Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)12/21/2015, 3:10:54 AM Updated: 10/18/2016, 4:14:09 PM
Tonight, at 10pm EST, I changed a large number of files on the site. (which means I may have introduced a large number of new bugs.)
I implemented user-selectable story listings themes. which means you can choose the style of the story listings. For now the default is the current style, I call it 'Classic'. I added two new themes I call one Modern and it looks very similar to the site's home page and a new one called 'Minimalist'.
I've tested the new system with few beta testers and we caught almost (almost) all bugs. But, experience has taught me that whenever I expose a new feature to the large audience on the site, many bugs will rear their ugly heads.
So, for now the default theme will remain the same, but in the future the default will change to the Modern theme, after we debug it properly.
So I'm asking for your help, as many of you that have the time. Try the new themes and report bugs that you may find.
To switch themes, go to the 'My Account' page and click the 'Change' link in the 'Listings' section (where you control listings font size and screen layout).
The switching works fine. I actually prefer the Classic theme.
shinerdrinker 🚫12/21/2015, 3:28:38 AM Updated: 12/21/2015, 3:45:15 AM
I find myself channeling my inner old man and yelling at those damned neighborhood kids to get them off my lawn! And the way they want to go an change things just for the sake of change. Damned neighbor kids!
Ugh. Okay, that's outta my system. I shall choose day after day a new look either "classic" or "minimalist" to give you good information and since I enjoy clicking on things I shouldn't (as my browser history will attest) I will give you some feedback once I compare the three different versions.
Update:
Okay, preliminary look-see has me picking "Modern" but it might be my inner fighting the inner old man. More look-sees are needed.
No need to fight, as there is no wrong answer. All themes, and maybe more, will always be available. This way you select whatever suits your taste best.
No need to fight, as there is no wrong answer. All themes, and maybe more, will always be available. This way you select whatever suits your taste best.
I prefer the Classic style, minimalistic is barely tolerable, but the modern is total crap on my wide-screen monitor. I'll play with other settings to see if it can be made to look better, and report if it can.
I checked out all three formats and find that, on my laptop, I prefer the 'classic' format, but on my tablet, the 'modern' layout displays much better than the 'classic' look. The only difference I see between 'modern' and 'minimalist' is the story codes and details.
On my tablet, the columns in 'classic' layout are very narrow, even when I use it in 'landscape'
On the laptop, both of the new layouts are right to the edge of the screen, making it appear that there may be something missing, even though it isn't. Maybe adding a little 'white-space' around the screen would improve the visual aspect.
Clearly something strange here, or I'm just the most non-observant person around. They all looked the same to me. It could, of course be because I'm using a 17" VGA CRT display, and maybe it needs a more modern setup to show. Maybe I need to take screen shots and flip back and forth rapidly, or something. I was expecting something radical after the others comments.
I think that you are making the same mistake I originally made. Look at an author's homepage listing of stories. That's where you will see the changes.
Yes, now I see what people are talking about. Hmm. Modern, the column of download formats makes for a visually unappealing display; vast tracks of white space in the middle of everything. Prefer the Classic theme, if I want to see the download formats by default.
Minimalist with all the downloads etc visible by default would be better than both Minimalist (as it is) and Modern IMHO.
Minimalist is exactly the same as Modern with some data hidden until you're interested in seeing it. The only colour difference is the blue arrow down that reveals the data.
The whole point of the minimalist theme is that it focuses the reader's attention on the story's description and tags without getting distracted by the other data. Once the reader is interested in a story from its description, then he/she can check other info if needed.
Minimalist is exactly the same as Modern with some data hidden until you're interested in seeing it. The only colour difference is the blue arrow down that reveals the data.
Ah, OK.
I opened up a couple of windows with Minimalist & Modern next to each other, and expanded the Minimalist theme boxes.
The story name/link in Minimalist is a smaller font size than in Modern, and there is no space between the story description and the Tags line (on a my screen 6 stories v 5).
With Modern, after the Story description (and the space) comes Sex contents & Genre, then Tags, downloads etc.
With the hidden data showing, and even with the blue arrows there I'd chose Minimalist. The Genre, downloads, size etc data in Modern appears fainter (probably due to the space between the Story description & other data).
Even in Minimalist it'd be nice if it were (very) slightly darker; just to increase the contrast with the box it's in.
I think I like Classic, followed by Minimalist, and dislike Modern, too much wasted space (on my desktop with the 28 inch monitor, I think I could see having the buttons in a vertical column instead of horizontally across the bottom might be useful on a tablet or phone).
With the minimalist theme, in e.g. the updated serials list, the read and flag icons expand the listing significantly compared to the non-premier view. You might consider reducing their dimensions for that theme.
I really like the minimalist setting,with one exception. I often choose stories based on the size and having to expand it to see that is a bother. I can live with that though.
I like the classic since at times I use all the information to figure out what I want to read. Although the scores and download counts are the last thing I look at.
Hi,
I like the idea of the minimalist listing. However, I would put the tags in the pop-down menu and rather show the Genre and Sex Content as default. Plus, the "in progress" information should be visible by default.
