DARK SHADOWS FORUMS

General Discussions => Testing. 1, 2, 3... => Topic started by: Mysterious Benefactor on December 02, 2007, 06:20:30 AM

Title: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on December 02, 2007, 06:20:30 AM: No doubt you will have noticed that the forum has switched over to a new theme for the holiday season. Christmas_Season was originally written by SMF member TreetopClimber, but as per usual, and like the Joshua Collins of the DS movies, I've made "many changes and additions." [santa_wink] And, also as usual, anyone who hasn't gotten into the spirit of the season yet is certainly free to choose any of the other available themes. Though any DS fan who doesn't want to enjoy the sight of snow falling onto Collinwood for as long as possible, given that it was a sight never seen on any DS series or in any DS movie as of yet, well, what can actually be said about that type of person?! [santa_rolleyes] [santa_grin]

Happy Holidays! [8_2_74]

(Oh, I don't be surprised if you notice a few changes are still being made here and there because since I've installed the theme on our working forum, I've seen a few minor things that need to be tweaked.)
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Philippe Cordier on December 02, 2007, 07:16:40 AM: Seeing snow falling on Collinwood as I logged in tonight has special meaning since snow has been falling heavily where I live tonight. And as I contemplate taking out the snowblower for the first time tomorrow, I'm thinking about Willie, who must have done all the snow shoveling around Collinwood (and Matthew before him). That must have been hours of work.

The candy cane motif at first glance seemed a little incongruous with Collinwood, but may be all the better for luring innocent children into a lair of evil, like the gingerbread house in "Hansel and Gretel" ...

Nice job in creating a Christmas at Collinwood theme!
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on December 02, 2007, 07:30:00 AM: I just notice that for some odd reason (well, other than the fact it's a piece of junk! [Blow_Up_IE]) the garland that's supposed to display between the list of each category on the BoardIndex does not display in IE. Though, of course, it appears to be displaying in every other browser. Why am I not surprised?! [santa_rolleyes]

For the benefit of IE users, it should actually be looking like this:

(http://www.dsboards.com/garland.gif)

And when I get a chance, I'll try to figure out why it doesn't. [santa_angry]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Josette on December 02, 2007, 08:35:40 AM: The Christmas theme is lovely! I suppose this is one of the things that needs to be "tweaked," but when I click on a "new," I'm taken to the beginning of a thread instead of the first new to me post.
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on December 02, 2007, 08:46:09 AM: Actually, I didn't know about that. Thanks for pointing it out, Josette. [santa_smiley] I'll look into it right now...
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on December 02, 2007, 09:03:20 AM: The code TreetopClimber wrote for the link was way off of what it should have been. [santa_undecided] But hopefully I've corrected it now. I have no way to know, though, until after someone makes another new post in an already started topic. [santa_wink]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mary on December 02, 2007, 09:13:15 AM: The Christmas theme is wonderful, MB! [santa_smiley]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on December 02, 2007, 09:15:30 AM: Thank you, Mary. And thanks for posting because now I know the code for the "new" icon works correctly. [santa_smiley]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mary on December 02, 2007, 09:19:15 AM: You're welcome, MB! Glad to help -- LOL!
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Nancy on December 02, 2007, 12:30:02 PM: Lovely, MB. Great job! [santa_wink]

Nancy
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: barnabasjr on December 02, 2007, 03:37:31 PM: Bitchin! Thanks for your everlasting entertainment! [santa_thumb]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mark Rainey on December 02, 2007, 03:53:38 PM: Is attractive, although the red type for messages isn't easy to read for aging eyes.
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Gerard on December 02, 2007, 04:25:53 PM: It's just gorgeous! The red type is a tad difficult to read for us oldsters who watched DS when it originally ran, but if one just highlights it, it turns into a magnificent, brilliant white surrounded by a beautiful blue, so it's like having Christmas tree lights that change color, adding to the festive look!

