Thread for people to discuss and bounce around suggestions for tweaks to the appearance, layout, aesthetics etc for the new responsive site to keep it all separate from the Design Update thread that's looking at what's not working, functionality etc.

My 5.5 cents worth ...

Personally I quite like the layout of the new site - yes, took some time getting used to after 19 years and counting on the old site !

One of the things I do prefer about the old site is the simpler colour scheme, so while I hope to convince jase we need to add a "Classic" theme that's limited to the old palette (feel free to vote for/against), he's got to concentrate on more important fixes for now, so until that happy day, I've set up a custom theme of my own through Preferences.  Most of the changes were to reduce the palette, and to set a lot of elements to the same colour so it flows better (to my little eye). Details below if anyone else wants to try, or if has any further suggestions:

I set header and footer background, legend (at the bottom of pages) background, main background and thread list and row background (for both odd and even row numbers) to DDDDDD  plus set all the sidebar menus background to BCC7D4 and hover to 969FAA (ie set all side menu colours to the same as side menu 4).

Existing White theme: https://drive.google.com/file/...3gQ/view?usp=sharing

My Custom theme: https://drive.google.com/file/...-m4/view?usp=sharing

And yes, I do realise that everyone has a different opinion and what I like might not work for everyone anyone else.  :>
This message was last edited by the user at 14:33, Fri 30 Aug 2019.

And while we're on the subject ... jase mentioned he'd like to get the swirl graphic (message divider back) ... personally I feel that would sit nicely as a divider option on the custom theme list - perhaps a choice of line or swirl or none (I'm sure someone will want none) ??

   Not sure if this is appropriate, and apologies if not, but there's a link on the main page of (current) Rpol that mentions a more modern interface. Personally, I prefer the main page we have now -- will there be any way to keep it once the new site goes live, or will we be stuck with the "more modern" version?

   And +1 to having the same colour schemes (as well as new ones).

In reply to Mr Crinkles (msg # 3):

The responsive site will become the site which is why we're requesting community feedback.

In reply to Skald (msg # 1):

Skald, I quite like your setup. I’m rubbish on tweaking aesthetics myself, so I really appreciate this.

I just took a few moments to try setting the color scheme of the new site to what I have on the old site. For the most part, I'm really content with what I'm seeing! I'll point out something that I'm not seeing in the color schemery settingses precioussss...

Here's how the old site looks on my computers:
https://i.imgur.com/heZJyHk.jpg?1

Here's how it looks on the responsive site:
https://i.imgur.com/qbyO1MJ.png?1

Here's how it looks collapsed ('background for message details when collapsed'):
https://i.imgur.com/LfAuXP3.jpg?1

Here's how I'd like the non-collapsed look to be:
https://i.imgur.com/vgSOe8h.png?1

When it collapses, I can set the bg color (light green), but when it's expanded, that color goes away and I'm not seeing where I can set it other than the 'main background' setting. Am I missing something or does there need to be an extra background added when in full mode? Has the message details bg gone away on the new site?

I did not like the responsive site at first, but I got used to it very quickly. I have visual difficulties, and the responsive being less cluttered makes it a heck of a lot easier for me. Some of the color combos are still hard to see, but I can manage that with a custom scheme.

I would like it if the message number could be moved to the right near the quote/reply buttons, or colored so it stands out more. If someone's replied to a post but hasn't quoted it, I often like to go back and read the previous. A link to the quoted post would work also.

I mentioned this previously in RPoL Development, but since it is possibly relevant to the topic here:

Could we move the message number up to the same line with the message subject, and place it at the extreme right end of the line over the links for quote|reply|edit|delete?
This message was last edited by the user at 23:07, Wed 28 Aug 2019.

In reply to horus (msg # 8):

I'll second this point here, since we've moved the discussion to this thread. Even if the thread subjects DO go away, I'd also like to have the message number over with the quote/reply/etc.

Maybe especially if the thread subjects go away, because there's something cold and impersonal about starting an RP post with just a number. If the subjects stay in place, having the option to color the number would be an acceptable substitute for moving it.
This message was last edited by the user at 23:15, Wed 28 Aug 2019.

Should the "Preview As" button be available to all players? Seems like that should be for the GM, but maybe I'm missing something.

I'd like to see the "Preview", "Post Message" and Cancel buttons/link be on the left in non-collapsed mode. Seems more efficient to me.

In reply to locojedi (msg # 10):

I believe so.  It was pointed out in the other thread that sometimes players want to send private lines to multiple people, and something as simple as a misplaced (or forgotten) bracket can screw that up.  So the option to check that your private lines are being seen by the right people could be useful to players as well as GMs.