Otherwise, both new themes are a big improvement over the "Classic" theme with its dated spreadsheet look. The story description cell was alway looking out of proportion, and the other cells were mostly empty.
Kudos for the improvement!
However, I would put the tags in the pop-down menu and rather show the Genre and Sex Content as default. Plus, the "in progress" information should be visible by default.
That's the dilemma for the minimalist theme. Each person uses a different set of criteria to decide whether to read a story or not. Above you'll notice somebody wanting score and size. If I try to accommodate multiple requests we'd end up with the modern theme.
That's the dilemma for the minimalist theme. Each person uses a different set of criteria to decide whether to read a story or not. … If I try to accommodate multiple requests we'd end up with the modern theme.
That is true, but Genre and Sex Content are the major qualifiers of a story. Those, the Title, Author and Description should give almost any reader the information he/she needs to decide whether to open the pop-down info with the Tags, Score and Download Numbers.
It would also be helpful to see at a first glance if a story is finished or in progress, because many readers only consider complete stories.
Just my 2 ¢. I like the changes, and most readers will opt for "Modern" anyway.
Argon
The minimalist theme is very tidy, and I like it.
The so-called "classic" theme is not what I would've considered the classic SOL layout, and I find it unattractive. I actually preferred the original layout to the new "classic" layout.
Perhaps you could make the original layout available as a theme too? Call it "Old School" if you like!
I actually preferred the original layout to the new "classic" layout.
?
Not sure what you're looking at, but my Classic theme is the same as the one when I first joined up about 6 years ago.
The Modern & Minimalist themes are the new ones.
The changes to introduce themes set a new default of automatic screen, whereas before I was using big screen, even on my tablet (which I operate in landscape mode except when some poxy app forces it to portrait orientation).
As soon as I forced "big screen", the classic theme returned to how I had always seen it.
I'm staying with Classic just for the non-serif font.
You can change the font in your browser defaults. For Instance, I'm reading this in Times New Roman, because that's what I have Firefox set to. If it were being forced into a sanserif font, it would be in Comic Sans, and if into a fixed font it would be Century Schoolbook Monospace.
Well Classic is sans-serif in my Chrome while the others are serif, so whatever page coding that is, Classic's font code gets my vote :)
I like serifs on paper but not on screen. That might be a bit old-fashioned with newer resolutions, I don't know, I'm just HD at the moment. I find it more readable on screen, is all.
My big problem with it was all those columns. All those fixed-width columns.
The result of being unable to modify the column width (a feature I wished for in the privacy of my head several times) was that the description column, which included the tags and last update status as well as the blurb, was at least three times as long as any other column, resulting in acres of whitespace to the sides while the description ran on, and on, and on ...
I marginally prefer Modern over Minimal because of the lack of the obtrusivce "more / less" button.
Well the overhaul is long overdue, the current listing UI made poor use of the available space my preferences go to:
Denser listing (less scrolling, ideally no scrolling).
Narrow text (It's faster to read, current forum width is good).
Less click to reach information.
Neither design reach any of those goal, but I can't say I really dislike them.
However I think, you are slowly driving yourself into management difficulties maintaining multiple UI versions, with no clear technical benefit or user benefit.
On the dislike side, on the author page, I do not particularly like the new sorting UI:
drop down, then asc/desc then btn to apply choice.
Not to mention, that an author specific sort seems to exist and you can't chose it.
see https://storiesonline.net/a/Lubrican
I would prefer the sort UI to require less clicks and be less ugly (direct button/links).
Maybe fit it with the settings/exclude line or more logically in the paging UI
Also, it's not needed when there is only one story to sort...
Overall, in my opinion, you should aim for a more flexible responsive design unifying the phone, tablet and desktop version.
All with code reuse across your various stories listing, of which there are too many variants:
Going away from the classic table layout is good, but maybe it's time to switch to a json api backed client side template driven system (such as http://vuejs.org or React) and leave the html only version for search engine and legacy browser.
--------------------------
On another subject, I feel that the main menu is slowly becoming encumbered by useless and redundant things, maybe it's time for a cleanup:
Suggestion 1
Create a "Find Stories" page with left pane listing:
- Quick Search
- Alphabetical Stories
- Authors
- Universes
- Series (split it from Universes)
- Category Search
- Alphabetical Search
- Full Text Search
Remove corresponding entries from the main nav.
Possibly move the search nav to the left quick search box)
Suggestion 1.1
Possibly Merge the 3 search pages (2 are already merged)
Suggestion 1.2
Remove the mainly useless Alphabetical listing (==sort by title)
Suggestion 1.3
Put Find Stories on nav line 1 next to Home.
left pane is now a custom nav line 2
Suggestion 2
Improve the "Listing header" and make all story list page instances of listing.
Suggestion 4
Integrate the author page back into the main UI, it's just one more Listing header.
Suggestion 5
Move desktop/phone switch to settings
Suggestion 6
Move "My Acount" to "My Account" -> "Settings"
Move "My Library" to "My account"
Suggestion 7
Move signout to myaccount.
