How are you getting on with the new Zone?

[tomson]

Looks great!

[ah]

Great job Steve,just a couple things, is there any reason why my banner of my car has shrunk compared with the old zone site.The other thing is,when I try to get into forums or move to the next page of a forum ,it seems to take a long time ie 15-20 seconds, other wise great.Sorry one other thing, the forum page is bigger than my screen(could be my end)?

[StuBeeDoo]

As I posted on the other thread, I can't get on with the new colour scheme, but I know you're working on that. It is limiting the time I spend here.

I appreciate that there's a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes in people's free-time. I hope that everyone here accepts that and makes allowances.

I saw nothing wrong with the previous incarnation of the 'Zone - other than the server issues. On a purely personal level, I have to say that I would have been happy for the old forum simply to have migrated to the new server as it was. Life's complicated enough - to quote Alan Davies - without having to find my way around a re-packaged forum. I very much doubt that I'll ever use any of the new functions. All I need to be able to do is read (and post on) threads.

Stuart.

[StuBeeDoo]

I try to get into forums or move to the next page of a forum ,it seems to take a long time ie 15-20 seconds

It's very slooooooooow for me too.

[dips346]

looks good but it takes a bit longer to get on topics now for some reason,its all a bit slower

[stevotheevo]

as above, it started off faster than the old zone, but is now very slow.

[StuBeeDoo]

My apologies for coming back to this thread, but it's still very slow this end, particularly on pages that are picture-heavy.
.... And I'm still waiting patiently (with a headache and eyestrain) for the alternate background.

[Elecblondie]

I've not had any problems with speed from various connections

[grantfk10]

My apologies for coming back to this thread, but it's still very slow this end, particularly on pages that are picture-heavy.
.... And I'm still waiting patiently (with a headache and eyestrain) for the alternate background.

+1

[smithy318i]

Can I ask why the whole of the screen is never being utilized? why are there bands of blackness on both sides?





... That's were the monsters live you know!

[StuBeeDoo]

... That's were the monsters live you know!

Good one!

[AlpineAde]

Interestingly, on Firefox I have to hit the submit button 3 or 4 times before anything gets posted. It's fine on IE. Also, I can't respond to PMs unless I swap over to IE. I hate IE and love FF. This is the only site I have issues with on FF. On the old version of the Zone I had no issues whatsoever with Firefox.

EDIT: forgot to add that the search function only allows me to look at one page of results. Click for the next page and I get a "nothing matches" message.

[robbo86]

How much results do you expect on the zone for the search "thai ladyboys"? Actualy around here...

[Steve]

The Zone has been tested on both up-to-date version of FF and IE7 with no problem other than ones listed in Website / Forum problems forum.

Speed issues - I use the Zone on many different connections from 1 - 2 MB max with no issues. Members with speed issues please ping e30zone.net and post it here.

Colour scheme is still in progress.

Search is working as it should, but does need re-indexing.

[LeonNewton]

i think the new site looks cool and is slick. my onley hicup is when im mobile with 3g i sumtimes dubble post. ocationaley 5 - 10 min apart and it is not my folt. good work. love the siite

[Alex]

Can I ask why the whole of the screen is never being utilized? why are there bands of blackness on both sides?





... That's were the monsters live you know!

i'am guessing its for people with shit screens

[SPADGE]

I think it is ok but hate the new colour scheme sorry

[Alex]

i dont hate the colour but preferd the old colour

[HartgeH27]

I think it is ok but hate the new colour scheme sorry

One cannot account for the lurid requirements of members from Milton Keynes!!

Sorry !

[ImysE30]

The new scheme colour that is under construction look's

I like this one, just a bit too dark if you know what i mean

[AlpineAde]

The Zone has been tested on both up-to-date version of FF and IE7 with no problem other than ones listed in Website / Forum problems forum.

Search is working as it should, but does need re-indexing.

Yep, it is the "invalid session" error. I had a look on the thread you mentioned and I see that it is known. I'll just keep hitting "submit".

[konfuzion]

Can I ask why the whole of the screen is never being utilized? why are there bands of blackness on both sides?

... That's were the monsters live you know!

i'am guessing its for people with shit screens

Actually done for readability. IIRC, the recommended number of words per line is ~12, which suits the human eye / brain the best, nothing to do with "shit screens" as it'd be very easy to make it fluid so that would also still fit within a 640x480 display that even Noah has now moved on from



Regards,

Ian

[hennabm]

Now that the FS and wanted sections are back to what they were the site is 100% ace

[konfuzion]

[ snip ]

Yep, it is the "invalid session" error. I had a look on the thread you mentioned and I see that it is known. I'll just keep hitting "submit".

Have you tried deleting any cookies associated with the zone Ade and then clearing out the cache?

My browser settings are quite strict and haven't come across this issue. Definitely sounds like a cookie / cache issue to me.



