New skin is awesome!

[TheNorthCydeRises]

I was wondering why I couldn't access this site the other day. I actually think the previous site looked a little better, but this one functions way better. The text editing features are great and there are a lot of things that people can do here now, once they explore all of the options.

If the overall look of the previous site was an 8, this look is a 7 ( it's a much cleaner look, but maybe not as colorful as people would like ). But the functionality of this is a 9.

We're fortunate as fans to have you put so much work into this every year or two. A lot of fan boards are nowhere near this quality. Props to you on this.

[Guest]

As always, the change freaks me out to begin with but eventually I will enjoy it. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into the site Dolfan!

Is anyone else having issues on an android? I try clicking "use mobile version" but that doesn't do anything. I have to change the theme to ipmobile. That wouldn't really be an issue except when I visit the site on a computer its in ipmobile mode, which sucks on a computer.

[Admin]

I was wondering why I couldn't access this site the other day. I actually think the previous site looked a little better, but this one functions way better. The text editing features are great and there are a lot of things that people can do here now, once they explore all of the options.

If the overall look of the previous site was an 8, this look is a 7 ( it's a much cleaner look, but maybe not as colorful as people would like ). But the functionality of this is a 9.

We're fortunate as fans to have you put so much work into this every year or two. A lot of fan boards are nowhere near this quality. Props to you on this.

Hmm the site was only down for an hour or so last night so if it was down before that then there must have been something else going on. I've been busy working on this new version on my laptop and then uploaded it all to the live site.

I'm surprised that some of you think the old look was better so in the spirit of those comments I will work on creating a 2nd version that is similar to the previous skin. You are definitely right that the functionality of this new update is superior though.

I really appreciate the kind words and am thankful that Chillz lets me do pretty much whatever I want with the site.

As always, the change freaks me out to begin with but eventually I will enjoy it. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into the site Dolfan!

Is anyone else having issues on an android? I try clicking "use mobile version" but that doesn't do anything. I have to change the theme to ipmobile. That wouldn't really be an issue except when I visit the site on a computer its in ipmobile mode, which sucks on a computer.

Haha I knew that you would say that about freaking out. This isn't nearly as drastic functionality wise as the upgrade from 2.x to 3.x was so it should still feel familiar and hopefully soon you'll enjoy it.

I am very curious about how it works on Android. They have an Android app for this that is in it's 2nd or 3rd beta but I'd be the only one who could use it until it's publicly available and unfortunately I don't have any Android powered devices. I wonder if there is some type of Android simulator out there that I could test it out on? I will work on this and see about getting it working for you as soon as I can.

[niremetal]

My only quibble - I liked how the "drop down" menu of forums would appear when you waved the cursor over the "Forums" link at the top of the page. Now you have to click through in order to get there. Minor quibble, but that's the one thing that I've noticed that I don't really like.

UPDATE: Heh...and I just discovered by accident the replacement feature - the superduper all-purpose "LINKS MENU" at the very top of the page. That's better, but I think I have a slight preference for the individual dropdown links.

Edited August 14, 2011 by niremetal

[Admin]

As always, the change freaks me out to begin with but eventually I will enjoy it. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into the site Dolfan!

Is anyone else having issues on an android? I try clicking "use mobile version" but that doesn't do anything. I have to change the theme to ipmobile. That wouldn't really be an issue except when I visit the site on a computer its in ipmobile mode, which sucks on a computer.

Okay so after downloading and installing the Android SDK which includes an Android Emulator I was able to verify (I believe) what you were seeing and did some tweaks to the User Agent Mapping (meaning which skin gets displayed depending on the browser that the visitor is using) and it appears to be working now. Can you check this out on your phone please?

My only quibble - I liked how the "drop down" menu of forums would appear when you waved the cursor over the "Forums" link at the top of the page. Now you have to click through in order to get there. Minor quibble, but that's the one thing that I've noticed that I don't really like.

UPDATE: Heh...and I just discovered by accident the replacement feature - the superduper all-purpose "LINKS MENU" at the very top of the page. That's better, but I think I have a slight preference for the individual dropdown links.

I will probably add a drop down menu over the forums link as well as possibly adding a chat drop down as well next to it but yes you are right that both of those are available in the "links mega menu". The reason I did it like this was one that it saved a bunch of space by not having to have so many non-standard links in the layout and because the bar at the top of the page follows you so you would never have to scroll up to the top of the page to get to the links menu like you would before.

Also, you can click the light bulb (whatever it is) looking icon to the left of the top menu bar and it will open "quick navigation" which has all of the forums listed as well as some other possibly useful links.

[CWebb]

My only quibble - I liked how the "drop down" menu of forums would appear when you waved the cursor over the "Forums" link at the top of the page. Now you have to click through in order to get there. Minor quibble, but that's the one thing that I've noticed that I don't really like.

UPDATE: Heh...and I just discovered by accident the replacement feature - the superduper all-purpose "LINKS MENU" at the very top of the page. That's better, but I think I have a slight preference for the individual dropdown links.

I disagree there. The "links menu" feature is great !

Great job Dolfan.