Suggestion 8
Make New Stories / Updates / Blogs a filter on the Home page Stream.
possibly with a left column box "Recent Activity"
grouping:
- New Stories
- Updated Serials
- Concluded Serials
- Blogs
Suggestion 9
Add the Random stories list to the "Find Stories" pages
Suggestion 10
Merge "Author/Favorites" with reviews.
Both serve the same purpose...
Thanks for all the suggestions. That's sure a lot of them and that's a good thing :)
The code that generates the story listing is all the same, except the home page and the contest pages. So any change won't save much work.
You're talking about consolidating a lot of stuff and basically creating a completely new navigation structure for the site. It's doable, but for reasons out of my hand, not yet feasible.
I would have to design a navigation system that allows multiple navigation systems just like the themes system. The reasons can't be discussed in public.
I'll see how many of your suggestions I can incorporate. The changes will be slow of course.
I'll see how many of your suggestions I can incorporate. The changes will be slow of course.
That was just food for thought, do not rush, those things need to be done carefully with a global vision and the authors and readers experience and expectation in the forefront.
If there are improvement to be made it's the ease of use and UI consistency currently it's a bit of a mess. Too many parts of the site feels like juxtaposed experiments.
Also, I do not expect any of my suggested changes to draw more readers or authors to the site, so it's really not a priority.
For that, adjustment to the business model as I suggested few year back need to be done.
In that regard, I find strange that you did not try to leverage finestories to do more experimental moves (like removing the login requirement for reading or allow public feedback or adding covers/illustrations or remunerating premium content or let author promote pay content, etc).
I much prefer the Classic Theme when looking at Serial Updates and New Stories. I can easily scan down the columns and see which stories are getting a high score and large numbers of downloads. That way I will check out a high scoring story that I may have missed. Can't do that with either of the two new formats.
This seems to be a bug related to the themes, so I'll post it here. I've noticed that on pages like "Top 50 Ongoing Serials, by Weekly Downloads", the formatting will disappear in the classic view on some days. Refreshing doesn't bring it back. Then suddenly, it restores itself a few hours later. If I switch to one of the other two themes, formatting returns, but a switch back to classic returns to the unformatted text. By unformatted, I mean that it shows "bulleted" story listings instead of the normal boxed version. I am on the current version of Firefox (44.0).
As for feedback on the themes... Of the new ones, I like modern better. I can see why others might prefer minimalist, but I like more information. I like Classic the most because of this. I also notice that Classic seems to make better use of screen width. It nearly fills the width of my browser window. The two new themes only fill the middle third, leaving large wasted blank space on the sides. There may be a hidden setting somewhere to adjust this, but I figure it should automatically match the width settings for Classic. I normally have my screen layout settings on automatic, but large screen vs. small screen didn't seem to affect width at all.
I also prefer the original format but I frequently share stories with my mother who has poor eyesight. Having to press one button is a serious convenience to me in terms of changing size. (so many jokes). but in reality this will help with those who are not able to read computer screens easily.
Then lucky me - my mother (bless her soul) didn't known how to read :D
My 86-year-old mother is my top beta reader. She's read each of my books, but got lost in Catalyst, not able to remember where she stopped and got frustrated trying to find her place again.
Personally I prefer the Modern theme for optics - it looks better than Classic. Also it reduces my focus on the score which is a good thing. But Classic made better use of screen space on widescreen monitors.
It's wider on the home page and I prefer it that way. Or you could use a more responsive approach - on wide screens put the "grey" part to the right of the description, on small screens display it the way it looks now.
Error message depends on the browser; apparently the security protocols supported by the storiesonline server have changed. I now have to enable TLS 1.0 (First noticed the storiesonline problem several hours before the scheduled SOL maintenance.)
Seems the new/old story and flags are not visible anymore with the classic view...
In the last year since the announcement the themes didn't change, at all.
But the dots/flags rely on Javascript files to function. So if your browser is somehow blocking some of the site's javascripts or they are not firing properly, then you won't see them.
Try either rebooting your computer/device or force reloading the site's files.
A new capability made available in the last 24 hours or so - to compliment the ability to allow public comments enacted a few days ago. The column on the stats page shows blank if comments isn't allowed, if public comments are allowed it shows the number of comments lodged to date - 0 until 1 is made.
On that note it seems pertinent to refer to today's blog by Wyden Long headed Thanks Lazeez. It starts
It seems appropriate at the end of the year to acknowledge the enjoyment I have experienced during the past year from the services provided by SOL.
Wyden Long also thanks a number of authors.
I had occasion to suggest a slight selfish change in the Home and Forum header pages which he enacted almost instantaneously.
I am constantly amazed that a comment may be made in the Forum and he replies or seems to start acting almost immediately; does the man work a 36 hour day?
I am constantly amazed that a comment may be made in the Forum and he replies or seems to start acting almost immediately; does the man work a 36 hour day?
One item totally irksome is the "Readers Comments" location. I, for one, seldom want to know what other readers think about a story. When finishing a page I want to go to the place to bookmark the next chapter for reading. Having to scroll on down through the comments is a pain in the ass. How do I lose that wonderful, newly added attribute, "Reader's Comments"?