When I am done reading a thread the boxes on the right that say this thread, or post reply or your account on the right are all the way on the top.  If I want to make a roll off of this I have to scroll all the way back up to the top.  Could these boxes, or certain actions scroll down as you scroll through the forum?

In reply to flakeytheleper (msg # 12):

You can hit the 'top' button (right next to 'all', beneath the 'Post a Reply' button at the bottom right) to take you immediately back to the top of the page without scrolling, so that you can access the dieroller/cast list/etc.

I could see the usefulness of having those three action boxes scroll down, but for myself (in the interest of less visual clutter), I actually prefer those three boxes stay anchored to the top precisely so that I can read without seeing them. Not to mention that I'm used to having to go back to the top of the thread to get to those things anyway, and I think the 'top' button is there to make that easier.
This message was last edited by the user at 14:53, Fri 30 Aug 2019.

I really want to try the new layout to get used to it, because I know it'll be inevitable. But I've been using the Dark Purple theme for over a decade now, so my brain associates that color pattern with RPoL. Seeing everything in stark white and pastels just feels jarring. Plus it means I can't read the site at night without burning my poor, aging retinas.

Has someone made a reasonable facsimile of the Dark Purple theme in the new site? I'm not sure which color values to copy where, and there are a lot of new elements to define (or leave alone). Plus, I'd rather not have to try to reinvent the wheel if someone's already figured it out.

I vastly prefer the current (old site) the layout is much more spacious.

The boxes in the 'column' to the right which have "This thread/this forum/your account" really encroach on the available thread space significantly. Perhaps they could be moved to a horizontal bar at the stop or something?

I really hope the old look will be maintained, but I assume this alteration will be inevitable. :(

Madquest, if you go into the custom theme and increase the setting for "Maximum Page Width" to something higher (I use 1600, myself), it'll help give you more thread space. It won't make the boxes to the right any smaller, but you can offset the encroachment by creating more 'area' for everything to the left of them.

In reply to LonePaladin (msg # 14):

If someone's got a good dark theme they want to share (by creating it and then telling me) then I can make it available as the "black" (or whatever it's closest to) theme for everyone.

Won't specifically give you purple but at least it'll be a good dark starting point.


In reply to madquest8 (msg # 15):

I disagree.. mainly because I designed it and removed spacing wherever I could!  The old site was specifically designed to cram everything in the corners out the way.. it was designed when 4x3 ratio 17" and 19" monitors where the norm so the screen size was limited, which is why the text is small and the left-right spacing (padding/margin) is small or none.

It means that with the larger and wider monitors of today you end up with a lot of text per line in a post, but the site definitely isn't more spacious.

The new site is (whenever possible) designed around the width of the post block.  The right column (and left post information section) is additional to that.

It's not page width - left box - right box = post width.  It's post width + left box + right box = page width.

So if I remove the right navigation you'll end up with a narrower page.

That said the left (post information) column is too wide as it's got to cater for longer character names.  I'm looking at ways that can adapt a bit more so will be trying that.  That will (in most situations) give a wider post width.

Is there a way to save a theme once we've created one, jase, in a way that we can easily go back to it? I'd happily go make a standard-issue black/grey theme (since mine is mostly black and grey anyway), but I hate to lose the settings I've already got. (Or god forbid, have to manually write them all down. <.< )

Can't ya just copypasta them into a post?

Like so:

background:
000000
background image:
background image (external location):
background image, fixed or scroll:
button background (gradient), hover start:
404050
button background (gradient), start:
333340
button background (gradient), end:
333340
button background (gradient), hover end:
404050
button background (plain):
333340
button background (plain), hover:
404050
button text:
3399CC
button text, hover:
CCFFFF
footer background:
505050
footer link background, hover:
444444
footer link border, hover:
000088
form background:
001122
header background:
505050
header link background, hover:
444444
header link border, hover:
000088
horizontal line:
3399CC
links:
3399CC
links, hover:
CCFFFF
message background:
505050
message background, alternative:
484848
message border:
0070B0
message border, alternative:
0070B0
message table header background:
404040
normal text:
FFFFFF
My theme is generally



That was me literally just highlightign and copying the "dark" theme on RPoL 'Classic'.

Sure, but I can't paste them all back IN to get the scheme back when I'm done. :)

Hence the 'easily go back to it' part of my question.

Name and save themes so you can have multiple ones to choose between ?  +1 from me ... and now if we can all join together in a rousing chorus of the old classic 'Feature Creep'.  ;>

I have my custom theme set up now and I'm happy with that, but it'd be nice to have an easy way to test other themes and then restore)

Hi guys,

I will miss the old site layout but so far so good on this site. The font sizes and type, the grid-like layout looks clean and nice. Anyway, here are a few suggestions after using the new site. I admit I didn't read through every single post in this thread and the other threads so I apologise if this has already been address or if there is a workaround that I should be doing on my end.

