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View Full Version : What does the site change mean for the forums?

The Wandering God
03-28-2009, 12:52 AM
Any idea what, if any, changes will happen when the site's new layout goes live, or is this part of nuklearpower going to stay the same?

The Wandering God
Kim
03-28-2009, 12:59 AM
I hope the color scheme stays the same. It's very easy on the eyes. I recall Meister also saying something to that effect.
Meister
03-28-2009, 03:06 AM
And I recall Brian saying it will stay the same. That was one of my greatest worries.

As far as I know no forum changes are planned, although I suppose we might make a Warbot subforum. Any changes will come like they always have: like a rapist in the night.
Fifthfiend
03-30-2009, 12:43 PM
In two days we're merging with Something Awful.

Everyone who wants to keep using PMs, go ahead and Paypal me your twenty dollars right now, so you can avoid the rush.
Bells
03-30-2009, 04:27 PM
i thought we would merge with Gaia and each one would get a customizable Whored-up avatar =(
Meister
03-30-2009, 04:30 PM
I'd rather do the Something Awful thing, they have the best emoticons.
Mike McC
03-31-2009, 11:23 PM
Well, the site change will soon bring about Warbot In Accounting, so if there's any tweaking to be done with the forums, it probably should be soon, before that starts bringing in some new users. Maybe some new subforums or something, or renaming the new ones to be more clear, or whatnot. I mean, we could all discuss that here, and have the mods talk over the ideas they like best.

I myself think it'd probably be a good idea to create a new forum group (like Forum Info (http://forum.nuklearpower.com/forumdisplay.php?f=44) or Games & Roleplaying (http://forum.nuklearpower.com/forumdisplay.php?f=45)) and have the dedicated to Brian's various projects. I can see four forums easily being set up there:

"8-Bit Theater"
"Warbot in Accounting"
"Atomic Robo"
"Brain's Other Projects"

Also, and I know fifth's been complaining about it for a while, we could make a forum for "Computers, Software, and Gadgets". Now, that was the original idea behind the "Computer Help" forum, but I think it'd be good to have it seperate. Why? Well, you'd have some confusion if they were together. People going into threads discussing something looking for help with it, and people going into threads to discuss something when it's a thread asking for help.

These are just some ideas, ideas which will probably be ignored or something. But hey, I think this stuff is worth a little discussion, even if it just turns into a nonsense funfest like the rep thread.
Fifthfiend
03-31-2009, 11:27 PM
I suggest a forum for exotic cheeses!

okay but no seriously we should do the seriousness thing
Kim
03-31-2009, 11:32 PM
I like that the change happened on April Fools. Not because I think Brian will pull some idiotic dick move, but because I know there will be people who think Warbot in Accounting is an April Fools joke.
Mike McC
03-31-2009, 11:39 PM
I'd say that the fact the new site looks pretty ugly is an April Fool's joke if that logo weren't in the front page banner ad cycle for a while now.

Seriously, hot colors with the grey? The cool colors were so much better.
RalionX
03-31-2009, 11:42 PM
Huh, I like the new look.
Mike McC
03-31-2009, 11:44 PM
New site design discussion now goes here: LINK (http://forum.nuklearpower.com/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=34071).

This thread's for talking about potential changes to the forum.
Bells
04-01-2009, 12:05 AM
i really do think a subforum for all of brian's work could be good. Specially now that the site is starting to make it's transition from 8-bit to warbot.

I can honestly say that i never saw with much clarity the "about" of the Community forum. For me, it would work just the same if it was merged into General... or to put Art & the like inside of Community. Since those are both "from community to community" sub forums that have little less frequency than other sub-forums