How do I lose that wonderful, newly added attribute, "Reader's Comments"?
Maybe Lazeez can shift the necessary tools higher up, before the entire comment section to avoid that issue. Otherwise, I'd do as Ursus recommends and simply skip to the end. Even if you don't employ the "End" key, sliding the scroll bar is faster than scrolling line by line.
That's odd I use Chrome on Linux OK and Firefox on my Android tablet. You may want to clear out the cache and cookies and try entering the URL fully by hand, then see what happens.
I have used Modern for a while and Minimalist a few times. Maybe I am too flexible but all the themes are useful. So far Classic and Modern themes seem to work well.
I have used Modern for a while and Minimalist a few times. Maybe I am too flexible but all the themes are useful. So far Classic and Modern themes seem to work well.
Life's no fun if you can't fiddle with the settings!
Stolen 🚫2/12/2018, 6:12:19 PM Updated: 2/13/2018, 3:01:16 AM
For seeing and reading a story, I like light blue for the surrounding margins, and small white text on a black background. I think that might be considered classic. Also, I like the fact that there is some dark red and the text showing World Literature Publishing Company.
In Dark mode, the header lines on the my_account page are light gray on light backgrounds, and the box where the change-theme selection is still has a white background, though the text switches to light gray. This makes it difficult to read.
I always like dark themes since they are easier on the eyes. It's much better than before.
Some remarks:
Home page: the background of the item list is not dark enough. The left column and random story block are close to perfect because of the better contrast in colors.
Author pages: Still a big light area around the story list which works like a huge spot light. ('author-page-body' doesn't have a color setting in the css)
Email page: Only the second column of the email list is readable
Forum: as stated unusable
In short: The left column and the 'random story from the archives' have the (dark) color settings that should be used everywhere for the dark theme. Without the forum also usable in dark mode the theme as is can't be used by anyone who also uses the forum (unless you want to keep changing the theme).
Without the forum also usable in dark mode the theme as is can't be used by anyone who also uses the forum (unless you want to keep changing the theme).
The forum has been updated. It works now in the dark mode theme. I had to change the link to reply/report/top/DM.
The forum has been updated. It works now in the dark mode theme. I had to change the link to reply/report/top/DM.
That looks good. I'm gonna try out this dark mode for a while and probably stick with it if I don't encounter unreadable parts. Will report those, like: the headers "Forum: ..." need a lighter font color because they are hard to read. No problem for me since I always use the all threads listing.
I like 'Modern', but 'minimalist' does not cut it for me. The Classic spreadsheet style did not work well with long tag lists and large blurps. It was a waste of screen space. The Modern design puts less emphasis on the story metrics and lets readers focus more on the story description. One suggestion: the download buttons could be placed on the right on level with the metrics to save space. Otherwise, Kudos!
Switching between styles worked without an issue. I rather like the Dark Modern and will try that for a time. Apparently, without realosing it, I have been using Modern for all my time on SOL. The Classic looks a bit like it is from DotMatirx era and Minimalist is exactly what it says on the tin and I like more info.
Urgh, with the background highlighting for read vs. unread gone from the forum, I can't easily tell which threads I have already read. Annoying at the least.
Urgh, with the background highlighting for read vs. unread gone from the forum, I can't easily tell which threads I have already read. Annoying at the least.
Test
It's not gone. The difference I see: Read background is 30%-40% grey and the unread is 70%-80% grey, significantly darker for the unread.
Also the text for unread is slightly darker and the button marker is big and green for unread and small and light grey for read.
Urgh, with the background highlighting for read vs. unread gone from the forum, I can't easily tell which threads I have already read. Annoying at the least.
Test
It's not gone.
Gone for me - zero difference between read/unread threads, and between read/unread posts. Also, the reply/report/top/PM icons have been replaced by text labels. I'm (still) on Classic theme. The read/unread posts can be worked round by the read dot being not-green, the posts with more difficulty by checking back to the threads listing page for the last post timestamp, and comparing.
ETA: on refresh after posting I got some icons back, bot no highlighting. I'll try again later.
read/unread posts can be worked round by the read dot being not-green, the posts with more difficulty by checking back to the threads listing page for the last post timestamp, and comparing.
Let Lazeez know what device/os/browser you are using and it might help if you can send him screen shots.
Also, the reply/report/top/PM icons have been replaced by text labels. I'm (still) on Classic theme.
Hadn't noticed till i read this post- same here (Classic theme with shading issues), those Labels/buttons appear as text- mouse over and they appear the way they used to (slightly different colour though).
I'm having the same problems Grant is/had with Classic theme. I'll try exiting and restarting browser ... sometime. With some 30 Ffx windows open with about 10 tabs each, I don't want to quit Ffx (I loose too much context) nor reboot (I lose even more context, like which files I'm editing in which directories); I'll either let it run 'til it crashes (then I can do a Restore Tabs), wait for a software update, or if you want feedback quickly, I can in Ffx 'Restart with Add-ons Disabled', then 'Restart with Add-ons Enabled' - a bit of a pain, especially since Ffx never seems to quite get correct which workspace to restore windows to.