Gerard
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Julia99 on December 02, 2007, 06:34:37 PM: Lovely MB. .nice treat. I awoke to this, snow falling outside my own window (NYC) and now i've got on Bette Midler's Cool Yule album from last year. . i Guess i am getting into the spirit!
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Midnite on December 02, 2007, 07:25:05 PM: Quote from: Gerard on December 02, 2007, 04:25:53 PM
The red type is a tad difficult to read for us oldsters who watched DS when it originally ran, but if one just highlights it, it turns into a magnificent, brilliant white surrounded by a beautiful blue, so it's like having Christmas tree lights that change color, adding to the festive look!

Or, the text is white on black when using "View the most recent posts on the forum." [santa_smiley]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: CrazyJenny on December 02, 2007, 07:35:06 PM: I love it! it was a nice surprise when I got on here while listening to Christmas music I'm downloading to my ipod.
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Patti Feinberg on December 02, 2007, 08:28:43 PM: [santa_thumb]
MERRY CHRISTMAS!! [santa_thumb]

MB...can you explain why in addition to red text, everything is underlined?

It's cool watching the snow here...now that I'm in Georgia, this'll be about the closest I get to snow!! (Praise the Lord, can't decided.)

Patti

PS, thanks Gerard for the awesome suggestion....it's great!!
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on December 02, 2007, 09:37:47 PM: Quote from: Vlad on December 02, 2007, 07:16:40 AM
Seeing snow falling on Collinwood as I logged in tonight has special meaning since snow has been falling heavily where I live tonight.

I wish it was snowing here. [ski] [60c4] [snowball] We're supposed to be getting some, but nothing so far. [santa_cry]

Quote from: Mark Rainey on December 02, 2007, 03:53:38 PM
the red type for messages isn't easy to read for aging eyes.

Quote from: Gerard on December 02, 2007, 04:25:53 PM
The red type is a tad difficult to read for us oldsters

You should have seen what the Arcane Magic theme was like before I got hold of it. It originally featured this color text against this color background, so it looked like this:

(http://www.dsboards.com/images/contrast.jpg)
[santa_shocked]

Quote from: Patti on December 02, 2007, 08:28:43 PM
MB...can you explain why in addition to red text, everything is underlined?

Umm - it isn't. For example, you post should be looking something like this:

(http://www.dsboards.com/images/PattiCap.gif)

I wish I could explain why everything is underlined in your browser. [santa_undecided]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on December 02, 2007, 10:26:29 PM: Quote from: Mysterious Benefactor on December 02, 2007, 07:30:00 AM
the garland that's supposed to display between the list of each category on the BoardIndex does not display in IE.

It's all very odd. The CSS code for the garland is exactly the same as that for the icicles in the header - yet the icicles display in IE and the garland doesn't. [santa_undecided]

Oh, the joys of working with IE. [santa_angry]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: loril54 on December 02, 2007, 10:49:12 PM: I like the theme. It is easy to see the type, when we type. The red on green can be a challange
but I can get used to it for a month.

Isn't this the only time that it snowed at Collinwood?
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Lydia on December 03, 2007, 09:43:45 AM: That's a beautiful image of Collinwood at the top of the page. I would love to have one of those "It's snowing!" paperweights with that frosty Collinwood inside it.
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: arashi on December 03, 2007, 04:12:30 PM: It's all underlined on my browser at work too. I'll check at home when I get there.

Nice layout! [santa_grin]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on December 03, 2007, 09:03:06 PM: Quote from: Lydia on December 03, 2007, 09:43:45 AM
That's a beautiful image of Collinwood at the top of the page. I would love to have one of those "It's snowing!" paperweights with that frosty Collinwood inside it.

Thanks - I had fun creating it. And who knows, maybe in my spare time I'll make paperweights with it and sell them on eBay. [santa_wink]

Quote from: arashi on December 03, 2007, 04:12:30 PM
It's all underlined on my browser at work too.

