Paizo.com Update Scheduled for 2-27-2018

[SlimGauge]

This post is a Smurf test.

EDIT: Ah, at least that still works.

[UnArcaneElection]

This is a S tealt h S mur f test.

Edit: Yep, that still works too.

* * * * * * * *

Jurassic Pratt wrote:

Vic Wertz wrote:

thistledown wrote:

I've also got the giant 3" margins on the sides of the screen that are just white space. Either put something in them or (prefered) expand the main text boxes.

What URL are you on? And what browser/OS?

Not him, but I'm using Google Chrome on Windows 10 and everywhere on the forums I have about 2-3 inch borders of empty white space to either side of the posts.

Edit: Same thing for all the store pages.

Edit 2: Even larger borders on the subscriptions page at http://paizo.com/store/subscriptions

I'm not thistledown either, but I see the large borders on Firefox 58.0.2 under MacOS X High Sierra. Seems to occur on all forum pages, at least.

[Dan Melgar]

Accessing the site from a mobile device looks great... I'm sure it will be amazing...

I've tried to access the pathfinder modules link and end up viewing an empty page... A few other store pages also performed this...

[GM Sedoriku]

I don't know about on a computer, (my work computer wasn't playing nice with the website, but that could be any number of problems including the fact our cilomputers were also just updated) but the site looks amazing from a smartphone!

Though I agree having some color to differentiate aliases, post text and links might be beneficial.

[Steve Geddes]

Steve Geddes wrote:

Looks like it's the gamer life subcategory which has been left off. I have to first go to http://paizo.com/community and then choose forums to find those.

Hmm, gamer life now appears as an option on the pull-down menu (Thanks! that was fast). However, it takes me here:

http://paizo.com/community/forums/gamerLife

Which doesn't display the various subforums.

[mardaddy]

What features were added?

I can tell the things that went away, and what is slower, and more difficult, but where is the ROI?

I get people worked hard to do this, I am not dismissing their effort; bugs can be fixed and in time things will level-off.

But what has IMPROVED by this change? Is there a thread on that? Can someone point it out?

[Trinam]

The smartphone version, now that I've had a chance to look at it, does not give me a glaring headache when I read it too long.

However, I would still love that recent updates box on the left, and a form of link differentiation that lets you know when something has been linked, like making the hyperlinks blue or something.

[thistledown]

Vic Wertz wrote:

thistledown wrote:

I've also got the giant 3" margins on the sides of the screen that are just white space. Either put something in them or (prefered) expand the main text boxes.

What URL are you on? And what browser/OS?

My post was at http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2ux1d&page=2?Paizocom-Update-Scheduled-for- 2272018#72

I'm using Firefox Quantum 58.0.2 with windows 10 Home

[Damanta]

I have the borders on everything. It's like the website doesn't scale to a 1920x1080 display.

See my screenshot here and this example here

System is windows 10 (64 bit)
Broweser is Firefox 53.0 (32-bit) (stupid work admin doesn't allow me to update)
I run noscript, but it has been set to allow all on the paizo site.

Edit:
For my own curiosity I also tried Internet explorer, version 11.248.16299.0 and there it looks like the center body gets aligned left instead of center, so instead of 2 big blank sidebars, I have one huge sidebar on the right, as demonstrated in this screenshot

[Swordwhale]

So, my thoughts (probably a lot of repetition here, but I guess all thoughts are helpful at this stage?)
- Wow, it's sleek ;-)
- Wow, it's darker in here. I like dark themes :-)
- Wow, there's a mobile site now!
- Meh, why are the actual forum pages not scaling in mobile mode? They are incredible broad and with such a tiny font! Can't read anything. Is it just my out-dated phone? Has it's time finally come ...?
- Meh, even in desktop mode the font is sooo tiny. I'm running my browser in 140% mode to be able to read it properly.
- Meh, PM indicator is missing atop every page
- Meh, spam bots still trouble the page causing it to still be quite sluggish (although I guess it shouled be running better after throwing away lots of old legacy code
- Meh, links look like any other text

[Parody]

For those of you using Stylish or otherwise able to use user styles, I shared a Forum Improvement style (this is a link) a while ago because I found the links hard to see in the forums. It still works on the new site.