@madnige
I'm having the same problems Grant is/had with Classic theme.
Fixed the forum on the Classic theme.
Yep. Shading issue of read/unread fixed.
reply/report/top/DM buttons still just text unless moused over (but not a significant issue IMHO- i didn't notice the change till it was mentioned).
With some 30 Ffx windows open with about 10 tabs each, I don't want to quit Ffx (I loose too much context) nor reboot (I lose even more context, like which files I'm editing in which directories); I'll either let it run 'til it crashes...
Firefox has this nifty little feature when you right click on a tab: "Bookmark All Tabs". After restart you can restore them all with "Open All in Tabs" from the bookmark menu.
You really should use bookmarks because the 'crash method' doesn't always work.
These changes being discussed apply to the 'Dark Mode Beta" theme. If you're on classic almost nothing should change for you.
I switched over to Dark briefly to check it out, but then almost immediately back to Classic, and I've got text labels instead of icons for "Reply", "Report", "Top", and "DM", too. Edit and Delete are still showing icons.
Urgh, with the background highlighting for read vs. unread gone from the forum, I can't easily tell which threads I have already read. Annoying at the least.
??? I still see a difference in read/not read. It's different from the non-dark themes. Read is the lighter gray background, dark gray background is unread.
Grant 🚫12/12/2020, 12:06:03 AM Updated: 12/12/2020, 12:12:23 AM
Classic theme on Win 10, Edge Chrome.
Forum home page & Thread pages- previously viewed forums & threads were darkly shaded. New posts would make them light again.
Now there is no difference in shading between viewed & un-viewed (the green button & size of text still changes, just not the shading).
Background on actual posts, also no difference in shading between previously viewed & new.
Edit- exited & restarted browser- situation now reversed- everything is shaded.
One more thing: I implemented 'Auto-Dark-Mode' for those who have such a thing in their desktop system. To use it, you'll have to select it in the theme selector.
So the site will use dark mode when your system switches to dark mode. And loads Modern theme when your computer switches to light mode.
However, I had to use some modern javascript to accomplish it. I'm not sure what kind of effect it will have on browsers older than 5 years.
Let me know if it disables some functionality if you have an ancient browser.
And now officially, Dark Mode is out of Beta (or in reality since it was unusable, out of Alpha/Dev stage)
Bug found. In dark mode when you reply to a forum post the save/post button says "Start Topic".
I was scratching my head trying to figure out what you meant by that, doing all kinds of tests, then I kept reading and discovered the problem is no longer there.
I was scratching my head trying to figure out what you meant by that, doing all kinds of tests, then I kept reading and discovered the problem is no longer there.
Lazeez is our resident Speedy Gonzales, very fast :D
Lazeez is our resident Speedy Gonzales, very fast :D
And he's getting faster, now he fixed an error (js exception on the forum page) and the color in dark mode for "Read" in the blog column on the author pages before I could report it :D
And he's getting faster, now he fixed an error (js exception on the forum page) and the color in dark mode for "Read" in the blog column on the author pages before I could report it :D
🤔
You gotta remember one very important points: I'm the one who's causing those errors too!
Thank you for preserving "classic" as a choice. I vastly prefer it. I can assimilate information much better in tabular format than free-form text, and the new "modern" is just one step this side of free-form.
A specific reason for this preference is that two big determinants of whether I should look further to see if I want to read the story are Author and Size. In Classic mode, they have their own columns. In Modern mode, I have to search for them.
Whoops! There seems to be a problem. (A bug? I suspect so.)
When I go to "New Stories" or "Updates", it seems to randomly choose "classic" or "modern". I have saved "classic" in my preferences, so it should always come up "classic". But by switching from one to the other, it might change, and sometimes even refreshing the page. Fortunately, I have never seen it change when going from one "update" page to another.
*BUG*
After your change I found that the page formatting was broken. I fixed it by changing to 'Modern' and then back to 'Classic'. So it looks like you've missed something. Before I fixed it I think I was seeing a mix of Classic and minimilist.
Bug: the style flip-flops between 'Classic' and 'Modern'. It'll display using one style for a while (minutes? tens of minutes?), then it'll change to the other, then back again, etc. I've tried forcibly changing the setting to something else then back (in fact I've cycled through them all), still getting the flippity-floppity when it's set to 'Classic'.
And this is weird: it seems to be dependent on what page? e.g. just now Updates page 1 displays as Modern, but pages 2-4 display as Classic.
Can't seem to make it go the other way (Modern selected, shows Classic)
And yeah, preference for Classic... Modern has the text going too wide.
Also seeing the random layout changes. I want Classic. I want to see the rating, the tags, and the rest at a glance. Tried clearing the cookies and relogging in, setting the desktop vs auto, no dice. Super annoying interferes with the site enjoyment.
I continue to see this problem. Just for reference purposes, I am using Chrome on Windows 10. I have automatic updates for both, so I assume this is the latest version.
Should I mention I use Zorin Linux on an AMD system and I haven't had any issues at all. Nor on my new Android tablet - both are using the desktop classic mode.