* * * *

1) What I do miss about from the old site is the headers in the home page. It just makes the design look cleaner in my opinion so that there is less repeated information.

I.e.


versus the current layout.


I just feel like I don't need to see the word GM and posts so many times.

* * * *

2) I wish I could see the usernames of those who RTJed, just like the old site. Right now, all I see is a list of "Access to Game abc" and "Author" instead of the username. I guess it was just more convenient to be able to find the thread conversation with a particular player/user without having to access each thread to find the person I want to talk to (Especially if we haven't started conversing yet)

* * * *

3) There seems to be a lot of information under Thread Details. Perhaps we could have another column to the right where some of the thread details like last post by, or group, could be shifted there?

* * * *

4) Just a minor thing, but I'd love it if the "full stop" beside the name of each game thread, located in the header, isn't a default unless I placed a fullstop in the thread name myself.

Once you've saved the theme then on any page do view source on the page.  You will see near the top some lines regarding stylesheet.  Find the one that says "/lib/themes/user/1234-r.css" where 1234 is your account id.  That's your sheet, download and save.
This message was last edited by the user at 11:22, Sat 31 Aug 2019.

My custom theme might be a good starting point for anyone wanting to develop a truly dark theme.  I don't think it will meet Lone Paladin's needs out of the box, but might save some work.

YAY!  The RPoL Classic dark theme is on the responsive site!  I might switch over to exclusively now.

Could we get the 'Private Messages' option to still be available in the right-hand box still when we're in the Cast List or the Game Map?

It's still there in Game Menu, Character Details, Game Preferences, Scratch Pad, and Die Roller, but disappears when one goes into the Cast List or the Game Map.

Hey gang ... hoping I could get some help from the more computer savvy RPoL'ers out there.

I've set my own theme on the responsive site (cool feature, btw).

Unread posts on the main page are jumping right out, which is perfect as they're supposed to catch the eye.

Within a game, however, they are not.  Each thread looks just like every other thread on the page, even if there are threads with new/unread messages.  Am I missing something?

Is there another category of text I should be adjusting color-wise on the 'Preferences' page?

Are you using a darker color for the thread backgrounds within the game? The icons currently are just black outlines (jase said he would change this, either to full-color or with a lighter set that kicks in on dark backgrounds, he just hasn't yet), so they can be really hard to see if you're using a dark background color for the threads.

I have to run through with my mouse and highlight the threads (my highlight color is slightly brighter than the background), while looking closely to the left of the thread title, to see the icons because my colors are darker, too. If you look close (and presumably aren't using actual black for the background too, I guess) you can see them. Barely.
This message was last edited by the user at 15:06, Sat 31 Aug 2019.

^^ That was it, thank you.

Okay, never mind.  It was a weird blip and is gone again.

I've made the "dark red" theme available again (it's halfway between black and dark red really).  Let me know if anything messes up (again...).

It only shows that color scheme while in the Preferences page. As soon as you go elsewhere it reverts to the White scheme.

I think you'll find any page with a ".cgi" file gives you dark red, the others with ".php" are giving you white.

That'll be due to cookies being handled in a different order in Perl vs PHP.  In Perl the "r.rpol.net" cookies are used if both exist, with PHP it's using "rpol.net" cookies if both exist.

Solution is to log out of rpol.net and www.rpol.net.  If it still doesn't work then you'll need to get your browser to delete all *rpol.net cookies.

Finally got the dark theme to work (hurray!) but even with the box checked, it is not suppressing the colors in games.

I really loathe (read: hate with the fire of a million burning suns) colorization on speech (usual usage I've seen).  I don't mind the orange for the private lines and such as I've gotten used to it, but I despise the use of colored text for speech.  I've been suppressing that option, so had used the box in setting preferences on this responsive site, but the colorized text is still there in game threads.

Ah yes, will pop that in tomorrow.

I was trying to play with the dark red theme, but cannot figure out what the icon for the new messages is called. I want to change the color of that, so it pops up red instead of grey on a dark black background. As it is, I cannot see it while it's grey. Wanted to change it red, or white if possible. What is it called though?

edit: also wanted to do the same with the notices and closed thread icons too. If possible.
This message was last edited by the user at 16:53, Sun 01 Sept 2019.

In reply to Elohvey (msg # 36):

There's no option to adjust those. Jase is aware of the issue and already said that he would either make the icons full-color so they show on everything (like they do on the current site), or put in a lighter option that kicks in on darker background colors.

Edit: Dieroller options are also not in yet, as best I can tell.
This message was last edited by the user at 18:32, Sun 01 Sept 2019.

If you update your custom theme and disable colours you should find it now does what it says it'll do!

It worked.  Thank you so much!

Discovered a minor oversight.

When on a game's Private Messages page, the side menu titled, This Game, lists 'Post Private Message' twice.

Loving the new responsive site.  Checking in from a phone is tons easier now.  Just about the only thing I cannot do from my iPhone is anything requiring a mouseover.  So far, though, it looks like the mouseover functions are minimal (basically just the Last Login / Last Post info contained within The Cast).

You just need to "click" on the line to have it displayed / hidden.

Speaking of Private Messages, since this appears to have been fixed, could we get a link to the Private Messages in the 'This Game' section, when in the Cast List? Cast List and Game Map don't have that option in their 'This Game' box, but every other place does.

This message was deleted by the user at 00:57, Tue 03 Sept 2019.

As someone who plays primarily on mobile, I absolutely love the responsive layout.  Thanks for all your hard work, jase!

Feature request (which would perhaps meet some others): export and import custom themes.  I wouldn't expect to be able to manage a ton of themes on the server itself, but being able to save and reload themes would be helpful.  And allow us to share them more easily.

In addition, when tweaking themes, it looks like the "page background" color controls the color for both the page background and text entry boxes.  Any chance we can separate those?  I'd prefer to eliminate the huge white splash in the background, but would like the text boxes to remain a white background.

And I'll +1 the selectability of the separator.  I prefer the new swirl, but generally go for a minimalist thing.

No pressure either way--mainly posted to say thanks and great work!

Likewise a +1 here. I hadn't thought I would really need that, since the squiggle looked so awesome (and new to me, as my live theme doesn't use it), but now that I'm seeing things without the squiggle, I want it back. :(

So, it seems to me that, in this new phone-based version of the site, the game threads have this very small (really, just barely legible to me, and I'm using a PC screen and 125% zoom) section after the thread's name, which is under the "Thread Details" header, that contains all of the useful information about the thread (last person who replied, time and date of last reply, number of current posts in the thread). I find that jumbled and confusing, whereas the current layout is quick, intuitive, and one of the things that speeds up my use of the site.

Thus, is there anyway that those information can be presented in a more streamlined and visible fashion, more akin to the old version? I've exactly zero understanding of coding, programming or anything related, and thus don't know if it's even possible or not, but as far as I'm concerned, if that information remained condensed in that manner it'd be a big reduction in ease of use of the site.

I have a question for the group regarding custom themes.

Can someone tell me which menu the 'You have a new rMail' message belongs to?  I'd like to set it to a color that stands out a bit more than the dark gray I have set it to.

Send me an rmail and I'll try to help you out, or does rmail just highlight the button on
the "| Home | Jump | Chat | rMail | rPoll | FAQs| Help |" bar?

Thanks, Horus. Message away!

When an rMail is waiting to be read, a new side menu pops up on the right side, above the 'Main Menu' and 'Your Account' side menus.

The background for this is:  side menu 1 notification section background.
There is also a hover color:  side menu 1 notification section hover
It appears to use the same text color as:  side menu text.

Thanks.  I originally had my rMail notification set to a truly abominable combination of colors...

Have removed the extra post private message and make the menus a bit more consistent.  Probably still more to do!



If you've got a column for "Thread Title" and another for "Thread Details" then it sounds like you've turned on the option in your browser to show the desktop site/desktop version.

Other big clue is if the menu bar is still on the right.  It should be shrunk up the top.

Turn off that option and you'll see a completely different (and much more usable!) layout.

This covers changing the force desktop view setting on your mobile device for iOS, Chrome and Internet Explorer:

https://www.howtogeek.com/1769...bsite-on-your-phone/

And here for Firefox:

https://support.mozilla.org/en...view-firefox-android

Discovered a minor oversight.

On the responsive site, when trying to configure a game's die roller, the 'set as default' button is missing.

First off I would like to thank Jase and the crew for their constant work on the site and the efforts that go into it, I really appreciate it :)

I've tried the responsive site and it takes a bit to get used to. Is it meant especially for mobile use?

Using the laptop to access the site, the new dice roller layout is a bit wide spread, so it needs scrolling to reach all the necessary fields and boxes. This is probably beneficial to phone or tablet users, but a more compact layout would be favourable for a bigger screen (ie. laptop).

Thank you for considering my input :)

Fixed the missing "set as default".

Agreed regarding the spacing in the roller.  It's very nicely laid out (wasn't me!) but the requirement to scroll every time is an annoyance.  Need to compact it down... somehow.

I tried to see if this comment was made elsewhere, but I don't see it - my apologies if it's redundant!

I have noticed a 'bug' in the responsive page, specifically, the 'mark all as read' doesn't seem to work right.

