New Theme Development and Implimentation

[tmtm]

Good job with all of this Dookers.

 

[Kitlope]

I'm no internet website software guru and have never used it before other than as a typical poster, so I know nothing about how well it functions, if it's practical and relatively bug free... all that stuff. I know nothing.

However, as a user it's great. You get alerts to people that quote you, likes and such and using it is probably the most pleasurable forum experience I have ever had... today I still frequent and am a somewhat active member on well over a dozen forums and only one, Hoffman, uses Xenforo.

I don't know how much it costs and it sounds expensive so I understand that might be the deal breaker.

 

[Kenadian]

It's comparable to vBulletin but since I purchased not only vB licenses and VBSEO (what a complete waste of money that piece of shit was) it gets rather pricey.

Thanks for the feedback though, much appreciated!

Whether we upgrade or not is based solely on forum activity. If this place gets busy enough to warrant it then I'll certainly pick it up.

 

[D.O.A.]

I'm missing the "New Posts" and the "Mark all Post as read" buttons .
Made going through the FT theme nice and easy (yeah i'm lazy ) .

 

[Wapwap]

That function is due to being re-added D.O.A.!

Can you reenable the "new posts" link at the top fo the forum?

Unfortunately that entire bar had to go but it will be re-added shortly as a dropdown to the navbar under the Forum Tab.

Are there other navigation options besides the "New Posts" that you used from that lower navbar that you'd like to see brought back?

Nice job on the theme d00kie.

 

[Kenadian]

Many of the under utilized forums have been amalgamated into their parent forum and/or deleted all together.

All pages should now reflect the name change to Band of Others and/or Band of Others Gaming.

...working now on phrase changing and keyword balancing; this will take some time.

 

[Shilka]

Thanks for all the hard work Duke! :daisey:

 

[Wapwap]

And until then, you can always come to this thread and click the following link to view the new posts:
http://fragtard.net/forum/search.php?do=getnew&contenttype=vBForum_Post

 

[Kenadian]

Ya sorry guys but this is proving to be exceptionally difficult to achieve consistent aesthetic and functionality across Wordpress (our Blog) and vBulletin (our Forum).

With vBullein the issues are code bloat, session id's and custom navigation which as of yet requires creating.

The way vBulletin handles navigation is poor (and that's me being nice, it's actually abysmal). It is so heavily dependent on whether or not a user is logged in that it's impossible to style without messing everything up.

My solution to this is to completely ignore the way vB handles topnav and create a custom solution. This custom solution is being used in our Blog and the goal is to $include that code from Wordpress whenever a vBulletin page is served.

The header and footer area will both eventually be tackled this way regardless of where you are onsite and it will open up the doors to some very interesting styling and interactive usages.

For now though just know that I'm working on a solution as best I can, I just require some patience as I'm not a coding guru and much of this I make up as I go along.

 

[Kenadian]

B2O-v3 is now available as an option.

v3 brings about a number of fixes and code reductions however of note is the Breadcrumb functionality is now broken.

Breadcrumbs are the forum/sub-forum and topic links directly below the navbar:



The solution to this issue is not a simple one so it will likely remain present until v4, my apologies.

Changes in v3:

• User Toplinks moved to above Header Image
• Twitch viewer proportions adjusted
• Twitch viewer location adjusted
• Navbar and Header relocated to accommodate User Toplinks
• Navbar raised
• Forum display adjusted to minimize dead space.

Should you encounter issues not listed above please let me know.

EDIT: Breadcrumb links fixed.

 

[Kenadian]

v3 update: Breadcrumbs are now working as intended however there may be some display issues remaining. The display issues are template specific and should be ironed out in v4.

For now though if you used Breadcrumbs to navigate the forums they should once again work as intended.

 

[little P]

Looks good mate, I like the changes

 

[Kenadian]

Thanks for the feedback little P

 

[Shilka]

Never knew they were called breadcrumbs btw, you learn something every day. And yeah, looking good so far, no problems here

 

[Kenadian]

Never knew they were called breadcrumbs btw, you learn something every day. And yeah, looking good so far, no problems here

lol, it's a clever name actually when you consider you can quite literally follow the trail home.

 

[Kenadian]

Twitch Channel Background modified in interests of continuity within embedded Twitch Player on Website.

Grass also slightly adjusted in an attempt to loosely align with grass in navbar.

 

[Daunt]

Wow that looks awesome! I realize I forgot to post my avatar here.:icon_sad:



This is from our file server (from a post I originally put up a while ago). If necessary I can post the original file.

 

[Kenadian]

Please be advised that all development within the forums is now on hold for the foreseeable future.

It's no secret to many that I'm no longer happy with vBulletin so as of July 24, 2015 I've invested both finances and energies into understanding XenForo.

There are many reasons for this decision but the biggest are built in SEO (not an afterthought like vBulletin), social features, and apparently a better styling engine.

I can't speak toward the styling as I'm still very new at it and as such, confused with what's right in front of me. Having said that, from an Administrative point of view it simply blows vB out of the water.

With what little time I've spent in XenForo I'm amazed that a Judge ever entertained a Lawsuit between vBulletin and XenForo (vBulletin sued Xen) as they simply don't behave the same. In fact, I'm amazed by how robust the Administrative CP is as it takes everything vB does poorly and does it properly.

Currently I'm working in Xen to create a theme for Good-Samaritan.net. In conjunction I'm working on a B2O theme however it is not the priority at this time as our Community already has a serviceable aesthetic.

I'll update in the near future once I know more.

 

[Daunt]

Thanks for the update Duke. From using the forum a little bit, it seems Xen is pretty user-friendly. I've always wanted a search bar as well, not sure if that isn't applied here or not available for vBulletin.

I'd like to see a really well designed and implemented forum example... not sure why they don't feature those right on their home page. Seems they have a sample one but I dunno, its not a great demo.

 

[Kenadian]

There is a Search function within vBulletin as well but it had to be removed from the Navigation Bar due to real estate limitations.

At anytime you can search the forums using http://bandofothersgaming.com/forum/search.php

...the templates a bit messed up at this time though :icon_redface:

Where XenForo is concerned I should be able to do everything I've done here already. My hope is that the core Navigation Menu works better because this dropdown or click to expand option that vB has is crap.

The only answer is custom coding my own Navbar which I'm trying to avoid given I'll then have to do it for Wordpress as well.