Spliting Computer Help, would also be good... but i dunno... if it has too much sub-forums it could become a bit of a visual mess. Maybe a couple of Sticky threads about "Help with X" ( X being "Software" "Internet" "Hardware" "Virus" and such) could be much more efficient than having a bunch of threads with 3-10 replies.
Mike McC
04-01-2009, 12:17 AM
Spliting Computer Help, would also be good... but i dunno... if it has too much sub-forums it could become a bit of a visual mess. Maybe a couple of Sticky threads about "Help with X" ( X being "Software" "Internet" "Hardware" "Virus" and such) could be much more efficient than having a bunch of threads with 3-10 replies.As a point of reference, the Something Awful forums, to my unregistered eyes, has 4 forum categroies, 26 primary forums, and 29 subforums, and it's not a visual mess at all. As long as they are pretty well thematically grouped, this really isn't much of an issue until you hit very high numbers.
phil_
04-01-2009, 12:24 AM
Bellsouth, Community is for threads about NPF and it's community. General is for threads where we talk about topics that don't have a specific forum or topics that overlap several forums, and you don't have to be a confrontational buzzkill, separating it from Discussion. Art and the like is for stuff we've written, drawn, composed, sculpted, or found a creative way to eat that isn't about NPF.

See? Simple.

Oh, and change makes me uncomfortable and irritable.
Bells
04-01-2009, 12:36 AM
Bellsouth, Community is for threads about NPF and it's community. General is for threads where we talk about topics that don't have a specific forum or topics that overlap several forums, and you don't have to be a confrontational buzzkill, separating it from Discussion. Art and the like is for stuff we've written, drawn, composed, sculpted, or found a creative way to eat that isn't about NPF.

See? Simple.

Yeah, i just kind saw it like... Art and the Like was about "stuff the community do and the community talking about it", so it always struck me as... why not just have it in community? Y'know? But then again... im not quite active on neither

Oh, and change makes me uncomfortable and irritable.

Lollipop? :D
http://www.sweetfactory.com/images/uploads/32065-TeenyRoundPop.jpg
Trev
04-01-2009, 12:39 AM
The color change isn't the worst problem... what happened to the extras section!? And also, the links section, and all the other sections! They all seem to be... gone.

WHY, BRIAN!? WHY!?!?!?
Mike McC
04-01-2009, 12:45 AM
The color change isn't the worst problem... what happened to the extras section!? And also, the links section, and all the other sections! They all seem to be... gone.

WHY, BRIAN!? WHY!?!?!?ASK HIM HERE (http://forum.nuklearpower.com/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=34071).Yeah, i just kind saw it like... Art and the Like was about "stuff the community do and the community talking about it", so it always struck me as... why not just have it in community? Y'know? But then again... im not quite active on neitherPlease keep in mind that fanart isn't necessarily community related. The community forum is for stuff relating specifically to the POSTERS on the forum. It's actually fairly seperated from the comic, because people could still be posting and active here who have not actually read the comic in years. So, just because fanart for the comic may crop up in the Arts forum doesn't mean it needs to be lumped together with community.
Fifthfiend
04-01-2009, 01:44 AM
I myself think it'd probably be a good idea to create a new forum group (like Forum Info (http://forum.nuklearpower.com/forumdisplay.php?f=44) or Games & Roleplaying (http://forum.nuklearpower.com/forumdisplay.php?f=45)) and have the dedicated to Brian's various projects. I can see four forums easily being set up there:

"8-Bit Theater"
"Warbot in Accounting"
"Atomic Robo"
"Brain's Other Projects"

I like this let's do it
Meister
04-01-2009, 01:54 AM
We could probably very easily poke around in the css files and replace the blue on the forums with the yellow or red from the new main site.
Seil
04-01-2009, 02:04 AM
Do it. Just to spite Fifth.
Fifthfiend
04-01-2009, 02:06 AM
We could probably very easily poke around in the css files and replace the blue on the forums with the yellow or red from the new main site.

shut the fuck up I will kill you
Mike McC
04-01-2009, 02:13 AM
shut the fuck up I will kill youI'll help!

I know how to kill a man with his own CSS code. It's very painful.
synkr0nized
04-01-2009, 02:17 AM
Assuming whoever would be doing the editing, if it happens, to forum styles has access to the server, the current style should be left as a choice for users, in my opinion.

