escYOUnited - together with #YOU writing the history!

[Luki]

should work now from just http://escunited.com/forum or http://escyounited.com/forum

Yas, it's working! Thank you!

 

[Salmon]

Sorry for late answer, try to set the United Kingdom flag, its very hot and has Scotland flag included

Will the Yugoslavian flag come back at least? I need it to feel special. For reasons of legacy, y’know. -O-

 

[Carrie]

#Justice4Scotland (O)

 

[theditz83]

Sorry for late answer, try to set the United Kingdom flag, its very hot and has Scotland flag included

Erm, no. For what it's worth, England and Wales are gone as well so this isn't just a crazy Scotsman thing

From your answer I'll assume that the other flags won't be back...

 

[Salmon]

#JeSuisL’Écosse

 

[Trece]

Erm, no. For what it's worth, England and Wales are gone as well so this isn't just a crazy Scotsman thing

From your answer I'll assume that the other flags won't be back...

no, i just hadn't time to make them and upload

Now England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Yugoslavia flags were added as historically our forum had them and people used them

 

[Carrie]

Yesss @ the Northern Ireland inclusion

 

[theditz83]

no, i just hadn't time to make them and upload

Now England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Yugoslavia flags were added as historically our forum had them and people used them

Merci muchly!!

 

[ZoboCamel]

Well, the redesign is... interesting, at least! I'm definitely with [MENTION=11993]whiteshoes[/MENTION] here, though - I'm not really a fan of the changes at all. I'm not sure as to how much you guys will be willing to change, but I'll try to make my feedback as constructive as possible.

• The colour scheme feels overwhelmingly white; it gives a really clinical, cold feeling, at least to me. Apparently some people like it, but I really liked the old black and red theme, and looking through the comments, it seems I'm not the only one. Similarly, the borderless styling, flat colours and the spacing of things just... doesn't seem suited to a desktop website design. It's like the redesign was an attempt at emulating a generic 'iPod app' style, complete with its blank spaces and lack of detail, and forcing it on PC users - kind of reminiscent of the whole Windows 8 design debacle, where desktop users had a mobile experience pushed at them, just because mobile design and minimalism was the 'new, hip thing', with actual usability taking a backseat. Is it possible to implement a theme-switcher in the options somewhere for those who prefer the old style?
  
  
• Everything feels way too spaced out compared to before. I loved the old design of the site because it was nice and compact - you could see whatever you wanted on the one screen. The new design has large chunks of space between almost every element, and most things are a lot taller than before. As a result I'm finding myself have to scroll all over the place - I'd much prefer having things closer together, rather than scroll past massive blocks of empty space for every click.
  
  
• The whole branding to 'ESC#YOUNited' just... feels really, really tacky. This is the one thing I can't really think of anything constructive on; I'm more just wondering why it was necessary at all. It took a perfectly fine site name & branding, then made it longer, less intuitive to spell, and added a pop-culture-y hashtag for no apparent reason. It feels almost like the whole thing came out of a 'make a lame ESC slogan parody' contest. I'm not sure how much you guys are willing to change with the overall theme at this point, but... well, the thread's asking for feedback, so I figured I'd give it.
  
  
• The redesigned portraits and flags are a cool idea; I certainly preferred the old ones, but I guess some people might like these. Functionally, however, they seem like a bit of a downgrade. For one, the removal of the country code from the flags makes it more difficult for those who are, uh, a little 'geographically challenged' - like myself - to figure out where a flag's from. Not a major issue by any means, but I thought I'd mention it nonetheless. More significantly, though, circular portraits kind of just seem like an unnecessary gimmick. There's nothing in the removed 'corners' where a square would be, so it's just cutting off portrait space and removing it with blank space; pictures and photos are rectangular by nature, so it's a lot harder to get something that looks good with a circular crop. This is already fairly clear with existing profile pictures, half of which are now terribly stretched or are cropped in weird places. Sure, people can get new profile pictures, but I'm not sure that requiring people to replace their pictures, and further restricting what can be chosen, is a great idea. Plus, as others have mentioned, it removes the option for differently-sized portraits, which breaks one of the membership perks. As a non-premium member, I'm not really affected, but the change does strike me as a 'shooting yourself in the foot' kind of situation here.
  
  
• For something a bit more minor - would it be possible to move the 'like' button back to being on the same line as the list of people who have already liked a post? It feels like it'd reduce unnecessary scrolling, and being able to see related elements on the screen at the same time - the post you want to like, and the button to like it - is always a good thing, surely.
  
  
• As others have mentioned, the top notifications bar isn't staying at the top of the page while scrolling like it used to. It's very much a useful little feature that removes unnecessary scrolling and checking, and I can't imagine any reason to remove it, so I assume it's a bug... but thought I'd mention it nonetheless! A fix would be much appreciated.
  