How odd. Patti and arashi, I'm assuming you're both using IE, but which version and on which version of Windows? As much as I tried yesterday, I couldn't get underlining to come up with IE7 on WinXP SP2. [hdscrt]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on December 03, 2007, 10:51:55 PM: I've just discovered a new bizarre problem: thumbnails of attachments appear for only the smallest fraction of a second and then disappear. Though at least the same thing is happening in all browsers, so it's not just an IE thing. But rest assured I'll be looking into it.

TreetopClimber - I place this curse upon you and upon all your kin of past, present, and succeeding generations to be plagued with... Oh, wait - I suppose I should hold off on the curse until I see if I can fix the problem. [santa_wink]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: loril54 on December 03, 2007, 11:29:55 PM: Quote from: Mysterious Benefactor on December 03, 2007, 09:03:06 PM
maybe in my spare time I'll make paperweights with it and sell them on eBay. [santa_wink]

A great way to support the site. [santa_thumb]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on December 04, 2007, 02:27:07 AM: Quote from: Mysterious Benefactor on December 03, 2007, 10:51:55 PM
I've just discovered a new bizarre problem: thumbnails of attachments appear for only the smallest fraction of a second and then disappear.

The thumbnails are back. However, clicking on them brings up the larger image on a separate page rather than replacing the thumbnail within the post itself. I'm not quite sure why that is - but at least the larger image IS displaying, so at least for now that's what's most important.

Quote from: loril54 on December 03, 2007, 11:29:55 PM
Quote from: Mysterious Benefactor on December 03, 2007, 09:03:06 PM
maybe in my spare time I'll make paperweights with it and sell them on eBay. [santa_wink]

A great way to support the site. [santa_thumb]

It would be! [santa_wink] Well, if I actually had spare time - and IF I actually knew how to make paperweights. [santa_grin]

Oh, and BTW, bah, humbug, Mark Rainey! There will surely be a lump of coal in your stocking this year. [santa_tongue] [santa_wink]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: barnabasjr on December 04, 2007, 03:07:07 AM: Quote from: Mysterious Benefactor on December 03, 2007, 09:03:06 PM
Quote from: arashi on December 03, 2007, 04:12:30 PM
It's all underlined on my browser at work too.

How odd. Patti and arashi, I'm assuming you're both using IE, but which version and on which version of Windows? As much as I tried yesterday, I couldn't get underlining to come up with IE7 on WinXP SP2. [hdscrt]
I'm seeing it in IE7 version 7.0.6000.16546 in Vista Home Premium. No garland, either. These anomalies are not present in Firefox 2.0.0.11.
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: barnabasjr on December 04, 2007, 03:26:40 AM: I also just noticed that the underlines only appear when the mouse pointer is within the IE window. In other words, if the window isn't maximized and the mouse is elsewhere on the screen, the lines disappear but move the mouse back into the IE window and whoa Nellie!
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: rainingwolf on December 04, 2007, 02:52:47 PM: I LOVE this! What a great surprise! Thank you, MB! [santa_thumb] [cheer] [ChristmaS2]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: arashi on December 04, 2007, 03:36:17 PM: Using MIE 7 on Windows Vista (eww I know, but that's how our work computers came). I'll be downloading Firefox this afternoon. [santa_cheesy]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on December 04, 2007, 08:16:35 PM: Apparently the problems in IE with the garland and underlining seem to only be an IE7 thing. I'm at a friend's school where they still use IE6, and there's no underlining - and the garland appears just as it should:

(http://www.dsboards.com/IE6.gif)

It seems as if the more Microsoft supposedly "improves" IE, the more they actually make it worse. [santa_angry]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Gothick on December 04, 2007, 10:21:02 PM: I use IE and I don't get any underlining, but neither do I get any garland. I really do not care although Collinwood in the snow is very pretty, I have to say (I tend to be something of a grumpus when it comes to "holiday" themes--as I'm sure will astound many of you here).

