Did the forum change styles?

[Aleph]

Ok folks, it's still a lighter theme, but I've tried to dial back the stark contrast in some of the other elements to make things more readable.

Any better?

[Farmer]

Originally Posted by Aleph

Ok folks, it's still a lighter theme, but I've tried to dial back the stark contrast in some of the other elements to make things more readable.

Any better?

Yes, it's better. Still washed out though - the pale yellow is the difficult bit. Most things against a yellow background are difficult and tend to create poor contrast for text, particularly if it's coloured, but the changes in the bar / border colours are helpful.

TBH, it looks like a mish-mash of colours rather than a palette of complimentary and readable-designed colours. And it's incongrous against the general black backing, like it's trying to be a dark and light theme at the same time.

[Farmer]

We also seem to have lost the "Mark all forums read" text/button that was at the bottom of https://forums.sjgames.com/index.php

[Blind Mapmaker]

I still find the new theme a bit jarring and generally unpleasant, but I haven't encountered any problems reading stuff (this was after the latest change). It's a little sad that we can't set our own styles in the user preferences, but I realise what a hassle it must be to do anything to a forum system so huge and so old. So maybe I'll try the user styles change suggested above.

Anyway, kudos for keeping this thing running and working for all these years. Still feels like home. I guess we just need to let the paint dry for a bit.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Aleph

Ok folks, it's still a lighter theme, but I've tried to dial back the stark contrast in some of the other elements to make things more readable.

Any better?

Heh :) I liked your first change better, but this still looks okay to me, and is preferable to the mustard yellow tones from before.

I see a problem at the bottom when you are looking at the Reply page and there are more than 10 replies, the "here" link looks like it is the same gray color as the frame it is in, washing it out.

[Fufu]

Originally Posted by Aleph

A change to a texture elsewhere on the site caused problems with the forum setup (it had been using the same texture). I'm trying a couple of small tweaks to make the lighter color less jarring here in the forums.

The forum's software platform does have a feature where an admin can backup the default style and create a separate style copy for a new style that can be selected independently by its individual users.

[SID]

Originally Posted by Aleph

Ok folks, it's still a lighter theme, but I've tried to dial back the stark contrast in some of the other elements to make things more readable.

Any better?

Thanks for looking into this.

I like browsing the forum, but the eye-strain makes browsing frustrating (it dazzles me, even after your small tweaks to the new style). I’m not against updating the looks of the website, but I’m sincerely strained about this, because it makes me avoid your website.

The bleached look is tiring for the eye. I'm surprised that with the current shift to darker themes, seen in sites such as google, the forum is changing to a lighter theme. It's not only about the contrast of colors in the forum, but also about the contrast between this website and the other websites (it feels out of the spectrum).

[WingedKagouti]

Originally Posted by Aleph

Ok folks, it's still a lighter theme, but I've tried to dial back the stark contrast in some of the other elements to make things more readable.

Any better?

This is a lot better.

One thing I'd change would be the white text of the User Settings bar and the Contact Us (etc.) footer, since it's now harder to read against the brighter background.

The User Settings bar is not unreadable, though I do need to focus more on it than all the other text on each page. But the Contact Us footer requries highlighting to be read at all.

A part of me doesn't like the change at all, but that does feel more like it's just crying "Change is evil, the old look was better." than anything based on reality.

[ravenfish]

From my point of view, it's gone from actively painful to merely unpleasant, so I'll call it progress.

[Aleph]

Originally Posted by SID

The bleached look is tiring for the eye. I'm surprised that with the current shift to darker themes, seen in sites such as google, the forum is changing to a lighter theme. It's not only about the contrast of colors in the forum, but also about the contrast between this website and the other websites (it feels out of the spectrum).

This change is an unexpected one, predicated by changes occurring elsewhere on the site that used shared resources. As time allows, I'll try to test some color improvements here, but they will likely be more consistent with the new changes being made elsewhere.

Our shifts have not been to darker themes with our newer sites, though. If you look at munchkin.game, thefantastytrip.game, and carwars.sjgames.com, you can see that we have been moving to lighter, rather than darker, sites.