  
• This one's less about a new feature, and more about a lack thereof: would it be possible to 'fix' YouTube embeds so that they can be full-screened? I'm not sure if this is possible within the framework you're using to code the forum, but it's been bugging me for a while, and would have been #1 on my 'new features and fixes I want' list if there'd been a survey on any forum redesign. I can live without it, but it'd be cool to see it added if there's not too much work required.

Anyway, that's about it for my complaints/suggestions. For the most part, I'd really just be happy if there was an 'old version' theme switcher or something along those lines in the user options - I've seen it on many forums similar to these, and I'm glad to say that this place is just about the best-moderated, best-designed traditional forum I've used in a long time, so (please correct me if I'm wrong) I'm hoping it would be possible to do with relative ease compared to any other possible changes.


Oh, and it's not like I hate everything about the new design, by the way! The new font is snazzy. Would maybe prefer it a little larger, but it certainly looks pretty. The centring of profile info to the left, the post date in green to make it pop more, new icons for some things... there are definitely some changes I love here! I just don't want to see the forum design I love suddenly made less convenient and less pleasant on the eye, so thought I'd give my (long-form) two cents in the hope that I can see some changes. One way or another, thanks for all the hard work that was undoubtedly involved in this!

 

[Trece]

It's like the redesign was an attempt at emulating a generic 'iPod app' style, complete with its blank spaces and lack of detail

I rather take it as compliment, comparing with Apple design so thank you

For one, the removal of the country code from the flags makes it more difficult for those who are, uh, a little 'geographically challenged' - like myself - to figure out where a flag's from.

Instead of codes, its full name of country which flag is set, just move your cursor on the flag

 

[Salmon]

Yeah, I’m also really non-fond of the very, very tacky #YOU in the rebrand. Going with most others here, but you’ll probably be unlikely to change it, so more power to you, I guess. I’m not a fan of everything in the new design, but that’s okay. Tastes differ.

However, there’s a huge, giant dealbreaker which I haven’t seen mentioned before but actually drags the usability of the forum down by a lot.

This is a link to some URL. This is normal text.

Notice any difference? Because I sure as hell don’t. Sure, the link appears different upon hovering with the mouse cursor, but honestly, this makes links far too easy to miss. Please change the link styles to something that pops out immediately.

If you do so, I’ll be happy – as I said, I’m not a fan of some changes (even though some others are great and fresh!), but with most of them, I appreciate the effort and sentiment, as they aren’t huge #YOUsability iss#YOUes. Except the link colour.

EDIT: Oh, and please, please, please bring back the scrolling top bar and the separator line above signatures!

 

[Trece]

EDIT: Oh, and please, please, please bring back the separator line above signatures!

http://escunited.com/forum/threads/...the-history!?p=1661123&viewfull=1#post1661123 you probably missed it (its not that bold but still very noticeable)

 

[Salmon]

http://escunited.com/forum/threads/...the-history!?p=1661123&viewfull=1#post1661123 you probably missed it (its not that bold but still very noticeable)

Yes, I missed it indeed. It may not spring into the eye at first glance, but I can rest well in the knowledge that it is there after all.

What about link colours though? That was my main point.

 

[Trece]

Yes, I missed it indeed. It may not spring into the eye at first glance, but I can rest well in the knowledge that it is there after all.

What about link colours though? That was my main point.

I will look at it later when i am at the computer, but for now i can say that colors are same as on old style so if its an issue, then we had it for long

 

[Leydan]

I actually don't get your problem with the links? I can see the difference between them clear as day, one is blue one is black. I understand it may be harder for some, but I can totally see the difference very easily.

 

[Dutchball]

Joining Salmon here. Links look the same as normal text (on my phone, that is) while previously I could easily tell the difference.

 

[Trece]

Links color has been fixed in posts

update. tested that color and decided to make it globally

 

[SpZ]

Going to go ahead and say that

1) After 10 days, the esc#YOUnited thing still feels very tacky and lame
2) Quite many avatars, including mine are very stretched out. I guess i have to change it now.
3) Having a green/black/any dark colour theme would be nice
4) If you are doing updates on flags and stuff, i would also suggest having non binary gender options.

 

[Salmon]

It seems like when trying to upload an avatar at the recommended size of 130x130 pixels, it automatically gets rescaled to 90x90 pixels. This is technically my avatar image now:

When it should look like this:

However, the forum apparently resized the image to the size of the upper one (and then rescales it to be bigger again, which makes it look blurry and ugly, and Kate from A&O (an extraordinary turd of a movie , but I digress) doesn’t deserve to be blurry and ugly.

What could be the issue? (:

 

[Matt]

It seems like when trying to upload an avatar at the recommended size of 130x130 pixels, it automatically gets rescaled to 90x90 pixels. This is technically my avatar image now:

When it should look like this:

However, the forum apparently resized the image to the size of the upper one (and then rescales it to be bigger again, which makes it look blurry and ugly, and Kate from A&O (an extraordinary turd of a movie , but I digress) doesn’t deserve to be blurry and ugly.

What could be the issue? (:

I will defer this to forum wizard [MENTION=10351]Trece[/MENTION]