Reproduction Steps:
Navigate to a story that currently has unread threads. Note that they have the little pencil icon next to them.
Select Mark All as Read
Navigated Out
Note that the story no longer shows as having fresh threads
Navigate back IN to the story
Note that those threads are still marked as 'unread' with the pencil icon.
Actually open the thread.
Navigate back out, then back in - no longer flagged with the icon.

This is troublesome when I see that a story has a new thread, but when I navigate in all of them are showing as unread.

If it matters, I'm in Firefox.

Hopefully that makes sense! Feel free to rMail me if not!

Most read/unread flagging issues can be solved by clearing your browser's cookies for RPoL.

Jase also mentioned somewhere that if you move from the classic site to the responsive you might need to log out of the classic site, then clear cookies, before using the responsive site to avoid certain cookie related issues.

Hey jase - when IN a Private Message on the responsive site, there's no button in the righthand side 'This game' menu to get BACK to Private Messages. There's 'Post a Private Message', but that just takes you to the posting window, not the actual list of your PMs.

We can go back to the Game Menu and then go to Private Messages again, but that just feels like a lot of extra effort and page-loading (at least on my phone, which is slow as molasses). Could we get a Private Messages button in the options that are available when we're IN a private message, so that we can go back to the Private Message list easily?

In reply to SunRuanEr (msg # 58):

Give it a whirl now.

In reply to jase (msg # 59):

Hm. Still not seeing it on responsive.

There's now a Private Messages option in the 'this game' menu when we're in the Cast List and the Game Map (and there didn't use to be one for those, so that's great! Thanks!), but I'm still not seeing one when I'm reading a Private Message thread. Just the 'Post a Private Message'.

Is it something on my end, like needing to log out and back in? *goes to try that*

Edit: Nope, still not there - although entertainingly, logging out (which wouldn't work from responsive, and required me to relog over on live - I feel like that's been mentioned before by someone else) changed my theme on live. Which was... weird.

Edit, part deux: Also just noticed while checking this that when the 'this game' menu is collapsed down, it doesn't appear to indicate whether or not there are new private messages without opening it to check. Is there any way to make the little 'this game' collapsed icon pop a different color when there are new PMs, so you can see that they're there without having to manually open the 'this game' menu to check?
This message was last edited by the user at 13:31, Fri 13 Sept 2019.

The one thing that keeps tripping me up is finding the "Home" button. I routinely want to select Home right after some action in the This Game/Forum menu block (e.g., mark all as read), but it's both small and on the opposite side of the screen.

Could a redundant Home button be added to those blocks?

In reply to SunRuanEr (msg # 60):

Ah, I thought you meant when composing a message.  I get you now, should be better when both composing and reading now.  (c;


In reply to Pat (msg # 61):

Not a terrible idea but it doesn't belong in any of the menus.  "This game" / "This forum" would probably be the best of a terrible bunch.

If it helps, Pat, the RPoL logo and title is the home button. The one at the top of every page.  Click it (or tap on mobile) and you are brought back to your landing page.

In reply to jase (msg # 62):

*wild cheering*

Thanks jase! :)

It does help sone, thanks. It's still the opposite side of the screen, but it's a much bigger target.

Two unrelated requests from a sheer aesthetics wish, here...

1) Could we get a means to reduce the height of the game thread titles? I realize that the information included in the Thread Details sets a minimum height, but there's about a third of the height below the last post timestamp that isn't being used (unless there's both a Notice and a Thread Closed icon for the thread, although those could maybe be side-by-side instead of one above the other?). That space is still there even in the collapsed version.

There's a whole lot of scrolling down that I'm having to do to see threads in a game (since the entire page no longer shows on the browser), and anything that reduces the amount of scroll that I have to do just to find the new posts would be awesome.

2) Could we increase the number of threads that appear per page, in a game?

Since the responsive site seems more geared towards vertical viewing, (and there's going to be scrolling even if the thread title height is reduced) is there really a need to cap at 25 threads per page? I'm not suggesting something crazy like 'ALL OF THEM!' on the same page because that would get crazy, but even an increase to 30 or 35 threads per page would be nice.

Don't know if it's just me...

I have a Samsung Note 10+.  This has curved screen edges.

Would there be a possiblity of a couple of pixels of padding on the left and right of the page?

It's going right to the edge, round the curve, and although it isn't, it feels like it's cutting a bit off and I constantly have the urge to scroll, where no scroll is available.
This message was last edited by the user at 16:11, Sun 15 Sept 2019.

One issue I've found with the new design is when using it on multiple devices. It marks threads that have been viewed on another device as having unread posts. I assume that's because it's stashing that data in a cookie, rather than storing it on a server.

In reply to Longbow (msg # 68):

For what it's worth, that happened on the old site, too.

The other place that last third is used is the Wanted Players forum, where the font for the game system (often not included in the thread title) is already tiny.

In reply to Pat (msg # 70):

Ah, well then, that would teach me right for not checking every possible forum, then. Oh well.

I hope this isn't the wrong place, but I'm making my own CSS for all the colors I want. I'm going pretty well with a brown/khaki theme that uses white lettering, but I can't figure out how to turn the RPoL in the banner where it says "Welcome to RolePlay onLine, steelsmiter!" right below it white. Which field in the CSS editing page would I change to FFFFFF?

The 'RPoL' in the header box just to the right of the RPoL logo uses whatever color you have selected for 'Standard Text.'

In reply to Ski-Bird (msg # 73):

Ick... Thanks though.

I've been alternating between using the traditional RPOL site and the responsive site for a while now on both my phone (iOS) and my laptop. I think I've already expressed these thoughts, but here's where I am right now with the responsive site.

Using my laptop, I like the responsive page that lists my games and the forums. It's cleanly organized, and I can see at a glance which games and forums have updates. Honestly, I like the aesthetics of this page more than the traditional page, although I typically use the traditional page when logging in.

Within the game itself, I far prefer the traditional page to the responsive site. Although the traditional page seems to waste space, especially for games with only a few threads, this isn't an issue on long-running games with full pages of threads. For games with a number of notice threads, I need to scroll down on the responsive page to see what threads have been updated. On the traditional page, I can see immediately what threads have been updated.

I also prefer having the firebolt notice of new threads within the column of lights to the left rather than being by themselves on the responsive page. It just seems more aesthetically pleasing to me, although I'm not sure why.

On mobile, I appreciate the larger font, but I do like being able to see the whole games and forums page at a glance under the traditional setting. The responsive version on mobile is fine, but there's a lot more scrolling.

In a game, there's far too much scrolling on mobile to get to new threads. There seems to be a lot of unnecessary information. I'd love to be able to toggle off the line "For group X by Y with Z replies". The table version on the traditional site allows so much more information to be seen at a glance.

For reading threads, I do like the way the responsive site presents the story, especially with the settings Skald posted in this thread, both on mobile and desktop. I love the automatic resizing of images to fit in the thread.

A note - Logout does not seem to log me out of the responsive site. I think this is an issue that has already been brought up.

Anyway, the responsive site is looking good. I would like a way to be able to view simultaneously more thread names in the game forum, perhaps by disabling some of the information. I suppose using a table format like the traditional site isn't very workable in the responsive site.

Not sure if this had been mentioned, but I don't like that you can't see the original author of a private message thread in a game.  As a GM, I sometimes have to open a dozen to find the correct one.

I've been playing with solely the responsive site for a while now, and I've come to discover that I really, really miss one particular feature of the live site:

The ability to, at a glance, see when players last logged in.

It's an important feature to know, when I need to check to see if a player has seen an update/read a notice/just plain logged in to meet activity requirements. As it is, on responsive, I have to literally mouse over each and every individual name one at a time to check their last login. On live, I can just skim down the list and look for a 'Today' timestamp to know if someone has read a post. It's not a huge issue for games with small cast lists, but it feels really unbearable in a game with 20+ characters to check. If I'm not taking notes on the side, by the time I get to the end I've forgotten who has/hasn't seen something.

By the same token, having the Groups listed for each character visible at a glance seems extraneous - that isn't something I really need to be able to see all the time at a glance. I do sometimes need to double-check groups/remind myself who is in each one, but that's not something I need to do every day or even every month, and when I do I rarely need to check more than a character or two. Seeing logins... that I need to do practically every day.

I understand if I'm alone in this, or if it's not possible, but man... it would really up the usefulness of the cast list (for me) if we could switch the 'Groups' column with 'Last Login'.

Edit: Or add an option to perhaps 'Expand All' so that every cast entry opens completely all at the same time? That would make the list ridiculously long to scroll down through for some games, but at least then it could be scrolled through with all the information viewable at once.
This message was last edited by the user at 16:07, Sun 24 Nov 2019.

As a workaround for now ... you can simply copy all the cast details and paste into Notepad or somesuch which will then show all those hidden details.  :>

And a +1 for me for swapping last login or last post or both with groups - I'm more likely to check those dates than the groups and I can get the groups list from the GM menu easily enough if I need to check it.

Or if space is an issue on Responsive and the aim is to minimise the info displayed on the cast screen, perhaps add a last logins/last post option on the GM Menu ?

Going to need full control over the display Font, pt-size, and formatting (Bold) etc. I currently use the Green theme on the good site. I show the section headers (Games You Own, etc.) as being displayed in 9.5 size Verdana Bold and the game links as 9.5 Verdana. On this new monster, the headings are in flipping size 17 Arial Bold and the game links are 10.5 Arial Bold.

