# Main > Technical Support and Notices >  Changes!!!

## Robbie

Holy different website batman!

Bear with us as we upgrade the template to look and feel more like the old site.

Currently the donate button and awards systems are unavailable...I'll have them upgraded soon...possibly not today.

----------


## Robbie

Looks like the template changes are goign to take a lot longer than originally thought.  I'll keep you guys posted, but for now, try and bear with me on the site.  Everything seems to be here...just looks different.

----------


## NeonKnight

Looks cool sofar!

----------


## Robbie

Basically...the developers of vb 4 decided to NOT make it easy to quickly change color schemes on vb4 like it was easy to do in vb 3.  This could take a while...I'm researching some of my options, but it looks like its going to be a long process of color-by-color adjustments.

----------


## Gamerprinter

I notice the star in the corner under the name is for granting REP.  And settings in the top corner of the page shows you your REP. More to explore!

GP

----------


## Robbie

Yes, by all means, feel free to post things you find here that are new or improved!

----------


## Jaxilon

Well it's getting there slowly but surely. Keep up the good fight!

----------


## Robbie

REALLY sorry about the hard to read colors.

----------


## Sigurd

This is meant as a compliment, really.

Does this ever underscore what a good job you did with the previous version!


Thanks for all the work and the great site.


Sigurd

----------


## Robbie

Thanks soooo much for the encouragement guys...really means a lot...its getting readable now...if only I could find the linked font colors!

----------


## Eilathen

Oh my god...

Here, have some encouragment, Arcana!

But i really DO hope, that you will be able to make this more readable...the light blue for the thread-titels is totally unreadable. If you do not find the fontcolours, maybe you can upload some different skins to chose from? (i know a lot of forums are able to upload skins)

...and some more encouragment...  :Embarassed:

----------


## Robbie

I'm slowly getting there...The new forums use style variables...and there are 450+ of them.  Been going through and changing as many as I can quickly to get things somewhat like they used to...haven't gotten to the link colors for everything yet...but I won't quit today til at least thats done.  Thanks again!

----------


## mearrin69

Good luck...Web software is so tetchy. I managed to break my wife's blog with an upgrade and never got it back the way it was before. I can totally relate, although I had a much, much smaller task than you.
M

----------


## Robbie

Oh hallelujah!  The links are readable now!

----------


## Gandwarf

Well... this is certainly different  :Very Happy: 
Good luck Arcana, it looks like we need it  :Wink:

----------


## Ascension

Ok so far the only things that I see are mostly cosmetic.  The steel blue text for each post bottom right (edit post, reply, reply with quote, and multiquote) are hard to read.  Not sure of you're workin on that or not.  The other thing is that quoting is weirded up, too.  White quote box with yellow letters.  Profile pages have similar yellow on white.  Rep buttons and what not are a dark gray that is  kind of hard to see.  The text size for this reply window is quite small by default as well...I can manually increase the size, sure, but it defaults back to small the next time I make a post.  The non cosmetic thing that you might want to look into is the "My Maps" link sorter thingy that many of use.  It seems to find all threads started instead of just finished maps...sort of like all threads haven't been sorted but have been dumped into one big pot - don't want our CL threads getting out.  I know yer workin hard here, so I'll add my encouragement as well.  Nothing worthwhile is ever gained easily or valued lightly...so keep pluggin away, bro.   :Smile:

----------


## Ascension

Found something else, underneath the member's name in a post, the button for "report post", the lil triangle, it seems to be sinking down and not in line with the rep button, infraction button and ip address button.

----------


## Robbie

Thanks for all the help and encouragement!  I think I've done all I have time for today.  I'll of course start working on the style images and smaller tweaks tomorrow...as well as getting the awards system back up and running.  If you find more bugs or problems, post them here and I'll get to em!

----------


## a2area

I like the sit a lot!  The change kind of gives me the feeling i lost my equilibrium but that will go away quickly.

----------


## torstan

Good work - all looking good so far. Hope the remaining glitches aren't too impossible to work out.

----------


## Juggernaut1981

Arcana> Best of luck with the site dude.  It looks like the right colours but there is a wad of stuff "out of place" so to speak.  And the envelopes FREAK ME OUT...

Since we're map nerds, would those be changing back to the CG-Compass or maybe to Parchments/Insert other Mapping Related Icon here?

*Wants to give existential pats on the back across vast distances*

----------


## Robbie

Oh yeah, that stuff will definitely be changing back...I wanted to get the colors right first so you guys would feel a little more at home.  The images for EVERYTHING will be changing to look more like its supposed to within the next few days.

----------


## Ramah

Every change you make brings back the homely feeling of the site.
I do wonder why you had to change though? Is this new board faster or less bandwidth? Can it do more or is it less vulnerable to attack? Is the old board style no longer supported or something? I don't want to sound unappreciative of your work, I'm just interested as to what facilitated the change?

Oh, and will the rep counter be returning to the sidebar alongside the little green scale thingy? I like to see how much rep I'm awarding and see the difference to another's number when I click the scal... star.  :Smile:

----------


## Djekspek

I like the site so far Arcana! cheers for getting this nasty job done so smoothly. I have a feeling the finish is in sight!