Okay so after downloading and installing the Android SDK which includes an Android Emulator I was able to verify (I believe) what you were seeing and did some tweaks to the User Agent Mapping (meaning which skin gets displayed depending on the browser that the visitor is using) and it appears to be working now. Can you check this out on your phone please? I will probably add a drop down menu over the forums link as well as possibly adding a chat drop down as well next to it but yes you are right that both of those are available in the "links mega menu". The reason I did it like this was one that it saved a bunch of space by not having to have so many non-standard links in the layout and because the bar at the top of the page follows you so you would never have to scroll up to the top of the page to get to the links menu like you would before. Also, you can click the light bulb (whatever it is) looking icon to the left of the top menu bar and it will open "quick navigation" which has all of the forums listed as well as some other possibly useful links.

From France:

It's working on my Android !

[Admin]

I disagree there. The "links menu" feature is great !

Great job Dolfan.

From France:

It's working on my Android !

Thanks CWebb! I think for the most part people will like that better than multiple drop down menus like we had previously.

So are you seeing the Mobile Skin by default on your Android?

[Guest]

Okay so after downloading and installing the Android SDK which includes an Android Emulator I was able to verify (I believe) what you were seeing and did some tweaks to the User Agent Mapping (meaning which skin gets displayed depending on the browser that the visitor is using) and it appears to be working now. Can you check this out on your phone please?

It works great, haven't been to a computer yet but I've already changed my theme away from ipmobile, reset my phone's browser, went back to the site and it was set to ipmobile by default. I logged in and even though my preference is not ipmobile that is how it loaded up. It works great, thanks for the fast fix for the few of us android users!

[Supporter]

I'm an android user as well, and it works just fine for me.

[Admin]

It works great, haven't been to a computer yet but I've already changed my theme away from ipmobile, reset my phone's browser, went back to the site and it was set to ipmobile by default. I logged in and even though my preference is not ipmobile that is how it loaded up. It works great, thanks for the fast fix for the few of us android users!

I'm an android user as well, and it works just fine for me.

Excellent, thank you both for letting me know that it's working! I believe that there are more Android users on our site than you probably think and I'm eagerly awaiting a public release of the Android app.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Hmm the site was only down for an hour or so last night so if it was down before that then there must have been something else going on. I've been busy working on this new version on my laptop and then uploaded it all to the live site.

I'm surprised that some of you think the old look was better so in the spirit of those comments I will work on creating a 2nd version that is similar to the previous skin. You are definitely right that the functionality of this new update is superior though.

I think it was because I didn't delete my cookies, like you suggested in the post. Once I did that, I was able to see the site. As far as the look of the site now, I actually like this look. But I do think the previous look was better. This is simply a cleaner look.

[Admin]

Okay for those of you that wanted the old look back I've done a quick modification of this skin to use the old background and updated the logo graphic to be similar to the old version. I cannot get this skin to look exactly like the previous version nor am I really that interested in spending the time it would take to try and get there so I hope that this modified version will satisfy you all.

In order to change the skin go to the bottom of the page on the left and click on "Change Theme" and choose "Hawksquawk Legacy".

[Sothron]

I can't look at the site for longer than ten second with how bright it is. There is simply no contrast and all you have is a glaring white screen that just sears the eyes. I'm not trying to sound insulting, I know this must take a lot of hard work to do but please Dolfan provide some kind of settings that look like the old board. This is just way too bright. I'm glad I'm not the only one having this problem.

[Admin]

I can't look at the site for longer than ten second with how bright it is. There is simply no contrast and all you have is a glaring white screen that just sears the eyes. I'm not trying to sound insulting, I know this must take a lot of hard work to do but please Dolfan provide some kind of settings that look like the old board. This is just way too bright. I'm glad I'm not the only one having this problem.

I can't imagine what you're seeing if you think this is so bright that you can't look at it for more than 10 seconds but if you'll read my post above you'll see that I provided you with an option to look like the old board. Hopefully that will make a difference for you and the one other member who said it was too bright.

[Eddielives]

I can't imagine what you're seeing if you think this is so bright that you can't look at it for more than 10 seconds but if you'll read my post above you'll see that I provided you with an option to look like the old board. Hopefully that will make a difference for you and the one other member who said it was too bright.

I just changed to the legacy theme and that is much better. My eyes feel like a weight has been lifted off them. Thank you for letting us know we can change back.

[HawkItus]

I dig it. Very bright, coincides with our new owner.

[Admin]

I just changed to the legacy theme and that is much better. My eyes feel like a weight has been lifted off them. Thank you for letting us know we can change back.

I'm glad that is better for you. I'm guessing that you and Sothron are using old browsers and aren't able to see the shadows, gradients and other effects that are used on this site now which are designed for modern browsers that support CSS3. Otherwise I cannot fathom how the site would look so bright to either of you that you cannot look at it unless for the most part all you are seeing is white with black text.

[Admin]

I dig it. Very bright, coincides with our new owner.

Glad that you like it sir ... are you directly linking to your XBox avatar to use on here? I added the thing yesterday where you can directly link to it using your gamertag so that it will always be updated on here.

[lethalweapon3]

Ba-da-ba-ba-baaaaa...

Say, how do we add YouTubes or media now? I was testing the code feature but the post-preview suggests the vid might not post.

~lw3

[Admin]

Ba-da-ba-ba-baaaaa...

Say, how do we add YouTubes or media now? I was testing the code feature but the post-preview suggests the vid might not post.

~lw3

Same way as before, just add the YouTube URL like below:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwTZ2xpQwpA[/media]

Which should produce this: