FUDforum Layout Contest!!! [message #26425] |
Thu, 21 July 2005 17:02 |
Ilia
Messages: 13241 Registered: January 2002
Karma: 0
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Senior Member Administrator Core Developer |
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In the past few years FUDforum has grown quite a bit in both the offered functionality and the user base. However, aside from a few tweaks the layout of the forum has remained largely unchanged. While the current layout works quite well for most people, there is a clear want to update the layout to something more interesting. Hence this contest, the goal being to devise a new better, faster and prettier default theme (layout) for the forum, which would improve the user experience. Aside from a new and improved default template some additional templates maybe included in the stock distribution to give forum deployers greater flexibility as far as appearance out of the box.
So, if you have some spare time and would like to help to improve FUDforum please submit your design entries.
There are few requirements from the design and I ask that you consider them when making your changes:
- The design should be based on CSS, you can make use of tables and so on, but the formatting should be done in CSS as much as possible.
- The design should work in all major browsers, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Konqueror and Safari.
- Try to keep the design as generic as possible so that it can be applicable to almost any situation the forum is used in. We want to allow people to use the forum without having to tweak the design every time.
- Be original, don’t port layouts and themes of existing bulletin boards.
How to submit your ideas?
- Send a patch with your changes (please indicate the forum version the patch is based upon).
- Send an archive of all the modified files.
The submissions can be either attached as replies to this topic or sent to me via e-mail at forum(at)prohost(dot)org.
Timeline:
It is my hope that we have some suggestions within the next 2 months at which point via the use of public opinion we will determine the best entries.
Licensing Issues:
In order to use your template ideas the license needs to permit its distribution with FUDforum, the acceptable licenses are: GPL (FUDforum’s license), LGPL, BSD, Apache and PHP license.
Prizes:
For the winning design that becomes the default theme for FUDforum aside from my gratitude (as well as those of other FUDforum users) the winner will receive a 4GB Ipod Mini. Authors of designs that get adopted as optional FUDforum themes, will all receive 512 meg Ipod Shuffle.
It should be noted that the authors will be given their due credit inside the FUDforum’s CREDITS file.
FUDforum Core Developer
[Updated on: Thu, 21 July 2005 18:53] Report message to a moderator
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Re: FUDforum Layout Contest!!! [message #26568 is a reply to message #26534] |
Wed, 27 July 2005 15:41 |
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Lukin
Messages: 5 Registered: July 2005
Karma: 0
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Junior Member |
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Hello world!
!alex wrote on Mon, 25 July 2005 12:46 |
i`m currently working on templates for my ecommerce-solution that are nearly pure css, xhtml 1.0 transitional compliant and use no tables (at the moment still 2 or 3 )
- generally i would say it is possible to give the forum a div-based layout but there is need to use a lot of css-hacks to switch some values based on the browser.
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Well, I see no point in removing all tables - they're allowed even in strict XHTML, as long as they are not used for design, but for presenting data. I made phpBB template without tables, pure xhtml and css. Removing tables from "index" and "viewforum" was a mistake - there is no way to make good substite for them (substitute that would look so clear and would work with all browsers or in all resolutions).
Other than that I agree it's possible to make a forum layout based on div's, etc.
!alex wrote on Mon, 25 July 2005 12:46 |
At the moment i don't have enough spare to work on a forum`s layout but if someone would like to work on such a mission i may bring-in some hours on the css/hacks to make it work on different browsers.
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http://www.dithered.com/css_filters/css_only/index.php
www.alistapart.com
BTW What is the oldest browser that should be supported by the new theme? IE4.0?
[Updated on: Wed, 27 July 2005 15:45] Report message to a moderator
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Re: FUDforum Layout Contest!!! [message #26576 is a reply to message #26570] |
Wed, 27 July 2005 18:09 |
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Lukin
Messages: 5 Registered: July 2005
Karma: 0
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Junior Member |
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JamesS wrote on Wed, 27 July 2005 12:44 | I have an idea or two that doesn't involve using tables for layout. My Calculus II final is one week from today and I hope to be able to work on it after that; right now I have to catch up in class
Any way, if done correctly, a layout done without tables is going to make the forum quicker (and I know how much you like speed). The typical use of tables for layout creates a lot of overhead that has to be re-downloaded every page view. I don't agree with everyone's desire to use the transitional doctype nor their need to use XHTML. The first is just lazy and the second has no viable, cross-browser, implementation IMHO.
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Tables are bad when you use them for purely visual purposes, like making a menu in table. But they are excellent for presenting sorted data, something like a table of topics with an info about topic starter, date of last post, etc. This part of forum is something like an Excel sheet - making such thing in div's has no sense. Tables are not "banned" in XHTML, they just should not be used for "description of a layout".
Ilia wrote on Wed, 27 July 2005 13:12 | Well, KHTML engine (somewhat tuned) is what powers Apple's Safari browser, so it's popularity is growing, making compatibility with it a concern. Opera mostly tries to emulate IE behaviour, which in many cases means that the same hacks used for IE also solve issues on Opera.
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You're talking about some old version of Opera. The one and only version of this browser which emulated IE was 7.01. It was in use for a shor period of time - producer quickly updated it to 7.23. The newest one is Opera 8 and it has one of the best css support on the market.
The newest version of Safari (not officialy released yet) has it even better than Opera - it was the first browser which passed Acid2 test. To this day only two browsers pass this test: Konqueror and iCab.
Well, imho strict XHTML is a big problem only for older browsers like IE4 and IE5. Making a layout for IE6 is not that complicated and don't need so many hacks - of course if your layout is not that complicated
I reply my question to forum developers: What is the oldest browser that should be supported by the new theme?
And a second question: opening links in new windows (using target="_blank") is not allowed in xhtml 1.0 strict. So the question is: do I have to modify the forum code and remove "target" parameters from an [ URL] code, etc. or better use transitional xhtml in a theme?
P.S. I know that opening a page in new window can be done by javascript, so that could be a good substitute for "target" parm, but then again newer browsers could treat such link as an pop-up window.
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Re: FUDforum Layout Contest!!! [message #26728 is a reply to message #26605] |
Sun, 07 August 2005 18:56 |
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Wild_Cat
Messages: 144 Registered: November 2002 Location: Odessa, Ukraine
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Senior Member |
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ligesh �����(�) ���, 28 ���� 2005 23:40 |
Ilia wrote on Thu, 28 July 2005 16:12 | IMHO that's a bad idea, FUDforum used to arrange messages like this in the past.
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Didn't 2.5 have the userinfo on the left. Anyway please have at least one skin in this format. The user-info on the left also doubles as a margin, which is what makes this particular layout look good.
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I sign under that. You know, Ilia, there was quite a number of people desiring it back, I remember. The fact that you find it ineffective in one way doesn't mean we don't find it effective in another way. I would also like to contribute since I long had thoughts of completely redesigning the layout (I don't like this one for more reasons, including listing of tpoics and forums too for taking some data out of the tables), but I doubt I'll have time, unfortunately. I hope someone comes up indeed with something really different from this one.
[Updated on: Sun, 07 August 2005 18:59] Report message to a moderator
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