A number of new forum upgrades and enhancements have been completed! Here are just a few of the noteworthy changes:



Upgraded to version 3.0 Gold of vBulletin.
All new graphics and post icons.
New logo and main title graphics (thanks Hipercom (http://www.hipercom.no/index.php?&lang=en)!) The logo is a cool abstract representation of a person flexing; notice the chest, head and arm. I love it and I hope you do too!
The forum now fills the entire browser window and will adjust automatically to fit if browser is re-sized. This is great for people with higher desktop resolutions (1600 x 1200 here).
I installed Turck MMCache for greatly increased PHP performance. This has made a noticeable difference in overall speed on the forums.
Many MySQL and Apache performance enhancing tunes have been put in place to further optimize speed on the forums and the main site.
Much, much more - and more to come!
The new logo and title graphic are just a taste of what you'll be seeing on the main site late next week when the new site goes live.

Feel free to leave any comments and suggestions in this thread.

I hope you enjoy these new features and enhancements, stay tuned!

Very sweet upgrade.

looking nice, cant wait for the new site

Great improvement... :tu:

Holy s**t! I'm a graphic artist and I just want to let you know that I think the new logo is perfect for your site. I've been playing around with logo ideas for your site just in case you had a contest or something and all my ideas pretty much suck by comparision. I'm pretty good at what I do, but I don't think I could have ever come up with something that fitting. Whoever did it is very tallented IMO. I can't wait to see what they do with the main site.

This place just keeps getting better and better. I don't post much but I check in just about every day and have learned a lot. Keep up the good work and thanks for your efforts john.

What's this?
http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/images/statusicon/thread_dot_hot.gif

The "you have posted in this thread" seemed to be overruled by "hot thread". How many replies makes it hot?

What's this?
http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/images/statusicon/thread_dot_hot.gif

The "you have posted in this thread" seemed to be overruled by "hot thread". How many replies makes it hot?
150 views or 15 posts makes a thread "hot".

The icon you posted above indicates that the thread is hot AND you've posted to it.

The new upgrades look great, John. The overall increase in the speed of the forums is also quite noticeable.

A number of new forum upgrades and enhancements have been completed! Everything looks nice in FireFox... until you try to write a message :(

Attached is a screenshot. If i'm in the minority then don't sweat it, but I think Duckman and his group are perfectionists and will want to know :)

Everything looks nice in FireFox... until you try to write a message :(

Attached is a screenshot. If i'm in the minority then don't sweat it, but I think Duckman and his group are perfectionists and will want to know :)Actually none of that has anything to do with Duckman and his company. They just did the logo and the title graphic.

I'm looking into the problem for you now!

EDIT: Okay, how's that?

Whoa, the logo and css file were cached from yesterday even though I had browsed though here for 15 minutes already. I had to hit reload on the main page.

For those of us non professional computer guys, remember to clear out your casch (spelling?), to see the new updates...I was wondering what all the excitement was about, everything looked the same!!!

Looking good! Great job!

Jerry

For those of us non professional computer guys, remember to clear out your casch (spelling?), to see the new updates...I was wondering what all the excitement was about, everything looked the same!!! (Cache)

Also, if you have a nice and fast broadband connection, just make the cache smaller. It's normally pretty big (10-20Mb), if you've got a fast connection you can make it smaller so you don't run in to these sorts of problems.

Oh, and the editing problem is fixed, it looks awesome! :d_eek:

Whoa, now this is a forum upgrade. Mine must of been cached too, didnt notice it until now. Lookin good :spaz:

For those of us non professional computer guys, remember to clear out your casch (spelling?), to see the new updates...

For those of us no-professional computer guys, we don't know how to clear our cache, so we just sit and wait until things look different.

I noticed a new logo, and a change in the appearance, but now it's changed again. I'm a little confused.

I'm not a big fan of white type on navy background, so actually, I'm hoping by some miracle it changes back. :whistle:

I'm not a big fan of white type on navy background, so actually, I'm hoping by some miracle it changes back. :whistle:
You can change it back to the old style no problem. Check out this thread: http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=2538

I'm not a big fan of white type on navy background, so actually, I'm hoping by some miracle it changes back. :whistle:

I had the same problem, managed to post a new thread in the wrong group apparently (offtopic discussions).

The solution is go to your Control Panel and in Edit Options change the Forum Skin back to Old School.

Everything looks great here. I'm using Mozilla Firefox on Linux. I like the dark colors... Easy on the eyes. :-)

Also, if you have a nice and fast broadband connection, just make the cache smaller. It's normally pretty big (10-20Mb), if you've got a fast connection you can make it smaller so you don't run in to these sorts of problems.

I found that disabling Safari's cache with Safari Enhancer* makes things load lots faster over broadband. the difference here is pretty noticeable.

* http://www.lordofthecows.com/safari_enhancer.php

Nice work John, looking great!

Holy s**t! I'm a graphic artist and I just want to let you know that I think the new logo is perfect for your site. I've been playing around with logo ideas for your site just in case you had a contest or something and all my ideas pretty much suck by comparision. I'm pretty good at what I do, but I don't think I could have ever come up with something that fitting. Whoever did it is very tallented IMO. I can't wait to see what they do with the main site.

Well thank you!

