I'm working on a custom theme for the site. It will be built on the prosilver templates for markup (thus hopefully compatible with mods), but will use custom styles, images and colors. I'm using Gresil's logo (which everyone seems to like) as a starting point in terms of style and color.

I've attached a preliminary mock-up. Obviously, it's still extremely rough, and the buttons and icons don't really match, and the fonts aren't quite right, and it's mostly empty in terms of what the content will look like, but I want to post it before I go too much further to get some feedback. I want to get an idea if I'm going in basically the right direction in terms of colors, layout, etc. before I spend days implementing everything.

Like I said, the icons and such are not final and the final fonts will be hinted by your OS instead of Photoshop. I'm mostly just looking for feedback on the general layout, appearance, colors and such. Too red? Too beige? Too neutral? Too colorful? Too round? Too square? Too web2.0ish? Not web2.0ish enough?

A couple specific questions for the community:

Should I go with a fixed-width layout (I'd use a 960 grid optimized for 1024 and higher), or should I make it stretch? I tend to go with fixed-width 90% of the time because it's easier to implement and has superior accessibility. But a the current layout stretches and I will stick with that if it's preferred.

I plan on not supporting IE6 beyond basic functionality. The site will work, but it will look less pretty. Any strong objections? Reasonbly current versions of Firefox, Safari, IE7, IE8, Opera, Chrome, etc. will be fully supported (and probably by extension, any other Webkit or Gecko browser.)

Should I go with a multi-column layout? It's not common on forum sites, but everybody has big screens these days, even on their phone, so it makes sense to make use of all that horizontal space. It also makes the text of posts more readable to have shorter lines. There could be a persistent sidebar on the left or right hand side of the screen similar to what you usually see on blogs (see my club blog for an example).

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KGS 4 kyu - Game Archive - Keyboard Otaku

Wow, the mockup looks excellent, good job so far fwiffo!

My personal preference is also fixed width, just cause that's what I've gotten used to on other forums I'm on/used to go to. However, it's just a slight preference. No objection at all on not supporting IE6 . Lot less headaches. Indifferent on the multi-column layout.

Anyways, looks great and awesome work.

Nice mockup, I like the warm colour scheme. I'd prefer a variable width layout. Quite often I resize my browser window to keep an eye on some windows beneath (progress bars, compiler output etc.) or simply to shorten the length of text lines, so I like flexible layouts best. Multi-column layout might therefore be unnecessary.
And yes, let IE6 go the way of Netscape 4.x

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Interestingly, over the last few days I've been looking at the "Who's Online" page, which (for administrators, at least) shows the User-Agent string for each user as they browse. I've noticed something that's surprised me -- I've looked at about 60 different accounts and a single one was using Internet Explorer, of any version. The vast leader is Mozilla and Chrome makes a decent showing. There were even two using something called "Apple PubSub" which I've never even heard of before but is apparently more popular than IE in our little community here.

I bring this up just as a roundabout way of saying -- I wouldn't worry too much about super-perfect IE compatibility... I don't think many of us will miss it.

The mockup looks amazing to me

I like that subsilver2 is variable-width, but I could definitely learn to live with a fixed-width style as well, especially one as pretty as that.

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The road to wisdom? Well, it's plain, and simple to express: Err, and err, and err again; but less, and less, and less!

I like the mockup, and have no preference regarding fixed or variable width.

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I like the mock up as well. It reminds me of the theme at baduk.pro. In my personal preference though I tend to like "cooler" colors. Thats just my personal preference though.

Looks awesome! I vote for variable width and a single-column layout, because my browser size varies from ~1000 pixels wide to ~2000 pixels wide depending on my mood and what I'm doing. I don't think a fixed-width or a multi-column layout would look as good on such a range of browser widths.

Variable width pls.

Sometimes at home I set half the screen showing a cartoon for my son and half the screen showing L19 for me

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I liiiiike!

I'd also prefer variable width.

Really, really nice. But won't the forum be renamed GD ?

I like it too, and will join the variable width votes

I agree.

And another call to not worry about IE6. People really shouldn't be using it anyway - and why not give them another incentive to switch if they're not already?

Oh, and guess I didn't add: Nice mockup fwiffo! It looks nice. Good work. Though I am going back and forth about the overall color - almost a bit to "bright" for my taste (though I can't decide for sure...).

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KGS: schultz [?].

Variable width (for the reasons mentioned by the others).

One other request: even though I like the colors I prefer not to have any background images etc... Could having design images made an option in the preferences (if possible)?

- Mich

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Go is easy: don't play bad moves.

Background images...
Yeah, with (most) people requesting variable width, best to not have a background image. Nothing worse to an aesthetic of a page than a limited background image that has a hard end to it. Or worse yet, one that tiles...shudder.

Glad this was brought up because I didn't think about it at first. And it's one of the things that looks really nice in the mockup, too!

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KGS: schultz [?].

No, it's T.F.F.K.A.G.D.*

*The Forum Formerly Known As Go Discussions

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I like it a lot, except for the red font. Red fonts are hard to read for people with limited vision - not to mention those who are color-blind - when it's not on a white background. It works well against the white, but against the beiges it's not ideal. I think there's too much red all around, and I'd guess there will be other contrast problems in other areas. I'd strongly suggest ditching the red and going for something a bit more eye-friendly.

Also, I'm not a big fan of background images...

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The background image will look fine with a variable width - I've done this before. The stones/board images will be anchored to the upper right and lower left corners of your browser window. I'm hesitant to remove them because the layout would have no go character at all at that point. I might make a "lite" version of the theme that is less image-heavy, however.

I did some math on the width of the profile section of posts and the sizes of diagrams and SGF editor, and a two-column layout won't really be possible. So I'm glad everyone is happy with the one-column layout.

Kirk, I think you're right about the red. I want to match the logo, but I think there's just too much of it. I think I'll reserve it just for certain highlights or headings and find something different for links and such.

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KGS 4 kyu - Game Archive - Keyboard Otaku

As for background image: yeah that makes sense. I thought of that after I posted. And as long as it is subdued, don't have too much problem with it.

And I agree with the colors stated above, which you've already addressed...

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KGS: schultz [?].

Nicely done, fwiffo. I really like the way the L19 logo fades and then blends seamlessly with the background on the right-hand side. How did you do that?

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"This is a game that rewards patience and balance. You must think like a man of action and act like a man of thought."
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I used my mad PhotoShop skillz.

Just a quick update on the status of this: I have had about 20 minutes total to work on it in the past couple days, so nothing new to report. I think maybe I found a shade of blue that looks good in place of most of the red you see on that mockup.

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KGS 4 kyu - Game Archive - Keyboard Otaku