Forum - New Look

[newmarket]

I'm just wondering how everyone is finding the 'new' look for the forum.... I'm finding it really hard to read.

Just checking to see if it's me in my advancing years or not!!


Thanks, newmarket

[Telemachus]

Perhaps you didn't notice, but in the very section you posted this thread, there is a long (very long) thread called "The new format makes it unduly difficult to read posts." You might check there or in the post (also in this thread) about choosing new themes for the admins to add to our choices.

[ComputerBob]

Yeah, that train left the station many days ago.

[newmarket]

Thanks Telemachus & ComputerBob.

You are right, I didn't notice in the thread you mentioned, even though it is in exactly the same area where I posted my thread.

I apologise if I am a bit sensitive, but I am having a lot of trouble reading the forums. It is something that I enjoy doing and I am finding it very difficult to see. I'm sorry if I am wrong, but please be aware that we're all different before using the RTFM argument.

Thanks again and I am sorry if this is aggressive, but I really enjoy these forums.

Perhaps you didn't notice, but in the very section you posted this thread, there is a long (very long) thread called "The new format makes it unduly difficult to read posts." You might check there or in the post (also in this thread) about choosing new themes for the admins to add to our choices.

[ComputerBob]

You're far from alone in having problems reading posts in the new forum style.

If you go into your User Control Panel, you can select the other style (I don't remember its exact name) that is closer to the old forum style. But, unfortunately, neither of those styles uses true black text.

[Telemachus]

I'm sorry if I am wrong, but please be aware that we're all different before using the RTFM argument.

I wasn't telling you to RTFM. I just wanted to let you know that you won't get any traction with a new thread (since there are already a few ongoing ones).

@ ComputerBob - If you use Iceweasel or Firefox, I highly recommend the Stylish addon or hand editing the 'userContent.css' file that lives in the Profiles folder in your .mozilla folder in your $HOME directory. I do have true black text on this site, because I made some changes. (See my very brief HOWTO for what I did.)

[ComputerBob]

Thanks for the tips, Telemachus.

I checked out your userContent.css tip, but I'm not interested in forcing all of the text of every web site that I visit to be black black. Some web sites (including my own) use other colors of text for emphasis and design reasons, and I don't want to override those colors. I only want the text of these Debian User Forums to be as black as possible.

I've used Sylish in the past, and it's a good idea, but I got tired of using it after awhile. I don't even remember any more whether it is site-specific or not.

The fact of the matter is that it would only require a forum admin to change one line in one phpbb v3.x forum admin config screen to "#000000" to change the text of every post from its default "almost black" to "real" black. To me, that would make more sense than requiring everyone who has problems seeing the current "almost black" text to find and manually apply some sort of work-around.

[newmarket]

Thanks Computerbob,

The other theme is much better.

Thanks again

[Telemachus]

Thanks for the tips, Telemachus.

I checked out your userContent.css tip, but I'm not interested in forcing all of the text of every web site that I visit to be black black. Some web sites (including my own) use other colors of text for emphasis and design reasons, and I don't want to override those colors. I only want the text of these Debian User Forums to be as black as possible.

You can have site specific material. Just wrap the rule with @-moz-document domain(debian.net). Example (tested and working):

Code: Select all

@-moz-document domain(debian.net) {
   /* Make all text black */
  * {
    color: #000 !important; }
}


I've used Sylish in the past, and it's a good idea, but I got tired of using it after awhile. I don't even remember any more whether it is site-specific or not.

It can be, but again, you can already be site specific with just userContent.css.

The fact of the matter is that it would only require a forum admin to change one line in one phpbb v3.x forum admin config screen to "#000000" to change the text of every post from its default "almost black" to "real" black. To me, that would make more sense than requiring everyone who has problems seeing the current "almost black" text to find and manually apply some sort of work-around.

Perhaps easier for you and me, but this assumes that everyone (or even a majority of the people) want true black text. I want true black myself, but I have no idea about the real numbers.

[ComputerBob]

Perhaps easier for you and me, but this assumes that everyone (or even a majority of the people) want true black text. I want true black myself, but I have no idea about the real numbers.

I just checked and everyone agrees. They all want true black text.

[ComputerBob]

You can have site specific material. Just wrap the rule with @-moz-document domain(debian.net). Example (tested and working):

Code: Select all

@-moz-document domain(debian.net) {
   /* Make all text black */
  * {
    color: #000 !important; }
}


Thank you! That actually works. Unfortunately, it affects ALL forum text, including all quoted text, coding, hyperlinks and the red and blue text in my forum signature.

Deleting !important helped restore most of those to their normal colors, but the colors in my forum signature (which are forum span styles) are still being overridden and turned completely black.

Now I remember why I stopped using Stylish a few years ago -- I got tired of it giving me "almost" what I wanted, but having to repeatedly analyze and tweak someone else's CSS values in order to really get what I wanted.

Of course, that's not a design flaw in Stylish.

But it takes me back to my point of it making more sense for a forum admin to change one value on one phpbb forum admin config screen -- which would change only all normal forum post content to black -- than for the rest of us to have to manually tweak things individually to try to achieve the same effect.

[Telemachus]

Thank you! That actually works. Unfortunately, it affects ALL forum text, including all quoted text, coding, hyperlinks and the red and blue text in my forum signature.

Right, that's the * selector for you. I can't do it right now, but I would guesstimate that 20 minutes playing around with CSS selectors would get you exactly what you want. I grant you that it would be easier (for us) for the theme to change rather than this kind of manual twiddling. That said, as a Linux user of about three years, I've grown pretty used to manual twiddling. It's par for the course, for better or worse.

[Jackiebrown]

I might use that for a few sites I frequent.

This site is that bad.

The annoying ones are the ones that allow their users to type in any color and with any font size. (Those are usually the users that like to use all caps as well.)

[mdevour]

Jackiebrown, anyone,

I've been seeing the complaints about readability and kinda wondering... On my display the text looks damn close to black on light blue and contrast is plenty. I didn't even realize that it was dark grey. I'm using a really old LCD monitor. I wonder what kind of displays those of you who are having problems are using?

I have some definite vision problems, rather severe at times in fact, so I'm really not dismissing the issue. It's just that it's been working fine for me.

Of course, having the forums back at all is the best thing about it!

Mike D.

[edbarx]

It is very evident that the selection of font colours and text backgrounds is not helping the forum's readability. If people around here, start denying the evident, it will then be useless to try to explain them anything.