----------


## Clercon

Well now I start like feeling at home again. Nice work :-)

----------


## a2area

HEY.. what happened to my reputation.. it got more than halved and some people's rep got quadrupled... ? weird.. is it a bug?

NEVER MIND>.. the columns are messed up on the member list.. sorry for the post (0:

----------


## Robbie

> Every change you make brings back the homely feeling of the site.
> I do wonder why you had to change though? Is this new board faster or less bandwidth? Can it do more or is it less vulnerable to attack? Is the old board style no longer supported or something? I don't want to sound unappreciative of your work, I'm just interested as to what facilitated the change?
> 
> Oh, and will the rep counter be returning to the sidebar alongside the little green scale thingy? I like to see how much rep I'm awarding and see the difference to another's number when I click the scal... star.


The change was due to licensing, speed, compliancy (xhtml), functionality, and growth potential.  This version offers MUCh more growth potential because it has some pretty unique features I haven't even turned on yet.  Its going to be worth it once its all done I think.

----------


## Gandwarf

It does look like we have some reputation issues?
I think I see some people with a lot less reputation. Or has reputation changed somehow in the new forum?

----------


## Robbie

I checked a couple of things, and there were some numbers off, but I put them back according to whats in the FAQ.  Let me know if its still off.

----------


## Jaxilon

Woot! Starting to see some of the original symbols again, it just keeps getting better and better. Thanks for all your hard work Arcana.

----------


## Jaxilon

Ok, I'm not sure how this works and maybe I share my WIP too often, but how much time does it take from the moment a new '### Latest WIP ###' is posted in the monthly challenge before the "Master Thumbnails" are updated?

Unless there is a lag this function may be broken or disabled as I just updated my WIP but the thumbnail does not reflect this.

If you already know this please disregard my post.

Thanks again!

----------


## Robbie

Thumbnails are generated manually periodically...usually daily unless there were no changes...it'll happen soon I'm sure...I'm at lunch on my phone right now, so I can't do much.

----------


## jfrazierjr

> Ok, I'm not sure how this works and maybe I share my WIP too often, but how much time does it take from the moment a new '### Latest WIP ###' is posted in the monthly challenge before the "Master Thumbnails" are updated?
> 
> Unless there is a lag this function may be broken or disabled as I just updated my WIP but the thumbnail does not reflect this.


a) it could be broken, but at one time, I know it was run once a day when Redrobes ran it manually and then I think he set it up to run once a day automatically at some point after that.   I seem to recall that we CL's could run a process via a web query to run it, but I kind of glossed over that when reading the post on the CL's forum.

----------


## Gandwarf

I think someone needs to push a button, so it's not automatic.
Good to see the good old compass icon back  :Smile:

----------


## Robbie

I'm going to do something a little different with the thread icons.  Instead of compass roses, I'm going to see what it looks like with the center gemstone.  Wish me luck.

----------


## torstan

Sounds cool. Best of luck! Certainly interested to see what you come up with.

----------


## Redrobes

Thumbs are updated on a single push button link from any of the CLs. Its still not fully automatic but its pretty simple to do now. The Finished and Choice thumbs as well as the whole guild index by keyword is a little more involved so I run that manually now and again - like monthly or so. A big lag there between adding one and it appearing but it does eventually.

----------


## Robbie

It might not even work now...the sites template is completely different.

----------


## Redrobes

No I tried it and its fine. and all the thumbs are appearing ok too. As a super CL you can try it out the links are posted.

----------


## RobA

Holy new look batman!

Another fix needed it the colour of the quick reply text field... black on brown is hard to read!

-Rob A>

----------


## su_liam

Was yellow on white. Black on brown is a definite improvement. The quick reply field _could_ use a larger font and maybe black on a lighter beige or the same coloration as other text.

Anyway, this is coming along nicely. Lots of effort.

----------


## Gamerprinter

My monitor is a bit dark, but I can't read the text in the quick reply box, as I type it - I think  its black on brown. Also the REP button and Report Button is invisible to me as welll.

GP

----------


## Ruedy

vB4? Very courageous!  :Very Happy:

----------


## Ascension

The main non-tech thing I'm hating is the way that when clicking on the little blue square for "go to new post" doesn't take you to the new post...it takes you to the top of the page with the new posts on it.  To get to the new posts you have to click and additional blue square.  Minor thing but annoying.

----------


## JoeyD473

I seem to be having a problem with giving reps. I click on it and nothing happens. If I right click and click open it takes me to another page where I can give the rep. Just in case it is a problem with the browser I am using Opera 10.10

----------


## RobA

> I seem to be having a problem with giving reps. I click on it and nothing happens. If I right click and click open it takes me to another page where I can give the rep. Just in case it is a problem with the browser I am using Opera 10.10


Seems OK with Firefox.

-Rob A>

----------


## JoeyD473

> Seems OK with Firefox.
> 
> -Rob A>


Then I am guessing it is a browser issue (which is actually weird in this particular case)

----------


## Lwaxana

Ohhh, my eyes, my eyes! The large envelopes freak me out... and the quick reply is hardly detectable, on my screen at least. :-)

Anyway, just now noticed the changes when I found out I was logged out. Yay, improvements. With every upgrade comes confusion so I'll just be patient.

----------