Win10, Edge chrome (Version 87.0.664.60 (Official build) (64-bit)), I've always used Classic and haven't noticed any changes.
But when i go to my account it says it's Modern w/Auto-Dark-Mode.
Given the issues others are having, i'm reluctant to actually change it back to Classic.
Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)12/27/2020, 12:36:18 AM
To fix the inconsistent theme load, I had to redo the way themes were implemented.
You'll notice that you've had to select a theme before seeing this.
To fix the inconsistent theme load, I had to redo the way themes were implemented.
That probably explains the weirdness that just occurred.
I clicked on the chapter link at the bottom of the page of the story i'm reading, when it took me to a Select theme page.
I was able to select the Classic theme, and going in to my account it now shows as Classic theme (before it was showing as modern/auto dark mode although still displaying as Classic).
Keet 🚫12/27/2020, 7:38:17 AM Updated: 12/27/2020, 7:41:11 AM
The forum colors are messed up in Dark Modern. The background seems ok but the frame with the posts seem the have the regular (light) colors.
Correction, the colors make it barely readable and are even lighter than the classic theme. The box where I type this reply is in the correct Dark Mode though.
The background seems ok but the frame with the posts seem the have the regular (light) colors.
The dark mode detector worked with auto dark, but ignored permanent dark. It's fixed now.
Dinsdale 🚫12/27/2020, 10:53:01 AM Updated: 12/27/2020, 10:53:44 AM
My requirements are slightly different and not covered by "the process".
I browse SOL - and the Forums - at home on one or two PCs, the second one being a backup machine for the first one along with a test machine for major updates in the OS. I even copy the browser profile between the two, they get the "Classic" theme.
If I'm away from home I either - occasionally - use a laptop or - mostly - a mobile phone, in both cases using the alternative site name and with very little interest in the Forum. It is here that the new themes would be of interest - limited real estate on the screen and limited battery life. Unfortunately the Theme Preference applies across my account, I can't have different themes for different devices.
Bottom line is: I had Classic when it was the only theme and it does not hurt me to have it - globally - now.
If this change was made more "nuanced" I would suggest making the split along the lines of: "Is this the Mobile version of the browser?" and having a separate preference for that. That would leave the laptop where it is now, but I'm fine with that.
No, I don't have a tablet. My understanding is that they use the "mobile" versions of the browsers as well - they come from the Android Store so that seems pretty obvious.
If this is too much work or most others see things differently, big deal - Classic works for me anyway.
No, I don't have a tablet. My understanding is that they use the "mobile" versions of the browsers as well - they come from the Android Store so that seems pretty obvious.
When having a long soak in the bath I read stories on the site via a Tablet (currently a Lenovo Tab 7 - was an Asus memo 7 until it dies from being dropped too often by me), bot had Android and the Lenovo is Android 9, I use FireFox on both and the FireFox has a setting to allow me to use the desktop version on which I use the Classic theme on SoL / FS / SciFi Stories. It works fine for me. Most of my time is on my PC with a 42 inch monitor for big fonts and images so I don't have to squint. I only access the Forum on the PC.
Bottom line is: I had Classic when it was the only theme and it does not hurt me to have it - globally - now.
The original problem was that I set it in the device profile and the device profile wasn't super accurate and relied on a combination of cookies and browser agent string to deliver the settings.
I've made a significant change to fix that, had to reimplement how themes work and modified tens of files on the site to accomplish it.
Now the setting is per account. So, if you log in with the same account on all your big screen systems (Window, Mac, iPad) then you have only one setting saved. Same theme everywhere.
Currently the top three stories on the homepage have "serial update" on a grey background with the details on a white background.
All the other entries have their details shown on a grey background, except the lone premium story, which has its details shown on a pale blue background.
I briefly tried the Modern theme but quickly went back to Classic. Yes, I hate change as a basic premise, but more than that: the Modern look was very hard to read, with all the data crammed together in tiny font. The Classic look spread the information out in an easy-to-read display. So, I'll continue to live in the Stone Age, where I belong.
What we really need is a classic dark mode.
I always prefer dark modes so I'm trying that for a while. The one thing I really hate is the pulldown for sorting instead of the column headers. I can live with the less well distribution of data on an author page but that sorting bothers me.
I do not know if it is due to my overall settings but when I opened SOL in Waterfox Classic today it had the classic theme in dark mode. Private window, so there were no SOL settings to be changed. Previously it was just classic.
Hi, I also liked the classic look, it worked and was easy to read.
Good thing I did not get rid of it :)
Keet 🚫1/1/2021, 7:24:41 AM Updated: 1/1/2021, 7:47:39 AM
Lazeez, there are some inconsistencies with the fonts. I have set my preference to Arial. Some places show the Times font: the forum threads and the author page. The lists and stories do follow the setting. The textarea where I type this message doesn't seem to be affected by whatever font is set. (Not that it needs to).
ETA: other places that don't have the preferred font: The author profile page and the author blog.
The author page seems to have lost it's left margin.
I bugged you for the Dark Theme and now that I have it I don't like it. I just don't like that color of green and I get a lot of white text on white backgrounds! Also what about tablet mode. What we really need is the ability to change the colors to suit our selves (Yes I know how much work that would be). I'd offer to help but my skills are not up to that!
