Admin Announcement Welcome To The New Christian Forums Style

[NothingIsImpossible]

Well I'll give my views on it. I remember not long ago when the site had a overhaul for the layout/colors. So many people left because they were confused about it all.

Pros:
This layout didn't chance much and feels mostly the same aside from colors.
It feels very "inviting" for a christian forum now.
The members info is on the right side instead of beneath them.

Cons:
Having vision issues it strains my eyes a bit with all the white.

If I am allowed here are 4 pictures of various forums where I love the colors:
http://spyrestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/29-nvidia-developers-forum-design.jpg
http://www.awesomestyles.com/images/ts/600x0/1233.jpg
http://www.forum-software.org/sites/default/files/images/PunBB Style Copper.png
http://www.themesbase.com/thumbs_new/tnl_5862.jpg

Actually since your using XenForo, I looked online for different color schemes/skins people use with XenFore. These would be great!
https://www.artodia.com/attachments/index-png.283/
http://piic.us/di/MLRV/PH1Cv.png
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/7420/xenforo8.jpg
http://www.bluepearl-skins.com/forums/uploads/monthly_06_2011/post-9248-0-72445500-1309276570.png
http://www.bluepearl-skins.com/forums/uploads/packages-0811234001381368364.png

 

[All4Christ]

Well I'll give my views on it. I remember not long ago when the site had a overhaul for the layout/colors. So many people left because they were confused about it all.

Pros:
This layout didn't chance much and feels mostly the same aside from colors.
It feels very "inviting" for a christian forum now.
The members info is on the right side instead of beneath them.

Cons:
Having vision issues it strains my eyes a bit with all the white.

If I am allowed here are 4 pictures of various forums where I love the colors:
http://spyrestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/29-nvidia-developers-forum-design.jpg
http://www.awesomestyles.com/images/ts/600x0/1233.jpg
http://www.forum-software.org/sites/default/files/images/PunBB Style Copper.png
http://www.themesbase.com/thumbs_new/tnl_5862.jpg

Actually since your using XenForo, I looked online for different color schemes/skins people use with XenFore. These would be great!
https://www.artodia.com/attachments/index-png.283/
http://piic.us/di/MLRV/PH1Cv.png
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/7420/xenforo8.jpg
http://www.bluepearl-skins.com/forums/uploads/monthly_06_2011/post-9248-0-72445500-1309276570.png
http://www.bluepearl-skins.com/forums/uploads/packages-0811234001381368364.png

Honestly, the dark themes make my eyes strain. I really have a hard time reading light text on dark backgrounds.

 

[Fish and Bread]

I would encourage the web development team to consider offering at least one additional style, or changing the universal style to be less bright. My eyes literally feel like they are burning right now, which is not hyperbole or an exaggeration- I actually do have a medical condition related to my eyes that causes that sort of sensation sometimes in bright sunlight- eyes burning, tearing up, etc... I do fine with 99% of the web, television shows, etc., though. That tells me that this site is objectively brighter than most sites- which means that some people are going to find it uncomfortable who do fine with other sites, and when everything works fine except one site they visit, which causes them discomfort, they of course are going to blame the site, which means lower page view counts in the long run.

Having said that, personally, I think I once heard of a browser add-on that might allow me to adjust the background color for individual sites when displayed on my personal devices. If I can find it, and if it's available for the browsers I use on both PC and Android, that'll solve my issue. However, I am not sure what percentage of your web site audience knows about the existence of add-ons, will know about the availability of that specific add-on, and will be able and willing to find it and install it and adjust it for every device they use- assuming it exists in the first place. So I may be able to solve my own problem here, but I'm not sure that solves the site's problem if a lot of people can't cope with the brightness level of this theme. Maybe it's only a small percentage of people who would find it too bright to carry on and it's not worth fixing for that reason, I don't know, but it may be worth considering that this more than an aesthetic issue for some people.

 

[Rajni]

I like the new design!

It hardly matters one way or the other with half the posters calling themselves Non-denominational or Christian. They might as well be saying that they do not care to answer. I really do think it would help discussions if we knew where everybody was coming from, however.

It would be nice if people could fill in the blank with more self-descriptive faith-descriptions, rather than having to resort to a limited list of pre-selected ones that may or may not be a good fit for them. I'm on another forum where this is done -- the Religion-field is left blank for the member to fill in what describes their faith best -- and it's incredibly helpful.


-

 

[brinny]

Can we have at least another choice?

All the white and light blue are distracting......

And I appreciate all your hard work Brent, God bless you, but that li'l "church" icon at the top left corner........

ummmmm, can it disappear?

