New Feature New style & home page reshuffle

[RobinHood]

With the upgrade to 1.3.3 we needed a new style too, so we now use one called Black Responsive, by Arty, who is one of the best XF style designers.

I appreciate that currently the thread view is quite a lot bigger and spaced out than the previous style. Personally I like it a lot more compact with smaller avatars and not loads of random information in the postbit (the user info bit next to each post), I've just not got around to customising it yet. What do you guys think?

Yes, currently the highlights are Pink, I figured you gaylords might like it

If there's a big consensus to change then I can look into changing the highlight colours. But once you mark all the recent threads as read, you don't see it that much if you visit the site regularly, I think the pink actually goes quite well with the black

If you see any bits that look a bit off or need fixing please point them out so I can address them.

 

[RobinHood]

Additionally, I have decided to experiment with changing the home page layout.

Previously I was using a portal add on to control all the blocks on the home page, which worked pretty well but I wanted to have a reshuffle to provide a greater emphasis on being able to view our current media library, make it more accesible and encourage people to use it more regularly.

So instead of using a portal it's currently the normal forum index with a large new media carousel displaying all the latest image uploads (and soon all activate the video embeds too), followed by the chat box, both inserted above the forum list.

For all the extra blocks on the right I'm using a widget framework that allows me to add various types of widgets, including an additional smaller media block that will load with approx 10 random media items every time the page is loaded, this should help keep the home page a little more fresh.

The only issue with this is I can't insert additional blocks on the left anymore, and it's more difficult to add extra items to the center of the page, but I think this will work pretty well.

I appreciate that the recent threads block was a really useful block on the portal and it's no longer there. This was one of the sacrifices I had to make. However I have installed an addon that alerts you as to how many new posts there have been since your last visit, so you can still see at a glance as soon as the site loads if there's any new content.

So now in the navigation bar you can see baloon alert bubbles for the following:

Media: When there's new media uploads or comments on media
New Posts: When there's new threads or posts this will be red (Click this as a replacement for the recent threads block)
Inbox: When you have new conversation messages
Alert: When you receive normal alerts such replies to your threads, media, likes etc.

To clear the alert bubbles in the media section and for new posts (if you don't enter each thread to actually read them), then click Mark Viewed for the gallery or Mark Forums Read for all normal forum activity. Then when you return any alerts will be fresh.

As always I'm open to suggestions and feedback though

 

[illUminuSS]

as i said in PM keep the pink for Shooter and Tats
Save to say because Tats never reads the posts and shooter taking a break aswell

 

[RobinHood]

You may have noticed the new Featured Threads block on the home page. Admins can now select specific threads I'd like to feature on the home page.

If there's multiple active featured threads then a new one will be loaded each time the home page is reloaded.

Or you can view all of the currently featured threads by clicking the link in the sub navigation as in the picture.

If you prefer to keep your home page a bit cleaner you can also dismiss each of the featured thread notifications by using the drop down menu in the top right hand corner of the featured thread block (if they're set to be dismissable)

By default the image will be the avatar of the user who created the thread, but custom icons can also be uploaded.

 

[RobinHood]

I managed to get around to compressing the thread view again to tidy it up.

I've also added a new toggle switch that you can use to quickly see more info about other users in the postbit
<- The text below your username to the right of your posts

Previously I hid this completely because it spaces things out loads and looks a bit messy, so you had to visit a users profile page to check their info.

Now you can just toggle the + sign by their name and have a peek at the extra info like their Steam or Origin ID to add them in game

 

[RobinHood]

I've added a Recent Posts link next to the New Posts link.

This means even if there's no new posts to read, you can still easily find a list of the most recent active topic with a single click from the home page now

 

[FFFMayhem]

Honestly the site looks the same on my phone. Will need to check on the pc tomorrow. You've always done a great job on the site. Keep it up perhaps some green for me xbox folks?

 

[RobinHood]

Haha, the update today with regards to this thread today is minor mate. This thread is is from June, but I made a minor adjustment today that added a handy extra link to all the recent posts