[Giuseppe Capriati]

I find it nice. A bit minimal, but nice.

[u]Underline[/u] definitely works now. And oh my god, also [color=red]colors[/color] do!

And also, it is possible to use a second font to separate things:
[code]this may be used to write descriptions, such as the descriptive text of modules and Adventure Paths[/code], and this for the body of the post.

This is going to have a huge impact on the way I format my posts in PbP!

[Damanta]

Giuseppe Capriati wrote:

I find it nice. A bit minimal, but nice.

[u]Underline[/u] definitely works now. And oh my god, also [color=red]colors[/color] do!

And also, it is possible to use a second font to separate things:
[code]this may be used to write descriptions, such as the descriptive text of modules and Adventure Paths[/code], and this for the body of the post.

This is going to have a huge impact on the way I format my posts in PbP!

I'm not seeing any colours, nor do I see underline in your post.

unless I missed the sarcasm tag somewhere

[Chyrone]

I'm missing PM notifications near the [My profile]. Only way to see now is to check periodically.

I don't know if my Phone will open those tabs, i'll have to wait and see.

Edit: Works fine on Phone. :D

[John Napier 698]

Giuseppe Capriati wrote:

I find it nice. A bit minimal, but nice.

[u]Underline[/u] definitely works now. And oh my god, also [color=red]colors[/color] do!

And also, it is possible to use a second font to separate things:
[code]this may be used to write descriptions, such as the descriptive text of modules and Adventure Paths[/code], and this for the body of the post.

This is going to have a huge impact on the way I format my posts in PbP!

Not on Chrome, it doesn't. What are you using?

[John Napier 698]

Website doesn't scale to sizes of less than 1280 X 800. On my desktop, at home, the right half of the Forums drop-down gets chopped off. Works fine on my laptop.

Edit: Monitor sizes of less than 1280 X 800, that is.

[Gauss]

The forums are much harder to read now. The font is tiny and is in a font that is much more difficult to read.

Additionally, where did the message system go? I cannot find it.

Where did the FAQ go? I cannot find that either.

This seems like a major step backwards, things went from easy to find to impossible to find.

Drop down menus are not closing when you click elsewhere on the website.

[Rysky]

John Napier 698 wrote:

Giuseppe Capriati wrote:

I find it nice. A bit minimal, but nice.

[u]Underline[/u] definitely works now. And oh my god, also [color=red]colors[/color] do!

And also, it is possible to use a second font to separate things:
[code]this may be used to write descriptions, such as the descriptive text of modules and Adventure Paths[/code], and this for the body of the post.

This is going to have a huge impact on the way I format my posts in PbP!

Not on Chrome, it doesn't. What are you using?

Pulling some legs, (unless they still have a copy of Wayfinder or some other plugin).

[John Napier 698]

Gauss wrote:

The forums are much harder to read now. The font is tiny and is in a font that is much more difficult to read.

Additionally, where did the message system go? I cannot find it.

Where did the FAQ go? I cannot find that either.

This seems like a major step backwards, things went from easy to find to impossible to find.

Drop down menus are not closing when you click elsewhere on the website.

You have to click again on the button which dropped down the menu. They act like toggle switches now.

Message system is in the Your Profile page. There's no new message indicator, so you'll have to check often until there is one.

[John Napier 698]

Until the linked page issue has been settled, I've begun putting "*link*" within the url block to signify that a link is present.

[Scott Romanowski]

Hiding links -- having them appear in the same black text and font as plain text -- is essentially saying "Somewhere on this page there may be links. You'll have to hover over every single word to see if there is or is not."