I neither need nor want the game links to be bold. Nor do I want them to be in Arial, and I need them to be smaller. I understand that some users prefer things like this, but I don't, and I would like to be able to appreciate the aesthetic of the site based on my own preferences, not those of others.

Edit:

The links to Relog, Logout, go into RPoL Preferences, or start a new game are all important, but I do not think they need to be on every single page (especially where they might be accidentally tapped by a mobile user). Being able to access those options from the home page is likely sufficient.
This message was last edited by the user at 18:18, Mon 09 Dec 2019.

I have a request regarding site layout, specifically for mobile users...

Is it possible to freeze the forum header?

When I'm about to make my post, I sometimes feel like I'm scrolling for an eternity just to get to the menu for the dice roller, or private messages, etc..

Fixed headers are on the list but not on the immediate work order for changes/fixes:

Per our companion thread "New Site Design" (link to a message in this forum):

Ok, thank you.

Sorry I missed that.

Not surprising, there's a LOT of feedback !

But the more the merrier and all to the good - the more feedback jase gets, the better he can determine how his valuable time is best spent.   :>

When there are long lists of boards with only one or two at the top with unread messages I still have to scroll all the way to the bottom to get the button "mark all as read".

Would it be possible to have two of those, one at the top and one at the bottom?

Have "stickied" the right hand menu for desktop experience (about 10 days ago now).. that should help for those users.  Now for the mobile menu bar, which might be a tad trickier!



In reply to Z.Dianli (msg # 84):

Under the "This game" menu on the right (or the menu w/ the dice icon on mobile) there's Mark all as Read.

Awesome! Thank you!

I have an issue where I can't add characters to my game because the sidebar overlaps the Character Wizard and makes the Add These Character button inaccessible.

I've made the navigation bar sticky in the mobile layout as well.  Thankfully wasn't too difficult as I could use the same "sticky" CSS positioning.  Only tested it in two browsers so not the most thorough.

If you have a custom theme please update it, it'll still work without the update but you'll find the page shows through the gaps between each menu icon.


In reply to The Stray (msg # 87):

Thanks.  That's the page where it lists out 31 groups (0-9, A-U) in a row?

Might be best to change that to a "enter the groups" and you put in "0AF" or whatever you want.

In reply to jase (msg # 88):

It's the screen you get to from GM Menu -> Edit Characters -> Add (Existing). And yes, that sounds right.

The issue I have is not adding people to groups, it's adding any characters at all. The "Add These Characters" button to execute the creation of the characters winds up underneath the sidebar. It might have some magnification issues...the button slides around when I mess with my screen magnification, but is only accessible in a few spots (and then, only just) unless I make the whole screen really really tiny, which is obviously not ideal.

I've updated all of the screens that had 31 tick boxes to be a simple text entry instead.  Not the most thorough testing I've ever done but hopefully got it right.

Make a few other tweaks while I was at it but nothing major.  Most notable one will probably be moving some of the result messages to be at the top of the page rather than at the bottom.

In reply to jase (msg # 90):

Hey Jase, I just wanted to say thank you very much, without asking for anything! :D

First, the site is just epic and I've been on here for over 2 years now with a constant campaign running. I love RPOL and it's the best PBP site I've ever found.

Second, the new responsive layout is simply wonderful! I know you do this for free and as a fellow web developer, I KNOW how much work you've put into this website/software! The mobile friendly development is absolutely awesome. The sidebar especially is wonderful, even when I'm on my desktop computer. I've switched to using r.rpol.net full time for all my devices :D

Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you and give you some mad props for spending so much time making something so great that thousands of us gamers can enjoy. Be blessed! Thank you!
This message was last edited by the user at 12:47, Sat 15 Feb 2020.

In reply to byzantinex (msg # 91):

I'll second byzantinex.  I've really enjoyed the new layout and find it much easier to navigate and use than the old site. Thanks for the blood, sweat, and tears, Jase.  You are a superhero.

Andrew

Completely concur.  Thanks for all the work Jase.

Just realized that when reading a closed thread, the little upper right-hand window (that normally says 'This thread') reads:

This thread Thread
closed

(no matter what width I set the screen to, it never forces the 'Thread closed' part under the 'This thread')

I expect it's supposed to be:

This thread
 Thread closed

...to fit more with the 'This forum' and 'Your account' sections and how things show up under them. Although reading 'This thread is closed' wouldn't be awful, either.

Is that on a mobile device ? And what browser are you on.

It definitely shows per your expectations on my Desktop (Win 10/Firefox latest), so there must be some other variable at play.  :>

Desktop, Skald, running Win8.1 and Chrome.

It does the same thing on Chrome on my phone, although there it shows 'This thread Thread closed' all on one line (obviously after tapping to open the section, since it's just the small icon to start).