Personally, I think our new design is pretty dam good, and I'm very excited to see what kind of feedback we and John gets when it goes live :)

It's perfect to read today, with the somewhat larger font, I guess.

But what happened to the line that told if we were male/female?? I have been gone for a while, so I might have missed out on a discussion on the theme... Sorry.

It's perfect to read today, with the somewhat larger font, I guess.

But what happened to the line that told if we were male/female?? I have been gone for a while, so I might have missed out on a discussion on the theme... Sorry.Thanks for pointing that out! That was a custom hack I made, and I need to transfer it to the new style. I'll take care of it ASAP!

Looks good John and Duckman. I prefer the 'old school' layout for the actual text, but the new one is nicer for borders and navigation. Any chance of a hybrid?

Also, I've been browsing today to catch up and have noticed that a lot of sigs which have a COLOR instruction no longer work - what I mean is that the hypertext shows up and the text colour remains the same as the rest of the post. Is this intentional?

Last one; the square text on the toolbars is very small on my 17" screen at 1152x864.

Cheers,

Jim

PS. John, you spend a lot of time in front of a 1600x1200 monitor? C'mon, admit that's not really a suntan, it's screen burn :)

Hi Jim,

Actually Duckman is busy working on the main site. Apart from the new logo, which I think is great, his company didn't do any work on the forums.

The "Old School" layout is the hybrid design. Many of the graphics used in the dark ("Default") style didn't look good against a liight background, and there are text coloring issues as well, so I took all the new graphics that did look good against a light background and put them in the "Old School" style. I may still make some more changes to the "Old School" style if I have time.

I had to disable the ability for users to change font colors. It was either that or get rid of the ability for users to select style templates. If someone using the lighter background style changed the default text color to blue, it would look fine to them, but would not show up for members who are using the dark template. Anyone who was using colored text in their sig will have to remove the color tags. I wish there was another way, but I think this solution is the best compromise.

As for the toolbar, hrm... Looks great on my monitor at 1600x1200. Is your monitor fuzzy, or is it just your eyesight? ;)

Seriously, does anyone else find the text on the main page toolbar ("Home" "User C/P" "QUICKLINKS", et. al.) hard to read? I'd have to modify all the graphics, but would be willing to do so if it is a problem.

Thanks for the feedback!

I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, because I think this place is great. But yeah, I do find the toolbar kind of hard to read. I think it's a combination of the font and the colors. I can live with it though.

I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, because I think this place is great. But yeah, I do find the toolbar kind of hard to read. I think it's a combination of the font and the colors. I can live with it though.Please don't think of it as complaining! I want everyone to enjoy the time they spend here, and going blind is not very enjoyable. ;)

I'll have a look at the graphics as soon as I can and will probably change the font to something a little less fancy and more easy to read.

Thanks for the input.

How do the main menu icons look now? I changed the font to something less fancy, and made the font size a little larger. I think the new icons are much more legible than the old ones.

How do the main menu icons look now? I changed the font to something less fancy, and made the font size a little larger. I think the new icons are much more legible than the old ones.
Yes they are definitely clearer and still fit in with the design. Wow, John you did the forum on your own? You are a work horse! good job!

Yes they are definitely clearer and still fit in with the design. Wow, John you did the forum on your own? You are a work horse! good job!I can't take credit for most of the graphics, as they were designed by the Photoshop wizards at vBskinz. Thankfully my purchase included the originial Photoshop files, so I was able to modify them to better fit this forum.

I can't take credit for most of the graphics, as they were designed by the Photoshop wizards at vBskinz. Thankfully my purchase included the originial Photoshop files, so I was able to modify them to better fit this forum.

Aw, well photoshop modifcations are nothing to sneeze at, I had thought the forum was the site done by the professional company and was surprised you did it all, again well done. So the main site is going to recieve a major overhaul as well? Any hints as to what we can expect? No more dashing rain blue backdrop? I always found that kind of soothing. :D

Hi Jim,

Actually Duckman is busy working on the main site. Apart from the new logo, which I think is great, his company didn't do any work on the forums.

The "Old School" layout is the hybrid design. Many of the graphics used in the dark ("Default") style didn't look good against a liight background, and there are text coloring issues as well, so I took all the new graphics that did look good against a light background and put them in the "Old School" style. I may still make some more changes to the "Old School" style if I have time.

I had to disable the ability for users to change font colors. It was either that or get rid of the ability for users to select style templates. If someone using the lighter background style changed the default text color to blue, it would look fine to them, but would not show up for members who are using the dark template. Anyone who was using colored text in their sig will have to remove the color tags. I wish there was another way, but I think this solution is the best compromise.

As for the toolbar, hrm... Looks great on my monitor at 1600x1200. Is your monitor fuzzy, or is it just your eyesight? ;)

Seriously, does anyone else find the text on the main page toolbar ("Home" "User C/P" "QUICKLINKS", et. al.) hard to read? I'd have to modify all the graphics, but would be willing to do so if it is a problem.

Thanks for the feedback!

Hi John,

Sorry, I didn't realise this was all your own work. I don't know where you find the time to do all this, but I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say thank you for your time and effort here.

No colouring for fonts is fine by me, and you're probably right about my eyesight - it all goes downhill about age 37, so you've only got a couple of years. ;) . Thanks for making the change - the text is much easier to read and I'm more likely to use the buttons as a result.

Cheers,

Jim