New Forum Tips and Issues

[Erik Rutins]

You got that error when you tried to post and then when you re-posted it, it worked without an error?

[Nomad]

Yes, after I retyped the posting. I think that maybe the site went down for a couple of minutes. It is not a big issue, but I thought I would put in here so you would have the info.

[tyronec]

Post by Erik Rutins » Thu Feb 24, 2022 9:47 pm

tyronec wrote: ↑Thu Feb 24, 2022 6:59 pm
Can you improve the text to make it more readable.
The old version was fine.
The Slitherine forum is fine.
The present format here I find difficult to read and it causes me eye strain after a few minutes of looking at it. Am not really sure why because I don't have the old version to compare, but the combination of the text and the colour scheme doesn't work for me at all.
It's actually exactly the same as the Slitherine forum and the old forum. I'm a bit baffled as I've seen multiple folks give this feedback but there is no difference in the body text font or size. If you take some screenshots side by side you'll see what I mean.
Erik Rutins

Without changing any settings on either forum this is what I get.
The text is larger on Slitherine and the colours are more distinct.

As things are I cannot easily read the Matrix text without Zooming in. The Slitherine text is fine.
Maybe there is a way to correct that, I don't know what it is...

X12.jpg (262.7 KiB) Viewed 2137 times

[grond69]

Seen other post this issue, but no answers. How do I know if there are new posts? I used to go to AAR and immediately know if there had been new posts. I don't want to have to go through the topmost posts from front to back to see if there are new ones. This is a big deal. It will make the difference between whether I access the forum or not!

[DasTactic]

The reason the Slitherine forum is so much more legible than the new Matrix forum - both at 11px size, is that the Slitherine forum is using a font designed to be viewed at a small size - Verdana.

In this post I go through the reasons in more detail and show what happens when the font is changed back to Verdana:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 1#p4964871

To achieve this is really simple from the website side of things.

In the first line of common.css change:

Code: Select all

body
{
    padding: 0;
    font-family: "Noto Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif
}

to...

Code: Select all

body
{
    padding: 0;
    font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
}

EDIT:
I just had a look at the page code and it would be best to add a custom.css to over-ride the theme rather than edit the theme itself. Maybe slitherine_news.css is what is being used as the custom over-rides. If that is the case it just needs the following to be added to the bottom of it.

Code: Select all

body
{
    font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
}

[terminator]

Impossible to have a full screen with the new forum version ?
Screen resolution 1600 x 900
Slitherine Forum no problem with full screen

Capture d’écran (700).jpg (190.11 KiB) Viewed 2017 times

[terminator]

Slitherine Full Screen OK
Screen resolution 1920 x 1080

Capture d’écran (14).jpg (460.61 KiB) Viewed 2006 times

[terminator]

Matrix Full Screen NO
Screen resolution 1920 x 1080

Capture d’écran (15).jpg (242.57 KiB) Viewed 2004 times

[Chris21wen]

Took me a while to work out where "reply with quote" is. Now I've found it why does't the post also have a standaed reply link as well? Currently if your read a post that's in the middle of a screen page you have to scoll to top or bottom.

[IainMcNeil]

In the old forum, each post in a thread is numbered. Sometimes it is useful to use the post# to refer to a particular post. I do not find this feature in the new forum. Is it still here? If not, I would suggest to add this back.

Just right click and select copy link on the title of the message as its a link to the message and jumps you directly there.

[IainMcNeil]

Matrix Full Screen NO
Screen resolution 1920 x 1080


Capture d’écran (15).jpg

You're way zoomed out. Use Ctrl+mouse wheel to zoom in so its more readable.

[IainMcNeil]

Did the saved PMs from the old board just get dumped, or will they be restored?

The plan is to bring them across.

[Denniss]

When I open several forum sections at once I often get logged out, especially for private forum sections I am supposed to log in again

[TallBlondJohn]

The reason the Slitherine forum is so much more legible than the new Matrix forum - both at 11px size, is that the Slitherine forum is using a font designed to be viewed at a small size - Verdana.

In this post I go through the reasons in more detail and show what happens when the font is changed back to Verdana:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 1#p4964871

DasTactic is correct in identifying the root issue. In view of all the many comments about the text size, why not implement this simple fix instead of this "you should use Ctrl-zoom" advice, which is frankly bad. Users should not have to fix poor design.

If users like small text, then they can use Ctrl-mouse wheel zoom to zoom out.

[Denniss]

In Gary Grigsby's War in the West there are two section links/redirects to buy Operation Torch, one of them is misplaced and leads to a 404 site
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... hp?f=10555

[witpqs]

Ian: Is there a way to link directly to the LAST post in a thread? (Useful for updating my AAR.)

[tolsdorff]

The reason the Slitherine forum is so much more legible than the new Matrix forum - both at 11px size, is that the Slitherine forum is using a font designed to be viewed at a small size - Verdana.

In this post I go through the reasons in more detail and show what happens when the font is changed back to Verdana:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 1#p4964871

To achieve this is really simple from the website side of things.

In the first line of common.css change:

Code: Select all

body
{
    padding: 0;
    font-family: "Noto Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif
}

to...

Code: Select all

body
{
    padding: 0;
    font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
}

EDIT:
I just had a look at the page code and it would be best to add a custom.css to over-ride the theme rather than edit the theme itself. Maybe slitherine_news.css is what is being used as the custom over-rides. If that is the case it just needs the following to be added to the bottom of it.

Code: Select all

body
{
    font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
}

You could for the time being use a TamperMonkey script that forces the font of your choosing on the all websites you visit. I just used it here and like you said the text looks a LOT better in Verdana.. Not all buttons display properly though.

this script will do that trick

Array.prototype.forEach.call(document.getElementsByTagName("*"), function(e){e.style.fontFamily ="Verdana"})

[tolsdorff]

To be clear, could you give us a specific link to a thread or post that lost its zipped attached file during the move?

Kull's spreadsheet links for instance :

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... p?t=230478
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... p?t=170408
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... p?t=227189

[jimpyle]

Can someone tell me what these different icons mean and what the different colors indicate?

[Kull]

Thanks for pointing that out tolsdorff. I have a LOT of files posted for download, so hopefully this issue can be fixed soon.

In addition, is Matrix going to fix the way the forum is displaying links embedded in text? As an example, just look at the three in my signature. Having to manually fix a few links in a signature is one thing, but I have literally 100s of embedded links in threads such as Japanese Ships – Colors & Camouflage (here's the link to that thread: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... p?t=339736. Having to manually repair that entire thread...and all the others? Well...let's hope not.

Note: The "link button" doesn't work either. All it does is stick "url" tags around your text, which is kind of useless since it doesn't then allow you to add the actual url. The entire process of creating the embedded links is completely opaque.