Have a cool Yule,

G.
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Patti Feinberg on December 04, 2007, 10:21:23 PM: Yeah, the underline thing is only when the cursor is on the window, but anyway

it's very festive.

Thanks for doing your best MB, which we all know is ALOT. Sure hope you're making the BIG BUCKS!

Love,

Patti
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Nelson Collins on December 07, 2007, 01:56:36 AM: Sorry, peeps. I am not opposed to the holiday theme, but the Red type on the dark background is extremely eye straining, especially when moving from lighter pages such as the reply page....

Oh, and are you absolutely certain everyone who posts/reads this page is Christian? ;)
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on December 07, 2007, 02:22:51 AM: Quote from: Nelson Collins on December 07, 2007, 01:56:36 AM
Oh, and are you absolutely certain everyone who posts/reads this page is Christian? ;)

Oh, we know that without a doubt everyone who visits the forum isn't Christian. (Actually, not even all the people who work on the forum are Christian.) That's why we've always stuck with a generic holiday motif every year. We have included menorah smileys for Hanukkah, though (though I'm embarrassed to say i haven't found the time to put those up yet). (And if I could find Kwanzaa smiley's I'd install those as well. [santa_smiley]) And you'll note that the only thing I said when I introduced this theme is that it's hard to imagine DS fans wouldn't want to see snow falling onto Collinwood for as long as possible. [santa_wink]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: michael c on December 07, 2007, 02:59:45 AM: indeed!

some of us are in league with the devil,others pray to the great god ra,while i personally pledge allegiance to an indian warlock i met in barbados. [santa_wink]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: ProfStokes on December 07, 2007, 07:04:50 AM: Quote from: mscbryk on December 07, 2007, 02:59:45 AM
indeed!

some of us are in league with the devil,others pray to the great god ra,while i personally pledge allegiance to an indian warlock i met in barbados. [santa_wink]

Bwahaha! [laughing4]

Incidentally, while I do think the background is lovely and festive, since this theme has been installed, I keep getting a "Session timed out" error every time I try to mark a board as read. Have any other cousins been having the same problem? Could it be the doing of that old Grinch, Diabolos? [santa_wink]

ProfStokes
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on December 07, 2007, 07:17:36 AM: Oops - that's a session verification error:

Quote
An Error Has Occurred!

Session verification failed. Please try logging out and back in again, and then try again.

And thanks for pointing it out. Back on the first day that I installed this theme, Midnite discovered the same error was occurring with the "Mark as read" button on the BoardIndex page. I fixed that one (the code for the link wasn't verifying a member's session) and I thought I'd caught all the other instances where a similar button shows up, but apparently I missed one. [santa_embarassed] (I even confessed to Midnite that I was afraid I wouldn't remember where all those buttons show up - mostly because I don't use them.) But I'll get on that right away...

Quote
Could it be the doing of that old Grinch, Diabolos? [santa_wink]

We've theorized more than once that the forum is haunted, but it never occurred that he could be causing the unexplained weirdness. Hmmm...
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on December 07, 2007, 07:46:33 AM: It *should* be fixed. [santa_smiley] And the "Mark as read" buttons weren't actually the only instances where Midnite and I had discovered session verification errors coming up in this theme. So, if anyone else happens across one, please post what you were doing when it occurred so that I can get to the bottom of it.
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: ProfStokes on December 07, 2007, 11:16:18 PM: Many thanks, MB! [8_2_74]

ProfStokes
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Jackie on December 10, 2007, 05:21:14 PM: I may be one of the few oddballs here but I had to change my settings off the Christmas theme. Although I LOVE seeing the snow fall on Collinwood, since we never did see any holidays on the show, I had a hard time reading the messages. Even though I change the color fonts and make them larger, most people keep their fonts on default, which seems to be red. It blends into the background, for me anyway, and I couldn't read it very well. So I've very happy there are other chooses. I'm glad there's a Christmas theme for others to enjoy and look forward to seeing what's up next for other holidays. Love the Hanukkah icons too.

