New Matrix Forum

[Denniss]

Maybe it's my mix of private and public forum sections that plays a role here. Befoe this post I was in a private section and opened soem tabs there + this thread in new tabs. 1st tab was ok but 2nd was logged-out

Just another thought, but are you using security software that could affect this? Are you blocking anything on the site? Do you have VPN that could be frequently changing your IP or connection?

No, no and no. Although my ISP uses DS Lite, an internal IPv6 net for customers that is routed to the internet via a certain amount of public IPv4 gateways. But I doubt an assigned public IP gateway will change once my router is connected to the provider net as that would spoil telephone connections as well. I typically wait for one forum section to completely load before I open further tabs with other forum sections

[zgrssd]

Maybe it's my mix of private and public forum sections that plays a role here. Befoe this post I was in a private section and opened soem tabs there + this thread in new tabs. 1st tab was ok but 2nd was logged-out

Just another thought, but are you using security software that could affect this? Are you blocking anything on the site? Do you have VPN that could be frequently changing your IP or connection?

I have no idea how that could possibly mater?

Cookies exist because stuff like the IP adress were never a valid way to identify computers to begin with. It breaks the first time your package traverses a NAT Layer - like the one in your Router.

As I said in other posts:
It feels to me like there is some overly agressive session timeout that is checked after the Page has been delivered. It always happens like this:
- a time of Inactivity
- request a page with working login
- session is invalidate
- further requests no longer have a valid session

[Curtis Lemay]

Regards,

- Erik

Erik, don't forget that a small fraction of the viewership is colorblind. They see things much differently from the rest of us. Also, a significant fraction of that fraction is unaware that they are colorblind (or in denial about it).

I wonder about the font color. It's a shade of grey (half the time on a light grey background). Something closer to black might be an improvement.

[thewood1]

So I ran as aggressive a test as I could opening and closing Matrix forums in tabs. I had 12 tabs open and all pointing to different forums and subforums. I went through them all and refreshed and drilled down into other subforums. Never logged out once. Four of the forums were private beta. I even walked away and let the PC go to sleep. On waking, still logged in. I closed some tabs and opened other and all the currently open tabs stayed logged in.

Using Chrome with no extensions and logged in to be remembered through cookies.

[zgrssd]

So I ran as aggressive a test as I could opening and closing Matrix forums in tabs. I had 12 tabs open and all pointing to different forums and subforums. I went through them all and refreshed and drilled down into other subforums. Never logged out once. Four of the forums were private beta. I even walked away and let the PC go to sleep. On waking, still logged in. I closed some tabs and opened other and all the currently open tabs stayed logged in.

Using Chrome with no extensions and logged in to be remembered through cookies.

I feel like the off time needs to be 2-3 Hours at least. But I never properly measured.

[thewood1]

Jeesh..lets keep adding more parameters to the test. Tell us exactly what you are using. OS, browser, system spec, time on time off, etc.

[tyronec]

Thanks for the feedback and I get your point, but really I do not fully understand why it is less readable for some (especially if they've used the "wide" theme to make it look much like the old forum). I really do want to know more specifics because for the main text we're all reading in these posts, the font and size are exactly the same. I've taken some side by side screenshots and they look identical. Maybe it's slight differences in the color scheme, maybe it's something else but I really can't know until someone gives me more specific feedback.

There's also a known phenomenon where sometimes people just don't like change. I'm trying to make sure we're not just dealing with that by asking people to dig a bit deeper and explain what's causing the issue for them.

There are suggestions earlier on alternate fonts and styles and I did read those. We are planning to review style/theme/font feedback once the functional issues have been resolved, which is part of why I'm pressing for more specific feedback so that when we get to that, I can be sure any improvements will really address any concerns.

Regards,

- Erik

I am having great difficulty reading this Forum. I don't think it is about the scaling, I think it is about the colour scheme. In the old format I could happily read the Forum for extended periods of time and the Slitherine Forum is fine. But the pale blue of grey background is just very difficult for me to read and causes eye strain after a few minutes.
Can you do something about this, I am not the only person raising an issue about the readability.
I have been playing Matrix games for many years now and I can seriously say that this issue is making me consider if I want to continue using the platform.

[witpqs]

Thanks for the feedback and I get your point, but really I do not fully understand why it is less readable for some (especially if they've used the "wide" theme to make it look much like the old forum). I really do want to know more specifics because for the main text we're all reading in these posts, the font and size are exactly the same. I've taken some side by side screenshots and they look identical. Maybe it's slight differences in the color scheme, maybe it's something else but I really can't know until someone gives me more specific feedback.

There's also a known phenomenon where sometimes people just don't like change. I'm trying to make sure we're not just dealing with that by asking people to dig a bit deeper and explain what's causing the issue for them.

There are suggestions earlier on alternate fonts and styles and I did read those. We are planning to review style/theme/font feedback once the functional issues have been resolved, which is part of why I'm pressing for more specific feedback so that when we get to that, I can be sure any improvements will really address any concerns.

Regards,

- Erik

I am having great difficulty reading this Forum. I don't think it is about the scaling, I think it is about the colour scheme. In the old format I could happily read the Forum for extended periods of time and the Slitherine Forum is fine. But the pale blue of grey background is just very difficult for me to read and causes eye strain after a few minutes.
Can you do something about this, I am not the only person raising an issue about the readability.
I have been playing Matrix games for many years now and I can seriously say that this issue is making me consider if I want to continue using the platform.