It reminds me of a picture in <this is a link>Donald Norman's "The Design of Everyday Things"<end of link> of an ad for a clock radio where the user interface is simply a row of twelve unlabeled buttons. Ironically the ad's title is "Human-Engineered" Direct-Input Pushbutton Controls Simplify Operation. That clock required the user to memorize the function of all twelve buttons; hiding links requires your users to memorize the location of all your links.

How many of you would have realized that the link above was a link if I hadn't explicitly flagged it?

Hiding controls is not a good idea.

[Steve Geddes]

Just had a weird bug in the “Recent Threads in....” sidebar at the bottom of the page. The most recently changed posts were all listed, but they weren’t in chronological order (the top post was five minutes ago, the second was eight seconds ago, the third was three minutes ago - then they all sorted as per usual).

I left the subforum (Paizo/general discussion) momentarily and a few minutes later it was working again.

[Anguish]

Vic Wertz wrote:

thistledown wrote:

I've also got the giant 3" margins on the sides of the screen that are just white space. Either put something in them or (prefered) expand the main text boxes.

What URL are you on? And what browser/OS?

In my case, anywhere on the forums, Firefox on Win10, and using a 4k display. It looks like it's been hard-coded for about 1024px column width. I popped things up on my secondary monitor (sadly only a 1920x1200 unit) and there's still a large margin there.

[Kevin Mack]

Anyone else getting headaches looking at the new site and trying to read things?

[Redblade8]

Overall the new site is fine, but Gorum's spikes, please do something to make links more visible, and get New PM notification enabled ASAP.

Appreciate the work, thanks.

[Alcarin]

Kevin Mack wrote:

Anyone else getting headaches looking at the new site and trying to read things?

Open Sans' font rendering always seems 1px smaller then your average system font, in this case it should at least be increased to 13px (better 14px)

[Giuseppe Capriati]

Oh, that's quite sad. I thought everyone could see that...And instead, it was just my plugin -_-'

So let me change my mind: this was a huge opportunity to add some interesting feature to PbP, sadly wasted. Unless there is something coming our way but I cannot see it, which is entirely possible...

[Alcarin]

Giuseppe Capriati wrote:

So let me change my mind: this was a huge opportunity to add some interesting feature to PbP, sadly wasted. Unless there is something coming our way but I cannot see it, which is entirely possible...

Im quite sure that this will be added/solved as soon as main priority probs are out of the way, so i guess we have to be patient :)

[Marc Radle]

Overall I think I like the new design. There are plenty of things that will improve over the next few days as well, I'm sure.

I also understand, and thank, everyone involved for all the hard work making this happen.

There are a few things I feel strongly need improved / fixed / resolved as soon as possible though:

• Font too small (and too thin) - causes eyes strain after only few minutes
  
• Links need to be a different color again.
  
• Black bar at top not very pleasing - suggest a darker shade of blue instead (the Paizo golem color, for example)
  
• Bring back notification of a new private message at the top of screens (next to 'My Account' would be perfect)
  
• Disappointed to see spam still able to overrun the site (was hoping better anti-spam measures would be part of this upgrade ...)
  
• Things do seem a bit less inviting and harder to find now that everything is broken up into different sections
  

[Gary Bush]

Not sure if this has been commented on or not but when I use my phone (Android) I am unable to navigate to anywhere but the main landing page.

On PC, it is different but I was able to get the forums. Can't get to the forums on my phone.

[Ravingdork]

Looking at it on a different computer now and I would like to note a few observations:

• Screen elements now shift around properly when I change the screen size. I'm hoping it got fixed since my last post, and isn't just some weird inconsistency between computers.
  
• The font is MUCH smaller and looks totally different than on my home computer. Why the variation? I'm using the same browser, but on a different computer.
  

I do generally like the new design, but you guys have a ways to go before it really sparkles.

[Coidzor]

So the whole problem with hyperlinks not being easily visually distinguished from regular text is still in effect, as I had to hunt through this post by Vic Wertz in order to find the actual hyperlink.