Can we have at least one more choice?

Please?

(What is WITH that li'l church icon?)

C'mon, must i look at that?

 

[Kiterius]

This looks really nice. Props to the designers.

 

[Fish and Bread]

Having said that, personally, I think I once heard of a browser add-on that might allow me to adjust the background color for individual sites when displayed on my personal devices. If I can find it, and if it's available for the browsers I use on both PC and Android, that'll solve my issue.

For others who want to go down this path, it does work. My background is now a nice soothing shade of gray.

What you want to do is search the add-on site for whatever browser you're using for something like "night mode" or "dark background" and install. Then set it to be enabled globally, but the default method of changing page colors to be disabled. That way, you've got the web operating as normal- *except* you want to set up an individual exception for christianforums.com and then pick colors like foreground, which is usually text, as black, background as gray, links as blue, etc.- or whatever colors you want.

The problem is what add-on you're looking for varies by what your browser and operating system are, and then the specifics on how to do what I just did vary according to the actual add-on you're using. However, that is the general gist of it. I can't provide individual tech support to anyone because I don't have experience with all the different permutations of operating systems and browsers and add-ons, but if it sounds like this is something you can do, that should help get you started.

If at any point it seems like you've messed up your browser trying to install an add-on, uninstall the add-on. That should get you back to normal.

Make sure you are using the official add-on site for your browser, usually available through the tools menu or some other in-browser thing rather than doing a web search and winding up on some sort of malwarish rogue site.

Most Windows browsers have add-ons of some sort- Internet Explorer being the major exception. The only Android browser I know of that has add-ons is Firefox- sort of the inverse of the Windows situation where almost all but one browser offer them. I have no idea what is going on in the world of Apple/Mac/iPhone/iOS- not a knock, I've just never used any of them, so I don't know.

 

[sunshineforJesus]

Can we have at least another choice?

All the white and light blue are distracting......

And I appreciate all your hard work Brent, God bless you, but that li'l "church" icon at the top left corner........

ummmmm, can it disappear?

Can we have at least one more choice?

Please?

(What is WITH that li'l church icon?)

C'mon, must i look at that?

I think the church icon is cute.

 

[brinny]

I think the church icon is cute.

LOL! Ok, but i would prefer something else.

 

[brinny]

Maybe we could have a contest on what icon to use in the upper left corner.....

 

[servant of Merciful Love]

I like the Church icon, and love the colors more and more every time I log in
I was going to add an extension for the brightness and decided to just adjust my browser brightness...and that worked fine

 

[brinny]

how did you adjust your browser brightness?

 

[servant of Merciful Love]

how did you adjust your browser brightness?

Go to your PC SETTINGS and there should be a 'brightness' tool there to adjust it.
I have an HP laptop and I just slide my mouse down the side of the page to bring it up.
That's all I know...I am not pc savvy lol

 

[brinny]

Ok, thanks...

i'm not either...

this should be an adventure

 

[Albion]

Yes, but this is going to dim every other page you visit. I do hope that a second choice is made available by CF, especially since the "Old Style" suggestion doesn't work on this computer--no little box near the browser preferences bar appears.

 

[brinny]

Yes, but this is going to dim every other page you visit. I do hope that a second choice is made available by CF, especially since the "Old Style" suggestion doesn't work on this computer--no little box near the browser settings bar appears.

Ok, i'm lost.....i can't find that option that was mentioned to control the contrast and brightness....

i'm gonna haf'ta put shades on so me eyeballs don't get "sun burned"

And now i'm thinkin' that i don't wanna mess with the controls if i find them, cuz it'll mess up the other pages i visit....

*puts shades on*

 

[servant of Merciful Love]

I didn't think of that....yet I am not finding it a problem so far with any of my favorite sites
It isn't a 'one thing fixes all' unfortunately, but I am sure they will come up with 'something'.

 

[servant of Merciful Love]

Well DUH...I just noticed after having this pc for a year that you can control brightness from your keyboard
That's even easier
I told you brinny....I am not pc savvy
*On mine it is a small and large lightbulb like star icon on the top keys; works like a charm and easy to adjust site to site if needed

 

[brinny]

Ok, let me take my shades off and have a look....

thanks....

 

[EmmaCat]

Ok, let me take my shades off and have a look....

thanks....

Or if you have one of those old projection screen TVs, you could hook your computer up to it, pull up this site, and use it for a floodlight for your driveway.

Extra security, you know.

Just kidding folks! But it is pretty bright. I turned down the brightness on my laptop a while ago.