Hi,
not really important: But why the Blufforum has changed? Was there any need?
Now it looks like any PHP- Code exchange Community, there is no more any association to leather, leatheruniforms - and that are the wherefores to socialise with other bluf members, and not any other interests (which might be there, too). I'm missing any appeal to Bluf leather and its sexual meaning...
(otherwise: thx to Nigel for his engagement - the best would be to integrate more interaction possibilities in The Bluf Site, but that might be to much work for one person only - and might be to expansive)
Sorry, might be not important

Greetz

Klaus (1661)

I am sure it is only a case of getting used to but I have to say that I preferred the original Forum layout. Again, it's what I was used to. Does this format have any potential for expansion? I will be interested to read what other BLUF members think of this radical change...

I've just signed in after getting back from Berlin, and the new layout is as much a mystery to me as it is to everyone else.

When I've caught up on everything else, I shall try to work out what's happened here and see if we can solve it. But given that at some stage I'm planning to move the forum back into the main BLUF site, and properly integrate it, I won't say that I'm prepared to spend hours fixing something here - if it's not a quick fix, you'll probably have to put up with it until the forum moves back to bluf.com, because that will be a more productive use of my time.

Nigel

I've had a quick look, and this is due to an upgrade that Freeforums has done, moving us to a newer version of the phpBB software. Unfortunately, the theme that we were using before isn't available in this version, so I'll have to hunt around and try to find something suitable that we can use.

o.k., only a question of templates
I was astonished, thought about being in a forum for php nerds (maybe many bluf members are that in their second life )

As you can see, I've applied a new theme from the ones available, which is sort of close to the old one. Unless anyone has any pressing objections, I'll leave it at that for now, rather than spend endless hours tinkering.

this template is o.k. - it has a dark ambience )

Typographic guidelines for the printed word suggest that lines should be kept at between 38 and 50 characters in length to aid user readability. I know that the web is different because browser windows are flexible so layouts need to be more fluid. However I am finding the line length of the new forum threads to be incredibly long. I would urge you to consider reducing the size of the wrapper div tag, if possible, so that overall layout is narrower and the threads and postings become easier to read again.

I also appreciate you are having to use standard templates, but I'm not sure who decided that the red was a good 'highlight' colour. Certainly there are legibility problems when red text appears on the dark grey background. Would you consider changing and it to say a light grey instead?

I'll have a look at the templates again when I have more time; I agree the red is a little too striking. This was a quick choice of a style that was at least close to what we had before. Right now I'm still unpacking and recovering from Berlin.

Since the forum was set up ages ago, and I merely took it over, I've not explored all the options there are for tweaking; I know if it was running on our own server, it would be trivial to adjust the style sheets and templates, but I don't know if FF has that flexibility.

Looking at the Source Code I don't see why you couldn't customise the design. You should be able to access the individual CSS stylesheet file, even for a template driven site like this. But I appreciate you're only just in the door. Tomorrow will be fine

Looking at the Source Code I don't see why you couldn't customise the design. You should be able to access the individual CSS stylesheet file, even for a template driven site like this. But I appreciate you're only just in the door. Tomorrow will be fine

You'd think, but unfortunately not. Customising the templates is an option for which Freeforums want to charge a monthly fee.

On the basic free service such as we have, there's no access under the hood, so you can't edit the CSS files, as you have no storage in which to put them once you've done so, nor are there any of the usual phpBB admin options for tweaking the CSS. It's a case of picking a template and that's it. This sort of thing is one of the reasons why I want to 'repatriate' the forum; it's a lot easier to tweak when you have filesystem access.

Having the Forum more-or-less back to how it was with the black background is fine by me. As for the red, I quite like the look and a few guys into the red hankies might well agree, though royal blue would have been more to my preference, but that's my business! hahaha
Also, I quite like the wide boxes as it makes it easier to read the text, especially with long replies.
So, Nigel, you now have my thumbs up and I would be just as happy to see this format integrated into the main BLUF website when you're ready.
Thanks!

If ibiker knows so much about such things then maybe he could help out and join the team of voluntiers at Bluf and assist in forming and intergrating the New forum into the New site.

Well, if anyone has experience with phpBB templates (and specifically for v3), I'd love them to get in touch.

The plan is to use phpBB3 (which is the software they use here) on the new site, but with customised templates, so that the forum can incorporate the navigation we'll be using on the rest of the site. It also allows for integrated login, by coding a plugin for the forum software. I know the theory, but so far all of my phpBB hackery has been on another forum I manage where we use the older version, and with 10,000 users there, I'm not in a rush to experiment and break things for them.