Regards,

Ian

[AlpineAde]

[ snip ]

Yep, it is the "invalid session" error. I had a look on the thread you mentioned and I see that it is known. I'll just keep hitting "submit".

Have you tried deleting any cookies associated with the zone Ade and then clearing out the cache?

My browser settings are quite strict and haven't come across this issue. Definitely sounds like a cookie / cache issue to me.



Regards,

Ian

Yep. Cookies cleaned and cache purged (do it anyway as a matter of course) and the page still throws the session error for me.

I run very strict browser setting, too; so I tried backing them off somewhat. Unfortunately no joy on that front either.

[StuBeeDoo]

I appreciate the team are busy, but any movement on the alternate background?
Or are you working on the premis that as we've all shut-up it's no longer an issue?

[On_a_Roll]

Not good IMO,. at least not on Safari.

All the image URL's show up after the image making a mess of the page, people still have massive signature images which should auto-resize on the new forum.

But the worst is the design. Don't get this whole 'sci-fi' orange and grey - what's the idea behind that?

And beige type on dark grey is hardly the most legible way to render posts - real pain.

Guess it works the same but the design aspect doesn't seem to have had any thought behind it.

[Steve]

Not good IMO,. at least not on Safari.

All the image URL's show up after the image making a mess of the page, people still have massive signature images which should auto-resize on the new forum.

But the worst is the design. Don't get this whole 'sci-fi' orange and grey - what's the idea behind that?

And beige type on dark grey is hardly the most legible way to render posts - real pain.

Guess it works the same but the design aspect doesn't seem to have had any thought behind it.

I have tested Safari, and all works as it should. The only issue the Zone has with Safari is the bold text.

Screenshots from Safari :-

[Steve]

I appreciate the team are busy, but any movement on the alternate background?
Or are you working on the premis that as we've all shut-up it's no longer an issue?

I'm still working on it, but progress is slow at the moment

[Morat]

I know it isn't cool but black text on a white background is by far the most legible. Please?

[On_a_Roll]

No it isn't. Why do you think books and newspapers are printed black on white and have done so for hundred of years?

Anyway, it's beige on gray!

The site looks a bit vomit like. Form over function I'm afraid, the bane of most web designers.

[Nay]

I know it isn't cool but black text on a white background is by far the most legible. Please?

I find black text on white quite an eye-sore for web pages.

As a Developer, you learn very quickly there is no pleasing everyone. Also, the more work you do, the more complaints, problems and so on arises.

TBH if you expect Steve to spend his time redesigning themes and things, people will just start getting picky with them.

It also takes a lot of time just to come up with a good and useable theme that is different from the generic run of the mill standards. I think the colour scheme chosen from the zone is one of the nicer looking forums I have seen.

[DaveD]

I agree with Morat ..a nice colour scheme in the e46zone ...black on pale grey..very restful on the eyes..especially if you are on here as much as I am

[Alyman]

Not good IMO,. at least not on Safari.

All the image URL's show up after the image making a mess of the page, people still have massive signature images which should auto-resize on the new forum.

But the worst is the design. Don't get this whole 'sci-fi' orange and grey - what's the idea behind that?

And beige type on dark grey is hardly the most legible way to render posts - real pain.

Guess it works the same but the design aspect doesn't seem to have had any thought behind it.

Plenty of thought went into the new Zone theme - every button, icon and graphic on this site was created from scratch, unlike the vast majority of forums where such elements are simply downloaded as a package and installed into some forum software. From start to finish, the new Zone took more than a year to complete and implement. We wanted the Zone to be custom and unique, and it is. At no point did I think it would be loved by all, but I've got thick enough skin not to mind.

In addition, several other banners/themes/colour schemes were drafted up behind the scenes, but this theme was decided upon by the team as the best. The black/orange theme was used as I felt it should be familiar to UK drivers of E30s - the streetlights at night (as per the banner) and the black on amber lighting scheme inside an E30.

It's impossible to please everyone as not everyone has the same taste; the Zone is full of differing opinions that split it down the middle - look at the 318is vs 325 debate, or chromies vs facelifts, modded vs stock. Despite this, we have come up with a theme that appeals to the vast majority.

What wasn't predicted was that some people would actually find the new colouscheme difficult to read. Because of this, a new setup is in development where people will be able to choose a different, more traditional, forum style.

Remember that we do this unpaid, in our spare time, with self-taught skills. I'm no more a web/graphic designer than I am an astronaut (granted, some of you think that this is obvious from the comments on this thread ).

[Morat]

I'm not ungrateful, honest! I know you have put in a lot of work to make this theme and I do like it, but I'd just like the option of one of the standard themes that I can switch to when the eyes start popping. No need for another custom built one, even subsilver or something would be fine for late night viewing.