer

 

[Pushka]

I've had a couple of photo upload issues but it's to do with file size. Surprising on the phone but some might have come from a camera.

 

[JessicaTam]

Ahem, as have I... - and ahead on percentage .

And well done you!

I didn't know whether to click like, agree, or informative!

 

[samh004]

And chrome will flag the site and annoy you if it's not HTTPS.

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-is-requiring-https-for-secure-data-in-chrome/183756/

And this was one of the reasons it was raised a few weeks ago, as we did have it for most* pages but most didn’t realise. Now it’s standard. It was a vital part of the update.

 

[rainbowgirl]

3. Using this style is entirely optional. You can go back to the supported AFF style at any time.

I wanted to see what the standard Xenforo style looked like so I used the link on the bottom right to try it out. I'm having a harder time reading the quoted text in this format so I thought I would change back to the AFF format. The Xenforo standard has a similar style link in the bottom left corner but doesn't give me the option to change back to the AFF standard.

 

[samh004]

I wanted to see what the standard Xenforo style looked like so I used the link on the bottom right to try it out. I'm having a harder time reading the quoted text in this format so I thought I would change back to the AFF format. The Xenforo standard has a similar style link in the bottom left corner but doesn't give me the option to change back to the AFF standard.

Choose the option "Use default style".

 

[admin]

I wanted to see what the standard Xenforo style looked like so I used the link on the bottom right to try it out. I'm having a harder time reading the quoted text in this format so I thought I would change back to the AFF format. The Xenforo standard has a similar style link in the bottom left corner but doesn't give me the option to change back to the AFF standard.

See image below on where to click to go back to the AFF Style

 

[rainbowgirl]

Thanks for your thoughts. I'm learning new ways to keep in touch with the information I want, so I'm attempting to go along with the changes as best I can.

If you have any way to retrieve my lost avatar, I promise to tone down the signature a bit.

Thank you @Pushka for finding an image for me. Thank you to the AFF team for organising my new avatar. As promised, I have toned down my signature, however it still reflects my love of green and other bright colours of the rainbow. Hopefully it is less jarring to the eyes.

 

[JohnM]

I didn't know whether to click like, agree, or informative!

All three of course .

 

[rainbowgirl]

See image below on where to click to go back to the AFF Style
View attachment 105949

Thank you. I've changed it to the AFF style now. The dialogue box which came up made it look like there was only one option for style. I didn't register that "default" meant return to AFF style. I was looking for something that said "AFF Style" like it does at the bottom of the page now. Thanks for your post and the one from @samh004. Using both posts in conjunction with each other I was able to figure it out.

 

[JessicaTam]

All three of course .

 

[drron]

So now you have all 3 JT.

 

[Mr_Orange]

Selecting the design of any website is a thankless process! We all have our individual preferences, so it is impossible to please everyone.

The new AFF style was therefore developed by professional designers using state-of-the-art Material Design with the additional brief of using existing AFF branding and keeping it as close as possible to the old vBulletin style.

I think the new style is great, and so do many other members as you can see from the posts on this thread…

… but there are also posts from members who don’t like the new style. While I’m hoping it’s just a question of getting used to something new and that in time we will all embrace my enthusiasm, I realise that it may not suite everyone.

I can quite understand the thanklessness of website design and I also appreciate you have a house style.

State-of-the-art Material Design - pah!!! That in itself is just soneone's else's opinion and such trechniques have been applied to many web sites with disastrous results.

Legibility is key to the success of any web site and, in particular, forum-based sites because if it isn't prioritised, members stop reading, posting and clicking adverts..... we know where this potentially leads.

I believe this is symptom of XenForo and it takes some tweaking to get it right. I recall the pains over at AVForums in the UK.

Currently this site has form over function with a distinct lack of contrast and definition. There are 255 different shades of R, G and B and finding the right combinations can be difficult especially when some material design geek thinks they have 'designed' the perfect solution.

In my early, and now defunct days, of web site development I recall that of the 16 million colour combinations, it was only ever worth using a tiny percentage of them due to issues of legibility and contrast.

 

[Pushka]

The default style. Text looks like Roman? It does have possibilities I guess. Contrast is sharper. But not AFF branding as such.

 

[moa999]

Currently this site has form over function with a distinct lack of contrast and definition

Personally I can't see it.
The vast majority of content is a deep grey (I'd say 95% black) on white - a classic combination.

Other key text is deep blue on white or an inverse white on blue - again clear as daylight.

Less important content (quoted text, signatures, forum descriptions) is a medium grey on white but still readable.

About the only thing I would say is slightly light is the forum navigation bar under the blue bar and the tools/quote/reply buttons - but all are still readable.