For me, the contrast within quoted blocks (black type, pale yellow background) is fine. But for main body text the black type on on that pale grey (if that's the color) is less contrast than feels comfortable.Even if you don't make the background white, could it be made a little lighter grey or something?

[zgrssd]

Thanks for the feedback and I get your point, but really I do not fully understand why it is less readable for some (especially if they've used the "wide" theme to make it look much like the old forum). I really do want to know more specifics because for the main text we're all reading in these posts, the font and size are exactly the same. I've taken some side by side screenshots and they look identical. Maybe it's slight differences in the color scheme, maybe it's something else but I really can't know until someone gives me more specific feedback.

There's also a known phenomenon where sometimes people just don't like change. I'm trying to make sure we're not just dealing with that by asking people to dig a bit deeper and explain what's causing the issue for them.

There are suggestions earlier on alternate fonts and styles and I did read those. We are planning to review style/theme/font feedback once the functional issues have been resolved, which is part of why I'm pressing for more specific feedback so that when we get to that, I can be sure any improvements will really address any concerns.

Regards,

- Erik

I am having great difficulty reading this Forum. I don't think it is about the scaling, I think it is about the colour scheme. In the old format I could happily read the Forum for extended periods of time and the Slitherine Forum is fine. But the pale blue of grey background is just very difficult for me to read and causes eye strain after a few minutes.
Can you do something about this, I am not the only person raising an issue about the readability.
I have been playing Matrix games for many years now and I can seriously say that this issue is making me consider if I want to continue using the platform.

For me, the contrast within quoted blocks (black type, pale yellow background) is fine. But for main body text the black type on on that pale grey (if that's the color) is less contrast than feels comfortable.Even if you don't make the background white, could it be made a little lighter grey or something?

Black Font on (bright) Yellow Background is about the most readable combination.

There are rules on how to pick "proper" contrasting colors and this CSS does not seem to follow them.

[Zovs]

Personally I think the new forum is just fine and readable and useable.

Would I like more personal choice in font colors, sizes or themes sure, but it’s perfectly fine and readable as is.

[Erik Rutins]

I am having great difficulty reading this Forum. I don't think it is about the scaling, I think it is about the colour scheme. In the old format I could happily read the Forum for extended periods of time and the Slitherine Forum is fine. But the pale blue of grey background is just very difficult for me to read and causes eye strain after a few minutes.
Can you do something about this, I am not the only person raising an issue about the readability.
I have been playing Matrix games for many years now and I can seriously say that this issue is making me consider if I want to continue using the platform.

We will do something about it. I'm trying to figure out first exactly what needs doing. Maybe this will help. I've pasted in a screenshot of the old forum and the new forum showing the same three posts below. First thing I'm noticing is that while I was told the font and size are the same, I do see some differences. I'd appreciate if all of you who are having issues with the new forum and readability would look at these two images side by side and highlight for me as much as possible what you think the problem is:


Old Forum:

Old Forum.png (149.61 KiB) Viewed 1649 times

New Forum:

New Forum.png (150.54 KiB) Viewed 1649 times

We have complete control over the style/theme/fonts, so anything should be possible in theory.

Regards,

- Erik

[arvcran2]

I'm able to read the new forum, but I am noticing that the old forum's text has either more boldness or is a higher contrast of black/gray against the background .

[arvcran2]

Here is a close comparison:

ForumFonts.jpg (8.19 KiB) Viewed 1624 times

You can see the subtle difference more easily here - and I can see why we think they are the same size, except when very close to each other.

[witpqs]

The comparison you posted shows the new forum typeface is lighter weight than the old forum typeface. Certainly makes a difference, even at larger sizes.

[arvcran2]

The comparison you posted shows the new forum typeface is lighter weight than the old forum typeface. Certainly makes a difference, even at larger sizes.

The process of getting a snap into the Paint app, saving as Jpeg, loading into message has obviously changed the appearance ... I'd like to know how to avoid this in future .

[ernieschwitz]

This is a compare that has not gone through a jpeg conversion.

Forum Compare.png (47.22 KiB) Viewed 1546 times

I see a clear difference.

[tyronec]

For me there is a clear difference and the old Forum is more readable.
In the new one the text seems kind of grey rather than black and distinct - I don't know whether that is because of the text or because of the background.
Thanks for taking this on board.

[thewood1]

I find the older text bolder, but a lot blurrier. I can live with either.

[Curtis Lemay]

Try CTR+F5 on your browser to reload the page, this should get rid of duplicate screenshots.

That worked.

On further examination, it didn't really work. While the original screenshot stopped showing (except for an icon) the duplicate screenshots still show up everywhere that this step hasn't been taken.

See this thread, for example:

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 6&t=318021

Every screenshot is duplicated. I haven't checked every thread I've ever posted in yet, but I expect this will be the general rule rather than the exception. Expecting us to perform the CTR+F5 step for every screenshot in every thread ever done is asking too much.

[Erik Rutins]

Hi everyone,

A quick update on a couple of things after just speaking with our IT folks.

They are finishing the script today to reparse BBCodes to convert into URLs. It will need some time to run, but most likely we will get this out of the way by the end of tomorrow.
They are writing a script to import PMs, this should be done by the end of the week.

Other issues and style tweaks are in the works for after that.

Regards,

- Errik