In normal usage, where you click a story to read it and then move to another one and so on, you should never see that message.
I guess it depends what you consider normal. My normal usage, which has worked for me for years, is to go through the daily index for new stories and [completed] updates. If I decide I want to read a story, I open it in a new tab. But I might have a few stories already "tabbed", where I am reading one and have queued the others for my next reads. I'll close that tab I'm reading when I finish, and move on to the next-oldest story. I have had up to five tabs open at once (the index and four stories).
When you made that change, I had three stories "tabbed"; I was on the last page of the oldest, and the other two were queued for later reading. When I booted my computer this morning, two of the three were "too many concurrent accesses"; only one was available. "Reload" got one of the lost stories back; could not retrieve the other. [Edit: On the third "reload" attempt, I got that one back.] I didn't even remember what the story was; I don't memorize them, because the tabs are a way of storing the links -- until today.
If there were a simple, one-click way to queue a story with persistence, I'd be glad to use it. But your changes destroyed the way I have done it for years.
If there were a simple, one-click way to queue a story with persistence, I'd be glad to use it. But your changes destroyed the way I have done it for years.
Browser Bookmarks? It will bookmark the exact page you bookmarked, not the last page read, but at least you have all your stories that are reading-in-progress saved without the need to open them all. Saves some memory too on slow machines.
I don't use it myself but I think the SOL 'My Library' has what you are looking for. That does require Premium though.
When I booted my computer this morning, two of the three were "too many concurrent accesses";
That's the expected behaviour now. However, the new behaviour doesn't change the URL being fetched, so if you simply click the reload button on the browser window with the too many accesses, then it will load.
I don't memorize them, because the tabs are a way of storing the links
I do the same for short term activities. But for the longer term I open the first actual page of the story be it the cover page, ToC, or Chapter 1 as that registers the story in 'My History' list which I access from the home page, near the top of the left hand column. Click on that link takes me to what I've opened today, and the 'History' link takes me to the next page which lists hundreds of stories I've accesses for a long time. To remove them from the list when I've read them I click on the box beside them, go to the bottom of the list and click on 'Remove selected from list' and they're gone.
Does this apply to all/most pages on the site (e.g., storylists) or just to story pages? Does it apply per-user, or is the connection count that's too large, sitewide? If it's sitewide, when are the busy times to try to avoid, and when are the quiet times? If it's per-user, the way I think it will have been implemented is as a timer, i.e. too short a delay between one access and the next; is this between different stories, or does it apply to chapters within a single story - I used to ctrl-click on many chapters to load them so I could read them offline (and still do something similar); how long would I have to wait between clicks to avoid triggering this?
How does this interact with browser accelerator prefetching - do all the prefetches finish up requiring a manual reload (so defeating the intent of the prefetch)? Will this help avoid the big download spike for the first chapter, so give better stats?
Lots of questions, they don't need answering, but any answers would be appreciated.
Does this apply to all/most pages on the site (e.g., storylists) or just to story pages? Does it apply per-user, or is the connection count that's too large, sitewide? If it's sitewide, when are the busy times to try to avoid, and when are the quiet times? If it's per-user, the way I think it will have been implemented is as a timer, i.e. too short a delay between one access and the next; is this between different stories, or does it apply to chapters within a single story - I used to ctrl-click on many chapters to load them so I could read them offline (and still do something similar); how long would I have to wait between clicks to avoid triggering this?
This only affects concurrent loading of different stories too quickly by the same user.
It has no effect on multiple chapters of the same story. No effect on prefetching. No effect on listings pages. Doesn't matter the load on the servers or any other criteria.
Basically it enforces 1 story per user for 20 seconds.
So this affects loading multiple tabs with multiple stories and will affect anybody using a utility to download multiple stories quickly.
Basically it enforces 1 story per user for 20 seconds.
Thanks. It's that sort of precision that can help me change my habits to match the environment. If "reload" is reliable under this 20-second rule, I am guessing it will allow me to queue stories as necessary.
BTW, the 20-second rule also explains why "reload" did not work for me the first time but worked fine when I came back later.
I did not know there was a 1 story limit. No big deal but this has not happened before. Sometimes when there are multiple stories that I am reading and they all update I open a few of the tabs at the same time. I can stop doing that, no big deal, it just was never a problem before.
This only affects concurrent loading of different stories too quickly by the same user.
This isn't the behavior I'm seeing. I read on my phone and refresh Serial Updates page to find the new updates for stories I'm following. When I see one, I long click and open in a new tab. Before the recent update I never saw this error/warning.
When I switch to the new tab I usually have to refresh multiple times, sometimes more than 5, to get the page to load. Then, to make it more annoying, when I click the new chapter link I have to do the refresh business all over again.
If this is a new feature you have turn on, it is way too sensitive. Please consider adjusting it or disabling it.
When I see one, I long click and open in a new tab. Before the recent update I never saw this error/warning.
If you start with a story list, like the updated serials page, you open the first one in a new tab, then you do the same to a second story, in under 20 seconds, then yes, the second tab will have the message.