[Chanukah8]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on December 10, 2007, 06:21:20 PM: I'm discovering that the monitor someone has makes a great deal of difference with this theme. Once again I'm at my friend's school where they have a wide variety of monitors, so I've had the opportunity to check many different ones out. This theme seems to work well with every LCD monitor (which is the type I own), however, the contrast with some CRT monitors seems to be a bit of a problem - especially with older monitors that may not be using the latest Windows drivers available for them.
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Lydia on December 11, 2007, 09:28:57 AM: Quote from: Mysterious Benefactor on December 10, 2007, 06:21:20 PM
Once again I'm at my friend's school where they have a wide variety of monitors, so I've had the opportunity to check many different ones out.
What an exciting life you lead, MB!
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on December 11, 2007, 08:12:47 PM: I live for excitement, Lydia! [santa_grin] Though in the case of my friend's school, I frequently do volunteer IT work (because they can't afford an actual IT person) and I serve on the Technology Committee. I don't know how exciting it is - but it is fulfilling. [santa_smiley]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on December 01, 2008, 06:40:57 AM: Just bumping this topic up as a reminder that people using IE7 are not seeing this theme as its writer intended. Check out replies #2 and #30 for graphics of what it should look like and does look like in other browsers. [santa_smiley]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: EmeraldRose on December 01, 2008, 11:29:44 AM: I just thought I would mention that, since my monitor is very dark (this is an old computer), the red type blends into the black background, so I can't read it without highlighting it first. [santa_rolleyes] Also, when I preview a post, I have to change my color from springgreen to darkgreen, so I can read it, and then change it back to springgreen when I post. It's a tad inconvenient, but doable. [santa_wink] By the way, I love the Santa Smileys and Collinwood covered with snow! [santa_thumb]

----- Sally -----
[santa_cool] [hippy2]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: EmeraldRose on December 01, 2008, 12:52:27 PM: Actually, I just noticed that I can easily read the red on white background while I'm previewing a post. So I just have to change the color to springgreen just before clicking on "post". [santa_wink]

By the way, I have my computer set up to highlight in green, so it makes a lovely effect when combined with the red font color and black background on the posts. [santa_thumb]

----- Sally -----
[santa_cool] [hippy2]
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: rainingwolf on December 03, 2008, 12:50:39 AM: I had forgotten about this theme--it is fabulous! Good work, MB! We hardly ever have snow in this part of Oregon at Christmas, so this is a lovely treat! [ChristmaS2]
Title: Red font on black BG
Post by: Brian on December 02, 2010, 06:35:59 AM: Hey, Midnight and MB,

From this middle-aged man with aging eyes, please note that the red font on black background in use for this holiday sason is VERY hard to read. Maybe if the red font was in BOLD, it would help, or if the default red font were a few points larger, or if the backgoudn were a different color (don't know which to suggest)...whatever, please take a look and see if you can do something to make it easier for us older folks to read. ;)

Thanks,
Brian
Title: Re: Christmas_Season Theme
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on December 02, 2010, 07:24:53 AM: Unfortunately fiddling with the fonts/colors in the post displays doesn't just adjust the fonts/colors there. I learned very early with this theme that trying to adjust the post displays causes even bigger problems elsewhere, so I'm afraid we're stuck with things the way they are. However, that doesn't mean that individual members can't make the forum display differently in their own browsers because browsers allow for font size adjustment, so it's possible to make the text larger by adjusting it directly in the browser. Firefox even allows for adjustments on individual pages/types of pages that don't affect any of the other pages/types of pages on a Web site. And if worse comes to worst, members can switch to a different theme by following the instructions in:
Quote from: Mysterious Benefactor on April 25, 2005, 07:51:19 PM
Choosing A Theme
(Though I wouldn't suggest choosing the "Variations on Blue" theme, as was the case back when that topic was originally posted. Nowadays the best bet is to use "Midnight". [santa_wink])