I'm a fan of reds, sure, but the site's abundant doses of yellows and oranges alongside make a fire-hot theme that I'd not want to have to look at every time I visited here.
Meister
04-01-2009, 02:18 AM
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/7370/forumockup1.th.png (http://img10.imageshack.us/my.php?image=forumockup1.png)

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/8565/forumockup2.th.png (http://img10.imageshack.us/my.php?image=forumockup2.png)

Second one, not so much. I dig the red though. Maybe just two different shades of red and skip the yellow entirely.
POS Industries
04-01-2009, 02:25 AM
Maybe just two different shades of red and skip the yellow entirely.
This is what I was thinking. It might be possible to work in some small hints of the yellow in, say, button graphics and whatnot, but whole bars of it just doesn't look good.
Fifthfiend
04-01-2009, 03:07 AM
Yeah the combos make me want to start posting threads about hot dogs.

The red with another shade of red might work though.

If we gotta work yellow in somewhere, maybe get some new atom-icons done up?
synkr0nized
04-01-2009, 03:13 AM
That'd probably be a decent look if yellow was to be put anywhere.

I'd suggest a more dark red, like how the current blues are not too bright, but I suppose it all depends on if it has to match the RGB used on the main site or not / at all.
Bells
04-01-2009, 03:16 AM
Work with red and red. Red and Yellow makes it look like a McDonalds forum... the thing is, the current color code works really well together. The right shades of blue and grey on black. Y'know? I don't see how you could work yellow in here...
Krylo
04-01-2009, 03:18 AM
Or we could just not fuck with the color theme because you are all color blind and have terrible taste.

Seriously, I've worked with paint for going on five years now. The site designs Meister mocked up will make everyone want to murder each other after a couple weeks.

I see no reason to change the forum.
Bells
04-01-2009, 03:27 AM
The site designs Meister mocked up will make everyone want to murder each other after a couple weeks.

We already kinda want to murder each other here on a daily basis... so that would be improvement.

But still, unless you use a really dark, smooth, shade of red... the current design is just better.
Krylo
04-01-2009, 03:34 AM
Even with that it's not great:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/krylo/random/forumockup1.png

Here, I'll explain the science here. Red and yellow and all that work ok on the main site. They're 'exciting' colors. They have a few effects on the human psyche. They cause increased levels of excitement, can create extra adrenaline flow, and adjust moods to more energetic levels.

Now on the comic pages? This is all pretty A-OK.

On the forums, not so much. What a Red/Red or Red/Yellow background is going to do will be to increase the stress levels of the people in the forum. This is why no one who's over ten years old paints their rooms bright red, and the older folks who do it in muted reds always have more neutral colors--off whites, tans, browns, etc--to go with it.

Further, we're on a light giving, not light reflecting, source of color. What this means is that the brighter a color is the more eye strain it's going to cause. Darker more muted colors work wonderfully for forums because they are exactly that--and therefore cause less light to go into our eyes, which results in less eye strain.

I mocked up as best a red layout as I could using paint, but it still looks off. Some of the icons would need to be changed to create a full color scheme, and even then it's going to have a far less relaxing tone to it, and will alter the tone of the forum as a whole.

In other words--don't do it.
Meister
04-01-2009, 03:39 AM
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/3931/forumockup3.th.png (http://img10.imageshack.us/my.php?image=forumockup3.png)

Did one incorporating the icons. I think it looks okay as a mockup, but I'm not entirely sure about its worth as an actual forum colour scheme.
synkr0nized
04-01-2009, 05:24 AM
The red needs to be more muted on these gray-black backgrounds, or the forum will have to switch to white to better go with the reds, defeating the purpose of this exercise.
Mike McC
04-01-2009, 10:35 AM
Really, I think the forum color scheme is fine as it is. The only thing that probably needs changed is the logo up top.
Pip Boy
04-03-2009, 05:35 PM
Y'know guys, the more you say that changing the forum's theme will cause you pain every time you look at it, the more likely Brian is to change it. Keep on like this, and pretty soon it'll be red letters on a black background, the atom icons will all be replaced with the Anarchy symbol, and the forum's shop will sell razor blades and My Chemical Romance T-Shirts. Its not a happy thing.