It's best if you go to the active serials list, click the first one, read it and then go back to the list and click the next one and read it. Quickly opening multiple tabs with multiple stories will definitely trigger this message.
When I switch to the new tab I usually have to refresh multiple times, sometimes more than 5, to get the page to load. Then, to make it more annoying, when I click the new chapter link I have to do the refresh business all over again.
If this is a new feature you have turn on, it is way too sensitive. Please consider adjusting it or disabling it.
It's an inconvenience but I suspect with a very good reason behind it: prevent full site scraping. It's just a matter of adjusting your reading habits.
When I switch to the new tab I usually have to refresh multiple times, sometimes more than 5, to get the page to load.
This shows you're hammering the reload far too quickly - more often than four seconds per. When you see this message, chill, count to twenty, then refresh. If you're not prepared to wait the full twenty, less will probably do (as the page load time is included in the twenty), but if you see it twice in succession, you're getting too impatient again. Also, you can't do an end-around by having multiple tabs loading at once; each new story you access (even by just hitting reload on a tab showing this message) restarts the twenty second lockout, so it's sequential, moderately-paced access. If you're using automated downloading, then you'll have to work out how and where to put a suitable delay, and I'd suggest not making the delay the minimum it can be, either. Using FlashGot as an example (a download manager for MSWin I was using about 20 years ago), besides all the normal be-nice stuff like single file, single thread, throttled downloading, I'd try to enforce an inter-story delay by explicitly queueing (between stories) a non-existent file from somewhere (or nowhere) and letting the timeout do the delay (since I don't remember the ability to have a programmed pause in the downloads).
Hi Lazeez, when I see "To many concurrent access", which is often as I check a page to see if I have already read it, the first thing that goes through my mind is, who would put in a "To" when they really meant to have a "Too"?
Or is this some obscure American Grammar standard that is likely to catch unaware Aussies?
Did the themes suddenly change this morning (June 15th, 2021) I'm suddenly seeing a lot more purple, and the green that I expect from unvisited links is gone...
And my eyes prefer more contrast between link colors.
My sight isn't the best either, getting old, but that is why I like the purple better, it's easier to read, especially with the smaller letters. That you like the green better could be our difference in color perception. I use the dark theme and tried a light theme to see how it displays there. From what I could see the light themes still have the green.
I like the dark theme color scheme, but I prefer the classic layout.
Haven't been able to convince Lazeez to do a dark classic.
Yup here too. A classic dark theme would be perfect.
I might look into the css overrides but if I can find the time I'm leaning more to using greasemonkey/tampermonkey and a universal dark theme script.
You aren't the first person to request Classic Dark Theme (or should it be Dark Classic Theme) I requested that when he first introduced the Dark Theme.
I like the color scheme, but I hate the "modern" layout.
For me, something changed in "themeing" that is very very bad in these past couple of weeks.
Suddenly a proportion of the listed stories on the home pages highlight with a GRAY BACKGROUND.
I. HATE. IT.
In the dark theme that means the white text lays over a light gray background. That looks awful on my eyes. If you think about it in physical terms, you're seeing lighter white pixels adjoining darker (but still white) pixels. A lack of contrast!
I guess this is some sort of effort to highlight items you haven't seen yet, but the action and the results are inconsistent to me, and irrelevant. Visually, this is infinitely worse than the pleasant navy blue story highlighting used for "premier members only" stories in the Home page list.
(I just realized, I must be a premier member now, after posting a dozen original stories here on SOL. And the highlighting is a premier "feature" maybe?)
I've seen the awful looking and inconsistently applied highlighting show in Forum and Blog posts too. I don't know if that is intentional.
(Apparently there was a strong contraversy here in December 2020 when this visual white text on light gray styling was introduced to the site, without resolution.)
I am raising this question for personal reasons. I have diminished eyesight from glaucoma, and only one working eye. I always use dark mode at night while on SOL. It's 5 a.m. right now.
Beyond my personal issues, high contrast options for display accessibility have long been part of tech. You can find them in Windows and Android, for example.
I would respectfully ask for the following changes:
1. Revise the item background highlighting to be much more subtle, particularly in dark mode. Instead the dazzling light gray, use a dark gray or colored tone like the navy blue on "premier members only." For light modes, use a cream or pale color background intead of gray.
- OR -
2. Offer a "highlighting off" option in the screen where you can choose light or dark themes.
I lightened the green a little. So it should have different contrast level too.
Let me know.
It's a little better now but that's probably also because now I know what to look for. Tomorrow I'll look at it again with daylight because I suspect it's more difficult with daylight. I'll let you know.
It's a little better now but that's probably also because now I know what to look for. Tomorrow I'll look at it again with daylight because I suspect it's more difficult with daylight. I'll let you know.
I looked at it again in daylight and it is as I suspected. If you know what to look for it's obvious but the difference is really subtle. Personally I would prefer a bigger difference, both on the forum and the home page for viewed/read vs new/unread.
jiecut 🚫10/29/2022, 6:06:57 AM Updated: 10/29/2022, 6:42:47 AM