Even after clicking on it, it is indistinguishable from the surrounding text. Actually, come to think of it, I think the problem has actually gotten worse, of all things.

Unless my computer is just taking crazy pills and everyone else can see the hyperlinks just fine?

[Redblade8]

Coidzor wrote:

Unless my computer is just taking crazy pills and everyone else can see the hyperlinks just fine?

No, on my phone, links are hiding like they're hanging out with my missing socks from the dryer.

[VixieMoondew]

I'll admit, I'm not overly fond of the "depressed French zebra" color scheme.

It won't be so bad once the kinks are ironed out, though.

[Captain collateral damage]

Please bring back the PM notification thing. Unless you've somehow fixed the glitch sometimes causing new posts to not show up in the campaigns tab, I have no reliable way to notify my players of updates to my PBPs. :/

[DropBearHunter]

the new design looks as bad to use as WotC‘s site 10 years ago.
Did you hire the same designers?

it sure looks like you are trying to sell stuff, but the old design made it easy to actually find and buy stuff.

[Scott Romanowski]

The "Sessions" bug is back!

If I go to the GM/Event Coordinator tab in my organized play, then click on "session" by an event, I get the Paizo golem error screen. It worked Monday night for the same event. I get the error for the three events I created and the one that I'm a designated reporter for.

I've got other things to do. I'm going to have to take a break from being an alpha tester.

[Ravingdork]

The text is illegible on my mobile devices. There doesn't seem to be a minimum size. It just gets so tiny that no normal person (or even sharp-eyed person) can read it.

Shouldn't things shift around to fit the screen intuitively, then the font hit a minimum size so as to retain legibility?

[Papa-DRB]

Parody wrote:

For those of you using Stylish or otherwise able to use user styles, I shared a Forum Improvement style (this is a link) a while ago because I found the links hard to see in the forums. It still works on the new site.

How do I install this. On the style page it has a button to install via stylish, but that just installs stylish (which I already have).

thanks,

-- david

[Captain collateral damage]

I agree with the suggestion to change to color of the bar at the top. I recommend purple.
.
.
.
This is definitely not a plot to turn the site into a giant asexual flag. That's preposterous. ;)

[TriOmegaZero]

I’m not having a problem viewing the forums on my iPhone, so that’s a blessing for me. (Still have a 5 and using Safari.) The text IS much smaller than I prefer however.

[Rysky]

Is it smaller or just thinner?

[SnowHeart]

I'm digging the new style. Definitely some bugs and kinks but I see you're working through them. Thumbs up (and thanks).

Will this also lead to better website stability and reduced downtime?

[thistledown]

I had an old version page still up on another tab, so here's a side-by-side comparison.

picture

[mogmismo]

Please add some CSS to internal, body links (a tags) so they are visibly different than regular body text. It's very hard to tell what is clickable. If you must go with black for both regular body text and links, please at least use text decoration of underline so we know what is clickable. It's particularly bad in the forums and the product listings.

[Tinalles]

Reading through all this, I kind of envy Paizo's tech staff at this moment. I'm a web guy for a living, and it is a constant struggle to get real, detailed feedback from our users! Our site doesn't have any forum or comment features built in, and our users would be unlikely to engage that way if there were (it's not that kind of site).

So, Paizo staff, count your mixed blessings: your users love you enough to tell you what they think!

[thistledown]

Now I've got it up in Internet Explorer 11. Instead of big margins on both sides... it's left justified, so I instead have a 6" margin on the right but the left looks good.

[TriOmegaZero]

Rysky wrote:

Is it smaller or just thinner?

Judging by the comparison, smaller.

[Rysky]

*nods*

[thistledown]

Back on firefox. Something I noticed when taking the screenshot is that in a smaller window it's not so bad. Played around with it a bit. My screen is set up for 1920x1080. Taking the window width up to about 1300 works properly on re-sizing the text columns. After 1300 is where it just starts adding more margin to both sides.