I can't go into any details, but some of the things that I do for Facelift won't be needed in the 6.5 version of Threeads, so I want to take the Facelift mod in a new direction. Do you want to completely change the layout of certain pages? Do you want a template mod that comes with graphics? Let me know in this thread!

Well defining Templates with graphics I think is a no-no as it would have a lower center of appeal.

If you really want to get bold you can do a redesign and change the layout kinda like Lane does. You seen his redesign proposal's and screen shots for 6.4. They look cool. You can accomplish alot on the look of things with CSS so your mod could be a combination of the two. That way you could only say design two. One for distribution and one for sale for a nominal fee. Basically come up with a complete redesign of the way threads looks.

That's what I've been thinking, but layout changes are difficult. Not to script them, but it's tough to get a wide range of boards to dispay correctly with a single layout. After going through all of the templates, and writing some of my own, I've gained a profound respect for whoever does the stock templates for Threads...

amen

I think the 'facelift' templates should continue in the way you've been doing them, as a cleanup of the basic code. Adding more and more features into the base code can tend to make a forum look pretty cluttered if they're all turned on. Developing a cleaner look would help that - if a link isn't active to that particular user, they should never see it. This emphasizes the content of a site and reduces the chinese phonebook look.

Now, if you're wanting to develop something new in a different direction, you might wanna visit lots of sites for visual inspiration - I do The csszengarden site is a favorite, as well as various 'we sell templates' sites. Other leading design sites inspire me to move forum design in new directions as well. I hope our coming redesign of ubbdev shows that.

Back to square one... start here: http://www.csszengarden.com/ - if I see something else that may be inspiring, I'll post them

site, thanks Allen!!!

Incorporation of the article templates into the facelift would be nice. Granted, alot of people aren't going to use the article templates, but they are only called in forums that you specify anyway.

yes, please

[]slayer60 said:
Incorporation of the article templates into the facelift would be nice. Granted, alot of people aren't going to use the article templates, but they are only called in forums that you specify anyway. [/]

Will do. I'm still working on a new layout for the newpost, reply, and edit pages but I'll release an article template with Facelift 6.5

• Scrollbars for the entire thread box. This would be especially ideal for long threads
  
  
• Registration date, Posts, and Location should be shown below the posts instead of below the avatar
  (like in UBB.classic)
  
  
• Hide the Remind Me, Notify Moderator, and Email Post icons from unregistered users
  
  
• Remove "Send A Private Message" and "Add to Address Book" from unregistered users viewing user profiles
  
  
• Remove all blank fields from user profiles
  
  
• Remove grayed out Previous/Next buttons from the forum display
  
  

All great suggestions -thanks!

Take it out of squares, lose the borders etc.. make it look as little as a forum as possible..

You asked

[]J.C. said:
Take it out of squares, lose the borders etc.. make it look as little as a forum as possible.. You asked [/]

Exactly! Everything is so "boxed"... The currrent design looks so old-fashioned and makes it hard to fit good in the rest of the site.

[]J.C. said:
Take it out of squares, lose the borders etc.. make it look as little as a forum as possible..

You asked [/]

I'm actually playing with an idea that I've seen you do -make all of the posts seperate tables so that if one post is wider than the display area on the screen it won't distort the other posts...

You can see an example on the UBB Dev web site -I really like the way the posts are layed out!!!

Even better, make a tableless design.
Has anyone tried that for a bulletin board yet?

I think it could be done with div tags, but there may be compatability issues with some browsers and you would lose "wrapper graphics" in the process...

[]Dalantech said:
I'm actually playing with an idea that I've seen you do -make all of the posts seperate tables so that if one post is wider than the display area on the screen it won't distort the other posts...

You can see an example on the UBB Dev web site -I really like the way the posts are layed out!!! [/]

Thankie

[]Dalantech said:
I think it could be done with div tags, but there may be compatability issues with some browsers and you would lose "wrapper graphics" in the process... [/]
Yes, you'll have to use divs then. You can have a wrapper effect with divs also. Just assign background images to the divs (using css).

The table html doesn't need to go. I was thinking more of a way to show it via css etc, that isn't a bunch of squares. No borders, no boxes. Lines and shading (subtle) to make it more design friendly.

FYI using div's etc is not always browser friendly across the board. BTDT

[]J.C. said:FYI using div's etc is not always browser friendly across the board. BTDT
[/]

That's why I've never been interested in designing a version of Threads with the div tag. On my site I have users that run a variety of web surfing applications and my current design renders correctly in all of them cause it uses tables...

Yup still researching it. But as I said, the html is fine, I guess it's more of a css deal then reconstruction.

I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo tired of squares, I wish we could put threads in circles..lol

Well maybe not, but you get the ideas. As a designer I HATE being locked into a format.

I think I got it..

In tbopen put..

<div align="center" style="width: $width;" class="tablesurround">
<table cellpadding="{$theme['cellpadding']}" cellspacing="{$theme['cellspacing']}" width="100%" class="tableborders">

And in tbclose put..

</table>
</div>

Then put your values in the css. I was trying to pass em in the div tag before. Checked it in Moz, IE and Opera. One thing, if you have a fixed width for your div line add px to it $widthpx; otherwise if it's a percent then you do not need it. For those wondering why bother, it reduces the amount of nested tables which should make your page load quicker

That would work, but it would also completely eliminate table wrapper graphics...

No offense, but wrappers are getting old anyway..

True, but they still look better than not using them...

Matter of opinion I guess, I'm going thru a "less is more" phase..

It kinda depends... done well they'll always look better than the base code, but even a blind-folded monkey can code ugly ones

I'm looking forward to what you have in mind... I wanna so some kinda clean and leaning more to a ubb.skin-look myself

One thing I try to do in mine, is remove the kludge of nested tables, and use more css to accomplish the same ends.
The templates are not up to xhtml standards either, this needs to be addressed as well.

I thought about removing all of the table wrapper graphics, table borders, and using CSS to create different colors for each "area" so you could tell them apart. I'd have to use some graphics to keep the effect from looking square, but I think it would all blend pretty good. Something to play with once 6.5 goes gold

Post deleted by Pink Jazz

You are a wild man.

Tableless!?! That's sacrilege!

Here is a screen shot to tease you -I should have Facelift for Threads 6.5 finished by this weekend...

One problem, lower res users might have a problem. Like 800x600.

also those who change the size of their reply box.

(though i do love the look of it!)

[]J.C. said:
One problem, lower res users might have a problem. Like 800x600. [/]

I'll try it at low res -but every time I do a survey on my site no one is surfing the web below 1024x768...

[]drkknght said:
also those who change the size of their reply box.

(though i do love the look of it!) [/]

Very few users actually change the size of the reply box -and I do plan on testing it with several different sizes.