All of the other Thread status, Forum, Account, etc bits display properly on both desktop and phone. It's just the closed thread one that's off.

Thank ye kindly ...

<checkcheckcheck>

H'mmm ... I've just tried Chrome, Edge, IE (still Win 10, but following update to 1909 about half an hour ago), and they're all displaying correctly for me.  Tried both https://r.rpol.net/ and https://responsive.rpol.net/ but all good.

Really wouldn't have thought Win 8.1 would make that much difference.

I tried zooming in and out in Chrome, but at the smallest setting all it did was wrap the Thread Closed to two lines beneath the header.

Looking at Page Source in Chrome, the code shows:

<span class='navname'>This thread</span>
<li><a href='' title='This thread is closed, no more messages may be posted.' onclick="alert('This thread is closed.\nNo more messages may be posted.'); return false;">Thread closed</a></li>

<li> </li> tags are used for a list item, assumedly used to get it to indent the menu options nicely.  I note that while the list is on a separate line in the code, the thread header doesn't specifically have a break following it, but then again neither do the other sidebar lists which follow the same format and they're working OK for you (and me).

jase may have some other ideas, but as far as I can tell the code should be doing what is intended ...

Don't suppose you've modifed theme or fonts from the defaults under Chrome Settings ?  Trying to think of why it might be different for you.

Anyone else using Chrome with Win 8.1 that's getting the same mileage ?  :>
This message was last edited by the user at 13:43, Sat 02 May 2020.

All of my Chrome settings are default. I do have a custom theme on RPoL, itself.

The only thing I could think that maaaaybe was affecting it is that I've adjusted the width of RPoL itself above the default (so that my main message window is wider - not to max, but it is wider), but that doesn't make much sense to me because it's still just the 'This thread' section that's affected.

I just had my spouse check their browser (they're also using Chrome, but with Win10), and noticed that on their GM menu pages, 'This thread' lists properly. In games where they are only a player, their 'This thread' section is doing the same thing mine is with closed threads. (Worth noting, all of their theme settings, including window width, are the same as mine.)
This message was last edited by the user at 13:52, Sat 02 May 2020.

Yeah, if anything, having a wider message area should reduce the sidebar and maybe cause the header line to wrap - can't see how that would make the line below tack on.   Not to mention the "This forum" heading looks slightly shorter in screen length, and the "Your account" looks bigger, so at least one of them should be affected too if the middling "This thread" is.

Good to get confirmation that it's occurring for more than one user, though - all useful info for troubleshooting.

Perhaps the custom theme is affecting it somehow ?  Waaay outside my compentency, though - over to jase when he gets a minute.  :>

Curious.  I have the same, but without the <li> </li> tags, which explains the 'Thread Closed' being on the same line as the 'This thread.'  Note that this is in a game in which I am a player, with no special access.

I'm on a Windows 7 box using Chrome Version 81.0.4044.129 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Bing !  We have a winner !! :>

I'd mistakenly thought that me looking at a closed forum thread would be exactly the same but seems forum threads are different as I can now duplicate the problem in Windows 10/Firefox ... and a quick look at the code shows the problem:

<ul>
<span class='navname'>This thread</span>
<a title='This thread is closed, no more messages may be posted.'>Thread closed</a></li>
</ul>

In which you'll see we have a closing </li> tag but the opening <li> tag that should appear first is conspicuous by its absence.

So we have the solution to the problem - when jase gets that free minute to fix it.

Thanks all !  :>

Good job figuring it out! *hands out cookies and gold stars*

Greetings!

Long time listener, first time caller, or whatever.

Having just glanced through this thread but not having seen anything that particularly affects my experience one way or another, I'll just cast a 'neutral' vote for what has gone before.  You seemed to indicate that you cared about my not caring, so there you go.

But, I will say I think the new site looks much improved compared to the old one.

Oh, wait, I guess there were two things that were annoying me:

First, I changed to the dark theme but I noticed...



...oh... er... well.  Yeah, that fixes that.  So, nevermind on that one.

Anyway, the second thing was...



Um... uh... right.  Well, nevermind on that.

Uh, yeah.  I guess I don't have anything else to add, other than "Thank you" to everybody who's working to improve the site!

On responsive, when you're in the search results page (at least when you search for games by GM), there's no link to get back to the Home page, either at the bottom of the page, or in the top header bar. A link to return to the Main Menu does exist on live.

I'm not sure if there's any other page where the Home/Main doesn't exist, I haven't noticed it missing anywhere else, but it's definitely missing on the Games by GM search results page.

Edit: Derp. Rereading the thread looking for something else, I caught the part where it was mentioned that the RPoL logo *is* a link back to home... so I guess there is a means to get back. Ignore this one!
This message was last edited by the user at 03:26, Fri 22 May 2020.